Themes Within the California Woman Suffrage Movement

Description

Join us May 1 when Jeanne McDonnell will speak on "Themes Within the California Woman Suffrage Movement at 1:30 PM at the IOOF Grand Hall at (14414 Oak Street, Suite B, Saratoga, CA). The talk is sponsored by the Saratoga Historical Foundation and is free and open to the public. The hall is located around the corner from the Saratoga History Museum (20450 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road) which presently has an exhibit on woman?s suffrage and where a reception will be held after the lecture.

Women nationally would never have gained full and equal voting rights in 1920 without California women?s victory in 1911, but basically, why did so many women dedicate themselves to acquiring the vote? Not for what the word equality came to mean later. Women?s assigned role in American culture mainly centered around marriage, children, and family life. For that reason, women came to care deeply about the unfairness of child labor, the need to educate all children well and that included physical education, free public libraries, safe communities. In many places in the United States, men bought political positions with money instead of wisdom. These are some of the fundamental reasons that generations of women--over 72 years, dating from the first women?s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848--worked diligently to gain their share in crafting and enforcing the basic decisions of government. Join us and find out more about this fascinating chapter in US history.

Jeanne McDonnell is the author of Juana Briones of 19th Century California published in 2008 by University of Arizona Press and also author of unpublished history of California woman suffrage. She is on the board of the Palo Alto Historical Association and Palo Alto Stanford Heritage, co-editor of PAHA newsletter, chair of Palo Alto Woman?s Club history committee, advocate for preservation of the Juana Briones house.