What About the Ladies?

This is a photo of the Cuyahoga County Women's Suffrage Association which was disbanned in 1920.  This group then formally became the League of Women Voters of Cleveland in that same year.  Many smaller organizations joined the League of Women Voters including the Cleveland Women's Suffrage Party of 1914. 

The League of Women Voters in the Cleveland chapter was the first chapter to send out opinion questionnaires on candidates and have public forums between competing candidates before elections.

This photo is the headquarters for the League of Women Voters in Cleveland.  This photograph contains some very influential Cleveland suffragettes such as Miss Belle Sherwin (extreme right) who was the National League of Women Voters president in 1912.  In addition, B. Judge Florence E. Allen is pictured holding the flag.  She was the first women to serve on the Ohio Supreme Court.

The organization was used to teach women how to exercise their right to vote.   Today the organization is divided into three tiers:  local, state, and national.  They help people register to vote, help provide unbiased information on the candidates, and sponsor debates.  These are just a few of the organizations acitivies that help citizen in his/her community.  

This photograph shows the opposition to the suffrage movement. The organized group is titled the National Association Opposed to Women's Suffrage.  Often these men who were opposed to women's suffrage were brewers or distillers of alcohol.  The men believed that if women gained the power to vote, that women in power would then outlaw alcohol.  In addition, the movement was also fueled by distinct physical differences.  Women would have trouble making it to voting polls because it would exhaust them.  Some men believed that the emotional instabiltiy of women would make her a "dangerous voter".  Furthermore, women might vote twice, jeopardizing national security which may lead to war.  Many men, such as President Grover Cleveland believed that the woman's place was in the home.  Men felt women would let her emotions rather than her rational thinking sway her vote.  Even though the anti suffragist movement was strong, women finally achieved equality by voting in 1920 with the 19th amendment to the Constitution.