The fight for women’s right to vote in the state of Washington is an inspiring story of women speaking out and organizing for change that includes political intrigue, controversy, hard work, and even some frivolity. In a struggle that lasted a half-century, women campaigned for and twice won the right to vote in Washington during both the territorial and state periods.

Women first achieved equal voting rights in the 1880s, only to lose those rights through court decisions. Still, women continued to fight for civic equality, forming coalitions, notably with farmers and labor, after statehood was achieved in 1889 and well into the Progressive Era of the early 20th century. Finally, through a strategically organized, grassroots, campaign fueled by Progressivism, women persuaded Washington men to vote to amend the Washington constitution enacting women’s permanent right of suffrage in 1910. However, it was only a partial victory since most Native American women, some Asian women, and women who could not read and speak English continued to be denied the right to vote.

As the fifth state nationally (and the first in the twentieth century) to enact women’s right to vote permanently, Washington’s victory in 1910 was a pivotal event in a revitalized national suffrage movement. Along with their counterparts in other primarily western states, voting women in Washington played an important role in advocating for what would become the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which in 1920 ensured women’s right to vote nationally. By securing the right to vote in 1910, Washington women not only gained a voice in self-government but also made their mark in the great human struggle for equal rights.

After 1910, women paired votes with organizational interests, carrying momentum for change into the ensuing decade when their ballots supported laws, policies, and governmental action reflecting the concerns of women, children, and families. Washington women also supported World War I home-front efforts in common with men and joined other activist campaigns. During the 1930s and 1940s, many women served in capacities outside their homes, for example in relief efforts, factory work, and military service. Harking back to the so-called first wave of feminists of the nineteenth century, in the 1960s and 1970s, second-wave feminists re-energized Washington women and the fight for equal rights—a struggle that continues today.