Arizona’s Journey to Statehood and What it Meant for Women’s Rights
By Susan Galpin-Tyree
Arizona’s journey to statehood was one of the longest of all the states in the Union. Forces larger than the United States government were responsible, in part, for this long journey. Slow population growth, Confederate sympathizers ruling Arizona territory, and some radical ideas about the state’s judiciary may have been contributing factors.
On June 20, 1910, Congress passed an act to authorize the people of the New Mexico and Arizona Territories to form constitutions and state governments, and provide for the admission of the states into the Union once those constitutions were approved by Congress. After the Territories held constitutional conventions and had their constitutions ratified by the people, each Territory submitted their new constitution to Congress.
When Arizona submitted its constitution specific to Arizona’s special political community, it included a provision that allowed for the recall of judges. President William Howard Taft was opposed to this provision and vetoed Arizona’s statehood resolution on August 15, 1911. The next day, on August 16, 1911, Congress passed a resolution admitting Arizona to the Union on the condition that the state remove the judiciary recall. President Taft approved this new resolution on January 6, 1912. Arizona’s residents voted to remove the recall provision, and on February 14, 1912, President Taft signed the proclamation making Arizona the 48th state in the United States.
The historical context is relevant to President Taft eventually making Arizona a state. When Arizona becomes a state, international and national factors overlap. Importantly, during the Progressive Era (the late 1890s to the late 1910s), a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States brought women’s suffrage to the fore. Not without its own hard-fought journey, women were granted the right to vote within months of Arizona becoming a state. On November 5, 1912, women's suffrage passes in Arizona. In 1913, the voter registration books are opened to women and in 1914 women participate in their first primary elections. Arizona ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on February 12, 1920. However, Native American women and Latinas would wait longer for full voting rights.
I encourage you to peruse the February 1912 edition of Arizona, The New State Magazine, in which Women’s interests are at the front. The articles are fascinating.
Women Who Broke the Trails for Us by Sharlot M. Hall.
Do Arizona Women Want the Ballot? by Frances Willard Munds who worked tirelessly for Arizona women’s rights and was instrumental in passing legislation giving women the right to vote in Arizona.
Legal Rights of Women in Arizona by Mrs. M. S. Loraine.
Arizona Indian Women and Their Future by Amanda Chingren.
How a Girl Can Work Her Way Through School by Ida C. Reed.
This publication written 111 years ago is a must read.
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