Dr. Lori Liggett
Saturday, March 28, 2020 | 2:00 p.m.- 3:30 p.m.| Wood County District Public Library | 251 N. Main Street| Bowling Green, OH
Dr. Lori Liggett is a Teaching Professor, faculty mentor, and internship coordinator in the School of Media and Communication. Both her teaching and interdisciplinary research focus on gender issues within cultural history and visual culture. She recently taught a course entitled “Documenting Women’s Suffrage,” resulting in a digital humanities gallery of primary source materials related to the suffrage movement and the 19th Amendment. Ligget’s talk, "The Bicycle and the Ballot Box: How American Suffragists Pedaled Their Way to Power,” marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Dr. Liggett analyzes how the “bicycle craze” that swept America in the late 19th century created opportunities for women like never before, representing individualized, unchaperoned transportation and the necessity for rational attire.
Contact Information:
Dr. Lori Liggett
Teaching Professor
School of Media and Communication
Address: 304 Michael and Sara Kuhlin Center
lorilig@bgsu.edu
Videos & Podcasts
“One Woman, One Vote” directed by Ruth Pollack, broadcast on PBS American Experience (1995)
This PBS documentary explores the history of the fight for women’s suffrage in the U.S. with archival footage, historical re-enactments, and historian interviews.
Watch the trailer below for the upcoming film, The Black Suffragist. This documentary spotlights the Black women who fought for inclusion in the suffrage movement and who took an intersectional approach that understood women’s suffrage as conjoined to racial justice.
Michelle Merhtens and narrator Christina Greer briefly tell the story of the historic 1913 march on Washington organized by suffragist in this animated educational short video.
For Further Information
Wood County District Public Library’s Featured Book
-
Wheels of Change by ISBN: 9781426328558Publication Date: 2017-02-07
Journalism
-
How Racism Almost Killed Women's Right to Voteby Kimberly A. Hamlin, published in the Washington Post (2019)
The article explains how some people were afraid that giving women the right to vote would cause the government to enforce the 15th Amendment, which made it legal for black men to vote. Also explores some of the racism experienced by black women who fought alongside white women for the right to vote. -
Rightfully Hers: Woman Suffrage Before the 19th Amendmentby Jessie Kratz, published in Pieces of History: A Blog of the U.S. National Archives (2019)
This piece accompanied an exhibit at the U.S. National Archives and walks the reader through key artifacts and how they relate to the history of suffrage and women’s voting rights before the passing of the 19th Amendment. -
Celebrate Women’s Suffrage, but Don't Whitewash the Movement's Racismby Tammy L. Brown, published by the ACLU (2018)
This article explores the way in which Black women were both excluded and used by White women in the fight for the vote. The author highlights important Black women whose roles in the fight for suffrage have erased from history. -
"Bicycle face": a 19th-century health problem made up to scare women away from bikingby Joseph Stromberg, published by Vox (2015)
This article explains the history of cycling for women and how the fear of “biking face” would lead women to want to fight for their liberation and have greater rights. -
Wheels of Change: How The Bicycle Empowered Womenby Maria Popova, published on Brain Pickings (undated)
This article talks about how bikes allowed for women to experience a range of freedom and movement they had not had in recent centuries. The article includes images and commentary detailing how the bicycle helped lead to changes in women’s clothing, mobility, and independence.
Academic Journals
-
The Women's Suffrage Movement: Lessons for Social Actionby Elizabeth Beck, Ellen Dorsey, and April Stutters, published in Journal of Community Practice (2008)
The authors of this article explore five factors that influenced the suffrage movement’s success. -
"The Rhetoric of Gender Upheaval During the Campaign for the Nineteenth Amendmentby Lynda G. Dodd, published in Boston University Law Review (2013)
This piece explores the fears and backlash sparked by women’s campaign for the passage of the 19th Amendment. The author details how men were vocal about their fears of the collapse of gender norms and family structure may accompany women’s empowerment through the vote. -
Inventing citizens during World War I: Suffrage cartoons in the woman citizenby Michele E. Ramsey, published in Western Journal of Communication (2000).
This article focuses on the way in which comics published in the suffragist publication, The Woman Citizen, served to visually and conceptually reimagine traditional gender roles.
Podcast
-
Behind the Bylines: Advocacy Journalism in AmericaBackstory (2018)
The first segment of this Backstory podcast episode chronicles how Ida B. Wells, an advocate for Black civil rights and women’s suffrage, used journalism to inform the broader public about the widespread lynching of Black men in the American South how racial terrorism was justified by pernicious stereotypes about Black men posing a danger to White women.
Books
-
The Rise of the New Woman by Call Number: HQ1419 .M38 2003ISBN: 9781566635004Publication Date: 2003-03-03 -
Bicycles, Bangs, and Bloomers by Call Number: PN4888.W65M37 1990ISBN: 0813117046Publication Date: 1990-06-21 -
The Women's Suffrage Movement by Call Number: JK1896 .W46 2019ISBN: 9780143132431Publication Date: 2019-03-05 -
