What Can Modern-Day Civic Leaders Learn from the Suffrage Movement?
The road to victory in achieving women’s suffrage 150 years in the making was fraught by near-impossible political odds, often hostile public opinion, and considerable strategy disagreements between key suffragists. Many of us are familiar with the mass acts of civil disobedience, White House pickets, hunger strikes and intense backroom negotiations that marked the movement. Some have heard the story that after years of struggle, ratification in the deciding state, Tennessee, was made possible only because the tie-breaking legislator received word from his mother urging him to vote on the right side of history. Often overlooked, though, is the fact that the suffrage movement served as a testing ground for many of the grassroots mobilization and civic engagement strategies still widely in use today. Regardless of their background or scope of interest, modern-day civic leaders can learn some fundamental lessons from the suffragists: First, seek to always attract new voices to your cause.
