Video: The Oratory of Women’s Suffrage

The Oratory of Women’s Suffrage is a video documentary that recreates the speeches of leading suffragists whose impassioned words shaped the women’s movement during its inception in the late 19th century. It includes speeches by well-known suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth.

It is available to purchase as a DVD or for streaming from the Films Media Group website. This link also provides a free two-minute preview of the documentary. You can also find the documentary at academic libraries (see WorldCat to check for a copy near you).

ISBN: 978-1-62290-345-0

One Woman, One Vote: A PBS Documentary

This PBS documentary is a sweeping look at the women’s suffrage movement, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s famous Seneca Falls call to arms to the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women voting rights.

Narrated by Susan Sarandon, the documentary features historical photos and video clips of the suffrage movement, as well as a number of historians who provide needed context. The film also delves into the deep divisions within the suffrage movement, like the one over the question of whether to support voting rights for black men. In addition, the film looks at regional differences within the movement and differences over whether to use militant tactics.

The New York Times called the film “inspiring without being rhapsodic,” saying it tells viewers “as much about the exigencies of American politics as about the heroism of three generations of American women.” The National Women’s Studies Association Journal also published an informative review of the film, accessible through JSTOR. 

You can buy the film through PBS, or order it through Netflix.

There is a companion book by the same name that you can buy on Amazon. The book is an anthology of contemporary and historical writing on women’s suffrage.

Film: “Suffragette,” 2015

Suffragette is a 2015 historical drama set in the suffrage era in the UK:

In early 20th-century Britain, the growing suffragette movement forever changes the life of working wife and mother Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan). Galvanized by political activist Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), Watts joins a diverse group of women who fight for equality and the right to vote. Faced with increasing police action, Maud and her dedicated suffragettes must play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, risking their jobs, homes, family and lives for a just cause.

The film used Pankhurst’s quote “I would rather be a rebel than a slave” in its marketing materials, sparking debate about the intersection between racism and feminism (this op-ed by Ana Stevenson analyzes the controversy in a historical context).

The New York Times calls Suffragette “stirring and cleareyed—the best kind of history lesson.” Read the full review here.

For an interesting commentary on the differences in media coverage of the British and American suffrage movements related to this film, see this blog by Elisabeth MacNamara of the League of Women Voters of Georgia.

To learn about the six real-life women that inspired the film, see this article by Sara Kettler. 

The film can be purchased to watch on Amazon Video and YouTube. 

The official trailer for Suffragette is below:

Ken Burns’ Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Stanton & Susan Anthony

This two-part documentary film shown on PBS tells the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the duo that brought the suffrage cause to widespread attention in the United States.

The film, directed by Ken Burns, shows how the two leaders—despite their widely divergent personalities and backgrounds—came together to fight for women’s voting rights, though both died before their dream was realized.

Stanton grew up with wealth and privilege, the daughter of a well-known judge. Anthony grew up in a Quaker household, the daughter of a factory owner. The two met in 1851, and went on to found multiple suffrage organizations to advance their cause. As historian Judith Harper explains in a PBS article:

The two women not only developed a deep friendship but also helped each other prepare themselves to change women’s lives. Anthony thrived under Stanton’s tutelage—soaking up her knowledge of politics, the law, philosophy, and rhetoric. Stanton, confined to her home by motherhood (she gave birth to her seventh and last child in 1859), was stimulated by Anthony’s thoughtful critiques of her ideas.

Burns’ film traces their personal lives, places them in historical context, and underscores how the impact of their activism stretched far beyond their deaths.

The documentary garnered positive reviews in Variety and the New York Times, which latter called it “a vibrant and extremely moving portrait of a lifelong friendship and the political strategies that defined the women’s rights movement.”

The PBS website on the film is filled with teaching resources, companion articles, and historical documents. The IMBD entry contains a list of the experts featured in the film.

You can buy the film from PBS or Amazon, or search on WorldCat to see if your local library carries it.

Burns and Geoffrey Ward also wrote a companion book to the film which is also available on Amazon.

