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Wendy L. Rouse

Wendy L. Rouse Profile Photo

Wendy Rouse is a historian whose research focuses on the history of gender and sexuality in the Progressive Era. Her most recent book, Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement (NYU Press), challenges the heteronormative framing of the traditional narrative of the campaign for the vote. Her previous two books explored the history of women and children in the Progressive Era: The Children of Chinatown: Growing up Chinese American in San Francisco, 1850 to 1920 (UNC Press) and Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self-Defense Movement (NYU Press). Rouse is presently Associate Professor of History at San Jose State University where she teaches LGBTQ+ and women’s history.

June 6, 2022

The Queer History of the Women's Suffrage Movement

Queer suffragists were central to the women’s suffrage movement in the United States from its earliest days. However, in a movement that placed great importance on public image in service of the goal of achieving the vote, q…