Introduction

Prior to the colonization of the Americas by Europeans, many indigenous (Native) American cultures recognized the political power of women. While men dominated indigenous leadership structures, women often participated or were consulted in political decision-making processes. In general, relationships between indigenous men and women were more equal than in European cultures, indigenous women enjoyed rights that European women did not have, and indigenous gender roles were more fluid than in European societies. 

As Europeans continued to colonize new territories in the Americas, they also transferred their understanding of gender relations and laws that regulated the position of men and women in the society. By and large, European women, including first European women and their descendants in North America, had no legal, political, or economic rights even when female monarchs (queens) led some of the greatest powers of Europe. That does not mean, however, that women did not play a part in the political lives of their communities. By engaging in local churches and charities, participating in local economies, or taking responsibility for their children’s education, women always had some impact on local politics, even if they did not have formal political rights. 

By the mid-19th century (1800), ongoing efforts to grant political rights to women – including the right to vote – became better organized and more visible across the United States. In Arkansas, the first serious attempt to grant women the right to vote emerged shortly after the Civil War, when Miles Ledford Langley of Arkadelphia proposed at the 1868 Arkansas Constitutional Convention that “all citizens 21 years of age, who can read and write the English language”  should be eligible to. While this proposal was rejected, the fight for women’s political rights did not cease. Women’s rights organizations mushroomed across the state and while they fought for women to be recognized as equal to men in all aspects of life, their agenda focused particularly on one goal: suffrage, or voting rights for women. They implemented various strategies to achieve their goal. They published and distributed suffrage newspapers and pamphlets, organized marches, parades, and rallies, and sent petitions to local and national legislatures that demanded voting rights for women. In 1917, all these efforts resulted in Arkansas women gaining the right to vote in primary elections. 

In 1919, Congress passed the federal women’s suffrage amendment, which Arkansas ratified only a month later, becoming the twelfth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. In this activity, you will examine three photos that document crucial moments in Arkansas women’s rise to political power.