Intersectionality, Identity and Women’s Suffrage

This chapter looks at the interplay of women’s intersectional identities in the process leading to women’s suffrage. Women do not comprise a uniform group and diversity, division and identity often problematised women’s political agency. In the chapter, I adopt a case study approach, examining selected country case studies which are indicative of the effects of intersectionality on women’s suffrage. I also employ a feminist institutionalist angle looking at the gendered influence of institutions, including political structures. The chapter argues that apart from women’s gender identity, race and ethnic identities as well as nationalist and local identities held significant influence on the women’s suffrage in different countries. Where the cause of women’s suffrage received the support of political structures, it was mainly due to women’s ethnic, racial and national identities and the political support they could offer to the men of their communities. There was little focus on women’s rights and gender as the main identity.