Women's History Month 2020: Suffrage in Utah

 Western suffragists, including Utahns Martha Hughes Cannon, Sarah M. Kimball, Emmeline B. Wells, and Zina D. H. Young, pose with national suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw at the 1895 Rocky Mountain Suffrage Meeting in Salt Lake City. Wikimedia Commons

So Wyoming is the Equality State but Utah women beat the Wyoming women to the polls. "On February 14, 1870, several women voted in the Salt Lake City municipal election, becoming the first women to legally cast a vote in a United States election under an equal suffrage law." They had just been granted equal suffrage 4 days earlier and approximately 2,000 women voted in the territorial elections in August.[1]

Many years ago I spoke at a conference on the topic of 19th century women's views on Mormon polygamy and the non-history crowd was outraged that I would suggest that Mormon women, even under polygamy, had in some cases more freedoms than other American women of their time. Am I saying that I think polygamy is the way to go? No. But I knew that in Utah, Mormon women were encouraged to have their own publications, to go to medical school, to divorce if they needed to, and to vote. And Mormon women were active in the suffrage movement and had even worked closely with Susan B Anthony.

But as we discussed in the post Suffrage and Polygamy, the relationship between Mormon women and other suffragists was not always an easy one. And many suffragists didn't like that Mormon women enjoyed full suffrage but lived a lifestyle that was less than ideal for women. 

Utah women didn't have suffrage for long. Americans were outraged over polygamy. They started to ask Congress to do something. The Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887 not only took suffrage rights away from Mormon women but it disenfranchised all women in Utah. These women, understandably were less than happy since they had had voting rights for 17 years. Once the Mormon church disavowed polygamy, and became a state, Utah women were given back the right to suffrage in 1896.[2]

While overall the western states were early adapters to women's suffrage not all followed Wyoming and Utah's examples of giving women the right to vote in the 19th century. Some granted suffrage earlier than 1920 but not much earlier. We will look at one of those examples tomorrow.






















[1]"First to Vote," Church History Museum (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/training/museum/first-to-vote?lang=eng: accessed 17 March 2020).
[2] "GAINING, LOSING, AND WINNING BACK THE VOTE: THE STORY OF UTAH WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE," Utah Woman History (https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/2018/02/receiving-losing-and-winning-back-the-vote-the-story-of-utah-womens-suffrage/: accessed 17 March 2020).