Spotlight #10: Votes for Women
These photos and the accompanying caption were originally posted to our Facebook page (link to external site) on March 5, 2024.
In honor of Women's History Month (March) and Town Meeting Day, we wanted to share an important part of our political history: The Women's Suffrage Movement in Vermont.
When full voting rights for women came to the nation in 1920, a goal was achieved that Vermonters had been actively working toward for at least 50 years. A drive for voting rights had been made in the state as early as 1870, and other efforts followed.
In 1880, the Vermont legislature granted tax-paying women the right to vote in school district meetings, and women were allowed to hold school offices or to be elected or appointed as school superintendents or town clerks.
In 1900, women became eligible to become notary publics or trustees of public libraries, and in 1902, town treasurers.
The principal organization in the state lobbying for these gains after 1907 was the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association (VESA), a statewide group of activist women. Organized in the early 1880s as the Vermont Woman Suffrage Association, it focused efforts on persuading the state legislature to instate equal political rights for women. It also sent representatives to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and later the Congressional Union for Women’s Suffrage, which pushed for suffrage action at the federal level.
Annual statewide conventions were held from 1885 through 1920, meeting in a different Vermont community each year. These gatherings were often festive occasions and major events for the communities involved. Delegates were usually warmly received. Store-keepers dressed their windows and U.S. flags and suffrage banners were hung in the streets.
After 33 years of effort by women’s suffrage activists, Vermont passed legislation allowing taxpaying women to vote in town meetings in 1917.
Despite these gains and the fact that eleven other states had already granted full suffrage to women, it was federal action that finally brought the full vote to the women of Vermont. In 1917, when the U.S. entered World War I, the U.S. House of Representatives finally agreed to create a committee on women’s suffrage. By June 4, 1919, the 19th amendment had passed both houses of Congress and was sent to state legislatures for ratification. The Vermont Legislature passed full suffrage for women in 1919 and the General Assembly ratified it in 1921. (Excerpt from: Vermonthistory.org)
To learn more about the Women's Suffrage Movement and the amazing women who worked tirelessly for women's political rights, visit our Women’s Realm exhibit room.