Your vote and how to use it

"Your Vote and How to Use It" by Mrs. Raymond Brown is a guidebook on civics and political participation written in the early 20th century. The book serves as an educational resource for women, particularly in light of the recent expansion of suffrage, emphasizing the importance of understanding government systems to exercise their newfound voting rights effectively. Through a clear and structured approach, it outlines various aspects of government and political processes to help women become informed and responsible citizens. At the start of the work, the author positions the context of women's suffrage within the broader landscape of civic responsibility, highlighting how crucial it is for women to understand politics as it pertains to their daily lives. The foreword by Carrie Chapman Catt underscores a call for women to treat their voting rights with dignity and to embrace their integral role in shaping democracy. The opening chapters begin with discussions around the responsibilities of government, the relationship between politics and women's interests, and how government impacts the family, health, and safety—all framed to spur women into an active engagement with their rights and duties as voters. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Gertrude Foster Brown was a concert pianist, teacher, and suffragist. Following the passage of women suffrage in New York State in 1917, and pending passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Brown wrote Your Vote and How to Use It, published in 1918. She was Director-General of the Women's Overseas Hospitals in France, founded by suffragists, in 1918. In addition to her work in the New York suffrage movement, she helped to found the National League of Women Voters. She was the Managing Director of the Woman's Journal from 1921-1931.