On This Day in 1869: Wyoming is the first territory to give women the right to vote
Women didn’t earn the right to vote in the United States until 1920, but decades earlier, many states and territories had tried to pass legislation giving women the right to vote. And in 1869, Wyoming officially became the first territory to enact legislation giving women the right to vote.
50 years before women around the United States were given the right to vote with the 19th Amendment, Wyoming legislators had already started making strides towards women’s equality. They passed laws giving female teachers the same pay as male teachers and the ability for women to own land separate from their husbands. And then they set their sights on giving women the right to vote.
Julia Bright was married to legislator John Bright. She was much younger than her husband and had been part of the suffrage movement before the couple moved west. She encouraged her husband to work on getting the legislation passed to give women the right to vote in Wyoming.
All of the legislators weren’t necessarily driven by the need for equality. In Wyoming during this time, the number of men outnumbered women 6 to 1. So one benefit to giving women the right to vote was the hope it would draw more women to the territory. Also, they knew being the first territory to give women the right to vote would bring the state some good publicity. Plus, there were, of course, political reasons as well. The newly elected Governor of Wyoming was a Republican but the legislators were largely Democrats. They thought giving women the right to vote might help increase their voter base leading to more Democrats being elected. There were racial implications as well. Since even non-white men were allowed to vote during this time, many white men thought their white wives should be allowed to vote as well, but some of the legislators thought it was just the right thing to do.
On December 10, 1869, the governor of the territory of Wyoming signed legislation giving women the right to vote in addition to the ability to hold office and be on juries. The following year the first woman voted in Wyoming. Not long after, women in Washington and Utah were also given the right to vote.
There was an attempt to repeal the decision, but the governor vetoed it. When Wyoming became a state in 1890, Congress asked they revoke women’s right to vote but they refused. Thank you to those in Wyoming who worked to make history!
