My Authors
Read all threads
My thanks to @SHAFRhistorians for taking #SHAFR2020 virtual! My presentation is titled “Much the Same Object”: Trans-Pacific Women’s Suffrage and Filipino Nationalism." It’s a new research project for me, combining my interests in women & U.S. empire with #suffrage history. Image
The #19thA enfranchised women on the U.S. mainland in principle. But voting rights in practice had racialized limits for men & women; many state laws disenfranchised black voters, while the inability to become citizens barred Native Americans & Chinese immigrants from the polls. Image
The #19thA applied even more unevenly throughout U.S. empire. The Constitution and its Amendments did not apply in the unorganized territory of the Philippines; the U.S. government defined Filipinos as American subjects, not citizens. So women there did not get suffrage in 1920. Image
Women in the Philippines had long wrestled with their double disenfranchisement as women and as colonial subjects. For them, the goals of national sovereignty & equal suffrage were entwined, as Clemencia López of Balayan made clear in her speech to Boston suffragists in 1902. Image
Mainland U.S. suffragists liked to represent themselves as a vanguard, awakening other women’s activism around the world. But from the Filipina perspective, mainlanders were potential allies, not catalysts, of suffrage activism and anti-imperialism. Image
A number of Filipina women created a public platform for themselves on the mainland as authorities on their own culture. Sofia Reyes de Veyra, for one, wrote about the Philippines for metropolitan newspapers & fostered cross-cultural awareness in women’s clubs in Washington DC. Image
Filipina suffragists actively resisted American imperialist feminism. They effectively argued that they were not unenfranchised like mainland women, but rather disenfranchised. Spanish & American colonialism had taken away the equal status that Filipino women & men once shared. Image
Filipina suffragists did not associate women’s rights with Western progress; rather, they saw suffrage as a means to restore women’s pre-colonial authority. This appeal to tradition aligned them with anti-colonial Filipino men as they approached full national independence. Image
Filipina suffragists persuaded key politicians to support #votesforwomen. Filipina women thus developed a trans-Pacific suffrage movement of their own, forging alliances with mainland American suffragists while championing anti-imperialism and Filipino sovereignty. Image
It’s thus perhaps fitting that Filipina women won equal suffrage through a mass plebiscite in 1937. 90% of over 400k women cast ballots affirming their desire for suffrage. Unlike mainland US women, they enfranchised themselves directly, thru the act of voting. Image
11/11. Thank you for reading my #SHAFR2020 paper, translated to Twitter! I welcome thoughts & questions in response, and I’d enjoy hearing from other folks with research interests in gender, empire, and suffrage history. There's more @SHAFRConference at shafr.memberclicks.net/shafr-2020-vir…. Image
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Keep Current with Laura R. Prieto

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!