New
York State had granted women the right to vote in 1917,
three years before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
made female suffrage the law of the land. This accomplishment
was due in no small part to the tireless activism of female
suffragists who traveled the state for years, lobbying
legislators in Albany, organizing demonstrations, and
raising
funds for female causes. The Women's Division of the New
York State Democratic Committee was formed as a means of
channeling the votes of newly enfranchised women towards
Democratic candidates, and by the mid-1920s it had become
one of the focal points of female political power in New
York State.
Eleanor Roosevelt began her association with the Women's
Division in 1922 when Nancy
Cook invited her to speak at a luncheon meeting of the
division's members. The collaboration of ER and Cook proved
to be the beginning of a long political partnership that
would last through the New Deal, and the two women soon
became close friends. They were joined in their activities
by three other prominent female politicos: Elinor Morgenthau,
Marion
Dickerman, and Caroline
O'Day. Together these five women dominated the Women's
Division for the remainder of the 1920s and their dogged
support proved invaluable to FDR's
success in the gubernatorial election of 1928.
Although the Women's Division would grow increasingly less
important as women became more integrated into mainstream
political life, the contributions of its leaders during
the 1920s and 1930s were immense. Caroline O'Day would ultimately
become the most prominent female member of Congress in the
1930s, and it must be noted that it was in the Women's Division
that Eleanor Roosevelt acquired her early skills as a political
operative.
Sources:
Cook, Blanche Wiesen. Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One,
1884-1933. New York: Viking Press, 1992, 319-320, 322,
324, 339-340.
The New York State Democratic Committee. Internet
on-line. Available From http://www.nydems.org/ERLP/celebrating.html.