A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

The traditional narrative of suffrage history contributed to the historical erasure of the queer history of the movement. Historian Wendy Rouse has attempted to recover some of this lost queer history by piecing together clues from the personal diaries, letters, and the private papers of the suffragists. In this talk, Rouse highlights the alliances that queer suffragists built and the innovative strategies they developed to protect and preserve their most intimate relationships as they defied the gender and sexual norms of their day, as well as the important role of queerness and queer suffragists in the fight for the vote.

Wendy L. Rouse is Professor of History at San Jose State University. Her scholarly research focuses on the history of women, gender and sexuality during the Progressive Era. Rouse’s most recent work, Public Faces, Secret Lives: The Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, explores the ways that suffragists challenged norms of gender and sexuality in their era. Rouse is also the author of Children of Chinatown: Growing Up Chinese American in San Francisco, 1880-1920 and Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self-Defense Movement. Learn more at https://wendylrouse.com/

LGBTQ History Month Event