She Votes

Starred review from June 8, 2020
Art historian Quinn (Broad Strokes) commemorates the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in this vibrant and witty chronicle of women’s rights in America. In 19 chapters illustrated by 100 female artists, Quinn profiles leaders of the women’s suffrage and feminist movements, as well as groundbreaking women in the fields of art, politics, sports, and music. She notes that Native American women in upstate New York had property rights and personal agency for centuries before the first women’s rights convention was held at Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848, and describes Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as “the Marx and Engels” of the suffrage movement—”a pair of dangerous plotters cooking up revolution.” Other profile subjects include Mary Cassatt, whose Impressionist paintings of women in domestic scenes were “unlikely incendiaries,” according to Quinn; African-American journalist Ida B. Wells, who pushed back against segregation within the suffrage movement; Title IX legislator Patsy Mink; poet Audre Lorde; and the Guerrilla Girls, who fight for female artists’ representation in male-dominated art galleries. Colorful, attention-grabbing illustrations in a diverse array of styles enhance Quinn’s snappy prose on nearly every page. This soaring movement history has something for neophytes and experts alike. Agent: Danielle Svetcov, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.

Starred review from August 1, 2020
In a time when women's-suffrage histories are finally in abundance, Quinn's illustrated compendium stands out (and not only through its vivid illustrations). With language that pulls no punches, she tells the story of women's fight for equality, from the example set by the Haudenosaunee to the riot grrrl movement and the founders of Black Lives Matter. Spread throughout the volume are 100 artworks by 100 women artists, widely varying in style. These illustrations bring Quinn's dynamic text to life even more, highlighting figures like activist Sojourner Truth, artist Mary Cassatt, and The Feminine Mystique author Betty Friedan. The decades-long struggle for the vote is compellingly told via both historical scenes and brief biographies. Quinn eschews some of the typical stories and brings in the Native women who were the first World Champions of Basketball, the difference between suffragist and suffragette, the birth of feminist art history, and Audre Lorde and the role of queer women in the feminist movement. At the centenary of the Nineteenth Amendment, this striking book reminds us of the thousands of women who got us where we are, and makes us want to be counted among them in the future.Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)