Women’s Suffrage in the Intermountain West
In the decades-long fight for women’s suffrage, the territories and states in the Intermountain West were some of the first places in the United States where women won the right to vote. Women in the Intermountain West created suffrage associations, formed alliances with different political parties, lobbied politicians, wrote in newspapers, gave speeches, and traveled across vast areas of land to raise support for women’s suffrage. Wyoming became the first territory or state to grant women the right to vote in 1869, then Utah in 1870 and again in 1896, Colorado in 1893, Idaho in 1896, Arizona in 1912, and Montana and Nevada in 1914. After winning the right to vote, many women in the Intermountain West ran for political office; Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress in 1916, years before many women in the country could vote. Today, as the centennial anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment approaches, learning about early suffrage victories in the Intermountain West reminds us of the value of the political rights we enjoy today.
First to Vote: Women’s Suffrage in Wyoming
In 1869, Wyoming’s territorial legislature passed a bill approving women’s suffrage, making the women in Wyoming the first in the United States to have the right to vote. Although debates continue over who should receive the credit, Wyoming’s status as the first territory and state to grant full suffrage for women remains a source of state pride.
View Story Show on Map
The Woman’s Exponent
Published in Salt Lake City from 1872 to 1914, the Woman’s Exponent, which acted as the unofficial newspaper of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was an important advocate for women’s suffrage in Utah and one of the longest-running suffrage publications in the country.
View Story Show on Map
The Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association of Colorado
In 1893, the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association of Colorado led a campaign for women’s suffrage that mobilized women across the state. The suffragettes worked with multiple organizations and political parties to pass a popular referendum granting women the right to vote over two decades before the Nineteenth Amendment.
View Story Show on Map
Elizabeth P. Ensley: Suffragette and African American Women’s Club Leader
An active leader in African American women’s clubs and the women’s suffrage movement in Colorado, Elizabeth Piper Ensley worked to improve the rights of women and African Americans.
View Story Show on Map
Women’s Suffrage and Temperance in Idaho
The fight for women’s suffrage was closely tied to the temperance movement. Many women in Idaho supported both temperance and women’s suffrage, and although some suffragettes like Abigail Scott Duniway worried that the association between the two would prompt greater opposition from men, the WCTU helped win the right to vote for women in Idaho in 1896.
View Story Show on Map
Frances Munds and Pauline O’Neill: Suffrage Leaders in Arizona
Meeting through their mutual involvement in women’s clubs and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Frances Willard Munds and Pauline O’Neill worked together to lead the campaign for women’s suffrage in Arizona and served as some of the first women in Arizona’s state legislature.
View Story Show on Map
Jeannette Rankin: Suffragette, Pacifist, and First US Congresswoman
A leader of the women’s suffrage movement on the national and state level, Jeannette Rankin helped lead her home state of Montana to enact women’s suffrage in 1914. She became the first woman elected to the US Congress when Montana elected her to the House of Representatives first in 1916 and again in 1940. Championing women’s suffrage, social welfare, and pacifism during her time as a…
View Story Show on Map