Everyday Women Find Their Voice in the Public Sphere

Abstract

This article examines letters to the editor published in the Woman's Journal, an eight-page woman's suffrage newspaper published weekly and distributed nationally, from 1870 to 1890. Letters to the editor provide insight into the workers of the movement, who may not have been able to attend conventions or meet with like-minded women. Although much has been written about the leaders of the American woman's suffrage movement, little is known about the average suffragist. This study shows that readers of the Journal used consciousness-raising rhetoric similar to the genre of women's liberation rhetoric of the twentieth-century women's rights movement. Thus, the press was an interactive communication partner that enabled them to form a community of geographically separated suffragists.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary M. Carver

MARY M. CARVER is an instructor in the Arts and Humanities Department at Oklahoma City Community College. This article is based on her master's thesis, which was directed by Susan Schultz Huxman.