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1 results

  • 8 - First Ladies, Suffrage, and the Equal Rights Amendment

  • Edited by Lisa M. Burns, Quinnipiac University, Teri Finneman, University of Kansas
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to US First Ladies
    Published online:
    02 January 2025
    Print publication:
    06 February 2025, pp 186-215

  • Summary

    US first ladies have exercised a complicated kind of activism when it comes to women’s rights. Some have acted as vocal advocates to insist that women’s equality should be a national priority. Others have used their platform more quietly to intervene on behalf of women’s rights. Still others have held and promoted views that have contradicted, undermined, or altogether avoided efforts to advance women’s rights. This chapter traces how US first ladies have addressed and influenced the prevailing women’s rights issues of their day, with a focus on two national campaigns: a federal amendment for women’s suffrage and a federal amendment for equal rights. By engaging or avoiding the debates surrounding women’s suffrage and the ERA, these women stretched the political and rhetorical boundaries of their platform and shaped public understanding about the ongoing struggle for women’s equality in the United States.