Description: Broadside advocating the right to vote for women and a minimum wage for women workers. The broadside was distributed by the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association during the time it was headquartered in Warren, Ohio. It argues that women deserve the right to vote in order to have a say in their own working conditions, and that, with women able to vote for a minimum wage. male workers will similarly see an increase in their wages. Workers are encouraged to vote for the Equal Suffrage Amendment in the upcoming election on November 23. By the 1870s, there were dozens of different women's suffrage organizations in Ohio, each focused on one community or one county. It was not until May 1885 that the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association (OWSA) was formed in Painesville, Ohio, as a statewide organization. To avoid partisan politics, its members chose not to affiliate the organization with any of the national woman suffrage groups of this era. Instead, they focused primarily on a campaign to change local and state laws that prohibited women from voting. Unlike many organizations of women in the late 19th century, the OWSA did not discriminate and encouraged African American women to participate in its efforts. In the early 20th century, the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association became even more vocal, organizing parades and campaigning for a state constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. Despite a number of fundraising problems and other challenges the OWSA continued to hold meetings and parades until the beginning of World War I. Although they were unsuccessful in obtaining their goals prior to the war, women ultimately received the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920. Ohio was the fifth state to ratify this amendment. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: VFM6213_01
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; Ohio Woman Suffrage Association; Labor--Ohio; Minimum wage
Places: Warren (Ohio); Trumbull County (Ohio);