Engendering Democratic Change: How Three U.S. Presidents Discussed Female Suffrage

Although the history of democratic change in the United States has largely been read through its constitutive debates, here I suggest that we might also explore how such changes have been explained by political elites. Using the years immediately surrounding the 1920 female suffrage victory as a case study, this essay asks when and how Presidents Wilson, Harding, and Coolidge discussed U.S. women's transformation from citizens to voters within particular texts.