Synopsis Although cultural productions of the women's suffrage campaign have received increasing attention, the literary, historical and political issues raised by this body of material remain contentious. This article examines why suffrage literature has often been regarded as ‘insignificant’, and proposes new ways in which the body of writing can be understood from a literary perspective. Secondly, it addresses the problematic relationship between work produced by historians of suffrage and the perspective of cultural analysts, suggesting again that this dynamic raises questions about the politics of literary form. Thirdly, it suggests ways in which the organisation of material through new media archiving and research would enable new and more fruitful ways of reading across and interpreting the range of women's writing.