A Different Point of View Vol 21, Issue 4 by National Women's History Museum

IN THIS ISSUE

Photo Credit: Library of Congress

Museum Happenings...........................3 Feature: The History Behind Suffragette.............................7 Biographies...........................................9 Contemporary Perspective................13 Seneca Falls Convention.....................15 #WeHearYou.......................................22

VOLUME 21

Woman Suffrage Movement

A Message From NWHM President Joan Wages Looking for a unique gift for a family member, a friend or someone special this holiday season? Give a gift that will keep on giving all year long – while helping a worthy cause and helping to bring women’s amazing and untold history to life! A NWHM gift membership is a truly meaningful gift. Depending on the level of your tax-deductible gift membership donation, your recipient will receive: NWHM’s quarterly newsletter, “A Different Point of View” which is filled with biographies, stories of trail-blazing women in different genres, new exciting programs NWHM is working on and much, much more Invitations to special lecture series and online webinars throughout the year A personalized Certificate recognizing them as a Charter Member A NWHM Membership Card (for the balance of 2015 and they will receive the new 2016 Membership card as well once the new year begins) For gift memberships of $50 or more, your recipient will receive all the above plus a “Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History” button For gift memberships of $100 or more, your recipient will receive all the above plus a silver “NWHM” pin to wear so that any time NWHM’s President and Board see them when they are wearing their pin, they know your recipient is a “Cornerstone Member” and can acknowledge them accordingly Their name will be recognized in NWHM’s physical Museum once we have our permanent site Access to NWHM’s “Members Only” section on our website where they can read and get inside information and updates on additional things happening at the Museum they can’t get elsewhere So why wait until the holiday rush? Or get in the massive crowds hunting for that unique gift – give a NWHM Gift Membership instead! Go online today and sign up for as many gift memberships as you’d like. We will make sure each person you list receives their special gift membership on or very close to the holidays. Festive holiday gift memberships are available via this link, http://tinyurl.com/nwhmdonate, or you are welcome to call Lisa at NWHM (703) 461-1920 (ext. 110) and she will be happy to help you process your tax‑deductible memberships. Actress Mary Pickford, 1916.

Photo courtesy of the Library

Dear Friends, I am still reeling with pride from the success of our fourth annual Women Making History LA brunch. Each year, the event honors extraordinary women in the arts, entertainment, and film industry. This year’s honorees included Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren, blockbuster film director Gale Anne Hurd, and award winning actress Viola Davis, who went on to win an Emmy the following night, earning her a place in history as the first African American woman to win an Emmy for the lead role in a drama series. We are truly proud to have been able to recognize these women and their contributions.

IN THIS ISSUE

of Congress

SUMMER 2015

VOLUME 20

Women in Early Film

VOL

Each accomplishment is an important step in this journey. Each time we are able to share the story of outstanding women like our 2015 WMH-LA honorees or the women that you will read about in this issue of A Different Point of View, who helped to secure the right to vote for women in the United States, we know we are changing the national narrative. Telling the stories of these history-making women, more importantly making their stories available to the public, is key to expanding support for the Museum. We are continuously seeking unknown and little known stories of barrierbreaking women. In this effort, we are announcing the launch of Crusade for the Vote: Woman Suffrage Resource Center, an interactive on-line center featuring items telling the story of the campaign by women to obtain the right to vote in the United States. Read about Crusade for the Vote inside. We are excited about this initiative and hope you will enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed working on it.

IN TH IS ISS UE

SPRING

In our continued efforts to advance the Museum’s mission, we are experiencing a level of momentum unknown before. With the successful passage of the legislation to create a commission to study the building of the Museum, we are even more optimistic and confident about our progress.

2015

UME 19 Women in Early Film

MAY 11, 2015

Thank you to our contributing writers for this issue, including Elisabeth McNamara, president of the League of Women Voters, an organization with a rich history founded as a direct outgrowth of the suffrage movement. And thank you to all of our Charter Members. Without you, this would not happen. Enjoy the issue. Wishing you wonderful holidays. With gratitude,

Participants in NWHM walking tours in DC area.

NWHM Expands Local Programing Mobile Women’s History Museum

Celebrating 25 Years of the Mobile History Museum Today a “mobile museum” refers to a smart phone app, but in 1990 Jeanne and Robert Schramm introduced a truly mobile women’s history museum in their home town of West Liberty, West Virginia. Their refurbished school bus featured artifacts, documents, and memorabilia from twenty historic women who were among the 19th and 20th century’s most important social reformers and pioneers. The Women’s History Museum bus brought tangible history to schools and audiences across West Virginia and inspired visitors through learning important women’s history and celebrating women’s accomplishments. On December 6, 2008, the Schramms transferred their collection to the National Women’s History Museum, which formed the nucleus of NWHM’s collection. September 2015 marked the 25th anniversary of the Women’s History Museum bus. Those stories about women who made a difference now reach millions of people every year through NWHM’s exhibit space, Facebook page, and online exhibits. NWHM’s core, on-line exhibit Pathways to Equality showcases high-resolution images of many of the Schramm’s unique documents, using 21st century technology to engage today’s connected communities. While the Women’s History Museum bus was a mobile museum in its own way, the exhibits and the Schramm’s legacy are now “mobile” for a modern audience.

Five-Year Initiative on Suffrage Launched On November 2, the Museum launched its five-year initiative Crusade for the Vote: Woman Suffrage Resource Center, an online collection of articles, documents, and images related to the campaign for women’s right to vote. Tracing from the early colonial period through passage of the 19th Amendment, the Suffrage Resource Center is the most comprehensive collection of items telling the story of the campaign to get women in the United States the right to vote. It will feature articles, primary source documents, lesson plans, biographies and discussion guides. Learn more on page 21. Leading to the 100th anniversary of passage of the 19th Amendment, the Museum will continue to add tools and resources to the center to give teachers, parents and history enthusiast essential information on this important time in U.S. history. 3

NWHM expanded its regional programing this spring and summer to provide more women’s history educational programming to local audiences and to further explore and discuss American women’s history in all of its diverse and complex facets. NWHM Research Associate and Volunteer Coordinator, Hilary McGraw, leads the project, which has included fascinating programs such as walking tours, lectures, museum visits and scavenger hunts, webinars, and a book club. If you plan to be in the Washington, D.C. area this year, visit our event calendar at www. NWHM.org to view the offerings. The NWHM Women’s History Book Club readings and discussion guides will soon be featured on our website so you can read along. If you would like to receive program notices or have suggestions for event ideas please contact Hilary at hmcgraw@nwhm.org.

Google Art Talk The Museum hosted a conversation on U.S. woman suffrage. A panel of experts discussed the history of the woman suffrage movement, the National Woman’s Party, women and voting today, and the impact of the movement. Our panelists included: Elisabeth MacNamara, President of the Board of Directors for the League of Women Voters, Allison Lange, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History at Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Jessica Tava, Board Member of Sewell Belmont House and Museum. Elizabeth Maurer, Director of Programs for the National Women’s History Museum, served as moderator. The talk took place on November 2. To view an archive of the talk, visit www.nwhm.org/support-nwhm/ events/crusade-for-the-vote.

Elisabeth MacNamara Jessica Tava

Allison Lange

NWHM Book Club The Museum is now hosting a monthly book club in the metropolitan DC area. The in-person gatherings offer an opportunity to discuss women’s history with other enthusiasts.

considered outstanding examples of what women can accomplish. Their awards were presented by Maria Bello, Leona Lewis, and Kim Dickens. On accepting their awards, each honoree noted the importance of women’s contributions to the film and entertainment industry and the significance of a physical building that would record these contributions for future generations.

