Love this book. It is great for the historian in your life. I have this book in my classroom and I use it in my lessons. Great writing and great research.

This is a compelling and surprisingly and balanced look at the women's suffrage movement which doesn't shy away from the racist attitudes of some of the movement's most well-known names. While the writing was a bit dry at times, it was a much needed look at the suffragist movement as it overlapped with the abolitionist movement.

This review will appear on SoundCommentary.com in approximately 2 months.

The history of women’s suffrage encompasses much more than the stories of its arguably most famous figures, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Conkling presents a full history from the early days of the movement until the final ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Not only does she chronicle the events leading up to ratification, but she also delves into the personal lives of many of its fiercest fighters. These women faced beatings, jail time, job loss, family disownment, and much more in their struggles to ensure that women were represented fairly in government and other areas of life.

Winifred Conkling has a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults, has studied journalism, and been a magazine and newspaper editor. She has written a number of adult nonfiction titles and several books for children and teens. This is a thoroughly researched and engaging account of American women’s struggle to win the right to vote. Conkling doesn’t shy away from or gloss over the more difficult aspects of the suffrage movement’s history, such as its problematic relationship with racism.

Recommend this title to lovers of women’s history and narrative nonfiction in general. Though primarily written for a middle school audience, this has broad appeal for all ages.

Votes for Women!: American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot is a well written book about the history of the suffrage movement in the USA, along with interesting and enlightening commentary on how the movement affected (and was affected by) other social and political movements of the day, such as civil rights for people of color.

This book draws a thread throughout the narrative with a connected timeline. It's almost incredible to think (and shiver over) how close the whole process came to failing at so many points. The fact that it more or less came down to the vote of one young Tennessee representative ( Harry T. Burn) at that critical point and a letter from his mother might have made the difference is crazy.

Author Winifred Conkling has extensive experience writing about nonfiction subjects for young adults. Her writing style is no-nonsense and easy to read. The book makes what could easily have been a very dry subject come alive with anecdotes and excerpts from extant letters and other documents. The book is marketed to the YA market, and while I agree that it would be perfectly appropriate and readable to the average YA audience, it's also interesting for adults. I learned quite a lot reading the book as well (and it's been a few decades since I was a young adult myself :) ).

The political climate in much of the world today is fraught. Every time we look at the newspaper there's something new to shock and dismay us. It's critically important for everyone to educate themselves about our political history because it's not just an old adage to say that if we don't understand the past, we're doomed to repeat it.

Four stars, interesting and well worth a read.

Stats:
320 pages, ebook, hardbound and audiobook formats.
Published February 13, 2018 by Algonquin Young Readers

I didn't know much about the votes for women campaign before and I'm glad this book was written. I've learned quite a bit from this book and I hope other people do too.

Conklin reminds we woman, and men, too, of what it took to get where women are today. Starting from the women’s right’s movement in 1848, she takes us on a historical journey to remind us change can happen. This is a very well researched, written and timely.

I'm embarrassed to write that I did not vote in the first presidential election I was able to. (Don't worry, it wasn't the 2016 election.) That embarrassment only increased upon reading Winifred Conkling's <i>Votes for Women!</i>, a concise yet tremendously in-depth history of women's suffrage in America, from Elizabeth Cady Stantion and the Seneca Falls Convention to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, and everything in between.

Conkling brilliantly weaves together the stories and personal histories of Stantion, Susan B. Anthony, and other key figures in the American suffrage movement. This book should be required reading for girls as young as fifth grade. Then, perhaps, they won't procrastinate in applying for their absentee ballot during their sophomore year of college and end up not even voting in their first election... Or is that just me? Yeah, that's just me.

Tells the story of the fight for a woman’s right to vote, from the early suffragettes to the final passage of the voting rights amendment. Highlighting Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul as women at the forefront of the battle for women’s rights.
I received a free ARC for an honest review.

This was a fascinating book chronicling the struggles the suffragettes had to face and overcome. I bought a copy for my classroom because I love how it balances the lives of the suffragettes with the larger movement to ratify the 19th amendment.

VOTES FOR WOMEN by Winifred Conkling tells the true story of the suffrage movement in America.

This well-researched, fast-paced nonfiction narrative explores the women that fought for their right to vote. This engaging story explores the successes and failures along with well-known and lesser-known events. The Preface begins with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, but the rest of the book transports readers back in time exploring the key people and events that lead to that final vote. The book concludes with key primary source documents, a timeline, bibliography, notes, and an index.

