Via H-Announce,
we learned of a call for papers on “Suffrage at 100” (the 100th
anniversary of the 19th Amendment is in 2020). Here the call:
As the 100th
anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment approaches, women are seemingly at a
crossroads in American politics. They appear to be gaining traction in this
traditionally masculine realm, but are still far behind. Women continue to grapple with the
disappointment that gender parity in politics did not easily follow the right
to vote.
Will this trend
change in the twenty-first century? Many journalists and political pundits
anticipate a “pink wave” in 2018 midterm elections. More women candidates have
come forward than in any other period on record, spurred in part by the
historic Women’s March in 2017 and mobilization around #blacklivesmatter,
#metoo, and #timesup, the latter with its own legal defense fund. In all this
expectant fervor, Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and
Politics, has cautioned, “We are not going to see, in one cycle, an end to the
underrepresentation of women in American politics that we’ve seen for 250
years. . . . This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
This collection
will map out the last 100 years of this lengthy struggle, focusing on efforts
to recognize, appreciate, and cultivate women’s civic engagement since the
ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Our purpose is not celebratory.
Instead, we seek to trace the uneven road to suffrage and public office
women of different backgrounds and means experienced after 1920. We also intend to expose the institutional
barriers and masculinist conceptions of leadership that women in politics have
faced and continue to tackle. Women have
exhibited considerable democratic imagination within and outside the
traditional channels of electoral politics.
Melding gender, social, cultural, and political history, this collection
seeks to capture examples of women acting together and on their own within and
outside electoral and governmental channels to claim a political presence,
enlist state action, and create alternative services and solutions. In doing so, we use this historic centennial
to make visible the determined presence of women in politics since 1920, while
also calling attention to the ways these women have and continue to be written
out of history.
Collection
Structure and Themes
We welcome new
articles (8,000 to 10,000 words including notes) broadly addressing women and
American politics since 1920. We also
welcome related historiographic essays and interpretive analysis accompanying
relevant primary source document(s). We
hope to fully cover 1920-2020, dividing the collection into themes. Below are
some questions that potential contributors might consider.
Women at the
Ballot Box
How has the
achievement of women’s suffrage and full expression of political citizenship
proved elusive for different groups of women since 1920?
In what ways
have women tried to build on the Nineteenth Amendment? When have these efforts been successful,
partial victories or failures, and why?
What have been
the limitations and advantages of thinking about a “women’s voting bloc” for
activists and for historians?
How has gender
factored into party realignment from 1920 forward? What is the history and usefulness of the
“gender gap” concept, and its relation to voting patterns based on race, class,
sexuality, religion, ideology, and region?
How has racial
gerrymandering impacted women? Is there
such thing as “gender gerrymandering”?
Women Who Run
What paths to
electoral politics have women taken or chosen not to travel? And what does this tell us about the
structure and function of U.S. democracy?
What can we
learn from women candidates not only who have won, but who have lost elections?
Have gender and
other intersectional forms of oppression (e.g., race, class, sexuality) acted
as barriers to entry for women in politics? What solutions, if any, have female
candidates divined as a result?
What tactics
have women used to navigate party patronage systems, develop campaign
financing, and build a constituent base?
Have women used grassroots or party channels most?
How have
organizations such as the National Women’s Political Caucus, Emily’s List, or
the Concerned Women for America developed over time? Have these groups been effective?
Women Who Lead
Does
proportional representation in U.S. legislatures matter?
What reformist
strategies have women leaders pursued to change the culture and structure of
governance?
How do women
function as power brokers? How should we
assess the disempowering actions women with and in pursuit of political power
take impacting other individuals?
How has the
cultural representation of women in politics changed over time? Is there an enduring male leadership mystique
in U.S. society?
Do women lead
differently? Are “women’s issues” all
issues? What are the costs and benefits
of women legislators caucusing together?
Women Redefining
Politics
In what ways
have women creatively imagined and shaped their place in politics?
How have women
purposefully resisted or reshaped the gendered (or other) parameters of civic
engagement and governance? How have they
actively defined their political identities or created alternative governance
systems?
What are the
advantages and costs of engaging in politics using the mantle of “women’s
issues” or maternalism? What
intersectional approaches to issues and organizing have women in politics used?
What is the
relationship between women’s domestic and global engagement in politics? How have women navigated multiple political
arenas at once?
Women in
Political History
Should women’s
political history complicate the usual conceptualization of “political time”
centered on presidential politics and divided by election cycles?
What might
political history look like if gender was at the center instead of the
periphery?
How might we
evaluate women’s political citizenship through an intersectional lens?
The Nineteenth
Amendment as a Milestone
What place has
the Nineteenth Amendment had in the national story of the United States since
its passage?
Is the passage
of the Nineteenth Amendment relevant as a political milestone for any group
other than white, cisgender, middle-class and elite women?
How has the
achievement of the Nineteenth Amendment been memorialized and debated through
monuments and exhibits?
How have
activists and politicians referenced the Nineteenth Amendment as a tool to
forward their agendas and actions?
Collection
Production Timeline
We believe this
will be the only collection marking the suffrage centennial from the angle of
1920-forward. We expect the production timeline for this collection will be
swift if we are to publish by August 2020.
Please send
article abstracts of 500 words and a CV by September 15, 2018 to: Stacie at
staranto@ramapo.edu or Leandra at lrzarnow@central.uh.edu. We also welcome questions and comments at
those email addresses.
Applicants will
be notified by November 1, 2018. The due
date for polished drafts will be May 1, 2019.
We hope you will
consider contributing to this exciting collection!
Contact Info:
Please send
article abstracts of 500 words and a CV by September 15, 2018 to: Stacie at
staranto@ramapo.edu or Leandra at lrzarnow@central.uh.edu. We also welcome questions and comments at
those email addresses.
Contact Email:
staranto@ramapo.edu
