When the COVID-19 pandemic closed the President Woodrow Wilson House doors in the spring of 2020, we looked beyond the walls of our historic building for new ways to tell our story. With the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment fast approaching, staff needed to quickly pivot the ways in which we explored themes in American women’s history during the Wilson presidency.

This unique project began with an outdoor Victory Garden exhibit in front of the Wilson House. This exhibition highlighted how the enthusiasm for gardening during the pandemic was rooted in a female-driven movement promoted by the Wilson administration to use the planting of home Victory Gardens as a way to support the World War I war effort.

We planted flags and signs alongside our own garden to illustrate how women’s work on the homefront was critical to victory abroad. The display also showcased a history of the image of Columbia, the female symbol and personification of America, that was frequently used in posters to promote Victory Gardens during the war.

We soon realized that the Victory Garden flags recalled the protest signs suffragists held outside Wilson’s White House a century ago—prompting us to reimagine how we would tell the story of women’s suffrage during Wilson’s presidency. And so "Suffrage Outside"—an outdoor display of large, eye-catching flags—was born, celebrating those pioneering activists who captured the attention of a reluctant nation by taking the fight for suffrage outside.

"Suffrage Outside" illustrates how women’s work outside the home, their public protests outside in the streets, alliances with activists outside the United States, and the work of Black women kept outside the ‘mainstream’ middle-class white women’s movement, collectively propelled the American woman’s suffrage campaign to success in 1920.

"Suffrage Outside" is outdoors not just because it has to be, but because outside is where this story truly took place. And while we encourage visitors to this outdoor exhibition, we also acknowledge that not everyone is comfortable or able to come in person, and so we’ve decided to bring "Suffrage Outside," virtually, to you.

By the turn of the 20th century, women rapidly chipped away at these boundaries that, especially for immigrant and Black American women, had never truly existed in the first place. Growing numbers of women joined the workforce in factory workers, college-trained professionals, clerks, and Progressive-era social reformers. Since women were active participants in American public life, suffragists argued that women should have a vote in how America is governed.

Outside, in the Streets

Suffrage activism in the 19th century was largely confined to lecture halls, lobbying, and printed materials. By the early 1910s, frustration over slow progress coupled with a new generation of leadership, led the movement outside—into the streets. Mass marches, soapbox lectures, canvassing, and picketing in front of the White House, accompanied by an aggressive media campaign, thrust the suffrage movement into the center of American politics.

Some of these new strategies caused a deep rift in the movement. Carrie Chapman Catt and NAWSA often viewed the flamboyant and “militant” displays of Alice Paul’s NWP as a threat to the movement’s respectability. In the end, however, these disruptive tactics often furthered the efforts of those working behind the scenes.

Mobilizing for War Outside the United States

From “militant” tactics to wartime mobilization, World War I accelerated changes already underway. Wartime mobilization made women’s work more visible and valued than ever before as they labored in munitions factories, worked as government clerks, campaigned for liberty bonds, and served as nurses. For the first time in U.S. history, women were official members of the armed forces. Though many suffragists were also pacifists, others viewed America’s entrance into World War I as an opportunity to assert women’s patriotism through their service, boosting arguments in support of women’s entitlement to the vote.

Women’s vital role in the war effort would profoundly enhance support for suffrage. Wilson, once opposed to a constitutional amendment, formalized his changed position on September 30, 1918, saying, “We have made partners of the women in this war; shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right?”

Suffrage Outside the United States

Standing on Embassy Row, the Wilson House’s neighbors remind us that the battle for women’s suffrage stretched far beyond the borders of the United States. Suffrage activism abroad influenced the American movement at home.

Alice Paul, for instance, developed her tactical approach while campaigning with British suffragettes as a student in England. In 1904, leaders convened an international suffrage alliance, bringing together activists from across the globe to develop strategies and pressure governments to act.