Timeline of Wisconsin Women’s Suffrage

1846

• Debates about enfranchising women and/or African Americans occur at Wisconsin constitutional conventions.

1848

• Wisconsin enters the union as a free state, but the state constitution contains no provisions for the enfranchisement of women or Black people or for protecting the property rights of women. White men can vote regardless of citizenship status; Native American men can vote as long as they renounce their tribal affiliation.
• In July, a women’s suffrage convention is held in Seneca Falls, NY. Attended mainly by upper-class white women, it lacks attention to the needs of working-class women and women of color. According to her story given in 1920, Wisconsin resident Louise J. Smith attended the meeting when she was 12 years old.

1849

• May 31: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel proclaims, “Women are confessedly angels, and angels do not vote.”

1850

• Wisconsin passes a state law giving property rights to married women.

1853

• National women’s rights leaders Clarina Howard Nicholson and Lydia Fowler tour Wisconsin, calling for temperance and spreading the word about women’s suffrage.

1855

• Organized by Mathilde Anneke, Lucy Stone visits Wisconsin to discuss slavery and suffrage. She spends November 9 – 11 in Madison and November 21 – 23 in Kenosha.

1856

• The first women’s club for suffrage in Wisconsin is created in Richland Center.
• Two Wisconsin suffrage papers are operating at this time, the Southport Telegraph of Kenosha, owned by CJ Sholes, and the Oshkosh True Democrat.

1857

• Emma Brown starts the newspaper Wisconsin Chief.

1861-1865: US Civil War

• By and large, women work to support the war effort in the Sanitary Commission or outside the home, in the field, or at university.

1866

• After being denied the ability to vote in an 1865 referendum, Ezekiel Gillespie sues, and the state Supreme Court rules in his favor, giving the vote to Black men in Wisconsin.

1867

• October 9-10: The first Wisconsin state convention for suffrage is held in Janesville. Led by John T. Dow, Joseph Baker, LR Stewart, and others, they work on creating a state organization by forming executive and finance committees.

1868

• The Woman Suffrage Association of Wisconsin (WSAW) is formed.

1869

• Nationally, the suffrage movement is divided over tactics, philosophies, and the 15th Amendment that granted suffrage for African American men. Two organizations are formed: the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).
  • NWSA: Created in NYC by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, NWSA was considered more radical. They took on various issues besides suffrage to guarantee women’s total equality. Opposed to the 15th Amendment for only including African American men, they prioritized the suffrage of women and fought for the 15th Amendment to include them. NWSA focused on a national amendment to the Constitution and was women-led. Newspaper: The Revolution.
  • AWSA: Created in Boston by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, and TW Higginson, AWSA was considered more moderate and supported the 15th Amendment. Led by women and men, AWSA focused only on the vote and used state-level organizing as its primary method. Newspaper: The Woman’s Journal.
• February: A second convention for suffrage, unrelated to the first, is held in Milwaukee. Organized by Dr. Laura Ross and Lila Peckham, Mary A. Livermore, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are in attendance.
• The first (white) women graduate from UW-Madison; they are Clara Bewick, Anna Headen, Jane Nagle, Helen Noble, Elizabeth Spencer, and Ella Ursula Turner.

1870

• Black men win the right to vote with the passage of the 15th Amendment.
• March: The third Wisconsin suffrage convention is held with Lila Peckham as a featured speaker.

1871

• Sojourner Truth speaks briefly at the second annual American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) convention in Boston.

1878

• The Madison Equal Suffrage Association is formed with Emma Bascom of Madison as president.
• Olympia Brown comes to Wisconsin and becomes the pastor of the Universalist Church in Racine.

1879

• The Marathon County Woman Suffrage Association is formed.

1880

• May: The Mukwonago Woman Suffrage Society is formed.

1882

• September 7: John Bascom opens the state suffrage convention in Madison. Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell are in attendance. The state suffrage association is reorganized as the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association (WWSA). Dr. Laura Ross is chosen for president, and Reverend Olympia Brown as an officer.
• Suffrage clubs are formed:
  • Grand Rapids and Centralia Equal Suffrage Association
  • Woman Suffrage Association at Mosinee
  • South Side Woman Suffrage Association (Milwaukee)
  • Olympic Club (North side of Milwaukee)
  • Whitewater Woman Suffrage Club

1883

• March: The Woman’s Council at Racine is formed.

