Melissa Lutke’s LET’S ROW TOGETHER Substack, March 13, 2026

Click here to read Melissa Lutke’s explanation of the current campaign to revive the Equal Rights Amendment and see it through to passage. She includes a substantial excerpt from The Suffragents to explain how men once found supporting a woman’s cause — from behind the scenes — a worthy endeavor. Here’s the section relating to the suffragents:

“It took another friend of mine, Brooke Kroeger, handing me her book to help me discover this time when powerful men joined forces with rebellious women.

“These influential men did not assume leadership roles but did tasks to help women win the right to vote. Suffragist women determined the campaign’s strategy, then the men got to work doing all they could to make the women’s strategy succeed.”

“Brooke Kroeger shows how the suffragist movement, engineered by women from top to bottom, cleverly stitched in the involvement of men from all walks of professional and political life, directed by women who used neither gun nor blade to direct the men, but the weapons of intelligence, cleverness, and when necessary, subterfuge. The collaboration in this balance of power between prominent men who invested in the movement, and the women who directed them, has everything to teach us today.” – written by author James McBride in his review of this book.”

“The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote tells the story of New York’s most powerful men creating the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage. Between 1909 and 1917, their league grew from its 150 founding members to thousands in 35 states. The book shows men acting at the behest of the movement’s female leadership, explaining why they did.

“The National American Woman Suffrage Association decided wisely to accept the men’s offer to act as ‘suffrage foot soldiers,’ a role they accepted with ‘uncommon grace.’ The men carried the suffrage message ‘to the streets, the stage, the press’ and to legislators and executive branch leaders, convincing more than a few uncertain politicians. They engaged ‘a dismissive public and dealt with a largely hostile press in support of the women’s demands.’  [Adapted from Kroeger’s description.]

“Together, they swayed the course of history,” Kroeger wrote.

Could such support from men happen today?