How Black Suffragettes Subverted the Domestic Sphere

Anna Julia Cooper was among the educators who emphasized the power of communal care as a method of addressing larger structural ills.

The Suffragists Who Opposed Birth Control

Their reasoning shows how far women’s rights have come since the late 1800s.

Why Men Thought Women Weren’t Made to Vote

During the suffrage movement, conventional wisdom held that civic duty was bad for the ovaries.

The Pioneering Female Doctor Who Argued Against Rest

Physicians once advised menstruating women against mental exertion, fearing it would ravage their health.

The Real Turning Point for Women’s Political Power

Female lawmakers needed a critical mass in Congress before they could begin chipping away at the inequalities baked into the nation’s laws.

When American Suffragists Tried to ‘Wear the Pants’

Starting in the 1850s, proponents of the movement for women’s rights traded their long dresses for bloomers—and paid a heavy social price for it.

Turn-of-the-Century Thinkers Weren’t Sure If Women Could Vote and Be Mothers at the Same Time

In the years leading up to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Atlantic writers often pitted political participation against domestic duty.

Photos: The Battle for Women’s Suffrage in the U.S.

Images of some of the brave women who worked tirelessly for years to demand equal rights, and finally succeeded by having them written into law

The Epic Political Battle Over the Legacy of the Suffragettes

Activists on both sides of the abortion wars see themselves as inheritors of the early women’s movement—a history that’s become more contested than ever under Trump.

The ‘Undesirable Militants’ Behind the Nineteenth Amendment

A century after women won the right to vote, The Atlantic reflects on the grueling fight for suffrage—and what came after.

How The Atlantic Covered the Fight for Women’s Suffrage

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, magazine contributors debated whether women should have the right to vote—and whether they truly wanted it.

A White Man’s Republic, If They Can Keep It

As it weighs a census case, the Supreme Court will have to decide whether America is a nation for all its citizens.

The New Authoritarians Are Waging War on Women

Donald Trump’s ideological cousins around the world want to reverse the feminist gains of recent decades.

What It Takes to Be a Trial Lawyer If You’re Not a Man

In more than a decade of arguing cases in court, I’ve witnessed the stubborn cultural biases female attorneys must navigate to simply do their jobs.

The Nancy Pelosi Problem

The first female speaker of the House has become the most effec­tive congressional leader of modern times—and, not coinciden­tally, the most vilified.

Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women?

Tech companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to improve conditions for female employees. Here’s why not much has changed—and what might actually work.

An Era for Women Artists?

Nearly half a century ago, a feminist art historian asked why there had been no great female artists. A new wave of all-women exhibitions revives the question—and suggests a new answer.

Fear of a Female President

Hillary Clinton’s candidacy has provoked a wave of misogyny—one that may roil American life for years to come.

How the Bicycle Paved the Way for Women's Rights

The technology craze of the 1890s meant fashion freedom and transportation independence.

How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby?

Deep anxiety about the ability to have children later in life plagues many women. But the decline in fertility over the course of a woman’s 30s has been oversold. Here’s what the statistics really tell us—and what they don’t.

Why Women Still Can’t Have It All

It’s time to stop fooling ourselves, says a woman who left a position of power: the women who have managed to be both mothers and top professionals are superhuman, rich, or self-employed. If we truly believe in equal opportunity for all women, here’s what has to change.

The End of Men

Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. Most managers are now women too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same. For years, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn’t the end point? What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to women? A report on the unprecedented role reversal now under way— and its vast cultural consequences

How Serfdom Saved the Women’s Movement

Dispatches from the nanny wars

Gap Politics

The famous gender gap is often described simply as good news for one party—women are moving to the Democrats. But it's a two-way gap—even more men have moved to the Republicans. Each party and its candidates now appear to represent, at least in part, the interests of one sex against the other

Feminism's Identity Crisis

The most effective backlash against feminism comes from within