For November’s book discussion the club explored A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor, PhD. The book discusses a woman best known for saving a portrait from the White House, but mastered the social and political intricacies of the burgeoning Washington, DC. Why did her contemporaries so admire a lady so little known today? An acclaimed historian, Allgor, in her book reveals how Madison manipulated the constraints of her gender to construct an American democratic ruling style to achieve her husband’s political goals. By emphasizing cooperation over coercion–building bridges instead of bunkers–she left us with not only an important story about our past but a model for a modern form of politics. These events are free and open to the public.

Celebrating History Making Women In Los Angeles In its fourth year, the Women Making History LA event drew an audience of more than 300 attendees, including celebrities, to honor critically acclaimed actress and philanthropist Viola Davis, accomplished Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren, and award-winning producer Gale Anne Hurd. The honoree trio was recognized for their outstanding accomplishments in film and the arts at an exclusive pre-Emmy brunch, organized by the Museum’s Los Angeles Regional Council along with Glamour. The event Honoree Viola Davis with Museum Chair Susan Whiting, LA Regional Council Chair Elana Pianko-Ginsburg and President/CEO Joan Wages; commemorated the achievements of Photo credit: Getty Images/Todd Williamson women and expanded awareness of the Museum and the importance of preserving women’s history. Through their philanthropic and professional endeavors, each of these women are

1848

Elizabeth Cady Stanton writes “The Declaration of Sentiments” and presents at Seneca Falls, NY Women’s Rights Convention

1851

Sojourner Truth, a former slave, delivers her memorable “Ain’t I a woman?” speech

In a preview of her Emmy acceptance speech, Davis shared, “It is my mission in life to make women of color a part of the narrative in our business; for our stories to be told and for there to be no limits on the absolute expansiveness of our lives.” Warren noted the steady increase of women as heads of companies, but said women should just be recognized for their work. “We hear that there are women directors, women producers, women songwriters, why do we have to be in a box? We’re just directors, producers, actors, songwriters. Do they say male producers, male directors?” Hurd, who acknowledged her own mentorship from famed producer/ screenwriter Debra Hill, shared her intentions to feature women prominently in her film and movie projects. “Women’s stories are just as compelling as men’s and often, I think, even more.” Hurd also announced a personal donation in support of the Museum. Other notable guests in attendance included Amy Brenneman, Brianna Brown, Francis Fisher, Ana Ortiz, and Kate Walsh, who serve as Museum Ambassadors as well as Anna Chlumsky, Jackie Cruz, Taryn Manning, among others. The event was held at the Skirbull Cultural Center in Los Angeles on September 19, 2015.

1866

WMH-LA Honorees: Diane Warren, Viola Davis, and Gale Anne Hurd Photo credit: Getty Images/Todd Williamson

Brunch hosts Anna Ortiz and Brianna Brown Photo credit: Getty Images/Jason Kempin

Members of the LA regional council; Photo credit: Getty Images/Todd Williamson

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form American Equal Rights Association, advocating for adult suffrage without regard to gender or race

1868

Senator S.C. Pomeroy of Kansas introduces the federal woman’s suffrage amendment in Congress

movement with a parade down Washington, DC’s Pennsylvania Avenue in 1913. Onlookers jeered, and the parade turned violent. Paul and Burns relished the publicity, but the more conservative National American Woman Suffrage Association thought these tactics would decrease support for suffrage.

Deeds Not Words: The History behind Suffragette By: Allison Lange

his fall Suffragette the movie will bring the British militant suffragists to life. The preview promises dramatic protests: activists set off bombs in mailboxes, light buildings on fire, and throw rocks into shop windows. The action seems tailor-made for a movie, but these demonstrations actually occurred and many of the film’s characters are based on historical figures.

Emmeline Pankhurst, played by Meryl Streep, led the militant Women’s Social and Political Union, which lasted from 1903 through 1917. The group’s slogan, stitched onto silk banners and declared at meetings, was “Deeds Not Words.” Members wanted to capture the attention of political leaders and the public with violent protests instead of peaceful petitions. These activists first earned the name “suffragette,” which was originally a negative epithet hurled at militant suffragists. Suffragettes participated in the protests depicted in the film’s preview and many others. They rushed the

Miss Lucy Burns of C.U.W.S. Left, With Mrs. [Emmeline] Pankhurst, c. 1913, Library of Congress

1869

National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) started, which works to achieve the vote through a Constitutional amendment

Paul and Burns founded their own group: the National Woman’s Party. In 1917, they organized the first ever pickets of the White House. Police arrested the suffragettes for blocking the sidewalk and sentenced them to the workhouse, where they were imprisoned and forced to work. Like their British counterparts, the activists went on hunger strikes and were forcibly fed. Inez Milholland leads the 1913 Suffrage Parade

Houses of Parliament, launched rocks to shatter the windows of 10 Downing, and slashed a painting of Venus by Diego Velázquez hanging in London’s National Gallery. One activist died from wounds sustained when she tried to tie a sash to the king’s horse during a race. Suffragettes were jailed, went on hunger strikes, and were forcibly fed through rubber tubes. In the 1910s, the tactics of British suffragettes took hold in the United States. Emmeline Pankhurst drew crowds for her lectures in the US on militant methods. Some Americans went to England to participate in the protests of British suffragettes. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, who met while demonstrating with the Women’s Social and Political Union, were Lucy Burns, Vice Cha Congressional Uni irman among them. on, 1913, Library of Con When they returned, Paul and Burns incorporated spectacle into the American

1869

American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) formed to work for woman suffrage through amending individual state constitutions.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association condemned their actions. The US had just entered World War I, and the suffragettes appeared unpatriotic. British suffragists, militant and non-militant alike, had decided to stop their protests and redirect their energies to support the war effort. Ultimately, a combination of recognition for American women’s war efforts and the publicity from the White House pickets led to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the vote, in 1920. Equal suffrage passed in Britain in 1928. Less than 100 years later, the violence and drama of the suffrage movement is easily overlooked. Women vote in greater numbers than men, and female candidates for political office are almost unremarkable. Suffragette,

Theatrical performances were a key draw during the 1913 Suffrage Parade

however, reminds us that the right to vote was not simply given to women; they fought for it. Editor’s Note: The author is using the term “suffragette’’ in reference to Paul and Burns who learned their tactics from the British suffragettes. WORKS CITED Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. Laura Nym-Mayhall, The Militant Suffrage Movement: Citizenship and Resistance in Britain, 1860-1930. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Sylvia Pankhurst, The Suffragette: The History of the Women’s Militant Suffrage Movement. Boston: The Women’s Journal, 1911. Belinda A. Stillion Southard, Militant Citizenship: Rhetorical Strategies of the National Woman’s Party, Lucy Branham, 1913-1920. College Station: Texas 1917, Library of A&M University Press, 2011. Congress J.D. Zahniser and Amelia R. Fry, Alice Paul: Claiming Power. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

gress

1872

Susan B. Anthony casts presidential election ballot and is arrested and brought to trial in Rochester, NY

1887

The first vote on woman suffrage is defeated in the Senate

line Pankhurst in carried by Emma The militant flag tion, 1929, Library of Congress tra pre-war demons

1912

Woman Suffrage is supported for the first time at the national level by a major political party—Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party.

teaching privately and, briefly, at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois.

Emma Smith DeVoe (1848 – 1927)

Her life was dedicated to gaining women the right to vote. Emma Smith DeVoe worked tirelessly and closely with Susan B. Anthony on suffrage in the newly developing west. Her efforts pushed Washington state, an early leader in the suffrage movement, to revive suffrage organizations in the state. Born in Roseville, Illinois on August 22, 1848, DeVoe was inspired at an early age by equal rights pioneer Susan B. Anthony. As an eight-year old, DeVoe stood bravely and with conviction when Anthony during a speech in Illinois asked those in favor of woman suffrage to rise. She was the first in the audience to do so. Her father, Birdsey Smith, an abolitionist, praised his daughter’s courage telling her to “continue to stand up for her convictions, regardless of what others may think.” DeVoe became an accomplished musician,

1913

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organize the Congressional Union—later renamed National Women’s Party—and adopt radical strategies from the British Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)

DeVoe, as a leading suffragist and paid organizer for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), changed the face of politics for both women and men alike, particularly in Washington and western states. When she and husband John Henry DeVoe moved to Huron, Dakota Territory in 1880, they campaigned for woman suffrage, moral reform, temperance, and statehood for the Dakotas. They moved to Tacoma, Washington in 1905. During her time in Washington, starting in 1906, DeVoe worked with women’s clubs across Washington to increase the number of women’s organizations working on suffrage. Previously, she had organized suffrage efforts in Oregon and Idaho. With the assistance of the clubs in Washington, she increased membership in the Washington Equal Suffrage Association from 2 to 2,000. DeVoe’s efforts, alongside May Arkwright Hutton, led to the establishment of 75 suffrage organizations across Washington by 1908. These clubs were instrumental in raising much needed funds, circulating petitions, and canvassing for women’s suffrage. Washington successfully passed legislation giving women the right to vote in 1910.

1916

Jeanette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the House of Representatives

Anthony served as a mentor to DeVoe, staying with the DeVoes and making their home the headquarters of the suffrage campaign. DeVoe’s activism and advocacy was often described as non-confrontational and feminine. She utilized the common “still hunt” strategy that encompassed quiet and non-confrontational efforts to influence key men and women. Rather than promoting public rallies, she encouraged women to put their energies toward influencing the votes of their fathers, brothers, and husbands. This approach was highly successful. Soon, however, she decided to change tactics in the Washington campaign. Without abandoning her essentially feminine approach and appearance, she added posters, a publicity bureau, mass rallies, bands, parades, stump speeches, and publicity stunts. Her change to this more public strategy was not well-received. DeVoe found herself at odds with Hutton, the Eastern Washington leader. The disagreement led to the Washington delegates being banned from voting during the 1909 NAWSA convention and the eventual resignation of DeVoe as a paid organizer for NAWSA. However, she continued her work in Washington, lobbying the legislature to put a suffrage amendment on the ballot in November 1910 and forming coalitions that were crucial in securing support for the Washington legislation. In January 1911, DeVoe founded a new organization, the nonpartisan National Council of

1917

National Woman’s party picketers arrested in front of the White House and sentenced to jail

Women Voters (NCWV). The Council was made up of women from voting states. The goals of the NCWV were to create an educational organization for women voters, to lobby for legislation, and to extend women’s suffrage nationally. WORKS CITED University of Washington University Libraries. A Ballot for the Ladies. Available from <http://content.lib. washington.edu/exhibits/suffrage/>. Laura Arksey. Emma Smith DeVoe [online]. HistoryLink.org. Updated March 5, 2015. Available from <http://www.historylink.org/index. cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=7588>. Washington State Historical Society. National Council of Women Voters. http://www.washingtonhistory. org/research/whc/milestones/aftersuffrage/ncwv/ Winning the West for Women. The Life of Suffragist Emma Smith DeVoe. Jennifer M. Ross-Nazzal. Published July 2015. Available from <https://www.washington.edu/ uwpress/search/books/ROSWIN.html.>

Josephine Dodge (1855 - 1928)

“We are all agreed on the right of every woman, as of every man, to that individual development which shall make possible her fullest contribution to the social order.” Josephine Dodge favored equal rights, but helped to form one of the most vocal anti-suffrage groups to challenge the campaign to gain women the right to vote. Born February 11, 1855 Josephine Marshall Jewell Dodge, was active

1919

Senate passes the Nineteenth Amendment, beginning ratification process

August 26, 1920

Three quarters of the state legislatures ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, and American Women win full voting rights

All Photos Courtesy: Library of Congress

in the anti-suffrage movement and a pioneer of the day nursery movement in the United States. Raised in an influential, uppermiddle class family, Dodge believed that pursuing women’s right to vote was counterproductive and became increasingly active in opposition to woman suffrage. She believed that suffrage would jeopardize the nonpartisan integrity of women reformers, and progressive legislation related to alimony, dower rights, and property that had been passed. She testified in Albany in 1899 against a limited suffrage law under consideration in New York. In December 1911, she led in organizing and creating the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. She was chosen its first president and served in that role until June 1917. She also edited its circular, Woman’s Protest, for many years. She resigned from the group to accommodate the move of its headquarters to Washington, DC, which was becoming the epicenter of the fight for the Nineteenth Amendment. In her writings, Dodge suggests that women should not be politically responsible for the government if they could not defend it. “The voting woman is exempt from these obligations. She is a privileged voter. While she may have political power, she does not have political control,” she wrote in a 1914 edition of The Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science. “The right of woman to enter the trades or profession has been won independent of her political activities. It is true that a dozen or more trades are closed to her, but her participation in these threatens her welfare as a woman and the state reserves the right to limit her activities therein.” Dodge remained active in local anti11

suffrage activities until the issue was finally conceded in 1919. She attended Vassar College for three years, entering in 1870 as a student in the preparatory department. She left in 1873 when her father, Marshall Jewell, was appointed minister to St. Petersburg by President Grant. In 1873 the family returned to the United States when her father was appointed Postmaster General. She married Arthur M. Dodge in 1875, and became deeply interested in the child-care needs of working mothers. She was the founder of the Association of Day Nurseries of New York City in 1895, and three years later was the first president of the National Federation of Day Nurseries. She died March 6, 1928 in Cannes, France. WORKS CITED: http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/collections/ manuscripts/findingaids/dodge_josephine.html http://www.britannica.com/biography/JosephineMarshall-Jewell-Dodge The Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science. Ella Strong Denison Library, Claremont Colleges Digital Library. Available from <http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/ compoundobject/collection/p15831coll5/id/374/ rec/1> pp 100-104. Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 1. Harvard University Press. Edited by Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S. Boyer. Pp 492-493.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)

A talented poet and author, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper used her writing skills to advocate for

the issues she was passionate about. This included abolition, suffrage, and equal rights. Born to free parents in Baltimore, Maryland but orphaned at three, Harper was raised by her uncle and aunt. Her uncle, a civil rights activist, founded the Academy for Negro Youth that she attended as a child. Her literary talents were discovered early and she published her first book of poems in 1845 when she was 20. Following her move to Ohio to teach at Union Seminary, where she was the first black female teacher, she became involved in the antislavery movement. She joined the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1853 and became a lecturer traveling through the East and Midwest from 1856 to 1860. Harper was a strong supporter of the progressive causes of the day, including women’s suffrage, abolition, and prohibition. After visiting the South during Reconstruction, she began to lecture on the need for equal rights for black people. She joined the American Equal Rights Association and the American Women’s Suffrage Association. In the latter, she worked with the branch pushing for both racial and women’s equality. Her speeches included her prose and poetry, in which she combined the issues of racism, feminism, and classism. Acutely aware of the exclusion of black women from the suffrage movement, Harper along with others, including Josephine Ruffin, formed the National Association of Colored Women. She became the first vice president of the organization. One of only a handful of black women who remained

