Let’s Celebrate! Commemorating 100 Years of Women’s Right to Vote, 0220 COBJ, Vol. 49, No. 2 Pg. 4

• Author: BY KATHLEEN HEARN CROSHAL
• Position: Vol. 49, 2 [Page 4]

49 Colo.Law. 4

Let’s Celebrate! Commemorating 100 Years of Women’s Right to Vote

Vol. 49, No. 2 [Page 4]

Colorado Lawyer

February, 2020

CBA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

BY KATHLEEN HEARN CROSHAL

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

—Amendment XIX, Ratified August 18, 1920

As a lawyer, a judge, and a woman, I'm excited to be "holding office" during the 100th anniversary of the 19^th Amendment and a woman's right to vote. But how to approach this important topic in my President's Message?

I was lying awake one night pondering this question when it occurred to me that my own grandmothers were not constitutionally guaranteed the right to vote until they were 35 and 38 years old, respectively. Sadly, my paternal grandmother died when I was 2, but neither my maternal grandmother nor my mother (who was 6 when the 19th Amendment passed) had ever spoken to me about the struggle for a woman's right to vote. Is this a case of how quickly we begin to take things for granted?

To be clear, my family emphasized that voting was a hard-fought right—and they routinely stressed the importance of exercising this right—but the fight they were referring to was the Revolutionary War. The fight for women's suffrage, though less bloody, lasted much longer. By most accounts, it officially began in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York with the passage of a resolution calling for the right to vote, and concluded 72 years later in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment.¹ This column recalls some of the victories and setbacks that occurred along the way, particularly in Colorado.

States Fight for the Right

Like most movements that require a major ideological shift, the fight for women's suffrage made progress in fits and starts. While the national suffrage movement struggled to gain any traction until 1918,² individual states enjoyed varying degrees of success during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1869, the Wyoming Territory became the first in the nation³ to grant women full suffrage when its legislature voted to give women the right to vote (the right was then written into its state constitution during its bid for statehood in 1890). Things went less smoothly in the Utah and Washington Territories: In Utah, the territorial legislature gave women voting privileges in 1870, only to rescind them in 1887 over the issue of polygamy. In Washington, a bill passed in 1883, but the territorial supreme court overturned the law in 1887. The next successful effort was in Colorado, which made history in 1893 as the first state to pass a measure by popular vote rather than legislative action. Over the next two decades, enfranchisement spread through Western states. Then, in 1913, Illinois became the first state east of the Mississippi to give women the vote (albeit on a limited basis).⁴All told, by the time the 19th Amendment was ratified, 29 states and the Alaska Territory had granted women full or partial suffrage.

Making History in Colorado

Before the successful 1893 vote, there were several attempts to secure the vote for Colorado women. In 1870, Colorado's territorial governor urged legislators to follow Wyoming's lead and grant women the vote, but they rejected the idea During the 1875-76 convention to draft a state constitution, delegates hoping to include equal suffrage in the constitution were outvoted. But as a consolation prize, the constitution makers agreed to allow voters to decide the issue by referendum in 1877.⁵ During the run-up to the 1877 election, several national suffrage leaders barnstormed Colorado, including Susan B. Anthony.⁶ But there was not enough support, and the electorate defeated the referendum by a 2-to-1 margin.⁷ Boulder, which was a hotbed of Populists, was the only county to vote in favor of the measure.⁸

It was 16 years before Colorado suffragists made another attempt. But by this time, they had learned the importance of grassroots organizing and forming coalitions. Rather than lobbying and testifying, they galvanized the support of national and state organizations, worked with prominent journalists to garner publicity, rallied support from the Populist and Republican parties, and won endorsements from dozens of newspapers across the state.⁹ The opposition saloon keepers and brewers— who feared women voters would bring on the prohibition of alcohol—were less organized and mounted little opposition.¹⁰

On November 7,1893, constitutional amendment HB 118, prohibiting sex discrimination at the ballot box, passed in Colorado. The all-male electorate voted 35,798 in favor of the referendum and 29,551 against, for a 55% CBA PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE...