A Historical Overview of Women's Suffrage
Movement in US and Arizona
By Sumeet Aggarwal
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1.
An Overview Of Women's Suffrage Movement In The United States
2.
The Women's Political Movement In Arizona: Past To The Present
1.
An Overview Of Women's Suffrage Movement In The United States
The women’s suffrage movement achieved victory with the passage of the
19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920. For the first time in
more than 110 years, women were given the right to vote. However,
nine states at this time already guaranteed the women’s vote. At
this time, all nine states lay west of the Mississippi, (Rothschild, p.8).
Indeed, “Although the ideology of suffrage and equal rights was born in
the East, the implementation of equal rights came in the West,” (Rothschild,
p.9). This is also a reflection of the progressive nature of Western
men during this era. This attitude will be seen again in reference
to the passage of women’s suffrage in Arizona in 1912.
The initial effects of women’s suffrage on the national level was limited.
To a great extent it remains limited; women have always been underrepresented
at the federal level. In the first election after the 19th Amendment,
25 states failed to elect a woman, (Rothschild, p. 11). Currently,
26 states do not have a women in their congressional delegation, (Gendergap,
p.1). There are also six states that have never elected a woman to
federal office, (Rothschild, p.2). They are Alaska, Iowa, Vermont,
New Hampshire, Delaware, and Mississippi. While women represent 52
percent of the population, they represent only 21 percent in Congress.
Thus it can be seen that women still have steps to take to achieve true
political equality with men.
This investigation requires further study of the breakdown of the number
of women involved in all levels of the political spectrum. The following
sections will examine the federal system first, then the state level.
On the national level, no woman has ever been elected to the presidency
or vice-presidency. Only once in the nation’s history has a
major political party even nominated a women to the ticket. In 1974,
Walter Mondale made New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro his running
mate. They lost in one of the worst routs in presidential election
history. At the cabinet level, there have been 486 people to have
headed a federal department, only 21 have been women, (Gendergap, p.2).
The first woman cabinet secretary was Frances Perkins, President Franklin
Roosevelt’s Secretary of Commerce, in 1933. Currently, there are
three women running cabinet departments, Janet Reno the Attorney General
runs the Justice Department, Donna Shalala is the head of Health and Human
services, and Madelaine Albright is the secretary of State. Albright
is the highest ranking woman in the history of the executive branch.
The president is also responsible for the nominations of ambassadors.
Helen Eugiene Moore was the first female American ambassador, when in 1949
she was assigned to the Danish Embassy. For the election of 2000,
several prominent women have been mentioned as possible presidential or
vice-presidential candidates.
Since the election of Jeanete Rankin in 1916 to the US House of Representatives,
196 women have followed suit. This number pales in comparison to
the 11,587 people that have served in either the House or Senate, (Gendergap,
p2). Of the 197 women, 170 served in the House, 22 in the Senate,
and five served in both, (Rothschild, p.11). Currently, there are
nine female senators and 56 female representatives. This 12.4 percent
represents the highest, both in percentage and numbers of women serving
in the federal legislature. Only one African-American woman has ever
served in the Senate, Carol Mosely Braun, who lost her reelection bid in
1998. These numbers not only suggest the difficulty women have winning
elections but also that women remained underrepresented in Congress.
The federal judiciary is also a branch of government lacking an equal percentage
of women. There are 1,181 federal judges, 90 percent of whom are
white males. There are 154 female judges. It took 190 years
before a woman sat on the Supreme Court. In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor
took her seat, to be joined in 1993 by Ruth Baeder-Ginsberg. There
have been 113 people to sit on the Supreme Court, and they are the only
two women. This concludes the general overview of women in politics
at the federal level.
The numbers of women holding the highest state office has also been limited.
Since Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became the nation’s first female governor,
only 15 more have followed her lead. There are three women governors
currently holding office: Jane Hull of Arizona, Christie Todd-Whitman of
New Jersey, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Women have made
tremendous strides at levels just below the governorship. There are
18 states with a woman lieutenant governor, 14 serve as secretary of state,
10 run the state treasury, five are state auditors, 10 women serve as attorney
general, and 10 states have women acting as Chief Education Official.
