Rebekah Clark - Thinking Women: A Timeline of Suffrage in Utah

2019 Better Days 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Deseret Book Company, at permissions@deseretbook.com or PO Box 30178, Salt Lake City, Utah 84130. This work is not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Church or of Deseret Book Company.

Deseret Book is a registered trademark of Deseret Book Company.

Visit us at deseretbook.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kitterman, Katherine, 1987 author. | Clark, Rebekah, 1981 author.

Title: Thinking women : a timeline of suffrage in Utah / Katherine Kitterman & Rebekah Clark.

Description: Salt Lake City : Deseret Book, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: Thinking Women tells, in nuanced and well-documented detail, the remarkable story of Utah women and men who, ahead of their time, refused to acquiesce in outdated notions of justice and equality for women; and who undertook a nationally observed and complicated battle for the right to vote Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019033475 | ISBN 9781629726953 (paperback) | eISBN 978-1-62973-957-1 (eBook)

Subjects: LCSH: WomenSuffrageUtahHistoryChronology. | LCGFT: Chronologies.

Classification: LCC JK1911.U8 K58 2019 | DDC 324.6/209792dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033475

Printed in China

RR Donnelley, Dongguan, China

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover design by Deseret Book Company

Interior design by Re/mark

Contents

Introduction

The story of the struggle for womans suffrage in Utah is the story of all efforts for the advancement and betterment of humanity.

Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon

Utah women led by Emmeline B. Wells welcome national suffrage envoys on the steps of the Utah State Capitol, October 16, 1915.

Utah women led the way for womens rights in many respects, but their suffrage story has largely been lost to history. Most people know about national suffrage leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but they are less aware of the large-scale, grassroots effort that the struggle for womens suffrage entailed. It was the petitions, protests, and persuasions of millions of women (and men) that secured voting rights for women across the country. The cumulative effort of everyday people turned the tide of history.

This book tells Utahs suffrage story through the words and actions of the women who first exercised equal suffrage a full fifty years before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Utah womens experience was unique within the national suffrage movementin part because they secured their rights with the cooperation and support of Utah men and the leadership of the predominant church. This model of women and men working together for the good of the community is inspiring, intriguing, and thought-provoking even today.

American women have always played important roles in their communities, but it took almost a century and a half from the time of the Revolutionary War for women to gain voting rights on a national scale. When the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1787, it gave states the power to regulate their own voting laws. New Jersey initially allowed suffrage for unmarried, property-owning women, but by 1807, no women in the United States had the right to vote.

Women worked for over seventy years to change that. In 1848, at the Seneca Falls womens rights convention, reformers first resolved to seek the right to vote. Then, as now, the question of whose voices should be heard in government was fraught with controversy.

The suffrage movement experienced triumphs and setbacks along the way, but womens voting rights began to spread slowly from west to east. Although Wyomings territorial legislature was the first to pass a womens suffrage law, Utah Territory quickly followed in 1870. Due to the timing of elections, Utah women became the first in the nations history to vote with equal suffrage rights open to all female citizens.

The idea of women voting in Utah shocked the nation. Utah seemed the most unlikely setting for advancements in womens rights. At that time, the territory was populated almost exclusively by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who believed in the practice of plural marriage, or polygamy. Most Americans condemned polygamy as immoral and degrading to women. In 1856, the first Republican Party platform classified polygamy and slavery as twin relics of barbarism that should be eliminated. A few years later, Congress passed the anti-polygamy Morrill Act, but this law was essentially unenforced. Utahs involvement within the suffrage movement stirred nationwide controversy and debate about womens rights, religious freedom, and citizenship.

When Utahs territorial legislature unanimously passed the womens suffrage law in 1870, many anti-polygamists and suffragists hoped that Utah women would use their new political power to eradicate polygamy. As it became clear that Latter-day Saint womens votes were in fact supporting Church leaders, federal lawmakers began efforts to revoke Utah womens suffrage. Confronted with these congressional attacks, Latter-day Saint women in Utah stepped onto the national political stage to speak in defense of their religious and political rights. They viewed themselves as cooperative partners with male Church members in working for the good of their community. Using the organizational network and leadership skills they gained through the Churchs Relief Society, Latter-day Saint women demonstrated that they could be an influential political force. They held protest meetings, petitioned Congress, lobbied for support from national suffrage leaders, and published a pro-suffrage newspaper, the Womans Exponent .

Of course, not all Utah women felt the same way. Several prominent women who were not Latter-day Saints vehemently opposed polygamy and worked to generate support for anti-polygamy legislation. Although many of these women were committed suffragists, they opposed suffrage for Latter-day Saint women, and a few even opposed all Utah womens voting rights as long as polygamy continued. In 1887, Congress revoked all Utah womens suffrage as part of a new anti-polygamy law.

Outraged that the federal government took their suffrage rights away after seventeen years of voting, most Utah suffragists mobilized and worked together to regain the ballot. They organized the Utah Woman Suffrage Association to ensure that womens voting rights would be included in the state constitution once Utah became a state. Suffragists efforts succeeded when Utah entered the Union in 1896 as the third suffrage state.

Many Utah women continued to work toward a national constitutional amendment for womens suffrage. They signed petitions, testified before Congress, spoke at national conventions, and a few even picketed the White House. Their commitment to advocating for the rights of women reveals that they were mindful, strategic, and dedicated participants in the cause.

The Nineteenth Amendment prohibited gender-based voting restrictions when it became national law in 1920, and Utah women celebrated this historic step toward womens equality. It marked the achievement of millions of suffragists spanning multiple generations, and although there was still much to do to ensure that all peoples voices could be heard in government, Utah women had helped pave the way.