Timeline of women's suffrage in Utah facts for kids

1915 Suffragists in the lobby of Hotel Utah with Senator Reed Smoot

This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Utah. Women earned the right to vote on February 12, 1870 while Utah was still a territory. The first woman to vote under equal suffrage laws was Seraph Young on February 14, 1870. During this time, suffragists in Utah continued to work with women in other states to promote women's suffrage. Women continued to vote until 1887 when the Edmunds-Tucker Act was passed. When Utah was admitted as a state in 1896, women regained the right to vote. On September 30, 1919 Utah ratifies the Nineteenth Amendment. Native American women did not have full voting rights in Utah until 1957.

19th century

Leading women of Zion 1897, Zina D. H Young, Bathsheba W. Smith, Emily Dow Partridge Young, Eliza R. Snow

1840s

1842

• Female Relief Society of Nauvoo is formed.

1860s

1868

• Newspaper editorial from The New York Times about giving Utah women equal suffrage is appreciated in Utah.
• The Deseret News posts an editorial about the justice of women's suffrage.

1870s

1870

• February 12: Utah gives women the right to vote.
• February 14: First woman to vote in the United States under equal suffrage laws was Seraph Young in Salt Lake City.

1871

• Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton visit Salt Lake City.

1872

• The Woman's Exponent is created.

1879

• Emmeline B. Wells represents Utah at the National Woman's Suffrage Convention.

1880s

1880

• A case in the Supreme Court of the Territory attempts to erase the names of several women from the voter registration list, but does not succeed.

1882

• In Salt Lake City, a registrar refuses to add women to the list of registered voters. The case is settled and women continue to vote.

1887

• Passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act disenfranchises Utah women.

1888

• Mrs. Arthur Brown and Emily S. Richards represent Utah at the National Suffrage Convention in Washington, D.C.
• September: Clara Bewick Colby and Elizabeth Lyle Saxon visit Salt Lake City to lecture on suffrage.

1889

• The Utah Woman Suffrage Association is created.

1890s

1890

• Maria Y. Dougall and Sarah M. Kimball are delegates to the National Suffrage Convention in Washington, D.C.

1891

Utah woman suffrage song book, first published in 1891

• February 15: Suffragists celebrated the birthday of Susan B. Anthony in Salt Lake City.
• The Utah Woman Suffrage Song Book is published.

1892

• July 29: Suffragists hold a rally in American Fork.
• Wells travels through California and Idaho and speaks on women's suffrage.

1893

• Suffragists held a garden party in Salt Lake City.

1895

• February 18: Suffragists hold a convention in the Salt Lake City and County building.

1896

• Utah women regained the right to vote.
• Martha Hughes Cannon becomes the first woman elected to state senate.

1897

• January: Wells attends the National Suffrage Convention in Des Moines, Iowa and describes suffrage efforts in Utah.

1899

• Carrie Chapman Catt and Mary Garrett Hay visit Salt Lake City.

20th century

Governor William Spry of Utah meets with suffrage leaders, Emmeline Wells and others in 1915

1900s

• Suffragists from Utah obtain 40,000 names for a women's suffrage petition to the United States Congress.
• Utah suffragists send delegates to the National Presidential Conventions.

1910s

1919

• September 30: Utah ratifies the Nineteenth Amendment.

1920s

1920

• February 12: Fiftieth anniversary celebration of women's suffrage in Utah.

1924

• The Indian Citizenship Act gives more voting rights to Native American women.

1950s

1957

• Utah repeals laws that prevent women who live on Native American reservations from voting.