Women’s Suffrage: Why the West First?Women's suffrage succeeded in the West for reasons as diverse as the people and places of the West itself. IntroductionThe 19th Amendment, granting suffrage to women, was approved by Congress in 1920. It was some thirty years previously, however, that Wyoming had entered the Union as the first state to grant women full voting rights. The next eight states to grant full suffrage to women were also Western states: Colorado (1893); Utah and Idaho (1896); Washington (1910); California (1911); and Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona (1912). Why was the West first? Can students explain with a unified theory why Western states anticipated the rest of the nation by so many years on this issue? Or did "women's suffrage succeed… in the West for reasons as diverse as the people and places of the West itself?" Focused on efforts in support of women's suffrage in Western states, this lesson can be used either as a stand-alone unit or as a more specialized sequel to the EDSITEment lesson, Voting Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage, which covers the suffrage movement in general. The latter lesson also contains activities and resources for learning how the movement to gain the vote for women fits into the larger struggle for women's rights in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Guiding Question:Why were the Western states the first in the nation to grant full voting rights for women? Learning ObjectivesAfter
completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to Preparing to Teach this Lesson
1. Why Suffrage Started in the West: What Made the Difference? 2. East Meets West (Optional Activity) 3. Did the Land Make the Difference? 4. Did the Settlers Make the Difference? 5. Did the Women of the West Make the Difference? 6. Did the Western States have Unique Situations that Promoted Suffrage? 1. Why Suffrage Started in the West: What Made the Difference? Establish an anticipatory set by sharing with the class the list Suffrage Firsts, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women of the West Museum. If possible, allow students to view the online interactive map Map: Woman Suffrage on Women in American History, an online exhibit of Britannica.com, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library. It demonstrates quite dramatically the progress of full voting rights for women. Another option is to share the timeline Voting Rights in America on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women of the West Museum. Do students have any theories about why women would achieve the vote in the West first? Distribute to students the poll "How the West Was First: Why Did Suffrage Succeed?", on page 1 of the PDF file (see Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions), which lists a number of possible hypotheses. Students can complete the poll independently or the teacher can lead the class through it. Which reasons were most frequently cited by students as the most likely theories? 2. East Meets West (Optional Activity) Share with your students the following texts illustrating connections between suffrage movements in the West and those in the Northeast: Susan B. Anthony campaigned vigorously in the West, giving many lectures. The following excerpt from Albina L. Washburne, "Annual Meeting, American Woman Suffrage Association: Colorado Report," Woman's Journal, 7 (7 October 1876), pp. 327, 328, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women and Social Movements in the United States, indicates some of the cooperation that took place. The introduction to the excerpt explains: The Colorado Woman Suffrage Association, founded in 1876, gave organizational shape to suffrage sentiment in the state. The state association affiliated with the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), one of two national organizations dedicated to achieving votes for women. The AWSA, which began in November 1869, sought to pass state laws granting women the right to vote, making it the logical affiliation for the Colorado Woman Suffrage Association.The essay The History of the Suffrage Movement, from PBS' Not For Ourselves Alone, a link from the EDSITEment resource New Perspectives on the West, offers this additional background information: American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was led by Lucy Stone with the aid of her husband Henry Blackwell, Mary Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, Henry Ward Beecher, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Thomas Wentworth Higginson and others; it endorsed the Fifteenth Amendment while working for woman suffrage as well.You may also wish to share this excerpt from Washburne's 1876 report with students: Previous to last year there had been very little agitation on the subject of Woman Suffrage in Colorado, and a few of us waiting ones were glad to receive a visit from Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell, of Massachusetts, a tried friend and worker in the Suffrage cause, who arrived in Colorado about the middle of November, 1875. Anxious to avail ourselves of her valuable assistance we Suffragists, then scattered and unknown to each other, gave her a warm welcome and proceeded to agitate a little, and feel the public pulse. Mrs. Campbell lectured in nearly all the principle towns of Colorado, finding many interested, and devoting herself untiringly to presenting the claims of Woman to legal rights, to the popular comprehension, when a call was made for a Convention of the friends to be held at Denver, January 10th, 1876, which was responded to by a few from a distance, and others more numerous from the city. Four sessions were held, an organization effected of the Colorado Woman Suffrage Association…How did the movement in Colorado benefit from this contact with an activist from the Northeast? 3. Did the Land Make the Difference? Share with the class the Introduction to the West on the EDSITEment-reviewed PBS website New Perspectives on the West. It introduces the landscape, myth, and history of the West. What attracted people to the American West? What experiences of the West do your students have (from watching Western movies or visiting the Grand Canyon, for example)? What values have become associated with the exploration and settlement of the vast landscapes of the West? Does the myth of the West, as discussed in "Introduction to the West," help explain why women achieved full voting rights there first? To help students explore this question, briefly share some or all of the following images from the EDSITEment resource American Memory that exemplify the myth of the West. As you show the images, ask students to jot down one to three words they associate with each. Discuss each image briefly and allow students to add a word or two:
4. Did the Settlers Make the Difference? Who came to the West and why? In this activity, students explore the various motivations of those who migrated to the American West. Might the motivations of those who migrated to the West help us to understand the region's early granting of voting rights to women? As you share the following with the class, ask students to invent a character (who, for example, could be in a realistic historical fiction work about the settling of the West) inspired by the materials presented. Every character should have a name, age, reason for coming West, a home place, and a brief story to tell about him or herself:
5. Did the Women of the West Make the Difference? Is the answer connected to the nature and experiences and characters of the women who came to the West? In this activity, students—working individually or in pairs—will learn about a pioneer woman and compose a free verse poem that highlights the details of her life. As a model, share with students the poem Lucinda Matlock by Edgar Lee Masters, available on the EDSITEment resource The Academy of American Poets. Though not about a pioneer woman of the West, this poem gives the details of an entire life history in a few lines. Read the poem aloud in class. After the first reading, ask students what "jumped out at them" from the poem. Now distribute copies of the poem to students and have a volunteer give a second reading. After the reading, ask students to point out concrete details from the life of Lucinda Matlock. Point out to students that the poem does not rhyme—a key characteristic of free verse. Now assign subjects to students from the following list or other sources:
6. Did the Western States have Unique Situations that Promoted Suffrage? Share the following graphics regarding suffrage movements in three states, available on the EDSITEment resource Women of the West Museum: Do these graphics give the impression that the motivations behind the various suffrage movements were similar or different? Students will explore this question working in small groups to research eight of the first nine suffrage states. Divide the class into eight groups. Students should use the following articles and graphics from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women of the West Museum, as well as other available classroom and/or library resources, to research eight Western states. (NOTE: Click on the state name for a summary article. Additional links to graphics and biographies are provided in each article.)
After all groups have made their presentations, reconsider the poll results from Part 1, above. Would students' answers change now? Should other hypotheses be added to the poll? Which hypothesis would be most frequently chosen now as the most likely? Is there a unified theory for why the West gave women full voting rights first? Selected EDSITEment Websites
Other InformationStandards Alignment
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