From Early on, Women Have Made Their Mark in State Legislatures.

• Author: Griffin, Kelley

The first national women's convention in 1848 at Seneca Falls, N.Y., didn't even have women's right to vote on the agenda. Not at first.

Organizer Elizabeth Cady Stanton added voting to the agenda, "A Declaration of Sentiments," right before the event. Her husband predicted it would "turn the proceedings into a farce."

In fact, the convention embraced the concept and, after two days of presentations and discussion, presented a unified list of 11 demands to eliminate laws that put women in an inferior position to men, such as their inability to own property, or for a married woman to keep her own income. And, of course, the right to vote.

It would take another 72 years for that right to become part of the U.S. Constitution.

In the meantime, Western states forged ahead with their own visions of equality.

Leading the Way in the West

The Wyoming Territorial Legislature was the first. It met for its first session in October 1869. By December, it had passed laws guaranteeing equal pay for teachers regardless of sex, guaranteeing property rights to married women who were separated from their husbands and giving women the right to vote and hold office.

In 1870, the Utah Territorial Legislature voted unanimously that women had the right to vote. The Washington Territorial Government granted women the right to vote in 1883, but the territorial supreme court overturned that in 1887, and women wouldn't secure the vote there until 1910. And in 1893, Colorado women gained the right to vote after winning a popular referendum-the first state where women got the right from a vote of the people.

In 1894, three Colorado women-Republicans Clara Cressingham, Carrie Holly and Frances Klock-became the first to be elected to a state Legislature.

There were many factors contributing to the West moving forward so quickly compared with the national stand on women's voting rights, outlined in detail in the fourth episode of NCSL's podcast series "Building Democracy: The Story of Legislatures."

Activists continued to fight at the national level, rallying around the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. It needed the support of 36 states; in 1920, Tennessee became the 36th.

But it would be another 100 years before women would make up more than half the representatives in a statehouse: Nevada, at 52.4%, and the U.S. territory Guam, at 51%. (Colorado's 2019 session began that year with a majority of women, but two subsequent resignations changed the total.) In 2022, women...