involved with the majority white suffrage organizations, Harper was committed to getting the right to vote for black and white women. In her first speech at the 11th Annual Women’s Rights Convention in 1866, Harper, then a novice to the women’s movement, gave a moving speech in which she shared her own experience as a widow when her husband’s administrator seized the family farm, leaving her and her daughter homeless. Her subsequent commitment to the women’s rights movement marked her as one among a handful of black women who took the feminist position publicly in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In that same speech, she outlined the double burden for black women and called for equal rights for all. In 1893, a group of women gathered in connection with the World’s Fair as the World’s Congress of Representative Women. Harper joined with Fannie Barrier Williams, and others to charge those organizing the gathering with excluding African American women. Harper’s address at the Columbian Exposition was on “Women’s Political Future.” Her only child, Mary E. Harper never married, and worked alongside her mother lecturing and teaching. She died in 1909. Harper died in Philadelphia in 1911. WORKS CITED http://womenshistory.about.com/od/francesewharper/p/ frances_harper.htm http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/ handle/11299/166352/Harper,%20Frances%20 Ellen%20Watkins.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y One Great Bundle of Humanity: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Available from <https://journals.psu.edu/ pmhb/article/download/44378/44099>

Contemporary Perspective Carrie Chapman Catt’s Utopia: the League of Women Voters By Elisabeth MacNamara

As the League of Women Voters celebrates 95 years of Making Democracy Work®, we have been celebrating our past as we look towards our future and both the 100th anniversary of our organization as well as the 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote.

Carrie Chapman Catt. Photo credit: Library of Congress

The League is not only a direct outgrowth of the movement that secured women’s ability to participate in the American electoral process, it is also the product of early 20th Century progressive thinking that trusted facts and managerial expertise as a means to reform corrupt government institutions. The League’s founder, Carrie Chapman Catt, was first, last and always a progressive, but her views on the reform of democracy were shaped 13

by her life-long struggle to get the vote for women. According to Robert Fowler in his book Carrie Catt: Feminist Politician, Catt believed three things were necessary for a genuine democracy, “The first involved legal change: women’s enfranchisement. The second involved creation of a good citizen through education. The third involved finding an institutional mechanism through which ideal citizens, women especially, could transform American political life.” The League of Women Voters is that institutional mechanism. In the League, Catt “was proposing her ideal for America, her deepest dreams, her utopia.”

Today, the League empowers people every day to tackle the most important issues facing our communities and country to improve government at every level.

This dream was echoed by Maud Wood Park in her farewell address as the League’s first national president in 1924:

Members of the National League of Women Voters, 1923. Photo credit: Library of Congress

“[The League of Women Voters] is an organization of women to help women make the best of themselves as voters, both by intelligent participation in the responsibilities of voting citizens and by special attention to the human welfare side of government in which women are particularly fit to be useful… The League has had the advantage of an extraordinary opportunity, the opportunity afforded by the enfranchisement at one time of approximately 20 million women… the possible advantage of an enormous number of new voters, untrammeled by carelessly made political affiliations, with no bad political tendencies to undo and therefore free to form good political habits from the start.” Early leaders of the National League of Women voters, including Maud Park, the first national president (front left) and Chapman Catt (front right)

While much of this vision remains a utopian ideal, the lesson of the past 95 years is that working collectively, the League is making democracy work® in many of the ways Catt envisioned. Today, the League empowers people every day to tackle the most important issues facing our communities and country to improve government at every level. With a powerful grassroots network that includes nearly 800 state and local Leagues across the country, the League continues to enable Americans to wield the power of the right to vote. From registering thousands of new voters each and every year to providing voters with the elections information they need through our online elections resource – VOTE411.org to advocating for needed reforms to make our elections fair, free and accessible to all eligible citizens, the League will help keep the power of our democracy in the hands of the people for the next 95 years and beyond.

Suffrage and the Seneca Falls Convention In the 1840s, the women who gained experience as part of the antislavery movement quickly became leaders of the growing women’s rights movement. Many of the laws of coverture were still in place, and women lacked basic rights. They did not have equal access to education, their husbands controlled their finances, and they could not vote. Male and female activists began to meet and petition for women’s rights (including the right to vote). In 1848, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and several other women decided to call a meeting in Seneca Falls, New York. About 300 people—including prominent former slave and reformer Frederick Douglass—attended the convention. The group voted on a set of resolutions written by Stanton, who had recently moved to the area with her growing family. (She ultimately had seven children.) Stanton modeled her Declaration of Sentiments after Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. She asserted: “all men and women are created equal.” This statement was controversial at that time. The Declaration called for a range of women’s rights: access to education and job opportunities, more power within the church, and the right to control her own money.

