Women and Petitioning

I came across an article today publicizing results of a historical study. The authors found that in the period of 1833 to 1845, women were gathering 50% more anti-slavery signatures than men in the same areas, with the same petition requests, and at the same time period. A gag rule against any slavery-related petitions was institued by congress in 1836, which seems to have instigated women doubling their efforts in seeking signatures.

"More fascinating still, these women remained active in politics for decades afterwards. A number of them signed the Seneca Falls Declaration in 1848. And for movement leaders active after the Civil War, women were four to five times more likely than men to come to their activism through petitioning. The women who canvassed antislavery petitions were not active in national politics before – many of them were teenagers."

I'm attaching here the link to the article summary in the Washington Post and the original article, published in the American Political Science Review.

-Tina