The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote

The story of how and why a group of prominent and influential men in New York City and beyond came together to help women gain the right to vote.

(Reviews and Notices; Brooke’s posts)

The Suffragents is the untold story of how some of New York’s most powerful men formed the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage, which grew between 1909 and 1917 from 150 founding members into a force of thousands across thirty-five states. Brooke Kroeger explores the formation of the League and the men who instigated it to involve themselves with the suffrage campaign, what they did at the behest of the movement’s female leadership, and why. She details the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s strategic decision to accept their organized help and then to deploy these influential new allies as suffrage foot soldiers, a role they accepted with uncommon grace. Led by such luminaries as Oswald Garrison Villard, John Dewey, Max Eastman, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and George Foster Peabody, members of the League worked the streets, the stage, the press, and the legislative and executive branches of government. In the process, they helped convince waffling politicians, a dismissive public, and a largely hostile press to support the women’s demand. Together, they swayed the course of history.

Advance Praise for THE SUFFRAGENTS

““Among the pleasures of Kroeger’s carefully developed storyline is the view of how important political figures such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson came around to accepting the idea that women deserved the vote, an evolution helped along by arguments by the suffrage movement’s male allies until the righteousness of the cause could no longer be ignored. A vigorous, readable revisitation of the events of a century and more ago but with plenty of subtle lessons in the book for modern-day civil rights activists, too.” Kirkus Reviews

“The Suffragents is the product of formidable research. It’s a fresh contribution in which the big picture is composed of a vast mosaic of forgotten facts.” —Susan Waggoner, Foreword Reviews

James McBride, author of The Color of Water and The Good Lord Bird, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction:

“The Suffragents is proof that the clatter of dishes that America’s power brokers were hearing as they sat in their smoking parlors back in the early twentieth century meant more than clean china and emptied ashtrays. Someone was cooking up plans. The book reveals the careful, never-before-told story of how women carefully calculated and planned their own liberation, directing the prominent power brokers in America into action. With smooth efficiency and the touch of a novelist, Brooke Kroeger shows how the suffragist movement, engineered by women from top to bottom, cleverly stitched in the involvement of men from all walks of professional and political life, directed by women who used neither gun nor blade to direct the men, but the weapons of intelligence, cleverness, and when necessary, subterfuge. The collaboration in this balance of power between prominent men who invested in the movement, and the women who directed them, has everything to teach us today.”

Linda J. Lumsden, author of INEZ: The Life and Times of Inez Milholland:

“Not all the suffragists who risked ridicule to march down Fifth Avenue in the big parades touting votes for women wore dresses. Brooke Kroeger meticulously documents the largely unsung role of men who publicly supported their wives, mothers, sisters, or lovers in the final dramatic decade of women’s seventy-year battle for the ballot.”

Michael Kimmel, co-editor of Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the United States, 1775-1990: A Documentary History

“Women ‘need’ men to get the rights they deserve: after all, men had to vote to let women vote. Brooke Kroeger gives us the first history of the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage, the “Gentleman’s Auxiliary” of the women’s movement. Eschewing the spotlight, they supported gender equality, as we all should, because it’s quite simply the right thing to do. With this gift, Kroeger gives us back a bit of our history.”

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Back in 2013, knowing that the centennial of women’s suffrage was just ahead, I had it in mind to write a book of suffrage history but on an under-explored theme. It occurred to me that for women to have succeeded at last in what turned out to be a 70-year-long campaign, what they needed was the vocal, public, active support of men. Men, except in the western states that had passed suffrage, were the vast majority of voters. Men made the laws. A simple search brought up The Men’s League for Woman Suffrage. The prominent men whose names appeared on the earliest membership rosters made me think these were little more than the equivalent of celebrity endorsers, men willing to do little more than sign a letter or provide a quote for an ad. The research decidedly proved otherwise and that’s how The Suffragents came to be.

