The Woman's Hour

Catt, a stately older woman, is handpicked to become Susan B. Anthony’s successor at NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association, nicknamed the “Suffs”) to lead the battle for women’s suffrage. Despite her heart condition, she spends her life tirelessly working for the cause. An excellent strategist, poised orator, calm and even-tempered Catt is known as “the Chief” to her colleagues.

By the time the battle for Tennessee ratification begins, Catt is already in her sixties and wishes to keep her distance from the fray. When it becomes apparent that she is the only one who can carry the day, she takes up residence in Nashville as NAWSA’s field commander. She believes that a subtle, polite approach is the best way to win support for suffrage from legislators. The radical Alice Paul dismisses Catt’s ladylike tactics as ineffectual. 

Pearson is a middle-aged unmarried academic and a native of Tennessee. She holds the conservative, white supremacist values of the Old South and makes a deathbed promise to her mother that she will fight against women’s suffrage. Pearson fears that giving women the vote will not give women any real advantages, but will instead lead to greater rights for Black people and will weaken the power of states relative to that of the federal government—concerns commonly voiced by former Confederate states unwilling to back down from Jim Crow laws.