Iowa
Iowa’s Fight for Suffrage
Women worked for over 70 years to get the vote. Divisions over race, tactics, and strategy did not stop suffrage efforts. Women kept their eyes on the prize . . . suffrage. Learn more about the fight for suffrage in Iowa in the timeline below, or download the timeline as a printable PDF.
Iowa’s Suffrage Timeline
1869
A Dubuque women’s study club founded the Northern Iowa Woman Suffrage Association (NIWA) after attending a Galena, Illinois suffrage convention. The next year, Iowa’s Legislature passed a bill amending Iowa’s constitution, but like many states, Iowa required constitutional amendments to pass two sequential legislative sessions, so the bill stalled.
1870
Mount Pleasant hosted the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association (IWSA) founding convention. IWSA’s first president, Amelia Jenks Bloomer, had attended the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and edited Seneca Falls’ The Lily until 1856 (when she and her husband moved to Council Bluffs). Mary Jane Coggeshall, an IWSA President for many years, later edited the monthly suffrage newspaper, The Woman’s Standard, which continued publication in Iowa cities for 35 years.
1894
The General Assembly granted partial suffrage to Iowa’s women by granting tax-paying women the vote on bond and tax issues—but not on candidates or other state measures.
1908
The Boone Equality Club organized the country’s third suffrage parade. One hundred fifty suffragists marched to downtown Boone with flags and banners calling for equal suffrage.
1913
After the legislature passed a suffrage bill in 1913, it passed the second required legislative vote in 1915 to progress to a referendum by Iowa voters.
For the 1916 suffrage voter referendum, suffragists crossed the state in newfangled automobiles to garner support for the vote, and with help from national suffrage organizations, campaigned in every Iowa county. Anti-suffragists worked against the amendment by hosting anti-suffragist speakers and posting ads in farming journals statewide, claiming that giving women the vote would increase taxes.
Suffrage lost the referendum by about 11,000 votes. Responding to fraud allegations, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union investigated and found that many votes were unaccounted for, while certain county counts exceeded their numbers of registered voters.
July 2, 1919
Following passage of the 19th Amendment, the Iowa Legislature voted to ratify.
References
Amelia Jenks Bloomer. (n.d.). Iowa State University: Archives of Women’s Political Communication. https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/amelia-jenks-bloomer/
Cooney, Robert. (2005). Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement. American Graphic Press.
History.com Editors. (2023, August, 28). Carrie Chapman Catt. History. https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/carrie-chapman-catt#joining-the-suffragist-movement
Hytrek, N. (2022, March 22). Iowa Women Spent Decades Before 19th Amendment Fighting for Voting Rights. Iowa Starting Line. https://iowastartingline.com/2022/03/22/iowa-women-spent-decades-before-19th-amendment-fighting-for-voting-rights/
Iowa and the 19th Amendment. (2019, August 15). National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/iowa-and-the-19th-amendment.htm
Johnson, C. (2020, February 4). How Iowa’s Women Fought for the Right to Vote. The Iowa Source. https://www.iowasource.com/2020/02/04/how-iowas-women-fought-for-the-right-to-vote/
Kedrowski, K. (2020, August 7). Bloomer, Catt + More: Iowans in the Suffrage Movement. DSMUSA. https://www.dsmpartnership.com/news-media/blog/bloomer-catt–more-iowans-in-the-suffrage-movement
The Fight for Women’s Suffrage. (n.d.). Iowa PBS. https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/2693/fight-womens-suffrage
Women’s Suffrage in Iowa. (n.d.). Iowa State University. https://cattcenter.iastate.edu/timeline/
Women’s Suffrage. State Historical Society of Iowa. https://iowa.minisisinc.com/primarysource/WomenSuffrage