Throughout the nation, there are 7,422 state legislators, 1,652 are women.
They comprise 386 out of 1,984 state senators, and 1,266 out of 5,438 state
representatives. The percentage of female state legislators nearly
mirrors the percentage at the federal level. When one examines the
judicial branch of the various state, one finds the percentage of women
is far lower. Only nine percent of all state judges are women.
This represents a doubling from 1980 when only four percent of state judges
were female. The rising number of female judges is the result of
federal anti-discrimination laws that opened the doors to law schools for
women. Woman also hold the mayoralties of 12 of the 100 largest American
cities. Of nearly 500,000 local officials, slightly more than 100,000,
(Gendergap, p.2). Susanna Medora Salter was the first woman mayor
in the United States when she was elected, as a joke, to be mayor of Argonia,
Kansas in 1887. Today, women are no longer to be regarded as novelties
in the political arena.
Having examined the content of both he state and federal political system,
the discussion turns to an investigation of the 1998 election. In
1998, there were 50 women incumbents, four incumbents chose not to run
for reelection, (Kelly, p. 42). All fifty won, and they were joined
by six more who won open seats. No woman beat a male incumbent, though
three fought closely contested races. In the Senate, three of the
four female incumbents won bids for reelection. The three, all Democrats,
were Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Barbara Boxer of California, and Patty
Murry of Washington. Another Democrat, Blanche Lambert Lincoln claimed
an open seat. Of the nine female senators, seven are Democrats and
two are Republicans. In the House, there are 39 Democratic women
and 17 Republican. These numbers tend to reflect historic voting
patterns of women. In 1998 at the state level, both female incumbent
governors, Hull and Shaheen won reelection. Two women, Schottle of
Colorado and Jones of Nevada lost their gubernatorial races. Three
woman also lost to incumbent male governors. The most surprising
returns came from Arizona which elected women tot he top five state administrative
positions. This will be discussed latter.
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2.
The Women's Political Movement In Arizona: Past To The Present
The focus now turns to the history of women in Arizona politics.
Before initiating this part of the report, it is necessary to provide an
overview of the current political situation to understand ho far Arizona
women have come, and how far they have to go to achieve political equality.
At the federal level, there are no women serving in the Arizona Congressional
delegation. In the entire history of the state, only two women, Isabella
Selmes Greenway, 1933-1937, and Karen English, 1993-1995, have served in
Congress for Arizona. At the state level, only Jane Hull and Rose
Mofford have ever served as governor. Both women became governor
upon the removal of the elected governor. Mofford was elevated upon
Evan Meecham’s impeachment conviction, and Hull because of Fife Symington’s
felony conviction. Hull is the first duly elected female governor
of Arizona. In the state house, 25 of the 60 representatives are
women. In the state senate, seven out of 30 are women. Women
constitute nearly 60 percent of the minority party’s representation and
21 percent of the majority party. In addition to Governor Hull, the
top Arizona official are Betsy Bayless, Secretary of State, Treasurer Carol
Springer, Attorney General Janet Napalitano, and Lisa Graham, Superintendent
of Public Instruction. All but Napalitano are Republicans.
The history of women’s political involvement in Arizona is different that
the rest of the nation. Much of this can be traced to the legacy
of the Spanish legal system. The Spanish legal system gave women
greater rights, among them community property, custody issues, and the
ability to sign contracts, (Rothschild, p.l5). The majority of the
states gave men near absolute dominion over house and home. Women
could not sue or be sued, could not be given custody of minor children,
could not will or inherit property, they could not even own property or
enter into contracts. The Spanish legacy and the independent nature
of men and women in the west helped establish the atmosphere in which women
could work to bring about suffrage.
