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First Women to Vote in
California, 1912;
California Historical Society, CHS2011.559
After a long battle,
California finally granted women the right to vote in state
elections in October 1911. In this photograph, three of the first women in the state
to vote cast their ballots at a poll booth in March 1912. It was not until
1920, with the ratification of the 19th Amendment, that the national fight for
women’s suffrage ended. Even then, women were slow to acquire the voting habit,
taking about 60 years to equal or exceed the number of male voters casting
ballots, according to the Pew Research. |
Voters in many parts of California face another Election Day on November 3 that few are aware of and in which even fewer will participate. We won’t be electing a president or governor, but voters throughout California will be deciding local, nonpartisan issues—such as mayor and sheriff in San Francisco, school board members in Palos Verdes and El Segundo, and local taxes in Hermosa Beach and South Pasadena.