Since the 1870s, the West has led the way for women in politics
Source: High Country News
On Sept. 6, 1870 — Election Day — officials in Wyoming were concerned. The previous year, a violent mob in South Pass had attempted to prevent African American men from voting. And since then, the territorial Legislature had granted full political equality to its women citizens. It was not clear how this latest change would be met.
But as the polls opened in Laramie, Louisa Swain, an “aged grandam,” cast her vote, and the watching crowd cheered. Many women voted in Laramie that day, including at least two African American women, who were escorted to the polls by a deputy U.S. marshal. Utah had enfranchised women shortly after Wyoming, and women there voted peacefully in February and August of 1870. Fifty years before the 19th Amendment prohibited discrimination in voting on the basis of sex, these Western women were pioneers of political equality.
As next year’s 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment approaches, a record number of female candidates are running for president — evidence of the inroads women have made in U.S. politics. That journey began in the West, where a rapidly changing society, coupled with a public desire for reform, allowed suffragists to shake the foundations of male political dominance. Racist policies meant not all women benefited. Still, the West’s choice to radically expand voting rights brought millions more Americans into the realm of politics.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, the Reconstruction Amendments made many women citizens but did not guarantee their voting rights. Despite the efforts of national suffrage movements, Eastern and Southern governments proved unreceptive to such a radical concept.
Click here to read the full article published by High Country News on 11 September 2019.
On Sept. 6, 1870 — Election Day — officials in Wyoming were concerned. The previous year, a violent mob in South Pass had attempted to prevent African American men from voting. And since then, the territorial Legislature had granted full political equality to its women citizens. It was not clear how this latest change would be met.
But as the polls opened in Laramie, Louisa Swain, an “aged grandam,” cast her vote, and the watching crowd cheered. Many women voted in Laramie that day, including at least two African American women, who were escorted to the polls by a deputy U.S. marshal. Utah had enfranchised women shortly after Wyoming, and women there voted peacefully in February and August of 1870. Fifty years before the 19th Amendment prohibited discrimination in voting on the basis of sex, these Western women were pioneers of political equality.
As next year’s 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment approaches, a record number of female candidates are running for president — evidence of the inroads women have made in U.S. politics. That journey began in the West, where a rapidly changing society, coupled with a public desire for reform, allowed suffragists to shake the foundations of male political dominance. Racist policies meant not all women benefited. Still, the West’s choice to radically expand voting rights brought millions more Americans into the realm of politics.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, the Reconstruction Amendments made many women citizens but did not guarantee their voting rights. Despite the efforts of national suffrage movements, Eastern and Southern governments proved unreceptive to such a radical concept.
Click here to read the full article published by High Country News on 11 September 2019.