1884

• Women are allowed to vote on school matters (which will be rescinded by the state Supreme Court in 1888).
• September: The annual state suffrage convention is held in Richland Center.
• Auxiliary clubs are formed in Milton and Evansville.

1885

• Auxiliary clubs are formed in Albany and Boscobel.

1887

• Olympia Brown attempts to vote in the spring municipal elections and is rejected. The circuit court would’ve allowed her vote, but the state Supreme Court ruled against her, on the basis that the vote wasn’t what the legislature intended in 1869. It is also ruled that women could not vote on ballots that included anything other than school offices or issues because it couldn’t be guaranteed that they weren’t voting on other offices or issues. This decision effectively nullifies school suffrage because the legislature didn’t allow municipalities to print separate school-only ballots.
• Wisconsin Citizen, the monthly publication of the WWSA, is established.

By this time, advocates such as Theodora Youmans and Ada James had begun work in the women’s movement. Much of the focus shifts to incremental civic changes more broadly, with the leadership of established women’s clubs.

1890

• The two major national suffrage organizations, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), merge to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). NAWSA excludes African American women in their fight to vote because existing racism threatens their overall goal of white women gaining enfranchisement. NAWSA pushes the idea that women need to be formally educated in order to vote, thus effectively barring many impoverished women and women of color.
• Theodora Winton Youmans becomes an editor of The Waukesha Freeman.
• Wyoming becomes the first state to grant women equal political rights in the state constitution.

The women’s club movement grows throughout the 1890s.

1892

• June: The Colored Women’s League is formed in Washington, DC, under the presidency of Helen Cook.

1895

• The first National Conference of Colored Women of America is held in Boston.
• The National Federation of Afro-American Women (NFAAW) is founded at the conference. The group aims to raise the lower class’s quality of life and improve African American women’s standing in the US by cultivating middle-class domestic values. Harriet Tubman delivers a keynote address.

1896

• Led by Mary Church Terrell, the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) is created to overcome factionalism of various groups, and the National Federation of Afro-American Women (NFAAW) is dissolved.

Between 1899 and 1915, there are no fewer than 21 attempts in the Wisconsin state Senate and Assembly to enfranchise women in various ways, but each attempt fails.

1901

• The Wisconsin legislature authorizes separate school ballots, allowing women to vote on school-related issues and offices once again.

1902

• Wisconsin suffrage headquarters are established in Madison.

1904

• Mary Church Terrell states in a speech before NAWSA members: “My sisters of the dominant race, stand up not only for the oppressed sex, but also for the oppressed race!”

1906

• Susan B. Anthony dies.
• National suffrage efforts are concentrated on state legislation until 1912.

1911

• In large part due to the work of Ada James and her father, state Senator David James, a suffrage bill passes the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly to be voted on by a statewide referendum.
• Ada James leaves the WWSA to form the Political Equality League (PEL), joined by Theodora Youmans. PEL is comprised mainly of lobbyists interested in suffrage and other proposed legislation. PEL has similar goals to WWSA but employs different tactics; WWSA is more conservative and “civil.”

1911 – 1912

• Lots of activity occurs around Wisconsin to raise awareness of the women’s suffrage referendum vote to be held in November 1912.

1912

• November 5: The Wisconsin women’s suffrage referendum fails due primarily to schisms within the women’s movement and brewery/liquor interests: The vote is 135,736 for and 227,054 against.
• National concentration shifts from state legislation to a national amendment.

1913

• January: The Alpha Suffrage Club is founded in Chicago. Created by Ida B. Wells and Belle Squire, it is believed to be the first suffrage club for African American women. Newspaper: Alpha Suffrage Record.
• March 3: Organized by NAWSA, a women’s suffrage parade is held in Washington, DC. Fearing offending Southern supporters, NAWSA relegates Ida B. Wells and other African American suffragists to march at the end of the parade. Wells refuses. She watches the parade, and when the Illinois delegation comes around, she joins them.
• Alice Paul, chair of the Congressional Committee of NAWSA, creates the Congressional Union (CU) for Woman Suffrage. The CU presses political parties to espouse women’s suffrage in their platforms. Later that year, NAWSA cuts ties with the CU. The CU would become Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party (NWP) in 1916-17.
• In Wisconsin, PEL and WWSA merge. They retain the WWSA name, but Olympia Brown steps down, and Theodora Youmans becomes president. Ada James becomes Executive Secretary, and Zona Gale is chosen as First Vice President. The yearly budget is $6,000.
• The Wisconsin legislature authorizes another referendum, but Governor Francis McGovern vetoes it.