Librarians will find this comprehensive account to be a welcome addition to the nonfiction collection for middle and high school students. The author’s use of primary sources throughout the book make it an excellent choice for evidence-based inquiries. The author’s engaging, conversational style will draw readers who enjoy narrative nonfiction for leisure reading.

Published by Algonquin Young Readers, an imprint of Workman on January 17, 2018. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Do you know what suffragist means? It means many things but basically it means one who was an advocate for political suffrage especially for women. In plain language it was women who fought for the right to vote. Women were at that time had no legal rights in the United States. When women were married it was the husband who had all the legal rights. Women could not own land. If they got divorced the man had the legal right to keep the children and the woman got nothing. It was decided by women that if they had the right to vote they could influence the government to give them rights. It took a century for women to get the 19th amendment (for women's right to vote) in the United States.

Though the above paragraph is general, this book is full of facts and details that are easy to read. I realized as I read how much I have taken for granted of the rights I now have. I cannot imagine having to live any other way. I am so glad to now know what women did for the future of women. It is an excellent and informative book that I think everyone should read!

I'm crafting a few different courses around suffragettes for the next two years and this book will certainly appear on each of them.

An interesting book. Having studied votes for woman (but in England) I found this interesting to see how the story went with America. It was an easy to read book starting with different points of views.

I was a British reader of this book. As a result all the names were new. I did find the author's comment that whilst some of the Suffragist names are well known, the women and men who were prominent in the movement in the early days were not so well known is an interesting comment. I think this is true here in Britain as well. The fight also still goes on for equal rights to this day which was cleverly brought out at the end.

This is a very well researched and readable book which gives an enormous amount of detail about the women and their lives. She does identify the necessity of help from the men and I do appreciate this approach. The linear approach of the book worked. It was also interesting to see the contrasting approaches between the suffragists and antis, but were the antis as organised as the suffragists? This was a question which was not answered fully. It is difficult to write the anti side when it is such a different attitude to understand these days. This was a historical approach which did not question certain actions or opinions. The influence of the men who were persuaded to support the cause was also not explored. However, that said nearly one hundred years of history was discussed. It is a good introduction to the subject.

The bibliography at the end would be very useful for students who wished to read more. The use of actual speeches in many places gave the book an authenticity which could so easily have been missing if this was not the case.

I really enjoyed this book. I think the information presented was so important and was very glad that the author didn't shy away from discussing the racist opinions of some of the leaders of the movement. This book was incredibly well researched and written and would definitely be helpful for a teen writing about the suffragist movement. The only downfalls are that is gets caught up in details sometimes and makes the reading a bit slow. This is a "must purchase" for my collection, though.

Thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Young Readers for the opportunity to read and review Votes for Women! by Winifred Conkling which tells the story of events that took place between the beginning of the women’s rights movement in 1848 and when women were given the right to vote in 1920. The appendix includes a list of the primary sources used for this book’s research and there’s also a timeline included. The preface describes how women from both sides of the suffrage movement approached a political candidate for his support in 1920. I’m shocked that some women were actually against having the right to vote! The story opens with an eleven year old Elizabeth Cady (eventually Elizabeth Cady Stanton) mourning the loss of her twenty year old brother Eleazar, the last male heir in the family. Her father is inconsolable and she makes it a mission to be everything her brother was and this became the beginning of Elizabeth’s goal towards learning and courage. The support for women’s rights is impressive and includes Frederick Douglass (an escaped slave and civil rights leader), Sojourner Truth (an escaped slave and strong speaker) and Susan B. Anthony (abolitionist) and many more supporters. A march for the suffrage movement in 1913 became so powerful that a mob forced the marchers into a single file. The marchers suffered from police brutality and this brutality was helpful to the movement because women gained public sympathy and attention. Picketers in 1917 took their stand in front of the White House and were arrested for “obstructing traffic”. These protesters were released eventually because the government was worried that the women would become martyrs. Later in this same year, picketers were sent to workhouses with unsanitary conditions and mistreatment. Alice Paul, the suffrage leader during this time, was severely mistreated and began a hunger strike which many other protesters joined. By 1920, the Senate approved ratification of the 19th Amendment. This is a definitive account of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s and Susan B. Anthony’s and many others’ actions towards women’s rights that will be a perfect source for research. 5 stars!

<b>I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.</b>

I enjoyed the clear storytelling voice in this book, peppered with historical documents and photos. Whereas the accounts were not as engaging as other narratives about the era have been, I found a lot more #realtalk here than I anticipated.

The author did not shy away from the shortcomings of some of the era’s leaders – racist attitudes, for example. I think the end result was well-balanced and truthful, and exactly the sort of book I’d want my students to read. Recommended for a high school classroom library, for sure.

