Women's Suffrage in Newfoundland

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Women in Newfoundland won the right to vote and run for political office in 1925. [1] The first general election in which women were able to participate occurred in 1928. In that election, 90 per cent of eligible women voters cast ballots. [2] In 1930, Lady Helena Squires became the first woman elected into the Newfoundland House of Assembly after winning a by-election. [3]

Contents

The 1890s

The Newfoundland women’s suffrage movement began in the 1890s and was closely linked to the prohibition movement. In September 1890, a local branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) formed in St. John’s. [2] WCTU members argued that alcohol abuse was a problem in the dominion, and that it led to increased rates of domestic violence and poverty, of which women and children were the primary victims. The WCTU argued that women should be given the right to vote in local option elections, so they could vote on prohibition and other issues. [1]

To help promote its cause, the WCTU published a newsletter called the Water Lily . Edited by Jessie Ohman, it contained editorials and essays calling for women’s suffrage, as well as political cartoons skewering the Newfoundland government and Prime Minister Sir William Whiteway, who was seen as being weak on prohibition and women’s suffrage. [4] The WCTU also circulated a petition across the island of Newfoundland, demanding the women be given the right to vote in local option elections. On March 18, 1891, WCTU members marched to the Colonial Building and gave the petition to the government. [1] The Newfoundland legislature debated enfranchising women on March 15, 1892, but defeated the motion in a vote of 13 to ten. Another vote on May 4, 1893 was also unsuccessful, with 17 votes against the suffrage bill and 14 in favor. [2]

The WCTU then stopped advocating for suffrage and turned its attention to missionary and charitable work.

Second Wave of the Suffrage Movement

Although the WCTU was no longer fighting for women’s suffrage, the topic did not entirely disappear from the public consciousness. Suffragists were active in other parts of the world, and news of their work was reported in Newfoundland newspapers and debated in local clubs and societies. [5]

However, most clubs were fraternal and barred women. In response, a group of St. John’s women formed the Ladies Reading Room in 1909 to give women a space to discuss current affairs and read international journals and newspapers. [2] The Reading Room also hosted a Current Events Club, which met every Saturday to debate current affairs, including suffrage. The Ladies Reading Room and Current Events Club politicized a new generation of suffragists. Its leaders included Armine Gosling, Fannie McNeil, Myra Campbell, Anna (Barnes) Mitchell, Agnes Miller Ayre, and Adeline Browning. [1]

The outbreak of the First World War caused suffragists to reduce their efforts, but, when the war ended, the movement gained significant ground. The war service of Newfoundland women helped the postwar suffragettes make their case that women deserved the vote. The Women's Patriotic Association (which was formed in 1914 to support the war effort) and its leaders were to key to the postwar proliferation of women's civic organizations, including the suffrage movement. [6] In 1920, Armine Gosling, Adeline Browning, and Anna Mitchell founded the Newfoundland Women’s Franchise League. [7] Browning was also London representative to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. [6] The Franchise League had one goal: to win voting rights for women. League members embarked on an island-wide publicity campaign: suffragists screened advertisements in movie houses, published essays and letters in newspapers, canvassed homes and businesses, and circulated a petition throughout the island to garner support. [1] Their efforts ended in success on March 9, 1925, when Prime Minister Walter Stanley Monroe introduced a suffrage bill to the legislature. It passed unanimously and became law on April 3, 1925. [8] [9] It was not, however, a total success: women could become voters at the age of 25, while men could vote at the age of 21. [10] Nonetheless, suffragists hailed the new law as a victory and the Women’s Franchise League changed its name to The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan organization that promoted such social issues as compulsory education, child welfare, and maternal health. [5]


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Women's suffrage in Hawaii began 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 Hawai'i 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's suffrage in Maine</span>

