by It took years of protest, organized demonstrations and more for the United States to enshrine in its constitution that a citizen could not be prevented from voting based on sex. The decision, passed in June 1919 and ratified in August 1920, changed history, and continued to ripple across the US, creating new waves of the feminist movement.
Looking back over 100 years, women who advocated the right to vote, known as suffragettes, used sartorial statements to amplify their message. The color white became a symbol of the women’s suffrage moment.
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Next, learn more about the history behind the white suffragette and her incarnations throughout history to the present day.
Suffragette White at the 2024 DNC
The most recent incarnation of the use of a white suffragette came during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which began on August 19 and ended on August 22, 2024. The historic event marked Vice President Kamala Harris’ acceptance of official with the nomination of the party as President of the European Union. States.
On August 22, the last night of the convention, some of the attendees such as Kerry Washington and the delegates wore white as a sartorial statement and tribute to the suffragette movement. Some delegates also wore sashes with the phrase “Votes for Women” embossed in bold, black with shades of purple and yellow as a frame for the phrase.
Why White?
Before white became the unifying color that brought the suffrage movement together, many women from the mid-19th century who were active in women’s suffrage organizations used the color yellow as a symbol of the movement.
“In 1869, the suffragettes went to Kansas, and the state flower of Kansas is the sunflower,” said Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, a lecturer at Case Western Reserve University’s Department of History. Yellow became the color of the suffragette and by the 1890s it would be her official colour.
At the time, suffragettes were meeting to ratify state constitutions one by one, traveling to each state to make their case for women’s suffrage. At the same time, women in England were organizing under the colors green, purple and white. Rabinovitch-Fox notes that there were several “trans-Atlantic conversations” between the movements and their representatives, including Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, leaders of the American movement.
“When Paul and Burns came back to the US, they start looking for those color schemes.” The Suffragettes, says Rabinovitch-Fox, were extremely sane when it came to the media; they knew the power of mounting the movement.
“White is one of the colors but it wasn’t that popular until very recently, in part because the voting parades were very colorful,” explained Rabinovitch-Fox. “Because they were astute and understood the media, they themselves sent photos to the newspapers. Alice Paul was very good at saying, ‘We need to create this visual contrast.’ White was useful for them to do that. Streets were very dark, so if you see a bunch of women in white dresses or light dresses, the contrast [in photos] will be great. They understood that. It’s just a more practical white.”
The argument for making the suffragette movement more egalitarian was that “wear a white dress and a yellow bow and you’re a suffragist,” Rabinovitch-Fox said.
In the United States, the color was often seen when women marched for the right to vote in the latter stages of the movement.
It is also important to note that white and the color white played a central role in the women’s suffrage movement. “The 19th amendment doesn’t guarantee the right to vote, it says you can’t prevent someone from voting because of sex. But you can prevent them from voting for other reasons,” Rabinovitch-Fox said. Although prominent Black activists like Ida B. Wells voted in the North after the 19th amendment, black women, indigenous women and more waited for many years to become active participants in the democratic process of the United States.
“We often think of the 19th amendment as the end of the story, but it really isn’t.”
Other Colors Note
Other colors incorporated into the women’s suffrage movement were gold yellow, purple and green. Each color, like white, symbolized a particular quality. White was often associated with purity, green with hope and purple with royalty.
To this day, green and purple are still seen in suffragette celebrations. To mark the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in the UK in June 2018, women gathered and waved flags in the colors purple, white and green. Many of them also wore the three color scheme.
In Today’s Politics
Suffragette white is seen as a powerful sartorial statement in contemporary politics, but this is a recent phenomenon. Rabinovitch-Fox credits the 2016 election as a time when dressing in white took off, especially among female politicians. “When Clinton took it,” says Rabinovitch-Fox, “it was a way to connect past struggles with current struggles.”
Vice President Kamala Harris wore suffragette white on several key occasions during her political career. During the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, the future vice president of the United States wore a suffragette-white as a symbol, representing the power of women in politics.
For her historic victory speech after President Joe Biden won the presidency, and Harris won the vice presidency, she once again wore a white suffragette. She thanked “all the women who have worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century – 100 years ago with the 19th Amendment, 55 years ago with the Voting Rights Act, and now in 2020 with a new generation of women in our country who cast their ballots and followed the right to their basic right to vote and be heard.”
Vice President Harris reflected further on the occasion, saying, “while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.”
During other political events, such as the State of the Union address, women who are members of the Democratic Party wore the white suffragette as a sartorial statement to address women’s reproductive rights.
“White makes you stand out. As a woman you stand out in the conference, for sure. But a group of women wearing white in the conference, that’s a statement of power.”
Away from Capitol Hill, suffragette women still wear white on historic and celebratory occasions. During the 131st Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., women donned white pieces inspired by the turn of the 20th century to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. The color purple was also seen on sashes, hats and more.
“Suffs” the Broadway Musical
The musical “Suffs” is nominated for six Tony Awards at the 2024 awards show on June 16. The musical retraces the historical events of the early 20th century, leading to the ratification of the 19th amendment to the constitution in 1920.
The show celebrated its opening night on April 18 in New York City. Hillary Clinton, who is a producer on the show, attended the event wearing a symbolic sartorial statement. The former first lady and secretary of state chose to wear a white suffragette for the show, as a symbol of the work women have done and continue to do for women’s rights.
Although the movement began more than 100 years ago, women’s suffrage and the colors that symbolize women’s political and social goals still carry weight. They are a sartorial symbol of progress, hope and the eternal desire for equality – the medium is the message.
Hannah Cruz ready for ‘Suffs’ Broadway Opening Night
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Launch Gallery: Hannah Cruz Ready for ‘Suffs’ Broadway Opening Night
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