Votes For Women: An Economic Perspective on Women's Enfranchisement / Carolyn Moehling, Melissa A. Thomasson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moehling, Carolyn.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Thomasson, Melissa A.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w26781.

NBER working paper series no. w26781

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Votes For Women

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

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.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2020.