Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
The Woman's Suffrage Movement
On June 10, 1919, Wisconsin became the first state to ratify the 19th amendment granting national suffrage to women. From 1846 to 1919, different groups of women's rights supporters had focused much of their energy on winning the vote, though each pursued different strategies. Although Wisconsin had not been completely unenlightened in its approach to women's legal rights (the rejected 1846 constitution would have given married women property rights), neither had it been on the forefront of the cause. Just seven years before the 19th amendment passed, a statewide referendum on suffrage had met with a resounding two-to-one defeat, so... more...
Original Documents and Other Primary Sources
 | Wisconsin passes the nation's first equal rights bill, 1921 |
| Prominent women journalists and editors |
| A Wisconsin woman recalls the convention at Seneca Falls |
| Wisconsin's first female lawyer challenges prevailing opinion |
| A secret woman suffrage club in Richland Center in 1882 |
| Wisconsin voting and civil rights legislation, 1846-1929. |
| Suffrage activists seek new members through a "suffrage school" in 1914 |
| Suffrage publications from the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association |
| Jessie Jack Hooper runs for the Senate in 1922 |
| A sketch of the life of Meta Berger |
| Suffragists prove that Wisconsin ratified suffrage first |
 | A Wisconsin tunic from a 1916 suffrage parade |
 | The Political Equality League makes the case for woman suffrage, 1912 |
| Theodora Youmans emphasizes the need to educate women voters |
| Theodora Youmans appeals for donations to the Wisconsin Woman's Suffrage Association |
| Theodora Youmans urges supporters to keep up the fight in 1917 |
| Marion Dudley testifies on behalf of suffrage, 1880 |
| A guide to Progressivism for women voters, 1922 |
| Women's charitable work before 1876 |
| Susan Frackelton recalls the Wheelock School for Girls (1926) |
| A Milwaukee woman urges woman and child labor reform, 1899. |
| A brief summary of women's suffrage legislation in the U.S. and abroad, 1907 |
| A list of women's suffrage activists in Wisconsin, 1880. |
| Baraboo women found their own cultural organization, 1880 |
 | Pictures of the woman suffrage movement in Wisconsin |
| Anti-suffrage poster from the 1912 referendum |
 | A timeline of Wisconsin women's suffrage legislation, 1848-1915 |
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