A Senior Capstone Experience by Hilde Perrin ’23

Submitted to the Department of History

Advised by Dr. Wilson

Contributor Biography: Hilde Perrin is a recent graduate of Washington College with majors in History and German Studies. She is currently pursuing both a Master of Library and Information Science and a Master of Arts in History at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts, with plans to pursue a career as an archivist. She is passionate about finding ways to make archives and special collections accessible and engaging for all, and is looking forward to continuing to study the intersections of race and gender in her history coursework.

Description: The women’s suffrage movement that occurred in South Africa between 1902-1930 both reflected and diverged from the racial divisions in the larger South African society, and the enfranchisement of white women was ultimately used by the government to further disenfranchise Africans. Though in the early years of the movement suffrage leaders claimed to be supportive of enfranchising all women, regardless of race, by the 1920s the movement shifted to support suffrage for white women only. This change was made in order to gain support from both Afrikaner women and the white, male dominated government. The shift reflected the growing segregation in South African society, and suffrage was ultimately granted to white women in order to further disenfranchise African voters. Drawing from works of previous historians regarding both the South African women’s suffrage movement and the beginnings of the Segregation Era, as well as contemporary newspapers, government documents, and correspondence of participants and observers of the movement, this paper examines questions of race within the South African women’s suffrage movement as well as the movement’s broader connection to the Segregation Era.

Read Hilde’s SCE below: