Article May 10, 1900 Issue

Progress of Equal Suffrage

with contributions from Newell Dwight Hillis

Woman's Journal

Sixty-Five years ago women could not vote anywhere. In 1838 Kentucky gave school suffrage to widows. In 1861 Kansas gave it to all women. In 1869 England gave municipal suffrage to single women and widows, and Wyoming gave full suffrage to all women. School suffrage was granted in 1875 by Michigan and Minnesota, in 1876 by Colorado, in 1878 by New Hampshire and Oregon, in 1879 by Massachusetts, in 1880 by New York and Vermont. In 1881 municipal suffrage was extended to the single women and widows of Scotland. Nebraska gave school suffrage in 1883 and Wisconsin in 1885. In 1886 school suffrage was given in Washington, and municipal suffrage to single women and widows in New Brunswick and Ontario. In 1887 municipal suffrage was extended to all women in Kansas, and school suffrage in North and South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, and New Jersey. In the same year, Montana gave tax-paying women the right to vote upon all questions submitted to the taxpayers. In 1889 municipal suffrage was extended to single women and widows in the province of Quebec. In 1891 school suffrage was granted in Illinois. In 1893 school suffrage was granted in Connecticut and full suffrage in Colorado and New Zealand. In 1894 school suffrage was granted in Ohio, a limited municipal suffrage in Iowa, and parish and district suffrage in England to women both married and single. In 1895 full suffrage was granted in South Australia to women both married and single. In 1896 full suffrage was granted in Utah and Idaho. In 1898 municipal and county suffrage were granted to the single women and widows of Ireland, the women of Minnesota were given the right to vote for library trustees, and Louisiana gave taxpaying women the right to vote upon all questions submitted to the taxpayers. In 1899 the Legislature of Oregon passed an amendment to grant full suffrage to women, by a vote of 48 to 6 in the House and 25 to 1 in the Senate.

The trend of civilization is clearly in the direction of equal rights for women. Hon. John D. Long calls the opposition "a slowly-melting glacier of bourbonism and prejudice." He adds: "I want to be on record as having melted out early, or rather as having never been frozen in."

Woman's Journal.

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