UK National Archives Footage of British Suffrage Movement

NOTE TO READERS: Some videos in this archive contain potentially disturbing scenes of violence

This UK National Archives film collection contains only four brief, silent film clips. It nonetheless offers valuable on-the-ground documentation of some important moments in the British suffrage movement, along with helpful facts about the videos: Each is accompanied by a description of the film, an explanation of its context within the greater movement for women’s voting rights, and information about “interesting or important points about the film.”

The struggle in Great Britain preceded, and in many ways inspired, the women’s suffrage movement in the US. One notable difference was that in some instances British suffragettes’ tactics were more militant—and even violent—than those of their American counterparts.

One video, for instance, shows the sensational death of suffragette Emily Wilding Davison. As the site explains:

Davidson was a militant Suffragette who was well known for her daring and dangerous exploits in trying to promote the cause of women’s suffrage. At the Derby race in June 1913 she tried to grab the reins of the King’s horse but was struck and killed in the attempt. Nobody really knows whether she was trying to commit suicide or was trying to stop the horse in a sensational protest.

For a more extensive account of some British suffragists’ use of militant tactics, see Andrew Rosen’s Rise Up, Women!: The Militant Campaign of the Women’s Social and Political Union, 1903-1914.

If you want to learn more about film’s role in the suffrage movements, see Kay Sloan’s documentary film Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema, and watch the brief silent film A Busy Day, which stars a cross-dressing Charlie Chaplin in an unflattering portrayal of a woman suffragist.

For a more light-hearted, fictional story about the British suffrage movement, check out Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons, a graphic novel trilogy.

Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema, a Documentary Film

This 35-minute documentary takes the viewer back to a time and place when film was silent—and when movie makers used silent film to support and oppose the women’s suffrage movement.

Conceived and directed by scholar Kay Sloan, an accomplished author, Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema contains clips from a variety of surviving silent films that addressed the question of women’s voting rights. These films include A Lively Affair, which depicts women abandoning their kids and stealing bicycles to ride to suffrage meetings, and, as featured on this site, A Busy Day, which stars Charlie Chaplin playing a suffragist in drag.

“It was seen as a deeply threatening issue then,” Sloan, the filmmaker, told the Cincinnati publication City Beat in an interview. “If women voted, the whole family structure was endangered. The fabric of our society was at risk.”

But the documentary also includes examples of pro-suffrage silent films, like What 80 Million Women Want, a silent film about a detective who investigates corrupt officials. The detective’s name is Harriot Stanton Blatch, played by none other than Harriot Stanton Blatch, a notable suffragist and the daughter of women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In the film, Blatch is also an ardent suffragist, in addition to her work as a sleuth.

The DVD of the film is available for $19.95 directly from the film company that made it. It is also available in many academic institutions and libraries. Search for the closest library copy on WorldCat. 

Watch this four-minute clip about the movie, courtesy of Women Make Movies, www.wmm.com.

A Video Career Celebration of Carol Ellen DuBois

A celebration of the career of University of California, Los Angeles professor of history and gender studies Ellen Carol DuBois, highlighting her work on women’s suffrage, Victoria Woodhull, and the women’s rights movement.

You can find a list of DuBois’ books here, via Google Books, including Feminism and Suffrage, Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage,  Votes for Women: A 75th Anniversiary Album, and Woman Suffrage and Women’s Rights.

A Documentary: Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema

Early filmmakers—both those in favor of women’s suffrage and those who opposed it—used the new medium to create commentaries on the issue, and to create widely seen portrayals of the women involved in the struggle. This 35-minute documentary contains footage from many suffrage-era silent films, including A Lively Affair (1912); A Busy Day (1914), originally titled, The Militant Suffragette, in which Charlie Chaplin portrays a woman suffragist; and the pro-suffrage film, What 80 Million Women Want (1913). The documentary examines issues related to the struggle for gender equity and the portrayal of suffragettes in the early days of the silver screen.

The video below is a preview of Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema. You can order the full film here.