Woodrow Wilson had won the presidency in 1912 with a minority of the votes, because the Republican Party had split. In 1916, he would need to gather as many votes as possible. A key to his strategy was holding on to the “solid South,” which had voted Democratic for years thanks to preventing blacks from casting ballots. Now there was a new threat: women getting the vote.

Wilson had written his opinion of women’s suffrage in his diary while a college professor years before.