Women's Long Road ~ 100 Years to the Vote

One of the special exhibits I visited at the Maine State Museum was of Maine's contribution to the Women's Suffrage Movement. Starting in 1854, and at least 28 more times over the next six decades, suffrage proponents asked the Maine legislature to allow women the right to vote. Over the years, Maine women gained some economic and social rights and protections, but were denied the right to vote. The U.S. Constitution left voting regulation to the states, and most barred women. Pro-suffrage groups sought to amend the federal, as well as the state constitutions. This display highlighted only a few of the special women involved in the suffrage movement. What would you have done had you been living during this time period? Would you have joined the movement? 

In the 1830s, ideas about women's lack of rights grew out of the anti-slavery movement. In the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in New York, delegates adopted 18 rights resolutions -- including suffrage. The movement gained supporters through yearly national women's rights conventions, public orations around the country, local and state suffrage groups and activists -- women and men, black and white.

Equal rights and suffrage groups split apart after the Civil War over bitter arguments about who deserved the vote first, strategies for success, and the often white and elite focus of some groups. Nevertheless, discussion both pro and con about women voting did not cease. In some states and territories, mostly in the West, women voted as early as 1869.

Changing social and economic conditions, along with the persistence and determination of generations of suffrage activists ultimately turned the tide. A federal amendment granting the vote to women went into effect in 1920, the centennial year of Main statehood.

Homestead, circa 1900

I.M. Gardner & Co. Store, Castine, circa 1890

Workers wiring brims in hat factory, circa 1875

Telephone Operators, Bangor, circa 1890

As more women worked in factories, on farms, in small businesses and in schools, and as more women began thinking about rights, some promoted dress reform wore less restrictive bulky clothing. During the Civil War era, women worked as clerks in government offices, served as nurses on the battlefield and in military hospitals, and supported soldiers and armies from the home front. The number of Maine women working grew from about 3% in 1860 to 11% by 1870.

Lillian Stevens (1844-1914)

Lillian Stevens of Portland met national temperance leader Frances Willard at a meeting at Old Orchard Beach in 1874, and got involved in the national Christian's Temperance Union. Stevens was active in the Maine Woman Suffrage Association and often testified at the Maine Legislature on behalf of women voting.

Hannah Johnston Bailey (1839-1923)

Hannah Bailey of Winthrop was a writer, lecturer, business woman, and activist, and was well-known for her work with the Woman's Christian Temperance Movement. She was president of the Maine Woman Suffrage Association from 1891 to 1897. She organized petition drives and testified before the legislature, fighting both for suffrage and temperance.

Jane H. Spofford (1826-1905)

Jane H. Spofford and her husband ran the Riggs House hotel in Washington, D.C. During that time, the hotel hosted National Women Suffrage Association meetings and often housed prominent suffrage supporters when they were in Washington. Both Spoffords and Jane's sister were ardent suffrage supporters. They became friends with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others. They continued to support suffrage efforts in Maine, circulating and signing petitions and hosting events.

Rebecca Usher (1821-1912)

Rebecca Usher was 78 years old in 1899 when she circulated and signed a petition to the Maine legislature objecting to paying taxes because she could not vote. At age 41 she volunteered as a nurse in the Civil War. She was active in community affairs, and kept in touch with a number of soldiers and nurses she met during the war, and worked to gain the vote for women.

Elizabeth Young Allen (1838-1929)

Elizabeth Allen wrote to the legislature in January 1889, asking for the right to vote - for herself alone - in all state and municipal elections. Voting in federal elections would have required a state constitutional amendment. She stressed that she should be allowed to vote "whether any or all other women desire or decline to vote, or petition that they or she may be hindered or not hindered from voting." She finally got to vote in 1920.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)

Like many leaders of the women's rights movement, Elizabeth Stanton began as an anti-slavery advocate, schooled in reform-minded western New York by an activist cousin and husband. Elizabeth Stanton and Quaker minister Lucretia Mott organized a woman's rights convention in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York.  Attendees adopted a resolution demanding the vote for women and launching the woman suffrage movement in the U.S. Escaped slave Frederick Douglass, who attended the Seneca Falls meeting, Elizabeth Stanton and other activists worked together closely on anti-slavery and women's rights. They were among the founders of the American Equal Rights Association in 1866.

