2020 Marked the 100th Anniversary of the Women's Suffrage Movement In Celebration We Highlight Calumet Area Suffragists

The Hoosier Suffrage Movement 1844-1920

“Are You With Us”

Sarah Bowman

Indiana mirrored the national suffragette movement in strategies and politics. Ladylike

reformers and more militant suffragists were both present on the national stage and in

Indiana. Major events occurred during Indiana’s 75 year battle for enfranchisement.

Instances such as the 1859 presentation of a women’s rights petition to the Indiana

General Assembly, letter writing campaigns carried out by the Indianapolis Equal

Suffrage Association in 1887 and the response to the 1917 passage and retraction of

the Maston-McKinley Partial Suffrage Act, demonstrate Hoosier Suffragettes worked

in both the social and political spheres to attain the vote.

In addition, “Are You With Us?” challenges the assumption that all Hoosier

suffragettes were conservative, white and wealthy urbanites. On the contrary, this

thesis shows that African American, working-class and rural women all participated in

suffragette activism. Many of the prominent suffragists believed in radical reform

such as Virginia Brooks and her cohorts known as the “Amazonian Guards.” It may

be more difficult to find their stories but that doesn’t mean they’re insignificant!

(Synopsis from the study done by Sarah Bowman)

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