Timeline of women's suffrage in Wisconsin

1846

• October 5: Delegates of the 1846 Wisconsin Constitutional Convention start meeting in Madison.[1] The final draft of the constitution had women's rights provisions and considered suffrage for African Americans.[1]
• April: This version of the Wisconsin Constitution is rejected by voters.[1]

1852

• Woman's rights newspaper, Die Deutsche Frauen-Zeitung, is founded in Milwaukee by Mathilde Franziska Anneke.[2]

1853

• Clarina I. H. Nichols and Lydia Folger Fowler tour Wisconsin and speak on temperance and women's suffrage.[3]

1855

• November: Lucy Stone speaks about women's suffrage in Madison and Kenosha.[3]

1856

• Women's suffrage club started in Richland Center.[3]
• Three women's suffrage petitions are brought to the state legislature by Senator C. C. Sholes of Kenosha County.[4]

1867

• October 9-10: First state suffrage convention is held in Janesville.[3]

1868

• The Woman Suffrage Association of Wisconsin (WSAW) is founded.[3]

1869

• February 24-25: State suffrage convention is held in Milwaukee and arranged by Lila Peckham and Laura Ross Wolcott.[5]

1870

• State suffrage convention is held.[3]

1878

• The Madison Equal Suffrage Association (MESA) is founded.[3]

1879

• Organization of the Marathon County Woman Suffrage Association.[3]

1880

• May: Mukwonago Woman Suffrage Club is organized.[3]
• A women's suffrage referendum passes both houses and waits to be passed again the next year.[6]

1881

• The women's suffrage bill, passed in 1880, fails during the second vote.[6]

1882

• September 7: State suffrage convention is held in Madison. The [3] WSAW changes their name to the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association (WWSA).[3]
• Centralia Equal Suffrage Association, Grand Rapids Equal Suffrage Association, Milwaukee Olympic Club, Milwaukee South Side Woman Suffrage Association, Whitewater Woman Suffrage Club, and Woman Suffrage Association at Mosinee are founded.[3]

1884

• A bill passes the state legislature, giving women the right to vote for candidates relating to education.[7]
• September: State suffrage club is held in Richland Center.[3]

1885

• State suffrage meeting held in Whitewater.[8]
• The suffrage bill passed in 1884 is passed again and will go out to a voter referendum.[9]

1886

• State suffrage meeting is held in Racine.[8]
• Fall: Voters approve the women's suffrage referendum, giving women the right to vote in education-related elections.[9]

1887

• April: Attorney General of Wisconsin, Charles E. Estabrook instructs inspectors at polling places to throw out women's votes.[10]
• Olympia Brown is turned away from voting in municipal elections.[3]
• State suffrage meeting is held in Madison.[8]
• Suffrage newspaper, the Woman Citizen begins publication.[11]

1888

• January 31: The Wisconsin Supreme Court decides that the new education suffrage law means that women can vote for any candidate on ballots that contain school-related issues.[12]
• State suffrage meeting is held in Stevens' Point.[8]
• The Supreme Court of the United States reverses the Wisconsin Court, clarifying that women in the state can only vote on school issues, not other candidates.[12]

1889

• Another case challenges the school-election law and women are effectively barred from voting for several years.[13]

Wisconsin Woman's Suffrage Association (WWSA) convention newsletter, November 1901

1890

• Theodora W. Youmans uses the Waukesha Freeman as a platform to encourage women's clubs to form in Waukesha.[14]
• State suffrage meeting is held in Berlin.[8]

1891

• State suffrage meeting is held in Menominee.[8]

1892

• State suffrage meeting is held in Richland Center.[8]

1893

• State suffrage meeting is held in Mukwonago.[8]

1894

• State suffrage meeting is held in Racine.[8]

1895

• State suffrage meeting is held in Evansville.[8]

1896

• State suffrage meeting is held in Waukesha.[8]
• Ten day suffrage open house is held at Manona Lake Assembly where Anna Howard Shaw speaks to a group of around 4,000 people.[15]

