LWV Diablo Valley Vice President Shawn Gilbert has researched the diverse group of women who helped to get the vote for their sisters and descendants across the country. Here are some of her heroines that you should know about:
- Tye Leung Shulze, a Chinese woman in San Francisco
- Mabel Ping Hua-Lee, a Chinese woman in New York
- Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin, a Native American woman from North Dakota
- Maria W. Stewart, early African-American feminist and abolitionist
- Matilda Joslyn Gage, champion of the oppressed, colleague of Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Carrie Chapman Catt, our founding mother
- Elizabeth Thacher Kent, Marin socialite, suffragist and conservationist
- Lydia Flood Jackson, African-American entrepreneur and Oakland civic leader
- Selina Solomons: San Francisco Jewish activist and tireless suffrage leader
- Maria Guadalupe Evangelina Lopéz: a Los Angeles suffragist and educator
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Anna Roqué Duprey: Educator, suffragist, author, a founder of University of Puerto Rico
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Wilhelmina Dowsett: Established the National Women’s Equal Suffrage Association of Hawaii (WESAH) in 1912
More about suffragists:
- Enjoy a wonderful PBS video (about 12 minutes long) that is punchy, informative, and very timely in its inclusion of the racial issues involved in women's suffrage.
- Did you know that women who went to jail to win the vote had special pins awarded to them? Alice Paul had two, one commemorating prison time in England and one from the US suffrage campaign. See these and other memorabilia of her life and achievements on the interesting Alice Paul Institute web site.