Historiography: Woman suffrage and the media

Scholars began to study the periodicals and people who shaped the suffrage press in the early 1970s. Since 2000, suffrage media history has expanded to follow three main interdisciplinary strands that embrace a broad range of media, including film, literature, and cartoons: a trend toward cultural approaches; the retrieval of black women’s voices and a scourging of racism within the movement; and a celebration of suffrage in art and as spectacle. The field awaits an analysis of the symbiotic relationship between suffragists and mainstream media and a comprehensive look at suffrage print culture. American journalism historians might look to British cultural scholars for models that address how suffrage media drew women into the public sphere and changed them both.