100 Years of Women Suffrage in Texas

By Jennifer Hopgood

On June 28, 1919, the Texas Senate approved the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and Texas became the ninth state in the country to pass legislation guaranteeing the right of women to vote. Although 1919 marked a successful culmination of decades of effort to achieve voting equality for women, the last hundred years have been marked by inconsistent advances for all women and in important areas such as equal pay.

Women Suffrage in Texas

The fight for women suffrage in Texas largely paralleled the suffragist movement in the United States in general. In 1875, the Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162, held that the U.S. Constitution did not grant anyone, specifically a female citizen of the state of Missouri, a right to vote even when a state law granted a right to vote to certain other classes of citizens. The Supreme Court reasoned that the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment did not explicitly give citizens an affirmative right to vote. Despite the Court’s opinion in Minor, states and territories had begun to pass laws ensuring the right of women to vote. In 1869, Wyoming was the first territory or state to codify in its constitution female suffrage.

Conversely in Texas, the idea of franchise being conferred on women was unsuccessfully raised during the Constitutional Convention of 1868-69 as well as subsequent legislative sessions in the late 1800s to early 1900s. Women formed suffrage clubs in Texas, notably in Austin in 1908 and in San Antonio in 1912 by Mary Eleanor Brackenridge. In 1913, the first statewide suffrage organization, the Texas Woman Suffrage Association, met in San Antonio and renewed the fight to achieve women suffrage. Women faced age-old arguments— custom dictated that the government sphere be reserved for men or that a women’s proper place was in the home tending to children. Anti-suffrage literature from the time shows the antiquated views espoused to undercut efforts to achieve voting rights for women. To counter these claims, women engaged in well-coordinated petitioning of politicians, arguing that enfranchisement would help to achieve better schools, public health, and a generally improved life for all citizens.

Against the backdrop of World War I, newly reorganized and nationwide suffrage movements began to achieve success. Efforts by women in Texas began to pay off. In the 1917 legislative session, resolutions to enfranchise women were introduced; however, then-governor James E. Ferguson vigorously opposed women’s suffrage. After Ferguson was impeached and removed from office in the summer of 1917, his successor, Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby, proved friendly toward women’s suffrage. In March 1918, in a called session, Charles B. Metcalfe of San Angelo introduced a bill to permit women to vote in primaries. Governor Hobby signed the bill into law, and in 17 days 386,000 women registered to vote in the Democratic primary held in July 1918. In January 1919, Governor Hobby recommended that the Texas Constitution be amended to extend full suffrage to women. The amendment was defeated, in large part because a companion amendment would have imposed a citizenship requirement for foreign-born persons.

After the first defeat in Texas, in June 1919 the federal women suffrage amendment was submitted to the states for ratification as the 19th Amendment, which states: “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.” The Texas Legislature convened in special session on June 23, 1919, with the House adopting a resolution to ratify the amendment, with Senate approval on June 28. Notably, Texas was the first southern state to ratify the 19th Amendment. With the ratification by Tennessee on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment became part of the Constitution and nationwide women now had the right to vote.

The Ongoing Struggle to Achieve the Right to Vote and Sit on Juries

Within the larger context of voting, women of color were, like their male brethren, denied the right to vote through various means such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and exclusion from primary elections. In Texas, African-Americans were denied the right to participate in primary elections of the Democratic Party. Finally, in 1944 the Supreme Court overturned this practice in Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944), holding that the restricted primary denied Smith, an African-American dentist who resided in Houston, of his equal protection and that the State of Texas had unconstitutionally allowed a political party to discriminate on the basis of race. Not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did the federal government act to ensure that all citizens, regardless of color, were guaranteed equal access to vote.

In the context of juries, the right to vote did not automatically extend to the right to serve as a juror. In 1961, the Supreme Court, in Hoyt v. Florida, 368 U.S. 57, held that the state’s “opt-in” policy for female jurors was constitutional, reasoning that universal exemption of women from jury service was constitutional because jury service was a burden to women, rather than a responsibility or privilege. And not until 1979 did the Supreme Court reverse Hoyt, holding that “opt-in” policies were unconstitutional. Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357 (1979).

Ongoing Issues of Inequality: Parity in Pay

Although women have achieved great advancement in the ability to pursue careers, such issues as pay inequality continue today. In 1872, the Supreme Court in Bradwell v. Illinois held that a woman who graduated from law school had no right to inclusion in a state bar. Myra Bradwell challenged the state bar’s refusal to allow her to practice law. The concurring opinion stated that, “The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life. . . . The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator.” 83 U.S.130, 141 (Bradley, J., concurring). Fortunately, by 1925 such antiquated notions of gender had faded away. In that year, Texas Governor Pat Neff appointed three female attorneys to a special Texas Supreme Court for five months to hear the appeal of a fraternal organization.

While women now comprise half of all law school admissions, women in general still earn only 76 percent of the amounts earned by their male counterparts, despite assuming equal job duties and responsibilities. And African-American women earn only 64 percent and Hispanic women 56 percent of each dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men. Although the U.S. Congress passed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, in Texas the Texas Equal Pay Act applies only to female public-sector employees. As a result, currently in Texas private-sector female workers employed by a business with 14 or less employees lack protection from pay discrimination. Remedies such as ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment or passing a state law that would ensure equal pay for all private-sector female employees would help achieve pay parity for all Texas women.

Looking Ahead

Certainly, in this centennial year, we have much to celebrate in women gaining the right to vote in Texas in June 1919. However, the right to vote did not automatically confer rights on all women, particularly for women of color, or ensure such basic rights as the right to serve on a jury of one’s peers—a right not guaranteed until as recently as 40 years ago. Professionally, although women have made great strides in achieving equality, equal pay for equal work remains an unrealized, yet achievable, goal. We all have work to do to guarantee that women— our sisters, mothers, wives, and daughters—earn the same as their male counterparts. AL

Anti-suffrage literature prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.