‘Votes for women!’ — 110 years ago marked the first time in California electoral history that women were eligible to vote in presidential elections.
“When women made it into the polls, they were so excited,” Lillie Shaver, a lifelong local politician who was president of the state assembly in 1918, said.
A year later, the first statewide elections for women’s clubs were also held.
“It was a pretty serious step,” said Linda Barlow, a teacher and former president of the Sacramento Women’s Club. “It took a long time to get there.”
The effort to get women to the polls is part of the ongoing history of women in the state.
On April 6, 1918, more than a century ago, the California legislature passed the first statewide ballot initiative in the nation.
“Votes for women!” — 110 years ago marked the first time in California electoral history that women were eligible to vote in presidential elections.
“When women made it into the polls, women were so excited,” Lillie Shaver, a longtime local politician who was president of the state assembly in 1918, said. “Women really loved the possibility of voting. They were going to give the nation back a woman president, and it was a very powerful moment.”
The first election in which women were eligible to vote was for state offices. At that time, women and men were eligible to vote.
That first election was also called the “Women’s Initiative.”
The California Women’s Party sponsored a special election called for voters to decide on whether the state should call a statewide election.
A majority of voters voted in favor of the state election, making it possible for the second election for women, which was for the first women’s club in the state.
That first women’s club had been organized in 1915, but it was not until 1918, more than four decades later, that the Sacramento Women’s Club was officially established.
The club was given the charter at a meeting of more than 40 women where the club was given the right to elect its own officers and elect its own president.
The constitution of the Sacramento Women’s Club, according