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Wisconsin Question 1, Women's Suffrage in School Matters Measure (1886)
| Wisconsin Question 1 | |
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| Election date |
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| Topic Sex and gender issues and Women's suffrage |
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| Status |
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| Type Legislatively referred state statute |
Origin |
Wisconsin Question 1 was on the ballot as a legislatively referred state statute in Wisconsin on November 2, 1886.
The measure was approved but then overturned by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.[1]
A "yes" vote supported allowing women to vote in elections related to school matters. |
A "no" vote opposed allowing women to vote in elections related to school matters. |
Election results
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Wisconsin Question 1 |
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| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
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43,581 | 52.77% | ||
| No | 38,998 | 47.23% | ||
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title for Question 1 was as follows:
| “ | For Woman Suffrage in School Matters Against Woman Suffrage in School Matters | ” |
Full Text
The full text of this measure is available here.
AN ACT relating to the exercise of the right of suffrage by women upon school matters.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:
SCTION 1. Every woman who is a citizen of this state, of the age of twenty-one years or upwards except paupers, persons under guardianship, and persons otherwise excluded by section 2, of article 3, of the constitution of Wisconsin, who has resided within the state one year, and in the election district where she offers to vote, ten days next preceding any election pertaining to school matters, shall have a right to vote at such election.
SECTION 2. At the general election to be held on the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday in November, A.D. 1886, at all the usual places of holding elections in this state, for the election of all officers required by law then to be elected, the question whether this act shall go into effect or in any manner be in force, shall be submitted to the people, and if the same shall be approved by a majority of all the votes cast on that subject, it shall go into effect and be in force from and after the date of said election, otherwise it shall not go into effect, or in any manner be in force.
SECTION 3. The votes cast upon the subject specified in the last preceding section, shall be by separate ballot, and shall have written or printed or partly written and partly printed on each of them, the words, “ For Woman Suffrage in school matters,” or “ Against Woman Suffrage in school matters,” which words shall indicate the vote of the elector for or against the approval of this act; and the ballots so cast shall be canvassed and returned in the same manner as the votes cast for state officers are required by law to be canvassed, and the secretary of state shall immediately on the completion of said canvass, publish a statement of the result thereof, in some newspaper printed at the seat of government, and shall communicate the same to the next legislature at the commencement of its session.
SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication.
Approved April 1, 1885.
Background
State women's suffrage ballot measures
- See also: State women's suffrage ballot measures
The 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920. The 19th Amendment prohibited the government from denying or abridging the right to vote on account of sex. Therefore, women were guaranteed the right to vote in the U.S. Constitution.
Before the 19th Amendment, the women's suffrage movement also campaigned for changes to state constitutions to provide women with a right to vote. Suffragists Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler, in their book Woman Suffrage and Politics (1923), wrote that state ballot measures "spun the main thread of suffrage activity" in the movement's earlier years and were seen as stepping stones to national suffrage. "I don't know the exact number of States we shall have to have," said Susan B. Anthony, "but I do know that there will come a day when that number will automatically and resistlessly act on the Congress of the United States to compel the submission of a federal suffrage amendment." When asked about federal support for women's suffrage in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt advised the suffrage movement to "Go, get another State."[2]
Between 1867 and August 18, 1920, 54 ballot measures to grant women's suffrage were on the ballot in 30 states. Fifteen (15) of the ballot measures were approved, giving women the right to vote in 15 states. Since women did not have suffrage until after the ballot measures were approved, male voters decided the outcome of suffrage ballot measures.
Map of states that voted on suffrage ballot measures
The following is a map of which states approved and which states rejected women's suffrage ballot measures before the 19th Amendment. Suffrage was on the ballot at least once in 30 of 48 states (Alaska and Hawaii were not states until 1959). Of the 15 states that passed suffrage ballot measures, eight failed to pass measures on their first attempts. In Oregon and South Dakota, for example, suffrage measures were placed before voters at six elections before one was passed. In Utah and Wyoming, voters decided and approved women's suffrage as one provision of a ballot measure to adopt a state constitution. You can click on a state to learn more about the number of women's suffrage ballot measures that were voted on and in what years in that state.
Support
Arguments
Ballotpedia did not locate any arguments in support to the measure.
Opposition
Arguments
- Democratic Register : "I am about to place the matrimonial halter around my neck, and we must work for each others good and not for the downfall of man. On this subject let us act as a unit. Let us pass resolutions to the effect that the place for that the place for woman is over the cook stove and over the cook stove and over the wash tub."[3]
Path to the ballot
In Wisconsin, a referred state statute is required for laws that extend "the right of suffrage to additional classes," per Article III, Section 2 of the Wisconsin Constitution. Before 1902, referred statutes were required for laws that affect banking.
A simple majority vote is required during two legislative sessions for the Wisconsin State Legislature to place a referred statute on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 50 votes in the Wisconsin State Assembly and 17 votes in the Wisconsin State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Statutes require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Wisconsin State Journal, "Wisconsin's historic 19th Amendment ratification, as told by the Wisconsin State Journal," June 2, 2019
- ↑ Catt, Carrie Chapman and Nettie Rogers Shuler. (1923). Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement. New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. (pages 149-150)
- ↑ Democratic Register, "ONETY-ONTH," accessed July 24, 2024
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