Local northwest Indiana groups supporting women's suffrage

Women's Suffrage In Indiana

In 1920, the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution by the various state legislatures granted women the right to vote in all state and federal elections in this country. The battle had begun in earnest over seventy years before; for a long period of time, the rights of slaves and then former slaves were more certain than the rights of women. Through a long and determined grass-roots campaign, however, the right to vote -- and ostensibly other rights guaranteeing equality between the sexes -- was won. The fight for women's suffrage did not always take place on a national scale, though; in fact, local and state groups were of the utmost importance in gaining momentum and supporters to the cause of women's suffrage.

Things happened in very different ways, and along very different timelines, from state to state and even in the Territories that were the subject of so much bitter debate regarding slavery. Interestingly, though the issue of women's rights was raging at the same time as the issue of slavery was bringing this country closer to its inevitable Civil War, little attention was paid to it in these same disputed territories, and in the West-reaching states that bordered them. Victory in the women's suffrage movement was often hard to come by here, with so many other seemingly more pressing issues to worry about.

Although Indiana saw the holding of large conventions for the purposes of establishing the right to vote for women as early as 1852, by 1917 not even partial suffrage had been granted to the women of the state (Stapler, pp. 16). This does not mean, however, that there was not strong support for the cause in Indiana throughout the state's history. As early as 1816, "the manufactures of Indiana were chiefly in the hands of its women" (Stanton et al., pp. 291). This fact led to a very interesting development of the Indiana suffrage movement.

In the early days of the struggle for women's suffrage, Indiana was still a very young state. It hadn't even been admitted as a Territory until 1800, and had only been a state for a little over a generation when the first Women's Rights Convention was held in Indianapolis in 1852 (Stanton et al., pp. 292). Large movements did not really occur in the state until later in the nineteenth century and into the first decades of the twentieth. Smaller groups were formed, however, which were immensely important and of which India remained fiercely proud (Stapler). For instance, Indiana makes the claim of having formed the first State's Women's Rights Society, although proving this claim -- and attesting to the efficacy of any such group -- has shown itself to be quite difficult (Stanton et al., pp. 292). Still, it is certain that it was small organization such as this Society, and in later decades local chapters of the National Women's Suffrage Association, that led to the eventual success of the women's suffrage movement.

The reason for this is complex, but also readily apparent. Most such controversial causes (and though our modern sensibilities recoil at the idea of equality being controversial, yet we must admit that during the time of its initial suggestion and implementation it was considered quite radical indeed) have taken quite awhile to take hold, and it is usually the case that small groups of ardent believers slowly begin to convince others, first through clandestine conversation, then through larger and larger meetings and independent presses, and finally through the more mainstream and official channels of communication and action. Most people in the country -- and the state of Indiana -- simply did not agree that women should be voting, meaning that at first only smaller groups of like-minded people were able to find each other.

Even as late as 1917, the National Women's Suffrage Association was recommending local action -- usually at the county level -- as the best way to begin organizing on the state level (Stapler, pp. 181). The reasoning behind this was intimately tied to the nature of the demands made by the people in the movement; the women's suffrage movement was (rightly) seen as a crusade for democracy, and a way of establishing the basic and inalienable rights promised by the United States Constitution for everybody. With that in mind, the leaders of the National Women's Suffrage Association stated that "action in Congress depends upon sentiment in the state and sentiment in the state depends upon organization in the constituency of the legislators" (Stapler, pp. 181).

This is the political and social belief at the heart of all grass-roots campaigning, and a true testament to the faith in democracy held by the members of the women's suffrage movement. They believed that only a movement of the people could have the force and justice necessary to sway the federal power structure, and did not trust the men in power to solve the issue themselves. They proved right both in their mistrust of power and their trust in the people. At the same time, organization at the county level was not merely the result of a sentimental belief in democracy and the human spirit, but rather was also pragmatically derived. The Women's Suffrage Yearbook notes that counties -- or their constituent assembly districts, in larger counties -- not only send delegates to the state legislature, but that often such boundaries also serve as federal Congressional districts (Stapler, pp. 181). Organizing at the local level, then, allows more direct pressure to be exerted on both state and federal Congressman, who in turn can pressure (and could vote for, until 1913) United States Senators.

Though Indiana, like most states, was slow to move on the suffrage issue until 1920 and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, in other ways it had already done much to advance the social, political, and economic status and rights of women. Sometime during or before the 1851 sessions of the Indiana legislature, laws were enacted or modified to so that "a married woman owned and had the right to manage her own property," as well as various other modifications granting widows greater claim to their husband's property and greatly relaxing the rules of divorce, making Indiana a land of freedom for fugitives from the bondage and suffering of ill-assorted unions" (Robert Owen, qtd. In Stanton et al., pp. 293; Stanton et al., pp. 292). Other local goings-on also marked Indiana as a place of greater freedom for women.

Robert Dale Owen, who is quoted regarding his actions in the Indiana legislature, did not push for women's suffrage during his several terms in that hall of government because he believed that "in those days it would have been utterly unavailing" (Owen, qtd. In Stanton et al., 293). He came from a family that strongly believed in the equal rights and equal abilities of women, however, as is evidenced by his father's community activism in the small northwestern Indiana community of the aptly-named New Hope. Referred to at the time as "experiments in Community life" the elder Robert Owen was a socialist of sorts, and extended his faith and belief in humanity quite naturally to the members of the fairer sex in addition to advocating social programs for men (Stanton et al., pp. 295). His work was not explicitly geared towards women's suffrage or other official means of change, but rather with starting one of the first reading and discussion clubs for women, at the instigation of an eager young girl (Croly, pp. 431).