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Abstract

In “Defending the ‘Woman’s Sphere’: The Ideology and Opposition of Anti-suffragists,” J. Stanley Lemons examines the cultural roots of the anti-woman suffrage movement that emerged in Rhode Island in the early twentieth century. When woman suffrage activists first organized in the state in 1868, Lemons notes, there was almost universal opposition among both genders to the idea of women gaining the franchise. He explains the prevalent “cult of true womanhood” that informed opposition to woman suffrage in the nineteenth century. In the first decades of the twentieth century, as woman suffrage activists gained ground, an organized anti-suffrage movement emerged in the state. Lemons examines the biographies of some of the women who were leaders and activists in the anti-suffrage cause in Rhode Island. J. Stanley Lemons is emeritus professor of history at Rhode Island College. He has published extensively on Rhode Island and Baptist history. Among his works are: The Woman Citizen: Social Feminism in the 1920s (University of Illinois Press), co-author of The Elect: Rhode Island’s Women Legislators 1922-1990 and co-author of the article, “The Independent Woman: Rhode Island’s First Woman Legislator [Isabelle Ahearn O’Neill] in Rhode Island History.

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