John Hughes - Ahead of the Curve, Washington Women Lead the Way

First Edition

Copyright 2019

Legacy Washington

Office of the Secretary of State

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-889320-42-7

eISBN 978-1-889320-43-4

Front cover photo credits, top to bottom:

Linea Laird, Washington State Department of Transportation

Chris Gregoire and Ana Mari Cauce, Dan Schlatter/University of Washington

Elsie Parrish, Associated Press

Stephanie Coontz, Karissa Carlson/The Evergreen State College

Josephine Corliss Preston, Library of Congress

Mary-Claire King, University of Washington

Fawn Sharp, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

Mabel Seagrave, University of Washington Libraries

Trish Millines Dziko, Redstone Pictures Inc.

Title page:

Suffragist figurine is from the collection

of Jeffrey Coppersmith, Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times

Book Design by Lori Larson

Cover Design by Amber Raney

Printed in the United States of America

by Gorham Printing, Centralia, Washington

To the Washington suffragists who led the way.

Washington Equal Suffrage Association posting signs to promote woman suffrage, Seattle, 1910. Asahel Curtis/Washington State Archives

C ONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

W ASHINGTON W OMEN L EAD THE W AY

W ith the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920, the women of Americamost of them at leastfinally won the vote. But as the late, great Cokie Roberts put it so eloquently: We had the right to vote as American citizens. We didnt have to be granted it by some bunch of guys.

Washington women won back that fundamental rightthe cornerstone of participatory democracya decade earlier. This remarkable book celebrates the fact that the suffrage victory in our state on November 8, 1910, energized the national movement and created role models for generations to come.

Fittingly, the book opens with a biography of Josephine Corliss Preston, the Walla Walla suffragist who in 1912 became our first female statewide elected official. Our nationally prominent Superintendent of Public Instruction was also a charter member of the League of Women Voters.

Fast forward to 2020 for a chapter spotlighting another trailblazing educator, Ana Mari Cauce, the first female president of the University of Washington.

Ahead of the Curve also features Dr. Mabel Seagrave, the pioneering Seattle physician who volunteered to serve in France during World War I, as well as Mary-Claire King, the brilliant scientist who discovered the first gene linked to hereditary breast cancer.

Another chapter reminds us that extraordinary ordinary women can change history. Elsie Parrish, a Wenatchee hotel chambermaid, was shortchanged by her employer. She took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won a landmark victory in 1937. Her triumph cleared the legal path not only for minimum wages, but also for Social Security.

Still, it took a long, hard struggle to achieve the $500 million settlement for underpaid female state workers that future governor Chris Gregoire spearheaded in 1986.

Thanks to womens votes and womens voices, 127 womena record numbernow serve in the United States Congress. Among them, we can proudly boast, are seven from Washington. A chapter on the extraordinary Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst documents the rise of female judges in our state. In addition to full-length profiles of Washington women who led the way, this book features panels from the Ahead of the Curve exhibit that spotlight other sheroes.

In 1954, Julia Butler Hansen of Cathlamet came within a few votes of becoming the first female Speaker of the Washington State House of Representatives. The men closed ranks at the last minute to deny her the honor and privilege she had earned and deserved. Julia went on to become one of the most powerful and admired women in the history of the United States Congress. How proud she would be to know that in 2020 a woman finally wields the gavel in the House of Representatives at Olympia.

In the hundred years since ratification of the 19th Amendment, the cause of gender equality has made remarkable gains. Yet in the ramp-up to the celebration of the Suffrage Centennial, the National Womens History Museum has discovered that only 178 female historic figures are included in national K-12 social studies guidelinesor as Smithsonian magazine calculates, one woman for every three men.

Washington women have always been ahead of the curve. Clearly, however, theres a lot more work to do.

Washington Secretary of State

19TH AMENDMENT:

D EMOCRACY FOR SOME , NOT ALL

A s originally written, the U.S. Constitution did not address voting rights. In early U.S. history, states allowed only white male property owners to vote. Women were largely prohibited from voting, or disenfranchised, as were non-white men.

The property-owning requirement faded by the Civil War. In 1870, the 15th Amendment said states couldnt deny voting rights to citizens because of race or coloralthough some states erected barriers such as poll taxes and literacy tests. But it was silent on women, who were still disenfranchised.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment cleared the way for most white and black women to vote. But there were exceptions. Until 1922, an American-born woman couldnt vote if she was married to an immigrant (foreign-born and not yet naturalized, or a citizen). And even after 1922, she couldnt vote if she had married an Asian immigrant.

In 1924, Native American men and women were granted voting rights, although, again, some states created obstacles to exercising those rights.

But it would be several decades before prohibitions on Asian immigrants becoming citizens were removed. A 1943 law sponsored by Congressman Warren G. Magnuson of Washington allowed Chinese immigrants already residing in the U.S to become naturalized citizens with voting rights. Federal law three years later extended the opportunity for citizenship and voting rights to Filipino and Indian immigrants. And the federal McCarran-Walter Act did the same for Korean and Japanese immigrants in 1952.

JOSEPHINE CORLISS PRESTON

E DUCATOR , S UFFRAGIST , P OLITICIAN