Women as Agents of Change

This rare ephemeral fan was produced for the 1915 convention of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA), an organization leading the call for a suffrage amendment to be added to the Massachusetts State Constitution. The map side (shown here) depicts the United States, with each state outlined and shaded according to the voting status granted to women: black (no suffrage), white (full suffrage; “free states”), and shaded (states where suffrage was on the ballot in 1915). Notice that the women of the West had far more voting rights than women in the East. The verso reads: “Keep Cool! There will be nothing to worry about after we get Votes for Women; Election Day November 2.”

The MWSA was founded in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone, and others, and, by 1879, Massachusetts women had won the right to vote in local school committee elections. While the MWSA counted 58,000+ members by 1915, the proposed amendment for full suffrage was still defeated by a margin of 2:1. The women of Massachusetts, like their counterparts in Maine, only gained the vote when the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. In 1920, the MWSA became the Massachusetts League of Women Voters.