History Happy Hour: Woodrow Wilson and Women’s Fight for the Vote

Why did Woodrow Wilson oppose women’s voting rights? More than a century after he dominated American politics, Woodrow Wilson still fascinates. Christopher Cox’s Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn discusses Wilson’s life and legacy, unearthing a man superbly unsuited to the moment when he ascended to the presidency in 1912, as the struggle for women’s voting rights in America reaches its tipping point.

In this episode of History Happy Hour, Christopher Cox, a Senior Scholar at UC Irvine, a Life Trustee at USC, and Chair of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, will lead a discussion on President Wilson, with Andrew Phillips, a Curator & Director of Museum Operations at The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, who will moderate the episode.

Cox’s talk will explore the first southern Democrat to occupy the White House since the Civil War era, who brought with him Washington like-minded men who quickly set to work segregating the federal government. Despite its growing momentum, Cox will discuss Wilson’s initial rejection of suffrage during his first presidential campaign in 1912 and his continued opposition through his 1916 reelection campaign against Charles Evans Hughes. When, in the twilight of his second term, two-thirds of Congress stood on the threshold of passing women’s suffrage, Wilson abruptly switches his position.

Join us on Thursday, November 21, 6:00 pm ET, to hear this thought-provoking and enlightening discussion on President Woodrow Wilson and this remarkable paradox of the Progressive Era!