The Woman's Hour

The Great Fight to Win the Vote

By: Elaine Weiss

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert, Elaine Weiss

"Both a page-turning drama and an inspiration for every reader"--Hillary Rodham Clinton

Soon to Be a Major Television Event

The nail-biting climax of one of the greatest political battles in American history: the ratification of the constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote.

"With a skill reminiscent of Robert Caro, [Weiss] turns the potentially dry stuff of legislative give-and-take into a drama of courage and cowardice."--The Wall Street Journal

"Weiss is a clear and genial guide with an ear for telling language ... She also shows a superb sense of detail, and it's the deliciousness of her details that suggests certain individuals warrant entire novels of their own... Weiss's thoroughness is one of the book's great strengths. So vividly had she depicted events that by the climactic vote (spoiler alert: The amendment was ratified!), I got goose bumps."--Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times Book Review

Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, twelve have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis"--women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation. They all converge in a boiling hot summer for a vicious face-off replete with dirty tricks, betrayals and bribes, bigotry, Jack Daniel's, and the Bible.

Following a handful of remarkable women who led their respective forces into battle, along with appearances by Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Frederick Douglass, and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Woman's Hour is an inspiring story of activists winning their own freedom in one of the last campaigns forged in the shadow of the Civil War, and the beginning of the great twentieth-century battles for civil rights.

How long the fight for the right to vote took

I kinda think listening to the interview with the author first would have made this story even more interesting. Amazing historical event not told about enough.

The Final Battle that Won the Vote for Women

It took 71 years and generations of women (and some men) to gain the vote for women in the U.S. through ratification of the 19th amendment to the Constitution—from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, where the convention-approved Declaration of Sentiments first put the issue in the political arena, until 1920, when a constitutional amendment finally gained ratification by the states.
While today it might seem inconceivable that women could be prevented from voting, passage of the amendment was not a sure thing in 1920 and the reasons become clear to us through the author’s telling. Many of the conditions surrounding the ratification echo in today’s politics. In 1920, Warren Harding was elected with a slogan “America First”. Fear of immigrants was extremely high leading to changes in the law that extremely limited immigration into the U.S. Opponents of women’s suffrage used racism, states’ rights and corporate money to fight it. In many ways, this was a fight between urban America and rural America. Elected officials were much more concerned on how it would impact their reelection than whether it was the right thing to do. Just like today, limiting the voters for your opponents was a way to remain in power or, for corporations, keep your supporters in power.
Focusing on the climax of the fight, the vote by the Tennesee legislature to make the state the 36th state and last state needed to ratify the amendment passed by Congress the previous year, the book looks back over the previous 71 years to explain the context of the conflict in Tennessee’s capital. The battle in Nashville overflowed with both political and personal drama. All arguments from the past in favor and against the women’s vote were used and every political lever that could be pulled was pulled by both sides. At the end, it came down to a change in heart by one Tennessee legislator after a letter from his mother.
This is a compelling story in which the author brings the participants to life and allows the reader to reflect on the lessons for today’s political battles. It was the hard work and persistence of women in fighting for the right cause that carried the day over the fear and selfishness of their opponents.

Disappointing choice of narrators

This book deserved a narrator with gravitas, but instead we were given someone with a voice and presentation style that I could best describe as perky. I’ll read the book, but I can’t continue to listen. What a shame.

Women take our right to vote much too casually.

Men and women in the 21st century must remember these rights were fought for by both courageous women and men.

A must read for contemporary politics

As a student of suffrage, and a 21st Century Feminist, I wholeheartedly recommend this history of the final push for ratification of the 19th amendment, focusing on the Battle in Tennessee to EVERYONE!! It is compelling, fast-paced and reads more like a thriller. For those disappointed in the 2016 election, this is a must read. Take heart. Persist. Failure is impossible. I loved this book.