1914

• June 18-24: After other states hold similar events, Wisconsin holds its first Suffrage School in Madison. Some 66 people attend day classes, and hundreds participate in supplemental evening activities. Attendees receive instruction in organizing, marketing, history, the legal status of women, citizenship, and the press.
• December: The annual convention is held.

Between 1899 and 1915, there are no fewer than 21 attempts in the Wisconsin state Senate and Assembly to enfranchise women in various ways, but each attempt fails.

1915

• A more conservative legislature rejects another Wisconsin referendum bill.
• At the annual NAWSA convention, Carrie Chapman Catt becomes NAWSA president.
• National amendment popularity grows among state clubs.
• WWSA begins cooperating with the Congressional Union.

1916

• July: The annual NAWSA convention is held in Chicago.
• The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage creates the National Woman’s Party (NWP) under the leadership of Alice Paul.
• National political party conventions are held; both major parties declare support for suffrage, and, for the first time, the Prohibitionist, Socialist, and Progressive parties declare support for the amendment.

1917

• With World War I underway, WWSA, like NAWSA, supports the war government, and suffrage groups are active in the war effort.
• The National Woman’s Party (NWP) continues the struggle for suffrage and begins picketing the White House. In November, 30 of these “Silent Sentinels” are imprisoned for obstructing traffic and suffer brutal treatment in Occoquan Workhouse in Lorton, VA, outside of Washington, DC. On March 4, 1918, Olympia Brown, then in her 80s, is one of the few Wisconsin women to participate.
• A branch of NWP is created in Wisconsin; members include Reverend Olympia Brown, Meta Berger, Ada James, and Maud McCreery.
• NAWSA (and WWSA) stop cooperating with NWP due to the disapproval of NWP tactics. Theodora Youmans and Jessie Jack Hooper continue war work with NAWSA; they call the NWP the “lunatic fringe” of the suffrage movement.
• Wisconsin Citizen, the monthly publication of the WWSA, ceases publication.

1918

• January 10: The US House passes the federal suffrage amendment, 274 to 136. Eight of ten Wisconsin House representatives favor the suffrage amendment. A quarter of states at the time had enfranchised women completely.
• The amendment fails in the US Senate.
• Picketing by NWP continues.
• Mabel Rainey becomes the first Black woman to graduate from UW-Madison.

1919

• By 1919, 16 US states and 13 countries granted full suffrage for women.
• March: The national NAWSA conference is held in St. Louis; a delegation of ten Wisconsin women attends, led by Jessie Jack Hooper, who is elected a national director.
• May 19: President Wilson calls a special session of Congress because “the amendment must pass.” At that time, Theodora Youmans travels to DC to help lobby for support.
• May 21: The amendment passes the US House 304 to 89.
• June 4: The amendment passes the US Senate 64 to 29.
• June 10: The Wisconsin legislature ratifies the national amendment shortly before noon, 24 to 1 in the Senate and 52 to 2 in the Assembly. Illinois had ratified a few minutes prior, but had to re-ratify on June 17 because of a mistake. Ada James’ father, DG James, helps get the WI ratification certified and then travels to DC, receives an official statement that Wisconsin’s ratification was the first to be accepted at the State Department, and takes it back to Wisconsin.
• October 29: The WWSA annual convention is held. Discussions center on Americanization, good citizenship training, and NAWSA’s change to the League of Women Voters.
• By December 10, 22 states had ratified the suffrage amendment.

1920

• February 12-19: NAWSA holds its Jubilee Convention in Chicago; NAWSA changes its name to the League of Women Voters (LWV).
• February 20: WWSA dissolves at a meeting in Milwaukee. A Wisconsin LWV is organized with Theodora Youmans as president.
• August 26: The 19th Amendment is fully ratified when Tennessee becomes the 36th state to support it.
• Fall: US women vote in elections. Many African American women, especially in the South, find it challenging to register, have to wait hours to vote, and are required to pay poll taxes or pass Constitutional knowledge exams. Some are subjected to violence and imprisonment.
• Theodora Youmans is named Wisconsin’s first woman presidential elector.

1932

• Theodora Youmans dies.

1934

• The Wisconsin constitution is amended to include women’s suffrage.

Sources: Wisconsin woman suffrage directory (1885); Encyclopedia of Milwaukee; Wisconsin Historical Society; McBride, G. (1994), On Wisconsin women; and Graves, L.L. (1954), The Wisconsin woman suffrage movement. See the Resources section of this guide for more information.