"The Young Are at the Gates": Lavinia Dock and the Vote — Magic Sash, Episode 7

Lavinia Dock, about 1900. National Library of Medicine.

About this lesson

This lesson goes with Episode 7, "The Vote," of The Magic Sash, a podcast made by the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission, the National Park Service, PRX and Gen-Z Media. The sash carries Lotty and Isaiah to 1920 and the ratification of the 19th Amendment: will Florence at last vote for president — and will the two make it back for their school presentation? Listen to Episode 7.

Guiding question: how should we remember and celebrate women winning the vote, 100 years on?

Students will:

• explain why highly educated, professional women mattered to the early-20th-century suffrage movement;
• research and build a timeline of their state's suffrage history;
• identify the key people, places and events in it.

Lavinia Dock

Lavinia Dock (1858–1956) was a pioneer of professional nursing and an activist for women's rights and the vote. She helped found several nursing associations, sat on an advisory council of the National Woman's Party, and joined marches, protests and the Silent Sentinel pickets at the White House — where banners read "The young are at the gates!", her own words from a 1917 article in The Suffragist.

Words to know: a mechanical voting machine records or tallies votes with levers — the most common kind was invented in 1889 and used until the early 2000s; a voting booth is a private space to cast a ballot; lobbying is trying to influence officials on an issue.

Her story

Born into a wealthy Pennsylvania family, Dock lost her mother at 18 and inherited land whose income freed her from needing a husband or a well-paid job. She chose nursing, trained at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, worked as a visiting nurse for the poor, and traveled to bring relief after disasters and epidemics.

A Red Cross nurse shows how to wear a mask during the 1918 influenza epidemic. National Library of Medicine.

Why nurses needed the vote: in the late 1800s nurses needed no education, certificate or license — anyone could claim the title. Nursing schools spread by 1900, but most trained nurses worked privately for the wealthy, and hospitals leaned on volunteer students. As nurses organized for control over hours, wages and training standards, it became clear that professional women like nurses needed the vote to shape their own working lives.

Winning over nursing: Dock became a leader in the National Woman's Party and wrote often in nursing magazines urging nurses to join the cause. Many nursing groups thought it improper to mix the profession with politics and stayed neutral. By 1913, though, more nurses supported suffrage, and many marched in the Woman's Procession; two years later the American Nurses Association formally endorsed the 19th Amendment.

Arrests: Dock was first arrested in 1896 for trying to vote, and several more times during the Silent Sentinel pickets. She served time in the Occoquan Workhouse, where harsh conditions included guards beating many of the women.

Lavinia Dock and Edna Dixon arrested outside the White House, 1917. National Woman's Party Collection.

"The young are at the gates": in June 1917, Dock explained in The Suffragist why picketing mattered: young people are fearless enough to challenge injustice and have the energy to keep fighting even when nothing seems to change. She closed with these words, which picketers soon painted on their banners:

"…the old stiff minds must give way. The old selfish minds must go… The young are at the gates!"

Think about it

• What did Dock mean by "the young are at the gates"? Who are the young people she means?
• Why would trained professionals like Dock matter to the suffrage movement? What might educated, professional women have represented to people who believed a woman's place was at home?

Activity: your state's road to the 19th Amendment

Look up your state or territory and build a timeline of its suffrage movement, oldest dates first, researching its people, places and events. Many states and territories hadn't ratified the amendment when it was adopted in 1920, and important milestones in women's and voting rights came after it. Be ready to explain your timeline. Consider:

• Who were your state's early suffrage supporters?
• Where were its key protests, rallies and suffrage conventions?
• When did women there first vote — and was it full suffrage or only for some elections?
• When did your state ratify the 19th Amendment?

Sources

Based on "The Magic Sash, Episode 7: 'The Vote' Lesson Plan," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The podcast and its transcript, produced with PRX and Gen-Z Media, are summarized, not reproduced, as are the series banner and a photograph of a suffrage banner from the National Woman's Party Collection; the lesson's links to related places are left out.