Nellie Tayloe Ross

executive Milestone

How Nellie Tayloe Ross became the nation’s first female governor

Wyoming elected Nellie Tayloe Ross as governor in 1920 — the first woman ever elected to a governor’s o ce in the U.S. She served for two years before losing her re-election bid. She later served as vicechairwoman of the Democratic National Committee and director of the U.S. Mint. COURTESY OF THE WESTERN HISTORY CENTER AT CASPER COLLEGE

MANDY LASKY

For the Star-Tribune

In October 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross was a widow at a crossroads.

Her beloved husband, Wyoming Gov. William B. Ross, had just succumbed to appendicitis. He had been preparing to run for re-election the following month.

And now, as if her life wasn’t tumultuous enough, the state Democratic Party was wondering if Nellie would run in his place.

The decision took some reflection. Ambitious women were not part of Ross’ worldview, said Renee Laegreid, a history of the American West professor at the University of Wyoming. Ross was also recently widowed and raising three boys. It was not an easy time to take on a new challenge.

On the other hand, thanks to her husband’s career and her role as his trusted adviser, Ross knew what the political process looked like up close. She wanted to shepherd his Progressive policies. And secretly, she was eager to serve.

“You have a woman who was intelligent, who hadn’t been involved (in politics) personally but had been around it for years,” Laegreid said. “She was well positioned, yet she always had to couch her ambition not as something she wanted to do but as a way of advancing her husband’s goals.”

Ultimately, her ambition and the opportunity to carry on her husband’s agenda won out, said Tom Rea, historian and editor of wyohistory.org, a project of the Wyoming State Historical Society.

Ross decided to run, declaring her intention to become the nation’s first female governor.

It was a momentous choice — one that would radically reshape her own future and lead to watershed moments in women’s history.

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The values behind that decision— hard work and the importance of service — had been instilled in Ross as a child, said Alexis Pratt, superintendent of the Historic Governor’s Mansion in Cheyenne.

After the Civil War, “Nellie’s family fell on some tough times, bouncing around from state to state,” Pratt said. Her family was hardworking and supportive, and Ross grew up knowing that those traits mattered.

She became a schoolteacher in Omaha, where she learned about navigating a big organization like the school district, Rea said. Then, her marriage to William Ross opened up a new world for her — the world of politics.

The value Ross placed on public service was “part of her family values instilled during her upbringing,” Laegreid wrote. “It seems to me they were reinforced by working alongside her husband so closely when he was governor.”

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As a grieving widow, Ross had the advantage of voter sympathy. That might be one reason she cruised to victory in 1924.

No matter what factors swirled around her win, though, it was an important victory at an important moment. Wyoming had seen advancements in women’s status as far back as the 1869, when the Wyoming Territorial Legislature voted to give women the unrestricted right to vote and hold office — the first territory or state to do so. Next year, Esther Hobart Morris became the nation’s first female justice of the peace. Not long after that, women gained the right to serve on juries. Momentum seemed to be building.

As time went on, though, the movement’s sails grew slack. Support for women serving on juries ended, and women did not serve as jurors in Wyoming again until 1950, according to an article on wyohistory.org.

So when Wyoming elected its first female governor in 1924, it was a milestone for women across the nation — and an important event for the Cowboy State itself. Texas also elected its first female governor that day, but Miriam A. “Ma”

Nellie T. Ross served as governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Ferguson did not take office until after Ross had been inaugurated.

Ross’ election “was huge for Wyoming. It kept on that idea of the Equality State,” Laegreid said. “It wasn’t just about the right to vote, but also the right to political participation and civic equality with men.”

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Once in office, Ross held true to her promise, staying close to her husband’s platform. Like William, she supported Prohibition. She also advocated for tougher mine safety rules, stricter child labor regulations and stronger state laws regulating banks.

“For the most part, she was showing people that women could actually do this job,” Laegreid said.

Then came 1926, when she ran for re-election and lost. During the campaign, Ross came under criticism for not appointing more women to government positions.

“She really didn’t have a women’s agenda,” Laegreid said. “That was held against her by women voters, who didn’t see her as someone who advanced that cause.”

Rea says her main focus was elsewhere. “Women’s suffrage was not Nellie Ross’ main concern,” he wrote on wyohistory. org. She “cared deeply about getting things done in the public sphere.”

Her passion for politics, combined with her intelligence, meant that Ross’ defeat simply set the stage for her next act. But the loss, according to a 1995 essay by Virginia Scharff, had given her a new perspective.

If she had amassed a group of active women supporters, the essay says Ross wrote later, “that would have been entirely proper, and I believe, effective enough to have changed the result of the election.”

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After the defeat, thanks to her time in the governor’s mansion and on the campaign trail, Ross had gained national fame. It helped that she was a great orator, Rea said, a skill that she had honed in Cheyenne women’s clubs.

As a renowned speaker and barrier-breaking figure, Ross “was a real novelty, and that would have made her in demand,” Rea said.

She was chosen to manage the women’s campaign of the National Democratic Committee — a role that would test her ability to build the same networks of politically engaged, active women that she had not constructed during her time in office.

In 1932, she was responsible for whipping votes among women for the Democratic nominee, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And when he won, he demonstrated his gratitude for her hard work by appointing Ross the first female director of the U.S. Mint — a role she held for 20 years.

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Ross, whose choice to enter politics came only after a deep personal loss, built a political career that lasted for decades. Her husband’s death created an opportunity for her to show her state and country what she could do — and in taking that opportunity, she changed the role of women in American politics forever.

“In a national light, [Ross] inspired women to become politically active across the country,” Laegreid said.

But any signs of the impact she would eventually make weren’t outwardly visible in the fall of 1924. To many, she appeared to be simply a grieving widow who hoped to fulfill her husband’s promises.

Her true sentiments — a quiet confidence in her own ability to lead — came to light only later. Laegreid points to Scharff’s 1995 essay, which cites Ross’ writings.

“Naturally, it may be asked whether felt within myself the ability to fill this position,” America’s first female governor wrote. “I hope it does not suggest egotism when I reply that not for one moment did I doubt it.”