American Diaries: Francesca Vigilucci - Washington, DC 1913

The suffragists are all over the newspapers these days. Father fumes and frets about it and Mother soothes him, saying it will never be put into law.

Everything is changing for women in 1913. The Washington Post is full of headlines about the suffragists. More women are working to support themselves. The nearly 100-year battle for women's right to vote is coming closer to victory. Francesca Vigilucci's father rages about it; her mother avoids the topic altogether. Francesca only knows she doesn't want the future her parents have planned for her, a life of privilege and good works as the obedient wife to a successful man. The only person who seems to understand is Laura, a cleaning girl in the Vigilucci household.

Then a prominent suffragist, in town for the White House picket line and a suffragist parade, comes to one of Mother's charity luncheons. Francesca finds the courage to admit her secret dream of becoming a reporter -- but how can she ever persuade her parents?