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Breaking and Entering: State-Level Recognition of Women as Lawyers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2020

Heather Perretta Open the ORCID record for Heather Perretta [Opens in a new window]
Heather Perretta*
Affiliation:
Manhattanville College
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Abstract

Research on state-level suffrage associations points to women's greater participation in the public sphere—higher education, the professions, and civic organizations—as a significant predictor of a state's suffrage association succeeding in securing woman suffrage prior to passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. This finding raises the question of how women gained access to those areas of public life that had formal barriers to entry—higher education and the professions. Specifically, did women's participation in civic organizations play a role in helping women gain access to these areas of the public realm? Using event history analysis, this study explores the role of the Literary Club movement and the Suffrage movement in influencing a state's policy regarding women's right to practice law. I employ the concept of institutional logics to argue that Clubwomen and Suffragists exploited contradictions in the logics of traditional gender roles and of the American political system to press for expanded opportunities for women in the public realm. Their success in these efforts, however, was influenced by their organizations’ deference to the dictates of traditional gender roles.

Keywords

Institutional logicsstate suffrage associationsstate-level Literary Clubspolitical conflict
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 696 - 719
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2020

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