Women from nearly all social strata fought for equal rights. May Arkwright Hutton championed working women. Hutton, a former cook in a mining camp, wrote in 1909 that her heart was with "the laundry worker, the shop girl, the stenographer, the teacher, the working woman of every type, whose home and fireside and bread are earned by their own efforts."

Hutton was a nineteenth century self-made woman. Born and raised in Ohio, she moved to Idaho, where she supported herself cooking, washing dishes, and serving meals to hungry miners in Wallace. There she met her third husband, Levi W. Hutton, a railroad engineer and part-time miner. The couple invested in a silver mine in 1901, which would eventually make the Huttons millionaires. The heightened social status that came with her newfound wealth would be a source of friction for the remainder of Hutton's life.

What a Difference a Few Miles Make

The Huttons moved to Spokane, Washington, in 1906, where Mrs. Hutton quickly immersed herself in the suffrage movement. As a resident of Idaho, which had given women the right to vote in 1896, Hutton had been a regular voter. She didn't appreciate giving up that right just because she had moved a few miles west.

As the first vice president of the Washington Equal Suffrage Association, Hutton was an active voice in the movement. Her writings illustrate her sympathies with working women in particular and labor in general. "Equality before the law," said Hutton, "gives women a fair chance with men in a question of wages for the same work. In other words, the enfranchisement of women means a square deal for all."

Many of Hutton's views, campaign strategies and her personal behavior put her at odds with other suffrage leaders, especially WESA president Emma Smith DeVoe in Seattle. The conflict between the two strong-willed women would lead to sharp divisions between factions in Eastern and Western Washington.

Strategy Differences Lead to Split

"[I] have decided that we will conduct our campaign on the east side along entirely different lines than the Seattle women…," Hutton wrote in a letter to a fellow suffragist. From a strategy standpoint, Hutton preferred the "still hunt," meaning more one-on-one lobbying and fewer public demonstrations. Seattleites leaned toward more visible tactics, especially blanketing neighborhoods with posters.

Many women were sometimes offended by Hutton's behavior, considering her a little rough around the edges. In June 1909, the treasurer of the WESA returned Hutton's annual dues, claiming she was unwelcome because of, "your habitual use of profane and obscene language and of your record in Idaho as shown by pictures and other evidence [of] … your former life and reputation."

The Vote Is Just the Beginning

In spite of these differences, the women were able to work together, ensuring a victory in November 1910. Hutton saw equal suffrage as a beginning, not an end, and soon took up a number of Progressive causes, especially the eight-hour workday for women. In 1912, Hutton and three other women were among the delegates to the State Democratic Convention in Walla Walla, Washington. She was also named a Washington delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, Maryland.

Hutton died of Bright's disease, a kidney condition, on October 6, 1915, at age 55. Consistent with the two lives she lived, both the rich and poor attended her funeral. The Spokane Daily Chronicle lauded Hutton as "author, suffragist, philosopher, humanitarian and probably one of the best known women in the great Northwest."