QUESTIONS
TO OUR MEMBERS
BY CAROL S.
Suffrage in
our AWCH
When was the first time a woman
in your family voted?
I know my midwestern maternal
grandmother NEVER voted,
although she had the right when
she was 21 in 1920 (her husband
did not approve). I found a voter
registration card from my paternal
grandmother in California from
1932....guess she voted for Herbert
Hoover to try to defeat FDR! I am
sure my mother voted in every
election since 1942 and ran many a
voting poll (in our garage or local
school.)
— Carol H.
Unfortunately I don‘t know,
but remembering my feisty,
stubborn, and highly-outspoken
maternal Grandma May, born
in 1898, it would have been as
soon as possible! My paternal
grandmother (born 1886) was also
one of the early woman voters. I
cannot vouch for a certain year or
a certain election, but I know she
voted!
— Sanda K.
voter registration from Precinct
68, Assembly District 27, dated
September 28, 1939, I believe it
was for the mayoral election. And
she is CLEARLY a Democrat!
— Julia R.
Did your female relative vote the
same ticket as her husband?
That is a great question! I will
have to ask my mom about her
mother, but I always enjoyed my
father’s stories about his parents.
My grandmother and grandfather
voted in every election in the full
knowledge that they were basically
cancelling each other out because
they were staunch supporters of
opposing parties. I always felt
like that was a good lesson, both
in democracy and feminism. It
is important to vote, and a wife
History
does not have to vote the way her
husband does.
— Joana O.
My maternal grandparents did
this, too: voted for opposing
parties, religiously!
— Diana S.P.
My grandparents almost always
voted the same...except for in
1960, when my Grandma voted for
Kennedy because he was so goodlooking!
— Jordan W.
My maternal grandparents in
coal-mining Pennsylvania never
voted. My paternal grandparents
lived in DC, whose citizens didn’t
have the right to vote until 1960.
So my mom, who voted for
Lyndon Johnson in 1963, is the
first woman in my family to vote.
I was the second!
— Tracy M.
I am not sure when the actual
first time was, but according to a
pic of my great-grandmother’s
Inez Milholland Boissevain preparing to lead the March 3, 1913, suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., Harris &
Ewing (1913), US Library of Congress
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