Meeting Register Page

Redefining Citizenship: The Fight for the Right to Vote in Minnesota and the Midwest with Sara Egge

Examining how women won the right to vote in Minnesota and the Midwest reveals how Midwesterners changed their conceptions of citizenship in the early twentieth century. Women earned the ballot during World War I, when demonstrating patriotism became an expected part of the war effort. Mobilizing for the war, which so many midwestern suffragists did quite willingly, served as a testament to their loyalty to both community and country. They also leveraged that mobilization against the alleged disloyalty of immigrants in the region whom they attacked as slackers. Suffragists claimed that exercising the right to vote was an expression of duty, rather than just a natural right.

Mar 18, 2021 07:00 PM in Central Time (US and Canada)