August 26th is Women’s Equality Day, and that date in 2020 marks exactly 100 years since the federal government added the 19th Amendment to the U.S. constitution, prohibiting voting discrimination based on sex. Nearly 26 million American women received the right to vote on this day. That’s something to celebrate!
If you grew up in America, you’ve probably only heard the “American History 101” version of women’s suffrage: The Seneca Falls Convention galvanized the movement, Susan B. Anthony threw around some pamphlets, then BAM! Women had rights and Hilary Swank had a new biopic to star in. Not only is that story reductionist — excluding many women of color like Sante Fe superintendent Adelina "Nina" Otero-Warren and activist Mary Church Turrell— but it’s also pretty lackluster compared to the real fight. Do you remember the catchy “Sister Suffragette” tune from Mary Poppins? That wasn’t just an attempt to Disney-fy the women’s rights movement — it was a nod to the real songs that suffragists performed to spread their message and rally spirits.
That’s right: The suffragists churned out hit after hit. And though pamphlets were critical tools in the movement, this music was a cornerstone of communication and distribution. Is there any better advertisement than a jingle that gets stuck in your head?
As with most civil rights movements, women’s suffragists had rally songs — lyrics of activism, written to the tune of popular melodies like “Yankee Doodle” and “America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee).” They became integral to the marches and pickets of the National Woman’s Party because of how easy they were to sing — everyone knew the tune, and event leaders could avoid the cost of printing sheet music by simply handing participants a piece of paper with the words. These lyrics were later compiled into “songsters” (books containing the lyrics to several songs) so they could be sent to suffragists around the country.
In another instance of using music to spread their message, when the Los Angeles Wage Earning Woman’s Suffrage League was notified that they could no longer make their “votes for women” speeches in city parks, they sang their words, bypassing the ordinance.
Suffragist music comprised a lot more than just rally tunes — parlor music played a paramount role as well, and it was composed by and for women.
The most famous example was Dame Ethel Smyth’s“The March of the Women,” composed in 1910 for suffrage activists in the UK, and picked up by Americans within the next few years. Smyth was so involved with the UK movement that she took a two-year break from composing, during which she somehow made her way into 10 Downing Street to bang out the march on a piano in the room above a cabinet meeting. She also broke an anti-suffragist politician’s window, which landed her a two-month jail sentence, where she used a toothbrush to conduct her anthem from her cell’s window to suffragists below.
Though not all suffrage-era musicians were quite as theatrical as Dame Ethel Smyth, there were many others who ought to be remembered (including the countless number who published under their husband’s names).
For example, Amy Beach, despite not being active in the movement, was held up by many as an example of female intelligence and creativity. Her 1896 Gaelic Symphony was the first published by an American woman, so suffragists began using Beach as “proof” that women could be just as talented and skillful as men. Beach often used herself as an example, too, and if men argued that women could not compose, she rebutted them.
Eleanor Sophia Smith was the founder of the Music School at Hull-House, a Chicago settlement for European immigrants. From 1900 to 1915, she directed the music department while composing The Hull House Songs, five simple vocal and piano duets that organized the school’s residents in the fight for women’s suffrage and workers’ rights. That wasn’t enough work for Smith: In 1901 she became the Department of Music Head at the University of Chicago, and in 1910 she published an educational music book, Songs of a Little Child’s Day.
Though not a composer, Lillian Russell was known to have one of the most beautiful voices of the time, which empowered her to advocate for women’s suffrage without her audience believing she had “lost her femininity.”
While we celebrate this important centennial, we must not forget there is still work to be done. There will always be women who need to be discovered, praised, uplifted, and remembered. The 19th Amendment did not give women equal rights, nor did it give voting rights to all American women — millions of African American, Asian Pacific American, and Indigenous women were not fully enfranchised in 1920, and some are left without representation even still. The movement will not be over until every woman is equal and free. Until then, music will continue to be a cornerstone of the fight.
So we’ve put together a feminist music playlist, from composers past and present (some directly associated with the suffrage movement, and others who weren’t), that can guide us today — and inspire our tomorrow.
Give the Ballot to the Mothers (1889)
Traditional (to the tune of “Marching through Georgia”)
Lyrics by Rebecca Naylor Hazard
Performed by Elizabeth Knight
Gaelic Symphony (1894)
Composed by Amy Beach
Performed by Portland Youth Philharmonic
The March of the Women (1910)
Composed by Ethel Smyth
Lyrics by Cicely Hamilton
Performed by Glasgow University Chapel Choir
Les sirènes(1911)
Composed by Lilli Boulanger
Lyrics by Charles Grandmougin
Performed by Philharmonia Chor Stuttgart
Suffrage Song (1915)
Composed by Eleanor Sophia Smith
Lyrics by James Weber Linn
Performed by Amanda Sabelhaus and Jocelyn Zelasko
Don’t You Tell Me No (1931–34)
Music and lyrics by Florence Price
Performed by Gregory Thompson and Christine Jobson
Tiger, Tiger (1933)
Composed by Rebecca Clarke
Lyrics by William Blake
Performed by Natalie Sherer and Alannah Spencer
Before I’d Be a Slave (1953)
Composed by Undine Smith Moore
Performed by Maria Corley
Conspiracy (1975)
Composed and performed by Jeanne Lee
Accordion Koto (2007)
Composed and performed by Miya Masaoka and Pauline Oliveros
The Battle for the Ballot (2020)
Composed by Stacy Garrop
Performed by Cabrillo Festival Orchestra and Julie James
