This is a list of Hawaii suffragists, suffrage groups and others associated with the cause of women's suffrage in Hawaii.
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Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole was a prince of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi until it was overthrown by a coalition of American and European businessmen in 1893. He later went on to become a representative in the Territory of Hawaii as delegate to the United States Congress, and as such is the only royal-born member of Congress.
Joseph Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahī, also known by his full Hawaiian name Iosepa Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu, was a Native Hawaiian nationalist leader, legislator, lawyer, newspaper publisher, and painter. Through his long political service during the monarchy and the important roles he played in the resistance and opposition to its overthrow, Nāwahī is regarded as an influential Hawaiian patriot.
Kekela-o-kalani or Kekela was a common female name among members of the Hawaiian royal family:
The Oʻahu Cemetery is the resting place of many notable early residents of the Honolulu area. They range from missionaries and politicians to sports pioneers and philosophers. Over time it was expanded to become an area known as the Nuʻuanu Cemetery.
Samuel Parker, known as Kamuela Parker was a major landowner and businessman on the island of Hawaii, heir to the Parker Ranch estate. He was also a leading political figure at a critical time of the history of the Kingdom of Hawaii, serving in its last cabinet.
Abigail Kuaihelani Maipinepine Bright Campbell was a member of the nobility of the Kingdom of Hawaii. During her life, she married two powerful businessmen, particularly adding to the success of her first husband, James Campbell, and giving him descendants. Among their grandchildren were three heirs to the throne of the kingdom of Hawaii.
Women's suffrage was established in the United States on a full or partial basis by various towns, counties, states, and territories during the latter decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. As women received the right to vote in some places, they began running for public office and gaining positions as school board members, county clerks, state legislators, judges, and, in the case of Jeannette Rankin, as a member of Congress.
Emma Kailikapuolono Metcalf Beckley Nakuina was an early Hawaiian female judge, curator and cultural writer. Descended from an American sugar planter and a Hawaiian high chiefess, she was educated in Hawaii and California. She served as curator of the Hawaiian National Museum from 1882 to 1887 and as Commissioner of Private Ways and Water Rights from 1892 to 1907. In her role as a government commissioner, she is often regarded as Hawaii's first female judge. During the early 1900s, she became a supporter of the women's suffrage movement in the Territory of Hawaii. Nakuina was also a prolific writer on the topic of Hawaiian culture and folklore and her many literary works include Hawaii, Its People, Their Legends (1904).
David Kahalekula Kaʻauwai was a lawyer and politician of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He served two terms as a member of the House of Representatives of the Legislature of the Kingdom from 1854 to 1855. His father and younger brother were also legislators while his niece became a Princess of Hawaii.
William Hoapili Kaʻauwai was a Hawaiian high chief and politician, and religious deacon of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He served two terms as a member of the House of Representatives of the Legislature of the Kingdom in 1862 and 1870. He became the only Native Hawaiian to be ordained a deacon of the Anglican Church of Hawaii and traveled with its founder Queen Emma to Europe between 1865 and 1866, circumnavigating the globe upon his return eastward via New Zealand.
William Pūnohuʻāweoweoʻulaokalani White was a Hawaiian lawyer, sheriff, politician, and newspaper editor. He became a political statesman and orator during the final years of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the beginnings of the Territory of Hawaii. Despite being a leading Native Hawaiian politician in this era, his legacy has been largely forgotten or portrayed in a negative light, mainly because of a reliance on English-language sources to write Hawaiian history. He was known by the nickname of "Pila Aila" or "Bila Aila" for his oratory skills.
Wilhelmine Kekelaokalaninui Widemann Dowsett was a Native Hawaiian suffragist who helped organize the National Women's Equal Suffrage Association of Hawaii, the first women's suffrage club in the Territory of Hawaii in 1912. She actively campaigned for the rights of the women of Hawaii to vote prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920.
