The Enactment of Mothers' Pensions: Civic Mobilization and Agenda Setting or Benefits of the Ballot?

In this Review in 1993, Skocpol, Howard, Lehmann, and Abend-Wein analyzed the rapid enactment of mothers'pension laws in the American states in the 1910s. They concluded that the widespread federations of women's voluntary groups exerted a powerful influence on these enactments even before most American women had the right to vote. Sparks and Walniuk challenge these conclusions, noting that all 10 equal-suffrage states are among the 29 that passed mothers' pensions before 1916, and presenting new measures of suffrage endorsement and suffrage pressures in regression analyses suggesting that women's votes—actual and potential—played a major role in leading some states to adopt mothers' pensions earlier than their normal patterns of legislative change would predict. In response, Skocpol defends the 1993 conclusions. She adduces that the aggregate pattern of enactment of mothers'pensions corresponds much more closely to endorsements by women's groups than to suffrage timing and puts forth reasons to doubt the validity and significance of Sparks and Walniuk's tests.

Download Full-text

Turning Rights into Ballots: The Uneven Integration of Women into Electoral Politics after Suffrage

Political Science and Politics ◽

10.1017/s104909652000027x ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 53 (3) ◽

pp. 479-483

Author(s):

Christina Wolbrecht ◽

J. Kevin Corder

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Electoral Politics ◽

The United States ◽

American Women ◽

Nineteenth Amendment ◽

Political Interests ◽

Right To Vote ◽

The Law ◽

The Right

After a more than seven-decade battle, American women secured the right to vote in August 1920. The struggle for women to have a voice in elections was not over, however. The Nineteenth Amendment states that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” The amendment gives Congress the power to enforce the law by appropriate legislation. It does not, however, empower or charge any government office or actor with ensuring that women can and do cast ballots. This article argues that this reality, often taken for granted, has serious implications for both the incorporation of women into the electorate and the representation of their political interests.

Download Full-text

Nasty Women: Transgressive Womanhood in American History

10.21061/nasty-women ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

American History ◽

American Woman ◽

100Th Anniversary ◽

Personal Lives ◽

American Women ◽

American Landscape ◽

Transgressive Behavior ◽

Right To Vote ◽

The Right ◽

Average Woman

The saying goes that well-behaved women rarely make history. For centuries, American women have been carving out spaces of their own in a male-dominated world. From politics, to entertainment, to their personal lives, women have been making their mark on the American landscape since the nation’s inception, often ignored or overlooked by those creating the record. This collection takes the long view of the American woman and examines her transgressive behavior through the decades. Including stories of women enslaved, early celebrities, engineers, and more, these essays demonstrate how there is no such thing as an “average” woman, as even those ordinary women are found doing extraordinary things. This collection comes at a particularly poignant time, as August 2020 markedthe 100th anniversary of the ratification and adoption of the19th amendment, which – in a landmark for women’s right – granted American women the right to vote.

Download Full-text

THE CONCEPT OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL GUARANTEES OF ELECTORAL RIGHTS

Sociopolitical sciences ◽

10.33693/2223-0092-2020-10-4-85-90 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 85-90

Author(s):

VLADIMIR TROYAN ◽

Keyword(s):

Scientific Research ◽

Formal Aspect ◽

Universal Approach ◽

Right To Vote ◽

Definition Of ◽

The Right

The relevance of the interpretation of constitutional and legal guarantees of the right to vote is mediated by isolated scientific research in this area, as well as the lack of a universal approach to legal guarantees. In this regard, the purpose of the article is to argue and disclose the author’s definitive aspect of the claimed guarantees. In the work, the author named and characterized the normative (based exclusively on legal means) with the perspective of a branch of legal and technical; regulatory and institutional (combines the formal aspect with the activities of authorized entities) and associated legal (including a set of legal and other aspects) approaches to the definition of legal guarantees. Based on the second approach, as well as combining the guarantees of the right to vote directly guarantees of the subjective right itself and guarantees of its implementation, the author offers a definition of constitutional and legal guarantees of the right to vote.

Download Full-text