After the Civil War, American women began forming "study clubs" to discuss literature, history, and art. At a time when most colleges were open only to men, study clubs gave women a chance to explore intellectual ideas. At the same time, club women gained experience in organizing their own meetings, electing their own officers, and expressing their own opinions. Before long, members were organizing on behalf of suffrage and other social reforms.

Many women declared their beliefs through public speaking, sometimes traveling thousands of miles to speak out for the suffrage movement. These female speakers were often jeered or mocked for stepping into a position that normally only men occupied. Clubs provided support and friendship to those who traveled, giving suffragettes both a place to gather and a platform from which to speak.

In 1908, Emma Smith DeVoe began calling on other experienced club women to revitalize women's suffrage clubs throughout Washington. Suffrage leaders began to work around the clock to gain voting rights in the upcoming state elections. The Washington Equal Suffrage Association, the Washington Political Equality League, the Alki Suffrage Club, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union were all among the groups that fought for women's rights during the 1909-1910 Washington suffrage campaign.

"We do not see [the] fruit from our labor which it would gratify us to behold," Catharine Paine Blaine wrote from Seattle in 1854, "but the seed may yet produce a harvest." She was speaking of her missionary work, but she could just as well have been talking about her suffrage work in New York. Though the harvest was long in coming, the seeds of real change for American women found fertile ground in the West.



This essay was supported by the National Park Service’s Challenge Cost Share Program. Points of view are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Department of the Interior.

The image at the top of this page was taken in 1924 in front of the house at the Republican Women's Picnic. Emma Smith DeVoe stands in the front. Courtesy of Dave & Cheryl Teifke of the DeVoe Mansion B&B. This photograph may not be used without prior permission from the DeVoe Mansion.