SUFFS draws parallels between past and present. | Photo by Joan Marcus
What you probably already know: The Tony Award-winning musical SUFFS is in the midst of a nationwide tour and will appear in cities across the country through next August. The play details the battle to pass the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote when it was ratified in 1920. Creator Shaina Taub says she wrote the play for “my 13-year-old self who was so desperate and hungry for a story about a group of girls taking on the world together. I never learned about it.” The play won Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Original Score.
Why it matters: As efforts to roll back women’s rights intensify in the United States and around the world, it’s worth revisiting a groundbreaking moment in history after a lengthy and difficult struggle. Plus, the romp through history is entertaining and highly educational. The play focuses on Alice Paul, a young suffragist and women’s rights activist and her generational conflicts with Carrie Chapman Catt, a protégé of Susan B. Anthony and the leader of the suffrage movement. “Paul and her generation of suffragists have had enough,” wrote suffrage scholar and author Elaine F. Weiss, “challenging Catt’s plan of astute, but slow political persuasion.” The play also highlights racial conflicts within the movement itself.
What it means: SUFFS shines a light on the decades-long fight for women’s voting rights, drawing powerful parallels between past and present struggles for equality. By centering the story on diverse, complex women often overlooked in history, the play challenges dominant narratives and uplifts underrepresented voices. It speaks directly to current conversations around activism and democracy. As voting rights face renewed threats globally, SUFFS reminds us that progress is neither guaranteed nor finished. Its music, energy, and message empower a new generation to learn from the suffragists — and to continue their unfinished work.
What happens now? The League of Women Voters is using the play to mobilize and engage younger voters, partnering with the show during its Broadway run for a “League Night” in August 2024. It also staffed an information booth during the show’s run at Seattle’s Fifth Avenue Theatre. “The power of young activists is alive and well,” the League wrote in a blog post, noting that young voters make up almost 20% of the American electorate and women still lack equality under the Constitution. Paul, in fact, introduced the still unratified Equal Rights Amendment back in 1923. “The power of young activists is alive and well,” the League says. “Global data suggests that 70% of Gen Zers are involved in at least one social or political cause.”
