Piecing together suffrage internationalism: Place, space, and connected histories of Australasian women's activism

Over the past 20 years, suffrage historians have sought to reimagine their field—traditionally tethered to the nation—as an international one. The Australasian suffragists, who strove to overcome their perceived isolation by exchanging print, personnel, and ideas across borders, seem perfect candidates for such revisionist treatment. However, despite the invigorating push to destabilise the nation, which has rewired much of Australian and New Zealand historiography, the suffragists remain ensconced in national frames. Revisiting the rich Australasian scholarship on women, mobility, and cross‐border organisation, this article discusses the political and intellectual barriers that have impeded attempts to reconstruct suffrage internationalism. Yet documenting the suffragists' cross‐border interactions requires more than replacing monolithic national histories with revised internationalist versions. Instead, responding to debates about the digitally driven rise of connected histories, this article argues that historians should piece together suffrage internationalism as it existed in specific places—recovering often messy assemblages of transnational individuals, groups, and organisations. Such an approach will both illuminate colonial women's place in the networks that bound the fin‐de‐siècle world and provide a fresh perspective on the international women's movement.