THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Women's History Month always brings to mind the Suffrage Movement. And I always think of the Suffrage Movement as an East Coast phenomenon. Ladies in brownstones having teas to convince other upper- and middle-class women to bully their husbands into giving women the vote ... Bonneted women chained to the White House fence ... Women in white marching banners down New York streets. Do you see it that way?
But women in the American West were the first to win full voting rights in the United States. The first was the Wyoming Territory, which granted women full voting rights in 1869. (My great-grandmothers were in their early twenties. How old were your foremothers?) The next eight states to enfranchise women were in the west, California in 1911. (My grandmothers were in their late twenties.)
California's first attempt at granting women's suffrage was in 1893, when a bill was passed in the state legislature. The governor vetoed the bill, believing it unconstitutional. The second attempt was in 1896, when a sizeable majority of the voters defeated a statewide referendum.
The California enfranchisement of women was finally made possible in 1911 by the suffrage movement forming broad alliances beyond white middle-class women's clubs. Unions, church groups, black self-help groups, temperance groups, and Socialists joined the cause, believing the enfranchisement of women would help resolve many social ills of the day. Women in the labor force became active as well, adding their message of "equal pay for equal work" to the suffrage message. Suffrage literature was published in Yiddish, German, Italian, and Spanish to attract immigrant support.
This diverse support made the third attempt to enfranchise women in California successful. In 1911 a statewide referendum approving women's right to vote was passed by a wide margin. California became the sixth and largest state to approve women's suffrage in the United States.
However, no state east of the Mississippi River granted women full voting rights before Illinois in 1913. All but three western states had already granted women the vote in 1920 when the 19th Amendment made suffrage the law of the land. (My mother was a child, as were a few of you.)
I knew little about the League when I became a member. But I did know that the League of Women Voters had its roots buried deep in the Suffrage Movement. Women's History Month is an opportunity for us to remember our roots.
We will be celebrating Women's History Month and Membership Month at our March general meeting. We are offering a one-time-only 16-months-for-the-price-of-twelve DEAL OF THE YEAR for new members who join at the March 9 meeting. So please--share the wealth of the League and bring a guest to the March meeting.
--Jeanne B. Melaugh, Copresident, LWVMP
