Widening the lens: towards a more inclusive suffrage story

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate for teachers how the suffrage movement is centered in whiteness. The authors posit that this historical erasure is intentional, and teachers should actively find ways to counter that erasure. This paper positions teachers to ask critical questions of dominant narratives, and have students do the same.

Design/methodology/approach

Given the existence of historical erasure and the absence of Black suffrage stories, the authors sought to build teachers' content base by conducting a historiography of the dominant narrative of the women's suffrage movement. They examined how state standards and popular online archival collections perpetuate the dominant narrative. They provide teachers with a rich content base and include primary sources they could use to teach this content to their students.

Findings

Unsurprising, the Texas and Missouri state standards do little to advance the voices of underrepresented people, especially when it comes to the suffrage movement. Likewise, archival collections are limited by the choice of those who curated the collections. The article presents teachers with lesser known stories of the movement and accompanying primary sources.

Practical implications

Teachers cannot teach what they do not know. So the authors sought to build a teacher's content base so they could tell a more inclusive history. They want to help teachers identify dominant narratives and where historical erasure is happening, and commit to asking critical questions of those narratives and seek to diversity their histories.

Originality/value

This piece is original because much of this content is missing from current history classrooms. In addition, the primary sources and additional resources provided can strengthen a teacher's ability to teach about it.

Citation

Ellsworth, T.M. and Burgard, K. (2023), "Widening the lens: towards a more inclusive suffrage story", Social Studies Research and Practice, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 65-79. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSRP-12-2022-0036