How Did World War I Affect Women's Suffrage?

From the June 2017 Smithsonian Magazine.

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Question: "How did women's service in uniform during World War I help the suffrage movement afterward? "  Lisa Kathleen Graddy, deputy chair and curator of the division of political history at e National Museum of American History Answered:

President Woodrow Wilson was no great friend of women's suffrage before the war.  But he began to change his mind after learning of the harsh treatment of imprisoned pro-vote demonstrators during the war, which included force-feeding of suffragists on a hunger strike.

The service of more than 10,000 women in the Navy and Marines -- plus thousands more on the home front in factories and offices -- gave Wilson a powerful argument as he lobbied for the 19th Amendment.

"We have made partners of the women in this war," he said.  "Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to partnership of privilege and right?"

--CootVote