The 19th amendment was finally ratified on August 18th, 1920 granting women the right to vote as citizens of the United States of America. This work of narrative non-fiction discusses the suffragists achievements, politics, and their passion from Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull, Sojourner Truth, and Alice Paul. It also focuses on the darker moments within the movement in regards to their relationships to both the abolition and temperance movements.

The women's suffrage movement is a fascinating time period to read about as are the women at its forefront. Votes for Women!: American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot by Winifred Conkling is a detailed and comprehensive look into the suffrage movement and the nineteenth amendment. I love that the author gives us a look into the personal journeys of women at the heart of the fight from the early days right up until ratification, more than one would usually find in a course on the topic. The primary sources that she reference really show off each voice in the fight. I could also definitely appreciate that the author explores why the suffragists had such a tense relationship with those on the side of the abolition and temperance movements - she doesn't shy away from the darker side of the battle. The only downside to this work of narrative history is that at points it becomes too dry, as if you were reading a textbook, but overall the author does a great job of keeping it engaging and timely. Personally, my favorite part was getting to see Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for President of the United States in 1872 and a woman far ahead of her time, get some much deserved page time, especially since I'm from Victoria's hometown.

Overall, Winfred Conkling's Votes for Women!: American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot is a must read for anyone interested in the suffrage movement, suitable for both adult and YA readers. It's an eye-opening read covering a nearly eighty year struggle. Know a budding feminist, or someone interested in American history, then put a copy of Conkling's new nonfiction release in their hands.

This extremely informative book on the history of women's suffrage starts with Elizabeth Cady Stanton's life, and her father's disappointment that she is not a boy. It continues through the Seneca Falls Convention, covers Susan B. Anthony, and gives really interesting information about Victoria Woodhull. Lucy Stone and other luminaries in the Suffrage movement are amply covered, and the stories are told in an intriguing way. For example, we are given just enough information about Stanton's difficulties in raising 6 children, and anecdotes like these are balanced out with more global history. There is a fantastic bibliography, ample footnotes, some primary source documents or links to them online, and a helpful timeline.

Strengths: Conkling writes exceedingly well-researched, all-encompassing history books like Radioactive: How Irène Curie and Lise Meitner Revolutionized Science and Changed the World, and does a great job at making them a suitable length and depth of information for high school students to read for pleasure and middle school students to use for research. The information is presented in an easy to understand way, and there are enough pictures and accompanying sidebars to help this book move along at a good pace.

Weaknesses: This went into exquisite detail, but even I had to take some breaks reading this. A lot of information to process, even for one really interested in the information.

What I Really think: Definitely purchasing this for research, and there will be one or two readers a year who are able to make it through the whole book. This is more accessible to middle grade readers (most of whom peter out after 200 pages) than Colman's Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship that Changed the World (2011) but not quite as enthralling as Deborah Kops Alice Paul and the Fight for Women's Rights. (2017).

Acknowledging that many people know how the story ends with American women who have had the right to vote for nearly a hundred years and how it began in a women’s rights meeting in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848, Winifred Conkling sets out to fill out the in-between. Her book, Votes for Women, came out on February 2.
In a book that is much more entertaining than either its title or its subject matter would suggest, Winifred paints complicated portraits of the women who led the way in seeking equal rights. Though she focuses on the right to vote, much more is at stake in the world where Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony begin, where women can’t own property, where children automatically belong to the father in the event of a divorce, where any wages they earn belong to their husbands or fathers, where they can’t enter into contracts or sign legal documents. They couldn’t serve on juries or testify in court, and their husbands or fathers could legally beat them if they used a whip no thicker than a thumb.
Besides these names that we recognize from history, there’s Victoria Clafin Woodhull whose life story had more twists and turns than a mountain road. She ran for President forty years before women could vote on a platform of an eight-hour workday, graduated income tax, and reformed divorce laws.
After this first wave of activists, came a second wave. The two-part history has smart women finding loopholes and clever interpretations of the law and adding other social justice issues, such as temperance and abolition, to their agenda. Not qualifying any of these women for angel wings, Winifred also reveals their abundant warts and their dissention among themselves. Hardships and terrifying episodes precede the ratification that finally occurred in 1920.
The fact that the book is published by Algonquin Books for Young Readers shouldn’t influence your decision to read it. If your heart is young, or even if it isn’t, as long as you love a well-told true story, get to a bookstore or talk your local librarian into ordering one since they really need it on the checkout shelf. The book could be described as timely history.