By profiling one individual suffragist, Mary Bent Hunter, Kevin Motl helps explain how women's suffrage was achieved in Texas. He shows the amount and kind of organizing that women conducted before federal recognition of women’s right to vote was achieved with the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment. One factor that he stresses is that suffragists used different strategies depending on location, tailoring the strategy to the community’s characteristics. In focusing on Hunter, Motl emphasizes the sophistication of rural Texas suffragists. This differs from many previous analyses that presumed that suffrage efforts were based in cities and extended outward from urban centers to rural hinterlands.

Two possible theses could be either more general or more specific. More generally, a thesis might emphasize the idea of the rural suffragists's sophistication and political savvy. Specifically pertaining to Hunter, a thesis could stress her tremendous energy and persistence in pursuing the goal of women's suffrage. A corollary could stress either that Hunter played a unique role or that she is representative of a whole category of rural suffragists; the writer’s emphasis would depend on their interpretation of Motl’s essay as he provides evidence to support both positions.