Brooke Kroeger is a journalist, author and professor of journalism at New York University,where she directs GloJo, short for Global and Joint Program Studies. The Suffragents (2017) is her fifth book. Previous works are Undercover Reporting: The Truth About Deception (2012); Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are (2003); Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst (1999); and Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist (1994).

From An Introduction:

On May 6, 1911, under perfect blue skies, ten thousand spectators lined both sides of Fifth Avenue “from the curb to the building line” for the annual New York Suffrage Day parade. Somewhere between three thousand and five thousand marchers strode in a stream of purple, green, and white, from Fifty-Seventh Street to a giant rally in Union Square. Bicolored banners demarcated the groups by their worldly work as architects, typists, aviators, explorers, nurses, physicians, actresses, shirtwaist makers, cooks, painters, writers, chauffeurs, sculptors, journalists, editors, milliners, hairdressers, office holders, librarians, decorators, teachers, farmers, artists’ models, “even pilots with steamboats painted on their banners.” Women’s work was the point. The New York Sun repeated the entire list at the top of its front-page story.

To draw broad attention for this spectacle, the women had help from a single troupe of men in their midst—eighty-nine in all, by most accounts—dressed not in the Scottish kilts of the bagpipers or the smartly pressed uniforms of the bands, but in suits, ties, fedoras, and the odd top hat. They marched four abreast in the footsteps of the women, under a banner of their own.

These men were not random supporters, but representatives of a momentous, yet subtly managed development in the suffrage movement’s seventh decade. Eighteen months earlier, 150 titans of publishing, industry, finance, science, medicine, and academia; of the clergy, the military, of letters and of the law; men of means or influence or both, had joined together under their own charter to become what their banner proclaimed them, the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage. Since the end of 1909, they had been speaking, writing, editing or publishing, planning, and lobbying New York’s governor and legislators on behalf of the suffrage cause. They did so until the vote was won.

. . . This book seeks to retrieve a long-forgotten sliver of history—to tell the story of how, in the course of women’s protracted and hard-fought battle to gain the vote in the United States, men played a consequential role that they did not aggrandize or promote, except when it served the suffrage cause for them to do so. Drawing on biographical sketches, correspondence, and a multitude of references in newspapers and magazines of the period, the book recounts efforts that years later would fail to receive even passing mention in the often prominent published obituaries of the League’s key male figures.

Specifically, this book is about how the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage of the State of New York came to be formed, in 1908, how hard its members worked under the direction of the extraordinary women who led the suffrage charge in that period; and why what transpired may hold some lessons worth reflecting upon, even today. It shows how in that final decade leading up to the passage of the New York State suffrage amendment in 1917, these “Mere Men,” these “Suffragents,” the British moniker by which they were so often disdainfully called, helped inspire a gradual but dramatic tonal shift in response to the larger suffrage movement in the way mass-circulation newspapers and magazines covered it, and in the way politicians, government officials, and both the general and all-male voting public responded to it.

From a contemporary standpoint, it is remarkable to consider that one hundred years ago, these prominent men—highly respected and influential, their exploits chronicled regularly in the national media—not only gave their names to the cause of women’s rights or called in the odd favor, but rather invested in the fight. They created and ran an organization expressly committed to an effort that, up until the point at which they joined, had been seen as women’s work for a marginal nonstarter of a cause. From the beginning of their involvement, these men willingly acted on orders from and in tandem with the women who ran the greater state and national suffrage campaigns. How many times in American history has such collaboration happened, especially with this balance of power?

