Abstract
Towns show how women’s suffrage spread internationally, both in terms of global adoption patterns and in terms of the transnational suffrage activism which preceded adoption. She asserts that transnational suffragism developed in at least four overlapping waves with distinctive membership, geographical scope, and suffrage arguments rooted in international social hierarchies between so-called civilized states and others. The chapter also analyzes arguments made in favor and against women’s suffrage, focusing particularly on claims about the relation between suffrage and so-called civilization. She argues that activist organizations and networks were the primary associational arena promoting women’s suffrage internationally, rather than international organizations or state actors. The chapter concludes by assessing alternative arguments for the global emergence of women’s suffrage.
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Towns, A. (2019). Global Patterns and Debates in the Granting of Women’s Suffrage. In: Franceschet, S., Krook, M.L., Tan, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59074-9_1
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