"Always Leading Out in that Which Is Great and Good": Mormon Women's Perspective of Women's Rights Fifty Years after Suffrage

Authors

Ashley Anderson Webb, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Nineteenth Amendment, Womens Suffrage, Mormon Sufferage, Jubliee

Abstract

On a cold Thursday in eartly February 1920, newly enfranchised women from across che nation huddled together in Chicago for a seven-day-long Golden Jubilee. The anticipated passage of the Nineteenth Amendment lay only three scares' ratification and half a year away. That same Thursday, women in Utah looked back half a century co 12 February 1870, when che Utah Territory granted its women the right co vote. While reflecting on their own history, Utah's women also case their eyes outward, joining their sisters throughout the US who looked forward co the future of nationwide suffrage. Many prominent female leaders of the Mormon Church represented Utah women at che national jubilee, while local organizations of women celebrated in Utah. Mrs. Susa Young Gates, who attended the convention in Chicago, represented "che earliest pioneer voter present, she having married at sixteen and case her vote in 1872." Mormon women experienced the national suffrage movement through celebratory jubilees, interactions with national women's leaders, and the writing of their own religious authoritiesthrough it all, they expressed a profound sense of empowerment and pride.

Recommended Citation

Webb, Ashley Anderson (2017) ""Always Leading Out in that Which Is Great and Good": Mormon Women's Perspective of Women's Rights Fifty Years after Suffrage," The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 46: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol46/iss1/5