Events

With major movements for social, political, and cultural change dynamically underway in our own time, we’re apt to forget similar periods in the past when sea changes took place in American society and politics. 

One such era was a century ago when women in the United States finally won the right to vote nationally. The ratification of the 19th amendment in the summer of 1920, however, came only after five decades of activism for change. 

Starting this Sunday, local historian Phyllis Gale, is beginning a series of three free online talks on Zoom about the history and role of Berkeley women in winning equal rights in 1920. 

Every elected women in Berkeley history, including those on today’s City Council—which has a supermajority of six women—owes part of her success to the foundation created by Berkeley women activists a century and more ago. 

Berkeley women, including Mary McHenry Keith, the first woman to earn a law degree in California, were deeply involved in the struggle for equal rights for women on the West Coast, starting in the 1870s. 

They were leaders in the effort to win voting rights for women in California. They failed at the ballot box in 1896 (of course, only men were voting) but prevailed in 1911 when California became the “Fifth Star”—the fifth state where women won equal voting rights—and helped rejuvenate the suffrage movement nationally, leading to the passage of the 19th Amendment and its eventual ratification in 1920. 

In the 1911 California election rural votes made the difference in putting the suffrage proposition over the top. Berkeley, fifth largest city in California at the time, was the only urban community to vote in favor of suffrage, due in part to the strenuous campaigning of Berkeley women, including UC co-eds. 

Some years later Berkeley elected one of its women—Anna Saylor—to the State Legislature, part of the first class of four women to serve in that body (three of the four women had close Berkeley civic or UC ties). 

Phyllis Gale is giving her three weekend Zoom talks, starting this Sunday, October 11, 2020 on these and other local connections to the women’s suffrage movement. 

The series, sponsored by the American Association of University Women, is entitled “Berkeley’s Women’s Suffrage and Early Civics Actions - 1870 to 1920”. The talks are at 2:00 PM and, including questions and answers, will last about an hour.  

Registration is free, but there’s a limit of 100 tickets per talk. Register on Eventbrite at https://berkeleywomensuffragetalk.eventbrite.com/ You can register for one, two, or all three talks. 

The second talk will be on Saturday, October 24, at 2:00 PM and focus on Women’s Civic Action from 1890 to 1920. 

The third and final talk will be on Sunday, November 15, 2020, and discuss “Forgotten Women—1870-1920” from Berkeley’s political and activist history. 

Phyllis Gale is a 35 year member of the AAUW Berkeley. She’s also a volunteer and Board member with the Berkeley Historical Society and the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.