Working Paper: NBER ID: w26781
Authors: Carolyn Moehling; Melissa A. Thomasson
Abstract: The ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 officially granted voting rights to women across the United States. However, many states extended full or partial suffrage to women before the federal amendment. In this paper, we discuss the history of women's enfranchisement using an economic lens. We examine the demand-side, discussing the rise of the women's movement and its alliances with other social movements, and describe how suffragists put pressure on legislators. On the supply side, we draw from theoretical models of suffrage extension to explain why men shared the right to vote with women. Finally, we review empirical studies that attempt to distinguish between competing explanations. We find that no single theory can explain women's suffrage in the US, and note that while the Nineteenth Amendment extended the franchise to women, state-level barriers to voting limited the ability of black women to exercise that right until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Keywords: Women's Suffrage; Economic Perspective; Political Rights; Social Movements
JEL Codes: N11; N12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| women's suffrage organizations forming coalitions with other social movements (D71) | political pressure on male legislators to extend voting rights (D72) |
| political pressure on male legislators to extend voting rights (D72) | success of the suffrage movement (K16) |
| political competition within states (D72) | timing of women's suffrage (N92) |
| presence of third-party candidates (D79) | likelihood of enfranchisement (K16) |
| higher percentages of women in the labor force (J21) | timing of women's suffrage (N92) |
| nullification of liquor interests through early prohibition laws (N91) | likelihood of extending voting rights (K16) |