Pioneering the Vote

The Untold Story of Suffragists in Utah and the West

By: Neylan McBaine

Narrated by: Kate Mulligan

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1895, Utah's leading suffragist, Emmeline B. Wells, welcomed her friends Susan B. Anthony and Reverend Anna Howard Shaw to a gathering of more than 8,000 people from around the nation at the Rocky Mountain Suffrage Convention. They were there to celebrate the suffrage movement's recent wins and strategize their next triumphs. Pioneering the Vote tells the remarkable, largely unknown story of the early suffrage victories that happened in states and territories in the American West. With the encouragement of the Eastern leaders, women from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho came together in a unique moment of friendship and unified purpose to secure the vote for women in America.

©2020 Neylan McBaine (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Fascinating History

I truly enjoyed the history of these events as well as getting to know some of these early pioneer suffragettes. Definitely worth a read/listen!

Valuable and Well Told Addition to History

I listened to this just after of “A House Full of Females” so some of the characters were familiar to me but their unique stories in women’s suffrage were all new. I appreciated the perspective this added to what it was like to be a woman in Utah in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the heals of polygamy and the forefront of the movement to enfranchise women. The unique contribution western women made to this movement is almost unknown. They were the first and truly did pioneer the vote for women that led to the 19th amendment. What a powerful story. The book was well narrated. It’s an easy listen and a must for those seeking to understand the past and the contributions of women on our society.

Great read for our book club

A well told story of the women in Utah and other western states as they worked to get the vote. It is hard for me to realize that something I accept as a normal even mundane part of my life was at one time a radical idea. This book shares the efforts of amazing women and men that fought for me to have the right to vote and brings home the importance of their ground breaking efforts. Highly recommend.

Interesting popular history of suffrage in the west

The storytelling mode of this book is compelling and interesting. Highly recommend for armchair historians of the west and the woman suffrage movement. A few small small annoyances, such as incorrect claims (like Lucy Stone attending the 1848 Seneca Falls convention). Another problem was the narrator’s mispronunciations of names for both people and places. (Such Weber, Zina, Deseret, and Exponent.)

Misogyny Parading as Feminisme

This book promotes misogynistic ideals wile parading as a feminist historical book. The author tries to paint a picture that Mormon women pressured into polygamy(I know they were pressured because I myself am a Mormon) by religious commandment actually enjoyed living a polygamist lifestyle. The author further tries to paint a picture that those polygamous women actually had a better life then non polygamous women at that time. Her view feeds into misogyny and ideas on ownership of women. When reading be sure to pull apart the authors ideas from facts.

The writing style threw me off a bit as well. The author begins writing as a historical text book style then switches to a historical novel. This switches back and forth throughout the book. Sometimes switching from one paragraph to the next. The switches are easy to flow but it messes with the flow of the book.

The narrator red the book as if it were a hallmark channel reading, not my personal taste. Others may like the narration style through.