A man's world

     About a hundred years ago only a few boys and no girls at all went to high school and college. Except in the primary schools, there were no women teachers, no women in the learned professions such....

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.... as medicine and law, no woman spoke in public, and few women wanted to, because it was against the customs of those days.

Woman preachers and reformers

     But a new day was gradually dawning for democracy? Women preachers were permitted in a few of the smaller churches about the time Iowa was opened for settlement. The Quakers, the Protestant Methodist, and the Adventists permitted women to preach. The parents of Susan B. Anthony were Quakers. Some of these women preachers became advocates of women's rights. They demanded that girls should be admitted to high schools and colleges and to choose other occupations besides housekeeping. Some of these leaders also became active workers in the cause of Negro freedom and in the promotion of temperance.

Girls admitted to Iowa high schools and colleges

     In Iowa the public high schools and colleges have always been open to both sexes. Both men and women taught in the pioneer schools, though there were at first more men than women. During the Civil War Iowa women served as nurses in the army hospitals, and a still larger number took the place of men teachers in the public schools. After the war these women teachers retained their places in the schools and soon the women teachers out-numbered the men teachers.

Miss Susan B. Anthony lectures in Iowa

     In 1844 the question of giving women the right to vote came up for discussion in the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa. Several of the noted women leaders of the day lectured in Iowa during the following years. Among them was an Iowa woman, Mrs. Amelia Bloomer of Council Bluffs. To arouse more interest Miss Susan B. Anthony came to Iowa several times and lectured to large audiences in a number of towns.

    In 1870, when a resolution was introduced and passed by both houses of the General Assembly to enfranchise the women of Iowa by an amendment to the constitution, the victory seemed certain. But the resolution was not passed by the next session of the General Assembly and was therefore lost. The question was brought up several times later. Sometimes the House would be in favor of it, sometimes the Senate, and sometimes even both, but never two succeeding General Assemblies until 1916 when a woman suffrage....

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....amendment was presented to the voters. This was voted down by a majority of 10,000 in the next general election.

Mrs. Amelia Bloomer

Suffragists and anti-suffragists

     The opposition to woman's suffrage came from both men and women. Some men feared that the women would not have time to care for the children and to do the housework if they were to vote and "mix up in politics." And since many women, too, shared this view, there were both suffragist and anti-suffragists among the women.

    Gradually, however, the onion prevailed that both men and women should have the right to vote and to hold office. Women were sometimes appointed by the Governor of Iowa to be government clerks and librarians, and in 1880 they were given the right to vote at school elections. Finally in 1921, through an amendment to the constitution of the United States, all American women were granted suffrage on the same terms as men.

    Since then several women in Iowa have held the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

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The Women organize

     The woman's movement aimed at the general betterment of the lot of women. During the nineteenth century many women's clubs and societies were formed, some for charitable purposes, other to promote various cultural interests, and still others for amusement. Some of these organizations formed the Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs in 1893. At the close of the nineteenth century there were 198 clubs with a membership of 7,000.

    Among the immigrant women numerous clubs and societies wee organized. And the colored women also organized local societies, which were federated in a State organization.

    In the present century the Iowa Woman's Suffrage Association, organized by Mrs. Amelia Bloomer and others in 1870, merged into the League of Women Voters.

Questions and Exercises: For what is Susan B. Anthony noted? How long has Iowa had co-education? How close did Iowa come to having woman's suffrage in 1916? How did Iowa women become enfranchised? State the purpose of the League of Women Voters. Explain the origin of the word "bloomers."