Women

Depiction of early Idaho kitchen. Dr. Brent Kidder, Boise Schools, Boise, Idaho. Courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Museum.

The path to gaining the vote (suffrage) for women was not an easy one. Sandra Day O’Connor writes in a history of the women’s suffrage movement that in the early nineteenth century, men and women lived in separate spheres, rooted in the belief that women were subordinate to men by nature, almost certainly less intelligent, and biologically less suited to the rigors of business and politics. O’Connor, currently a United States Supreme Court Justice, writes that as the nation struggled morally and intellectually with the continued existence of slavery, women became active in antislavery (abolitionist) movements, and reformers learned organizational and political skills that they ultimately used in pressing for their own rights.30

Why Suffrage?

Lone woman among miners. Courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Society, accession number 596.

One argument for suffrage was that if former slaves and native-born Chinese could vote, then white women should at least be their political equals.31 In Idaho, however, there was no women’s rights association in the 1860s, and no Idaho woman publicly advocated women’s suffrage. In 1871 a 32-year-old male legislator, Dr. Joseph Morgan of Malad, began Idaho’s efforts to extend voting rights (enfranchise) to women. Dr. Morgan argued that women were qualified to vote and that their influence would help to improve the conditions of the lowly. Another proponent of enfranchising women argued that “to save men from being drunkards and gamblers we must give women something besides style and dress to think about.”

These efforts lost on a tie vote, and it would be 25 years before Idaho enfranchised women in 1896.32

An argument against women’s suffrage was that it would give Mormons more political power.33 In the 1870s, there were nine men in Idaho for every woman, but LDS towns had nearly as many women as men.34

Promoting suffrage was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which believed it was a key to passing laws banning the sale of alcohol. Some suffrage proponents attempted to distance themselves from the WCTU, believing miners and liquor interests would not support their cause if they thought it would result in prohibition.35

Working for Suffrage

Mae Hutton. Courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Society, accession number 80-37.54.

Abigale Scott Dunaway, of Portland, Oregon, published a weekly women’s rights paper from 1871 to 1887. Starting in 1876, she visited Idaho occasionally to speak with legislators and others. Idaho women traveled the state on behalf of suffrage, joining Carrie Chapman Catt, a nationally famous suffragette, who spent a month in Idaho in 1896. Also working for suffrage was Mae Hutton, who ran a boarding house in Wallace. Hutton swore and smoked cigars and was known as “the Battleaxe of the Coeur d’Alenes.” ‘

She went on to become the first woman in history to be a delegate to a Democratic national convention.36 She presented an image far different from that of members of the LDS Relief Society, who also spoke throughout the state promoting suffrage.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Bingham Stake Relief Society board, 1900. Courtesy of Mary Jane Fritzen, Idaho Falls, Idaho, private collection.

Idaho approved voting rights for women in 1896, becoming the fourth state to do so. Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado did so earlier, but ten states had voted on women’s suffrage amendments, four of them twice, without success. Idaho was the first state to have pro-suffrage platforms in all major parties—Democratic, Republican, Silver Republican, and Populist—as well as the minor parties— Prohibition and Socialist. Idaho was also the first state to gain suffrage by a constitutional amendment. All counties in Idaho except Custer voted for suffrage, with Mormon counties favoring the amendment by the largest majorities. Just one year earlier, women had been granted the right to vote in school elections.37

Mary Wright, Clara Campbell, and Hattie Noble, first women to serve in Idaho legislature, 1898. Courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Society, accession number 75.2.

The first three women to serve in the Idaho Legislature were elected in 1898 and represented three political parties. Mary Wright of Rathdrum celebrated her thirtieth birthday at the time she was sworn into office. She was the first woman in the country to lead her party (the Populists) in a state legislature. Clara Campbell of Boise was a Republican, and Hattie Noble of Idaho City was a Democrat. The three women voted together to pass Idaho’s first anti-gambling bill, but they divided on party lines on other issues. Wright worked to ensure that women could vote in school elections by amending a public school act to read that both husband and wife were to be considered the head of a family and thus eligible to vote.38

Suffrage poster. Courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Society.

Women became eligible to serve on juries in Idaho in 1896 when they obtained the right to vote. Frances Wood of Boise was said to be the first area female juror. However, jury service by women was rare since Idaho trial judges and the Idaho State Bar reserved jury duty for men. Prosecutors, however, liked to have women jurors on cases involving prohibition violations. For example, an all-female jury convicted a man for unlawful possession of alcohol. He appealed his case on the grounds that women were ineligible to serve. The Idaho Supreme Court in 1924 upheld his position, and the next legislative session saw a bill defeated that would have given women the right to be jurors.39, 40 Not until 1943 did it become legal for women to serve on juries.

Frances Wood, early woman juror from Boise, Idaho. Courtesy of the State Historical Society, accession number 488-A.

In the 1960s organizations such as Vote Rockers and the YWCA worked to improve the status of women. Margaret Mead, the internationally prominent anthropologist, spoke at the College of Idaho about a variety of cultural issues impacting women and minorities.

Margaret Meade during a visit to Idaho. Courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Society, accession number 87-15.13d.

In 1971 the United States Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the different treatment of men and women might, under certain circumstances, constitute denial of the equal protection laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Under leadership from the state’s sole female state senator, Edith Miller Klein, Idaho was among the first states to adopt (in 1972) the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the United States Constitution. Nationally Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative activist, led a successful effort to prevent ratification of the ERA. And in 1977 Idaho rescinded its ratification.

In the period from 1960 to 1980 Idaho laws changed regarding gender and community property, head of household, contracts, child custody, and the elimination of alimony.

FOOTNOTES: 30- O’Connor, Sandra Day, The History of Women’s Suffrage Movement, Vanderbilt Law Review, 1996, p. 2. 31- Larson, T. A., Woman’s Rights in Idaho, Idaho Yesterdays, Spring 1972, p. 13. 32- Ibid., pp. 2-3. 33- Ibid., p. 14. 34- Arrington, p. 433. 35- Larson, p. 6. 36- Penson-Ward, Who’s Who of Idaho Women of the Past, Idaho Commission on Women’s Programs, Parvin Printing, 1981, p. 188. 37- Larson, pp. 13-15. 38- Cox, Elizabeth M., Women Will Have a Hand in Such Matters from Now On, Idaho’s First Lawmakers, Idaho Yesterdays, 1994, p. 3. 39- State v. Kelly, 39 Idaho 668, 229p, 659 (1924). 40- Gerritsen Collection of Women’s History, microfilm (1980), Women Gather in Washington to Demand Industrial Equality, http://womhist.binghamton.edu/era/doc9.htm, accessed April, 2003.