Emma Ahuena Davison Taylor was a part-Native Hawaiian high chiefess during the 20th century. She was a cultural historian, a genealogist, and a repository of Hawaiian culture and history who wrote many articles and recollections about the past and influenced her husband, Albert Pierce Taylor, the author of the historical book Under Hawaiian Skies. She was involved in local philanthropic, historical, and civic groups and participated in the women's suffrage movement in the Territory of Hawaii, campaigning for the rights of local women to vote prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Emma ʻAʻima Aʻii Nāwahī was a Native Hawaiian political activist, community leader and newspaper publisher. She and her husband Joseph Nāwahī were leaders in the opposition to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and they co-founded Ke Aloha Aina, a Hawaiian language newspaper, which served as an important voice in the resistance to the annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States. After annexation, she helped establish the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi and became a supporter of the women's suffrage movement.
Emilie Kekāuluohi Widemann Macfarlane was a Native Hawaiian activist and civic organizer during the late 19th and early 20th centuries She was known for her charitable work and civic involvement in Honolulu, including women's suffrage, public health, education, and the preservation of Hawaii's historical legacy.
Hui Aloha ʻĀina were two Hawaiian nationalist organizations established by Native Hawaiian political leaders and statesmen and their spouses in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and Queen Liliʻuokalani on January 17, 1893. The organization was formed to promote Hawaiian patriotism and independence and oppose the overthrow and the annexation of Hawaii to the United States. Its members organized and collected the Kūʻē Petitions to oppose the annexation, which ultimately blocked a treaty of annexation in the United States Senate in 1897.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Hawaii. Hawaii went through a transition where it was first the Kingdom of Hawaii, then a political coup overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893. Women were not allowed to vote and lost political power in the provisional government. In the same year as the coup, Wilhelmina Kekelaokalaninui Widemann Dowsett and Emma Kaili Metcalf Beckley Nakuina began to make plans to support women's suffrage efforts. When Hawaii was annexed, members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) advocated for women's suffrage for the territory. In 1912, Dowsett and a diverse group of women created the National Women's Equal Suffrage Association of Hawaiʻi (WESAH). In 1915 and 1916 Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole brought women's suffrage petitions to the United States Congress, but no action was taken. In 1919, suffragists from WESAH fought for women's suffrage in the territorial legislature, but were also unsuccessful. Women in Hawaii gained the right to vote when the Nineteenth Amendment became part of the United States Constitution on August 26, 1920.
Women's suffrage began in Hawaii in the 1890s. However, when the Hawaiian Kingdom ruled, women had roles in the government and could vote in the House of Nobles. After the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893, women's roles were more restricted. Suffragists, Wilhelmine Kekelaokalaninui Widemann Dowsett and Emma Kaili Metcalf Beckley Nakuina, immediately began working towards women's suffrage. The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Hawaii also advocated for women's suffrage in 1894. As Hawaii was being annexed as a US territory in 1899, racist ideas about the ability of Native Hawaiians to rule themselves caused problems with allowing women to vote. Members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) petitioned the United States Congress to allow women's suffrage in Hawaii with no effect. Women's suffrage work picked up in 1912 when Carrie Chapman Catt visited Hawaii. Dowsett created the National Women's Equal Suffrage Association of Hawaiʻi that year and Catt promised to act as the delegate for NAWSA. In 1915 and 1916, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole brought resolutions to the U.S. Congress requesting women's suffrage for Hawaii. While there were high hopes for the effort, it was not successful. In 1919, suffragists around Hawaii met for mass demonstrations to lobby the territorial legislature to pass women's suffrage bills. These were some of the largest women's suffrage demonstrations in Hawaii, but the bills did not pass both houses. Women in Hawaii were eventually franchised through the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Almira Hollander Pitman was an American suffragist and women's rights activist. Pitman was largely active in New England and Massachusetts suffrage organizations. She was also instrumental in working for women's suffrage in Hawaii. Pitman was also known for her writing.
The election of women to the Hawaii Territorial Legislature was a complex process. Women did not have the right to vote in the Republic of Hawaii after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Upon the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, women gained suffrage almost immediately began seeking election to the Territorial Legislature, but the Hawaiian Organic Act dictated that only "a male citizen of the United States" could hold territorial office.