The New Northwest: A Platform Advocating for Women’s Suffrage

As readers of this blog know, I have included Abigail Scott Duniway, a historical Oregon pioneer, as a character in my last two novels, and I intend to include her in my next novel. She moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1871, in order to start a newspaper, The New Northwest, which she published until 1887. […]

Etymology in Historical Fiction: Suffragists v. Suffragettes

My first exposure to the term “suffragette” was in the song “Sister Suffragette” in the Mary Poppins movie, which I saw when I was eight or nine. I can still see Glynis Johns strutting through her front hall as she sang “Cast off the shackles of yesterday!Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!Our daughters’ daughters will […]

Abigail Scott Dunaway: First Suffragette in Oregon

In recognition of Women’s History Month, this post is about the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in Oregon, with a focus on Abigail Scott Dunaway, known as Oregon’s “Mother of Equal Suffrage.” I came across Abigail Dunaway in researching prominent women in early Oregon. Abigail was born in Illinois in October 1834 and traveled […]