Early women political leaders like Caroline Cedarholm and Lizzie Garrison
were active in beginning the Arizona temperance movement. Their main
efforts were aimed at establishing control over Prescott’s famed “Whiskey
Row.” As in many other states, the temperance movement was often
a woman’s first step into active politics. It served a as launching
point for many suffragettes. Sallie Hayden was, “...an early leader
in the territorial women’s suffrage movement...” (Rothschild, p.6).
Their voices were not completely ignored by male legislators. In
1881, and again in 1883 and 1885, Murat Masterson introduced a bill entitled
“To Extend the Right of Suffrage to Women.” It was defeate3d every
time in the state house.
Another important woman of this era was Josephine Hughes of
Tucson. She established the first Arizona Suffrage Association.
Like many women, she began her political rise in the temperance movement,
but became convinced that only by given the right to vote, could women
implement temperance movements at the state level. She was given
funding by the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to
aid her cause. Her cause gained greater prominence during the 1891
Arizona Constitutional Convention. Arizona was asked to devise a
state constitution as a pre-condition for statehood. While the issue
was a political hot potato, Congress did not approve of the proposed constitution.
It was not until 1910 Arizona was able to repetition for statehood.
During the intervening 20 years, the issue did not die and women continually
pressed for suffrage. In 1903, the state legislature passed a bill
granting women the vote. Territorial Governor Alexander Brodie vetoed
it on constitutional grounds, (Rothschild, p.10). There was no other
state action on the issue until 1910 when the question of statehood again
arouse. That year saw a new organization take the lead in the suffrage
movement, the Arizona Equal Rights Association. Thought their platform
was not adopted by the convention, they used its language that included
ballot initiatives and referendums to achieve their ends. On July
5, 1912, they gathered enough signature to put suffrage on the November
ballot. It passed in every county of the sate. Arizona became
one of nine states that ensured the women’s vote, eight years before the
implementation of the 19th Amendment.
In 1914, Yavapai County sent Frances Munds to the state senate, and Apache
County sent Rachel Berry to the state house. Munds was only the second
female state senator in the nation, (Rothschild, p.10). Munds and
Berry ran and won , prominently on the strength of women’s issues, such
as tax exemptions for widows and increased school funding. It is
ironic to not 85 years later, male senators want to cut education spending.
Looking back, these women were not only addressing the issues and
needs of their day, but were farsighted in their vision. Both women
served only one term. Munds ran for secretary of State in 1918, but
lost and never ran a political campaign again. By 1920, when the
ratio of men to women finally equalized, there were 17 women in state and
local government.
Unfortunately, the number of women in government stagnated over the course
of the next 45 years. Not until 1967 was there more than one woman
senator. Throughout the majority of those 45 years, there was none.
During the last 20 years, there has never been more than seven female state
senators. A woman has won election to the state house every year
since 1915. The most dramatic increases occurred in 1953, (Kelly,
p.42). In 1987, 15 out of the 60 representatives were women, or 25
percent. Today, that number is 25, or 40 percent.
Isabella Greenway
Frances Munds
The preceding paragraphs have been devised to demonstrate the evolution of women’s political power. There were states and territories that granted women’s suffrage years before the enacting of the 19th Amendment. Arizona was at the forefront of the women’s rights movement, lead by Josephine Hughes, Frances Munds, Isabella Greenway and other on up to the state’s current leadership. While still disproportionately represented, women nationwide and especially in Arizona have made tremendous strides in the acquisition of political power. Further in this website, you can look at exactly how the current leadership rose through the ranks.
Works Cited
Baer, Judith, A.
Women in American Law. Holmes and Meir: New York; 1991.
Gendergap in Governement.
January 9, 1999. March 21, 1999. <http://www.gendergap.com/governme.htm>
Kelly, Rita Mae. Burgess,
Jayne. Kaufman, Katie. "Arizona Woman and the Legislature."
Women and The Arizona Political Process. Maryland: University Press
of America, Inc., 1988.
Rothschild, Mary Aickin.
"A History of Arizona Women’s Politics." Women and The Arizona Political
Process. Maryland: University Press of America, Inc., 1988.
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