Gotham Center for New York City History: “When the Editorial Elite Threw Their Fedoras Into the Ring for Women’s Rights” – Brooke Kroeger “These men of the press did not stay out of the fray. They stood up, spoke up, and acted up. They took sides to help right a wrong. They were prescient about the course history was poised to take, indeed, needed to take, and they helped history to take it.”
New York Daily News Guest Columnist: Women’s Partners in Making History: The Men Who Help Power Progress “All of this should remind us that the flip-side of outrage or protest is a vision of what should exist in its stead. An important lesson of suffrage is that men’s support, both in and outside legislatures, is essential to correcting the gender inequalities that still fester. As Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the ...
Newsday: Author Events on Long Island, week of Nov. 12, 2017 “Local and big-time writers sign their works on all corners of the Island.”
East Hampton Star: “A Few Good Men” Review of the Suffragents “Ms. Kroeger, in true journalistic fashion, details the various conversations, correspondence, and setbacks of the campaign, as well as the eventual success the National American Woman Suffrage Association had in gaining the vote.”
The Gotham Center for New York City History: The Men Who Helped Women Get the Vote “From a contemporary standpoint, it is remarkable to consider that one hundred years ago, these prominent men — highly respected and influential, their exploits chronicled regularly in the national media — not only gave their names to the cause of women’s rights or called in the odd favor, but rather invested in the fight.”
New York Times NY Region Bookshelf Review via Youtube: New Yorkers and the Women’s Suffrage Movement “The Times had repeatedly editorialized that letting women vote would “derange” the social and political structure.”
New York Times: New Yorkers and the Women’s Suffrage Movement What’s indisputable is the spectrum of men who joined with the coalition of rural, immigrant, black and radical women who were at the forefront of the movement. “Professor Kroeger’s prodigiously researched book traces the role of men (who provided credibility to a movement financed by wealthy women) at least as far back as 1875, when Thomas ...
New York Magazine’s Bedford + Bowery: On Women’s Suffrage Centenary, Some Feminists Push for a Constitutional Convention “Before then, the movement for women’s suffrage was mostly confined to western states; not until 1917 was there a successful referendum in New York. Its passage was contingent on male voters, after considerable activism from both women and male ‘suffragents.’”
Hudson River Valley Review: The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote Kroeger relies on a comprehensive bibliography of sources on woman’s suffrage to credit these men without diminishing the lead role that women played in establishing the movement and directing the energy of supporters to maximize impact.
Hudson Valley Chronogram: Holiday Book Signing with Local Arthurs at the Beekman Arms November 5, 2017 a rare convergence of top local authors including Jon Bowermaster, Nava Atlas, and Vern Benjamin. These Hudson Valley literary icons will be joined by other important authors like Leslie Sharpe (The Quarry Fox: And Other Critters of the Wild Catskills), Stephen Silverman (The Catskills: Its History and How It Changed America), and Brooke Kroeger ...
Northern Dutchess News: Bliss for Bibliophiles: Book It to the Beekman Arms This Sunday for a Holiday Signing Event “With New York celebrating the centenary of women’s suffrage in the state, NYU professor Brooke Kroeger puts in a timely appearance with ‘The Suffragents,’ the story of how and why a group of prominent, influential men from New York City and beyond came together to help women gain the right to vote.”
Poughkeepsie Journal: Meet Local Authors at Holiday Book Signing in Rhinebeck “Bibliophiles and local history fans can start their holiday shopping early with an autographed book during the Holiday Book Signing this weekend.”
Hamptons.com: New York Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote: Suffrage Movement: Local Historians Make Sure Women Don’t Forget! “Recognizing this momentous occasion has had many local historians, descendants, scholars and authors, including NYU Journalism Professor Brooke Kroeger, author of “The Suffragents: How Women Used Men To Get the Vote,” and Antonia Petrash and Arlene Hinkemeyer, offering lectures on local history and publishing new books.”
