The Context of the Western Woman Suffrage Movement

1 The Context of the Western Woman Suffrage Movement I think civilization is coming Eastward gradually. —Theodore Roosevelt1 By the end of 1914, almost every western state and territory in the United States had enfranchised its female citizens in the greatest in- novation in participatory democracy since Reconstruction. These western successes stand in profound contrast to the East, where few women voted until after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (1920), and to the South, where African American men were systematically disfran- chised. The regional pattern of early western victories has remained un- clear, despite many state studies, and adequate explication requires reevaluation within the contemporary political context.2 This study es- tablishes western precocity as the result of the unsettled state of regional politics, the complex nature of western race relations, broad alliances be- tween suffragists and farmer-labor-progressive reformers, and sophisti- cated activism by western women. It recognizes suffrage racism and elit- ism as major problems deeply embedded in larger cultural and political processes, and places special emphasis on the political adaptability of suffragists. It argues that the last generation of activists, often educated and professional women, employed modern techniques and arguments that invigorated the movement and helped meliorate class tensions. Stressing political and economic justice for women and deemphasizing prohibition persuaded increasing numbers of wary urban voters and weakened the negative influence of large cities. Thus, understanding woman suffrage in the West reintegrates this important region into national suffrage history and helps explain the ultimate success of this radical reform. 1 2 | The Context of the Movement The western victories fall clearly into three phases closely related to distinct periods of political instability and reform. The first successes oc- curred in the fluid “frontier” environment of western states and territo- ries. Experiments in Wyoming Territory (1869), Utah (1870), and Wash- ington Territory (1883) were connected to Reconstruction and territorial politics, as well as to Mormon influence. In the early 1870s, many women’s rights leaders felt betrayed by the failure of the Reconstruction amendments to establish universal suffrage as a fundamental citizen’s right. In the West, however, discussions of voting-rights issues continued because constitutional questions arose every time a western territory held a convention and applied for statehood. “Pioneer” suffragists took ad- vantage of small territorial legislatures, the statehood process, third-party challenges, and reform politics to pursue a broad women’s rights agenda. Populist energy achieved suffrage in Colorado (1893) and Idaho (1896), but hostility to the People’s Party, as well as internal ambivalence, pre- vented further success in other states. Building on this legacy of radical reform in the West, Progressive momentum finally carried woman suffrage in Washington State (1910), California (1911), Arizona, Alaska, Oregon (1912), Montana, and Nevada (1914). Western suffragists often supported third-party and reform coalitions in the expectation of reciprocal assistance, helping to create a progressive political environment. These contacts helped western women suffragists develop strategies to overcome urban electoral opposition through trade unions and political parties. Women’s rights activists were able to draw attention to gender issues because male reformers of all classes needed female help—whether enfranchised or not—to elect candidates and imple- ment programs. Women’s political activity took many forms, given their common exclusion from electoral rights. Some women established influ- ential voluntary associations or lobbied legislators and candidates on be- half of bills. Some participated symbolically and actively in local party events, including boisterous parades, bonfires, and outdoor meetings.3 Many western suffragists joined the temperance movement and supported the Prohibition Party, while others became Nationalists, Populists, Socialists, and Progressives. Working-class women voted and ran for office within their unions, went on strike, supported labor parties and candidates, and lobbied for legislation. In the 1890s, suffrage gained respectability as more moderate temperance and clubwomen became involved, frequently radicalized by their ex- periences in social reform. The western women’s club movement ex- The Context of the Movement | 3 panded rapidly in the 1880s and 1890s, and many clubwomen began to argue that the externalization of many decisions affecting family welfare required female civic participation. When involvement in reform activity quickly revealed the practical limits of indirect influence, women de- manded the enforcement power of the vote. Leaving the domestic sphere in order to defend it transformed many women, while mainstream political culture also changed in response to female participation and priori- ties, including greater support for government social welfare interven- tion.4 “Municipal housekeeping,” “maternalism,” and “nonpartisan- ship” were all important motivations, but they should not obscure the inherent radicalism of the demand for political rights for independent women citizens.5 Understanding the western suffrage movement requires a basic com- prehension of the movement in general, including its radical and fundamental challenge to the existing political status of women. Suffrage was radical in several ways. In the dictionary, “radical” primarily means “root,” or “fundamental,” in an explicitly political sense, and secondar- ily “extreme,” as in challenging the status quo. Both meanings fit the western suffrage movement. First, woman suffrage challenged the legal principle of coverture, which deprived married women of an independent political identity. As one California woman observed, “It was all right enough for a man to eat a meal, but that meal did the woman no good, and so it was with political rights.”6 In the 1840s, states began to pass legislation to protect women’s marital property and business interests (“sole trader” laws) from the worst effects of coverture, but they did not challenge the principle as fundamentally as suffrage. These efforts began in the East, but after the Civil War they accelerated in the West, where Cal- ifornia, Colorado, and Nevada had passed such laws by 1873. Sometimes attributed to a “frontier effect,” roughly defined as a combination of economic need and political experimentalism, winning these legal reforms still required sustained effort by early women’s rights activists.7 Failure to credit women’s activism has obscured the radicalism of their goal and methods, limiting many earlier analyses. Second, woman suffrage cultivated support among radical and third- party critics of the existing political order. In the 1890s, Populist support was responsible for referenda, and in the early 1900s Progressives agreed that woman suffrage was one of several direct democracy measures nec- essary to reform the political system. In theory, female enfranchisement roughly doubled any given constituency; in reality, no one knew how 4 | The Context of the Movement women would tend to vote until they actually began to do so, making it an inherently radical experiment. With more political options, women could and did threaten to abandon established parties unreceptive to female concerns. Finally, the western woman suffragists utilized radically modern direct-action tactics derived from the labor movement and popular politics. Similar developments were occurring simultaneously in Eng- land, but American suffragists never became violent suffragettes. In the West, suffragists refined creative new uses of drama, popular culture, ad- vertising, and modern technology, including cars, telephones, billboards, and slide shows. The 1911 California campaign established the effective- ness of this bold new model, and by the end of 1914, a voting population of 4 million western women confirmed its success. General suffrage histories have generally neglected the West, or failed to evaluate its significance within the national movement. Even contemporary studies often take a quick western tour, acknowledging the break- through victories before returning to the East. Women’s own efforts to or- ganize against formidable geographic and demographic obstacles have re- ceived little attention aside from criticism for their failure to maintain viable organizations over decades of struggle. Instead, the popular “gift theory” emphasizes male boosterism and desires for women settlers, as well as efforts to strengthen particular constituencies with female voters (e.g., Mormons in Utah). This model favors “gentle tamers,” naïve, po- lite, middle-class women with “municipal housekeeping” and social pu- rity goals. These women were often active suffragists, but they never won a campaign by threatening to “civilize” rowdy western communities.8 Aside from the obvious fact that men did the voting in legislatures and referenda, they did not “give” the vote easily—women won it only after many long and exhausting legislative lobbying sessions and public cam- paigns. Beverly Beeton has correctly identified male boosterism, political factionalism, and an experimental political environment as important factors, but ultimately reduces these to matters “of expediency, not ide- ology.”9 In fact, men often viewed the demand for woman suffrage

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