
Historian & Author
Wendy L. Rouse is a historian whose research focuses on the history of gender and sexuality. She has published three books on the history of women and children in the Progressive Era. Her most recent book, Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, was highlighted in the New York Times. The book earned an Honorable Mention, Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize, Western Association of Women Historians and was a finalist for the Publishing Triangle’s Judy Grahn Award. Research for the book was supported by a Mellon-Schlesinger grant from the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. Rouse’s scholarly research has also been published in the Pacific Historical Review, the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the Western Historical Quarterly, the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, and Girlhood Studies. Rouse is presently Professor of History at San Jose State University.
Rouse mentors future teachers as the program coordinator for the History/Social Science Teacher Preparation Program at SJSU. Rouse has designed lessons and resources to help educators teach LGBTQ+ history in collaboration with community partners such as the California Historical Society, the California History-Social Science Project.

Research
Queer Suffragists

Public Faces uncovers the queer history of the women’s suffrage movement and explores how suffragists boldly defied the gender and sexual norms of the day.
Children of Chinatown
The Children of Chinatown reveals the untold stories of a pioneer generation of young Chinese Americans growing up during an era of exclusion and segregation.


Press
- The Feminist Self-Defense Movement, 1970s, The Devil’s Tale. Duke University. Oct. 2023
- Morning Edition. National Public Radio. WBUR Boston. June 2023.
- Dirty, Sexy History, Jessica Cale, Queer Suffragists, February 2023.
- The 19th News, Barbara Rodriguez. Women’s Suffrage August 2022.
- History News Network, New Books in Political Science. August 2022.
- Atlas Obscura, Sarah Durn, Mary Edwards Walker and the Queer Suffragists Who Changed History. July 2022.
- New York Times, New Books: Public Faces, Secret Lives. May 20, 2022.
- Unsung History, The Queer History of the Suffrage Movement. June 6, 2022.
- Herstory on the Rocks, Public Faces, Secret Lives. April 12, 2022.
- Armchair Historians. Public Faces, Secret Lives. March 15, 2022.
- Her Own Hero. Tilke Hill & Lukia Costello. January 21, 2022.
- Buffalo & Toronto Public Media, PBS & NPR, Discovering New York Suffrage Stories: Queer Suffragists. Tilke Hill, February 8, 2021.
- CSPAN, Sex, Sexuality and Suffrage, California Historical Society, January 19, 2021.
- New York Times, Maya Salam How Queer Women Powered the Suffrage Movement. August 19, 2020.
- Radliffe Institute, Schlesinger Library, Suffrage School – Wendy L. Rouse. Harvard University, July 2020.
- Them Magazine, Sarah D. Collin, The Queer Suffragists Who Fought for Women’s Right to Vote. August 14, 2020.
- National Park Service, The Very Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, Women’s Vote Centennial 2020, July 22, 2020.
- Martial Arts Studies, On the History of Women’s Self-Defence in the USA. May 24, 2020.
- Dirty White Belt Radio, The History of Women’s Self-Defense Jiu-Jitsu. May 15, 2020.
- KZUM Community Radio, Sports from the Grassroots with Greg Rasheed. Lincoln, Nebraska. October 28, 2017.
- NPR, The Joy Cardin Show. National Public Radio, Wisconsin. September 20, 2017.
- Classical 89, Thinking Aloud with Marcus Smith. Brigham Young University Radio. October 16, 2017.
- Ms. Magazine, How Our Fierce Feminist Grandmothers Fought to Claim Their Space, July 28, 2017.