Smithsonian VIP September 2017: “The Men Who Marched With the Suffragents: From Rabbi Stephen S. Wise to W.E.B. DuBois, Men from All Walks of Life Fought to Get Women a Place at the Polls “Was memory of these actions lost in the fullness of the next 20 to 50 years of their large lives? Or did the men deliberately downplay their role in the movement all good allies should? The latter would be consistent with the League’s comportment throughout the decade of its existence, but we’re left to wonder.”
Broadway World – NYU Steinhardt to Stage HEAR THEM ROAR to Commemorate 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage in NY – Talk Back by Brooke Kroeger October 26, 2017 “The Thursday, October 26 performance will feature a talk back after the show with Professor Burt Neuborne, who held the Inez Milholland Chair at NYU Law for the past ten years, and NYU Journalism Professor Brooke Kroeger, who wrote the recent book The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote.”
States News Service: “What Allies Could Learn from Suffragents Who Helped Women Get the Vote” “I got chills when I read that line,” Kroeger reflects. “When else, before or since, have men ever behaved that way over a women’s issue?”
BillMoyers.com-“Men’s Rights? Simple: Same as Ours” – Lynn Sherr “Memo to misogynists: We’ve got way better role models with far saner outlooks. So let’s give them the respect they deserve.”
Q&A on the Suffragents with Anne Boyd Rioux of Non-Fiction Fans “Breeze? Well, more of a wind tunnel. I’d use the term “invigorating slog” as the hunt for material always energizes me. I’m nerdy enough that it is my idea of fun.”
Podcast: Top of Mind with Julie Rose – “Taking a Cue from the Men Who Supported the Suffrage Movement” In about a week at the United Nations in New York, ten heads of state, ten global CEOs and ten university presidents – all men – will gather to draw attention to women’s rights and empowerment. . . . If you wanted to be cheeky, you could call them ‘suffragents.’
HeforShe: “The HeforShe Men of Days Past” “While women worked tirelessly for their right to vote, male allies were able “to advance the suffragist cause in spheres women couldn’t otherwise have reached.” And Kroeger notes something equally important: they didn’t ask for any credit in doing it.”
Kirkus Features: Brooke Kroeger, Author of The Suffragents “Quite a few editors did not like this idea,” she says. “Responses came back like, ‘I’d like to work with Brooke but never about this.’ I’m not kidding. Or, ‘Who cares what the men did?’ That was pretty typical.”
Town & Country: A New Book Pays Tribute to the Society Women Who Paved the Way for Suffrage “Immortalized in bronze on a statehouse plaque are 83 veterans of the New York State women’s suffrage campaign—and nearly one fifth of those names also appear in the 1917 Social Register.”
The American Scholar: “Metropolis Rising: How the Big Apple Took Its Place Among the World’s Great Cities” (Review of Greater Gotham by Mike Wallace) “…A brightly hued kaleidoscope of themes, facts, stories, and characters. Every turn of the cylinder rearranges the shiny bits into new configurations, fresh ways to consider the blink-of-an-eye transformation of New York City into an “imperial metropolis.”
Suffrage and the Media: Q&A with Brooke Kroeger about “The Suffragents” by Alex Kane AK: “You devote some ink to WEB Du Bois in your book, but he was not a member of the Men’s League. Why did you think he was important enough to warrant mention in the book when he wasn’t part of the league?”
Opzij Magazine (NL): HOE OOK MANNEN FEMINISME 1.0 EEN ZETJE GAVEN (How Men Also Gave Feminism 1.0 a Boost) HOE OOK MANNEN FEMINISME 1.0 EEN ZETJE GAVEN
Futurity: These Powerful Men Were Humble Allies for Women’s Vote September 5, 2017 By Eileen Reynolds via NYU http://www.futurity.org/mens-league-for-womens-suffrage-1533192-2/ What can those with visibility and influence do—beyond stating support for a particular movement—to combat injustice? Can those with power and privilege advance the interests of others without hijacking or getting in the way of the efforts of the marginalized groups they mean to support? These are, of course, questions that ...
“You Got to Have Friends” Episode 104 of Unorthodox, the Tablet magazine podcast: Brooke Kroeger on the Men Behind Women’s Suffrage “This episode is brought to you by the letter A, for ally.”
East Hampton Star, Sag Harbor Express, Suffragents and the Suffrage Rally Re-Enactment, August 31, 2017 August 31, 2017 I guess we got the attire right because both the East Hampton Star and Sag Harbor Express carried photos on their front pages of Alex and me marching in the suffrage rally re-enactment down Main Street in East Hampton on Thursday, August 24, 2017. Carissa Katz’s story about the event ...
