Keywords
polygamist, political activists, marriage, pioneering the vote
Abstract
Pioneering the Vote by Neylan McBaine provides a cogent and concise history of the role of Latter-day Saint women in the suffrage movement. McBaine interweaves a fictionalized narrative centered on Emmeline Wells with primary source excerpts and summaries of particular events. The book brings to life the women described and succeeds in explicating many of the important barriers that Latter-day Saint women faced while trying to participate in the suffrage movement — namely, polygamy. McBaine accurately portrays the aversion to polygamy, but she could have spent more time describing why and how Latter-day Saint women found polygamy empowering. While the book succeeds in recounting history and begins to analyze Latter-day Saint women’s role in this movement, more interaction with Latter-day Saint theology as a way of showing why women would feel passionately about obtaining suffrage while still maintaining polygamous relationships would create a more complete picture. Nevertheless, McBaine’s historic contribution to this field of study acts as a milestone from which we can advance to more nuanced discussions about the way polygamy empowered women.
Recommended Citation
Seariac, Hanna
(2021)
"Polygamists and Political Activists: The Unlikely Marriage in Pioneering the Vote,"
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Vol. 42, Article 15.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/interpreter/vol42/iss1/15