Lucretia Mott at the age of 49 (1842), at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Woman suffrage was the most controversial resolution of the Declaration of Sentiments. The suffrage clause was the only one that meeting attendees did not unanimously adopt. Although some activists did not immediately embrace suffrage as the central aim of the movement, suffrage supporters argued the right to vote was key to ensuring that all of their resolutions became law.

Search Is On To Find the Declaration of Sentiments

The historic Declaration of Sentiments written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton is lost. But there is a real life treasure hunt underway, led by U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, to find the document.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, circa 1880

Key to the debate and conversation that took place at Seneca Falls, the document outlined several arguments in favor of women’s equality. However, the original document has not been seen since that day. Historians know that the document was printed by antislavery activist Frederick Douglass at his newspaper The North Star. Other historic pieces related to this moment in U.S. history have been found. This includes the tea table from the home of Jane and Richard Hunt around which Stanton, Lucretia Mott and three other women decided to organize the Seneca Falls Convention, the first womens’ convention in U.S. A copy of the sentiments is also included in a scrapbook kept by Stanton and her daughter Harriet Stanton Blatch. In October, Smith launched a national search for the original Declaration of Sentiments. “It is not lost on me that the ongoing invisibility of women and girls is a serious issue for our country, and for the world. The invisibility of our history, heroes, stories, challenges, and success handicaps the future of all Americans, and it deeply affects our economy and our communities. The Declaration of Sentiments can help us tell that story,” Smith wrote in a piece for the White House blog announcing the initiative. The difference between a Suffragist and a Suffragette?

D id Yo u ? K NOW 15

There is a difference between the terms “suffragist” and “suffragette.” In the United States, supporters of woman suffrage preferred and used the term suffragist. When the American press, or those who opposed woman suffrage, called an American woman a suffragette, it was intended to be derogatory. The suffix “ette” is a diminutive. It was the same in Great Britain at the turn of the 20th century, when the British suffrage movement was also in full swing. However, a militant group of women voting activists, led by Emmaline Pankhurst, embraced the term “suffragette.” The term suffragette is now used to describe the militant segment of the movement.

NWHM Announces Creation of New

LEGACY

S O C I E T Y In memory and honor of those whose generous gifts and bequests have helped NWHM from the early stages and will continue to support the Museum, the Board of the National Women’s History Museum is proud to announce the creation of NWHM’s Legacy Society. NWHM’s Legacy Society is an exciting opportunity for NWHM Charter Members and friends to have an important role in ensuring women’s history will continue into perpetuity and to ensure this Museum’s continued evolution. We invite you to join the Legacy Society. Each Legacy Society Member’s name will be placed in the Museum’s permanent records, be listed on the NWHM’s website, appear in every NWHM Annual Report and be listed in a prominent location in the Museum once a permanent home is confirmed. Special thanks to the wonderful women who believed in the mission of NWHM early on and to those who have already informed the Museum of remembrance in their will or deferred giving plans. In January 2016, we will have more details about the Legacy Society on the NWHM website (nwhm.org). However should you have questions, please contact Laura Rheintgen at lrheintgen@nwhm.org or call (703) 461-1920. HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

SURVEY REVEALS AMERICANS GET AN In 2015, the National Museum of Women’s History commissioned a study to determine how well Americans know our nation’s heroines, both historical and contemporary. The Museum commissioned a study of more than 1,000 men and women across the country. They asked people a number of different questions, including what they learned in school and who holds the power in our country.

ON WOMEN’S HISTORY

Our study revealed that fewer than one in four Americans consider themselves knowledgeable about notable women and their accomplishments. At right are some of the findings.

#We

R A E H You

Editorial Staff Editor: Melissa Williams, NWHM Communications Manager Art Director: Brandon Scott, Envision Marketing

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