Podcast of America’s Democrats August 27, 2017 The podcast America’s Democrats features a segment on The Suffragents at minutes 18:51 to 29:10. http://www.americasdemocrats.org/2017/08/26/addo343/ The promo: The Constitution doesn’t say anything about sex – though the Declaration of Independence promoted the pursuit of happiness – but for the past hundred years or so, courts have been in our bedrooms. Law Professor Geoffrey Stone has the ...
From Schuster Institute Investigations: The Suffragists August 20, 2017 The Schuster Institute Investigations, the micro site of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Reporting, where I serve as a senior fellow, has posted a handsome page with an exclusive excerpt from The Suffragents about the suffrage referendum victory in New York State on November 6, 1917. Talk about the wrong side of history: Note ...
NYU Features: What Allies Today Could Learn from ‘Suffragents’ Who Helped Women Get the Vote ” . .. . But a would-be feminist champion like Ashton Kutcher might have avoided a few common mistakes if he had read NYU journalism proefessor Brooke Kroeger’s latest book, which relates lessons from the little known story of how a group of powerful men offered themselves as foot soldiers in the fight for women’s ...
Women’s Media Center: How Suffragists—and Their Foes—Used Media “There has been a lot of discussion, even in the last election, about women in politics and concerns about inequitable treatment of women in politics,” said Carolyn Kitch . . . “Unfortunately, 100 years after women’s suffrage was achieved, there are still major issues. And so there are current parallels all around us.”
WIA Report: New Online Archive on How the Women’s Suffrage Movement Was Portrayed in the Media “Our purpose in launching now is not only to add value to the New York suffrage centennial celebrations by providing wide access to actual material from the period and the most astute reflections about it, but also to start an ongoing showcase of the impact of media — pro or con, in all its form ...
Kirkus Reviews: The Suffragents “A vigorous, readable revisitation of the events of a century and more ago but with plenty of subtle lessons in the book for modern-day civil rights activists, too.”
Foreword Reviews: The Suffragents “The Suffragents is the product of formidable research. It’s a fresh contribution in which the big picture is composed of a vast mosaic of forgotten facts” and “adds an original and welcome new dimension to the field of women’s studies.”
Publisher’s Weekly: History Announcement ” . . . tells the story of how and why a group of prominent and influential men in New York City came together to help women gain the right to vote.”
Launch Day Event: East Hampton Library, East Hampton NY, Friday, September 1, 2017, 6pm “Led by such luminaries as Oswald Garrison Villard, John Dewey, Max Eastman, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and George Foster Peabody, members of the League worked the streets, the stage, the press, and the legislative and executive branches of government. In the process, they helped convince waffling politicians, a dismissive public, and a largely hostile press ...
Event: The Corner Book Store, New York City, Monday, September 11, 2017, 6pm-7pm “Brooke Kroeger reads from her new book, The Suffragents . . . She details organized help and then to deploy these influential new allies as suffrage foot soldiers, a role they accepted with uncommon grace.”
Event: Porter Square Books (Cambridge, MA) Thursday, September 14, 2017 – 7pm-8pm “explores the formation of the League and the men who instigated it to involve themselves with the suffrage campaign, what they did at the women’s behest and why.”
Event: Conversation with Angela P. Dodson “Remember the Ladies but Don’t Forget the Gentlemen” with Angela P. Dodson at the New York Society Library – Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 6:30 p.m. https://www.nysoclib.org/events/conversation-angela-p-dodson-and-brooke-kroeger-remember-ladies-and-dont-forget-gentlemen Thursday, September 28, 2017 – 6:30 PM | Open to the Public | Members’ Room | $15 per person | Advance registration required This unique event brings together two cutting-edge historians on the era of women’s suffrage. 2017 begins the centennial celebrations of women first winning the right to vote, culminating in national suffrage three years later. Angela ...