One Step Forward

In this novel in verse, we meet Matilda Young, the youngest of a large family living in Washington, D.C. Based on a real person, Matilda is interested in the women’s suffrage movement when the book opens in 1913. At just 14, there’s not much that she can do, and her family even forbids her from going to protest marches, although she does sneak out. While her mother and older sister Joy are very active, and her older sister Rachel has a job with Senator LaFollette on Capitol Hill, Matilda’s father does not support voting rights for women. Still, Matilda is shocked to see him at a march with his boss, drinking and making fun of the women. Her brother seems caught in the middle, but her neighbor Peter is an ally. As the years pass, Matilda is able to become more and more involved, volunteering at the Congressional Union for Women’s Suffrage, handling the mail. This gives her many opportunities to meet prominent figures in the suffragist movement like Inez Milholland and Alice Paul, as well as ordinary women like Rose Winslow who worked for years in factories and wants to help young workers get better conditions. When the U.S. enters World War I, there is some talk about cutting back on protests, but older participants regret a similar move during the Civil War. Silent Sentinals are dispatched to picket the White House every day, although public sentiment tells them not to “annoy” president Woodrow Wilson while he is dealing with the war, and they suffer frequent attacks. After securing a paying job with the National Women’s Party and being moved to working the switchboard, Matilda becomes even more involved. Her older sister, along with many others, is arrested, and kept in horrible conditions in a workhouse. The women refuse to pay fines and admit guilt. Again and again, the women protest and are arrested and abused, but they don’t give up. Eventually, the war ends, and the women’s travails pay off. 1919 is a tense year as the ratification process moves slowly through the states, but eventually Tennessee ratifies the 19th Amendment in August of 1920, and women win the right to vote.