Keywords
Mormon, Latter-day Saint, LDS women, Relief Society, Joseph Smith, First Vision, woman's suffrage
Abstract
On a cold Thursday in early February 1920, newly enfranchised women from across the nation huddled together in Chicago for a seven-day-long Golden Jubilee. The anticipated passage of the Nineteenth Amendment needed only three more states for ratification, which occurred a few months later. At the same time, women in Utah reflected back half a century to February 12, 1870, when Utah Territory granted women the right to vote. Female Utahns rejoiced with their sisters throughout the United States who anticipated the fruition of universal suffrage. Susa Young Gates, who attended the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association Convention in Chicago, represented “the earliest pioneer voter present, she having married at sixteen and cast her vote in 1872.” LDS women commemorated the national suffrage movement through attending celebratory jubilees, interacting with national suffragist leaders, and writing their own suffrage narratives wherein they expressed a profound sense of empowerment, pride, and self-awareness. These women also commemorated the centennial of the First Vision throughout 1920. Statements in the Relief Society Magazine reflected Mormon women’s perspective during that momentous year: “The present time itself is fraught with great significance for the women of this people, for the Church itself and for the world.” They also sought to explain and defend “Mormonism to the wider and hostile American culture” by portraying themselves as decades ahead of the nation in terms of suffrage and women’s rights. As the entire world recognized women’s advancements and achievements in 1920, women of the church readily acknowledged the Restoration and divine intervention in bringing these blessings into fruition.
Original Publication Citation
Webb, Ashley Anderson, and Jay H. Buckley. “Mormon Women Connected Suffrage Directly to Joseph Smith’s First Vision and the Restoration of the Gospel: Reflections from the 1920 Relief Society Magazine.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 4 (October 2020): 130-38.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Webb, Ahsley Anderson and Buckley, Jay H., "Mormon Women Connected Suffrage Directly to Joseph Smith’s First Vision and the Restoration of the Gospel: Reflections from the 1920 Relief Society Magazine" (2020). Faculty Publications. 7419.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/7419
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2020-10
Publisher
Mormon History Association
Language
English
College
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Department
History
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