Disagreements over the 14th and 15th amendments, which gave black men the right to vote, but not women, led to the demise of the Equal Rights group in 1869. Elizabeth Stanton, along with Susan B. Anthony and others, then founded the National Woman Suffrage Association.

"The Right is Ours. Have it We Must. Use it We Will. ~~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1848

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)

As a Quaker, Anthony believed everyone was equal under God. Inspired by the reports of the 1850 Woman's Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, Anthonly became a convert to the cause. She devoted her life to social activism ~~ abolition, temperance, and women's rights. In 1872, Anthony tried to vote and was arrested. Anthony helped facilitate the merger of the National and American woman suffrage groups in the late 1880s, and devised much of the strategy of the resulting National American Woman Suffrage Association until her death. The 19th amendment is known as the Susan B. Anthony amendment, and in 1979, the U.S. Treasury created a dollar coin bearing Susan B. Anthony's image in profile.

Lucy Stone (1818-1893)

Lucy Stone was a daughter of abolitionists and worked for the anti-slavery society. She helped organize the first national Women's Rights Convention in 1850. She was among the founders of the American Equal Rights Association in 1866. She and her husband also helped found the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1870. Her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, and Elizabeth Stanton's daughter, Harriet Stanton Blatch, helped bring the suffrage groups together in 1890.

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)

Julia Wade Howe of Massachusetts was an abolitionist and author. She was well-known for writing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." She opposed woman suffrage, until she heard Lucy Stone and other equal suffrage supporters speak. She then joined Stone in forming the American Suffrage Association in 1870. Howe edited the group's publication, the Woman's Journal, for two decades. She was a frequent visitor to Maine, and her daughter, Laura Richards, lived in Gardiner. Julia Howe was a frequent speaker at Maine Woman Suffrage Association events.

The last few decades of the 1800s brought more women into the workforce, especially in clerical positions, shops, and small local businesses, and factories. Women also formed more clubs and organizations devoted to civic and self-improvement. Women attended colleges in larger numbers, and engaged in sports and outdoor activities. By 1900, nearly a fifth of Maine women had occupations. The legislature passed laws limiting a woman's work hours to ten a day, permitting them to be school superintendents, lawyers, and registers of probate, and allowing them to file suits in court.

Delegates to Federation of Women's Clubs meeting, 1911

Tomorrow's the Day

Kennebec Journal Cartoonist Tom Clarity captured the reality of generations of Maine women locked out of legislative processes and unable to participate in debates and votes that affected them.

The Sky is Now Her Limit

The Genie of Intolerance, a Dangerous Ally
For the Cause of Women Suffrage

Election Day

Revised: Woman's Sphere is in the Home
Wherever She Makes Good

Signing the Declaration of Independence

Pro-Suffrage Activists in a Portland Parade, 1914

Essie Carle, First to Register in Belfast, 1920

Essie Carle was the first woman in line to register to vote. In August 1916, as president of the Belfast Woman's Club, Carle had presided over the meeting at which the Belfast Suffrage League was formed. She owned a dry goods store and chaired the Republican County Committee in Waldo County. The oldest woman in Belfast to register was Sarah E. Stewart, age 94.

Between January 1918 and June 1919, the House and Senate voted on the federal amendment five times. Each vote was extremely close and Southern Democrats continued to oppose giving women the vote. Suffragists pressured President Wilson to call a special session of Congress and he agreed to schedule one for May 19, 1919. On May 21, 1919, the amendment passed the House 304 to 89, with 42 votes more than was necessary. On June 4, 1919, it was brought before the Senate and, after Southern Democrats abandoned a filibuster, 37 Republican Senators were joined by 19 Democrats to pass the amendment with 56 ayes and 25 nays. Ultimately, 76% of Republican Senators voted in favor, while 60% of Democrat Senators voted against.

Signing Notice of Ratification, Augusta, November 5, 1919

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified on August 18, 1920:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.



Quote for the day: "We found equal rights very unpopular with those who do not understand the principle." ~~ Jane Spofford, 1895