While women's suffrage in Maine had an early start, dating back to the 1850s, it was a long, slow road to equal suffrage. Early suffragists brought speakers Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone to the state in the mid-1850s. Ann F. Jarvis Greely and other women in Ellsworth, Maine, created a women's rights lecture series in 1857. The first women's suffrage petition to the Maine Legislature was also sent that year. Working-class women began marching for women's suffrage in the 1860s. The Snow sisters created the first Maine women's suffrage organization, the Equal Rights Association of Rockland, in 1868. In the 1870s, a state suffrage organization, the Maine Women's Suffrage Association (MWSA), was formed. Many petitions for women's suffrage were sent to the state legislature. MWSA and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Maine worked closely together on suffrage issues. By the late 1880s the state legislature was considering several women's suffrage bills. While women's suffrage did not pass, during the 1890s many women's rights laws were secured. During the 1900s, suffragists in Maine continued to campaign and lecture on women's suffrage. Several suffrage organizations including a Maine chapter of the College Equal Suffrage League and the Men's Equal Rights League were formed in the 1910s. Florence Brooks Whitehouse started the Maine chapter of the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1915. Suffragists and other clubwomen worked together on a large campaign for a 1917 voter referendum on women's suffrage. Despite the efforts of women around the state, women's suffrage failed. Going into the next few years, a women's suffrage referendum on voting in presidential elections was placed on the September 13, 1920 ballot. But before that vote, Maine ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on November 5, 1920. It was the nineteenth state to ratify. A few weeks after ratification, MWSA dissolved and formed the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Maine. White women first voted in Maine on September 13, 1920. Native Americans in Maine had to wait longer to vote. In 1924, they became citizens of the United States. However, Maine would not allow individuals living on Indian reservations to vote. It was not until the passage of a 1954 equal rights referendum that Native Americans gained the right to vote in Maine. In 1955 Lucy Nicolar Poolaw (Penobscot) was the first Native American living on a reservation in Maine to cast a vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's suffrage in North Dakota</span>

Women's suffrage in North Dakota began when North Dakota was still part of the Dakota Territory. During this time activists worked for women's suffrage, and in 1879, women gained the right to vote at school meetings. This was formalized in 1883 when the legislature passed a law where women would use separate ballots for their votes on school-related issues. When North Dakota was writing its state constitution, efforts were made to include equal suffrage for women, but women were only able to retain their right to vote for school issues. An abortive effort to provide equal suffrage happened in 1893, when the state legislature passed equal suffrage for women. However, the bill was "lost," never signed and eventually expunged from the record. Suffragists continued to hold conventions, raise awareness, and form organizations. The arrival of Sylvia Pankhurst in February 1912 stimulated the creation of more groups, including the statewide Votes for Women League. In 1914, there was a voter referendum on women's suffrage, but it did not pass. In 1917, limited suffrage bills for municipal and presidential suffrage were signed into law. On December 1, 1919, North Dakota became the twentieth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's suffrage in South Dakota</span>

Women's suffrage in South Dakota started when it was part of Dakota Territory. Prior to 1889, it had a shared women's suffrage history with North Dakota. While South Dakota was part of the territory, women earned the right to vote on school related issues. They retained this right after it became a separate state. The state constitution specified that there would be a women's suffrage amendment referendum in 1890. Despite a large campaign that included Susan B. Anthony and a state suffrage group, the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association (SDESA), the referendum failed. The state legislature passed additional suffrage referendums over the years, but each was voted down until 1918. South Dakota was an early ratifier of the Nineteenth Amendment, which was approved during a special midnight legislative session on December 4, 1919.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's suffrage in New Jersey</span> History of suffrage in New Jersey

Suffrage in New Jersey was available to most women and African Americans immediately upon the formation of the state. The first New Jersey state constitution allowed any person who owned a certain value of property to become a voter. In 1790, the state constitution was changed to specify that voters were "he or she." Politicians seeking office deliberately courted women voters who often decided narrow elections. This was so the democratic-republican party had an advantage in the presidential election of 1808.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Duley, Margot I. (1993). Where once our mothers stood we stand : women's suffrage in Newfoundland, 1890-1925. Charlottetown, P.E.I.: Gynergy. ISBN   092188124X. OCLC   28850183.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Women's Suffrage". www.heritage.nf.ca. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  3. ↑ "Lady Helena E. (Strong) Squires". Library and Archives Canada. 2000.
  4. ↑ "United Church Archives". collections.mun.ca. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  5. 1 2 Pursuing equality : historical perspectives on women in Newfoundland and Labrador . Kealey, Linda, 1947-, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Institute of Social and Economic Research. St. John's, Nfld.: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland. 1993. ISBN   0919666779. OCLC   28024831.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. 1 2 A sisterhood of suffering and service : women and girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War. Glassford, Sarah., Shaw, Amy. Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Press. 2012. ISBN   978-0-7748-2258-9. OCLC   1037927174.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ↑ Creating this place : women, family, and class in St. John's, 1900-1950. Porter, Marilyn, 1942-, Cullum, Linda K. (Linda Kathleen), 1949-. Montreal. April 2014. ISBN   9780773590342. OCLC   865225347.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. ↑ "Women's Suffrage in Atlantic Canada". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  9. ↑ Hart, Anne (Winter 1988). "Prominent Figures from our Recent Past: Armine Gosling". Newfoundland Quarterly. 83 (3): 19–20 – via Digital Archives Initiative.
  10. ↑ MacDonald, Heidi (5 May 2017). "View of Women's Suffrage and Confederation | Acadiensis". Acadiensis. 46 (1). Retrieved 2019-11-19.
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