Drawing on her recently released book (coauthored with Susan Goodier) Women Will Vote, Karen Pastorello plans to discuss how women in New York State struggled for over six decades to win the right to vote. She will highlight the grassroots activisim of rural, urban, African American, Jewish, immigrant, and native-born women who formed a loose coalition aimed at attaining full suffrage for women. This unique coalition expended relentless energy and employed a variety of tactics to persuade male voters to actively support suffrage. This compelling narrative illuminates how the 1917 win in New York that Carrie Chapman Catt considered “the very greatest victory” relaunched suffrage as a national issue and changed the course of American history.
Karen Pastorello, Chair of Women and Gender Studies and Professor of History, has been teaching at Tompkins Cortland Community College (SUNY) since 1990. She earned a doctorate in Modern American History from Binghamton University in 2001 with subfields in progressive era labor and women’s history. Her publications include: A Power among Them: Bessie Abramowitz Hillman and the Making of Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (University of Illinois Press, 2008), “the Transfigured Few: Jane Addaams, Bessie Abramowitz Hillman and Immigrant Women Workers in Chicago, 1905-1915,” in Jane Addams and the Practice of Democracy: Multidisplinary Perspectives on Theory and Practice, eds. Marilyn Fischer, Carol Nackoff, and Wendy Chmielewski, (University of Illinois Press, 2009), and is the co-author with Susan Goodier of Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State (Cornell University Press, 2017). She is dedicated to exploring the historical origins and implications of working women’s labor and political activism in the United States.
All CCHS members are invited to our annual membership meeting on Thursday, November 15. At this meeting, the membership will elect Board of Trustee officers, receive a report on the 2018 year, and will have the ability to review the 2019 budget prior to approval.
Join local artist and history enthusiast Henry Drexler as he explores the history of the people and places that make Chenango County so unique.
The lecture follows the CCHS annual membership meeting.
Join friends and family in celebrating the holiday season at the Chenango County Historical Society!
The museum will be bustling with holiday activities, including homemade wassail, our one-of-a-king cookie walk, raffles, children’s activities, and an exhibit opening. The museum will be decorated from top to bottom, and will feature our annual community Christmas tree decorating contest. Plus, Mrs. Claus will be making a special visit!
Don’t miss out on your chance to shop local, either! The Bull Thistle Gift Shop and Paperback Exchange will both be open for all your gift-giving needs.
Questions? Contact CCHS at director@chenangohistorical.org or at (607) 334-9227.