1897

• State suffrage meeting is held in Monroe.[8]

1898

• State suffrage meeting is held in Spring Green.[8]
• National suffrage convention held in Madison.[16]

1899

• State suffrage meeting is held in Platteville.[8]

"Up the Wolf for Votes for Women"

1900

• State suffrage meeting is held in Brodhead.[8]

1901

• Belle Case La Follette lobbies the state legislature to reinstate women's right to vote for school-related candidates and issues.[17]
• Women are again allowed to vote on education-related issues because separate school ballot boxes are provided by law.[3][18][19]
• State women's suffrage convention is held in Brodhead.[20]

1902

• Headquarters for women's suffrage are opened in Madison.[3]
• State women's suffrage convention is held in Madison.[20]
• April 1: Women in Wisconsin vote again for school related issues on a separate ballot.[21]

1903

• A municipal suffrage bill is introduced in the state legislature, but only gets a small vote.[19]
• A full women's suffrage bill passes the state assembly, but not the state senate.[19]
• State women's suffrage convention is held in Platteville.[20]

1904

• State women's suffrage convention is held in Janesville.[20]

1905

• The state assembly passes a municipal suffrage bill, but it fails in the state senate.[22]
• State women's suffrage convention is held in Milwaukee.[20]

1906

• State women's suffrage convention is held in Madison.[20]

1907

• State women's suffrage convention is held in Madison.[20]

1908

• State women's suffrage convention is held in Madison.[20]
• Maud Wood Park tours several Wisconsin colleges and helps set up suffrage groups for college students.[18]

1909

• State women's suffrage convention is held in Madison.[20]
• WWSA circulates petitions for a federal women's suffrage amendment and collect more than 18,000 signatures.[18]
• A bill for a referendum on women's suffrage passes in the state senate, but fails in the state assembly.[22]

Suffragists from the Political Equality League in Milwaukee

1910

• State women's suffrage convention is held in Madison.[20]

1911

• March 31: A suffrage bill passes the state senate.[22]
• April 26: The suffrage bill passes the state assembly and will go to the voters as a political referendum in 1912.[22]
• The Political Equality League (PEL) is organized.[3]
• Wisconsin Men's League for Women's Suffrage formed.[23]
• State women's suffrage convention is held in Racine.[20]
• Summer: Campaign headquarters for the vote are set up in Milwaukee.[24]
• August 2: State women's suffrage auto tour begins in Milwaukee.[25]

1912

• November 4: The vote for women's suffrage fails in the referendum.[26]

1913

• January: Zona Gale calls for a joint conference of PEL and WWSA.[27]
• February 4-5: The joint convention is held in Madison.[28]
• A women's suffrage referendum passes in the state legislature, but is voted by the governor.[22]
• PEL and WWSA merge and keep the name WWSA.[3]
• April 26: La Follett testifies in front of the United States Senate Select Committee on Woman Suffrage.[29]

1914

• June 18-24: A suffrage school is held in Madison.[3]
• December: State suffrage convention is held.[3]

1915

• Several women's suffrage bills are introduced in the state legislature, but are unsuccessful.[22]

1916

• March: A Congressional Conference is held in Milwaukee with Carrie Chapman Catt as featured speaker.[30]
• June: Suffragists from Wisconsin march in the Chicago parade.[31]

1917

"Wisconsin O.K.'S Suffrage; Illinois First" June 10, 1919

• A National Woman's Party chapter is founded in Wisconsin.[3]
• March 4: Olympia Brown from Wisconsin is one of the suffragists picketing the White House.[32]
• A voter referendum bill is introduced in the state senate, but loses in the state assembly.[22]

1919

• February: A bill to allow women to vote in the Presidential elections passes.[19]
• June 10: Wisconsin ratifies the 19th Amendment.[17]
• June 13: Wisconsin is the first state to complete the ratification process, turning in the papers to the Secretary of State.[33]

1920

• March: WWSA dissolves.[34]
• The League of Women Voters (LWV) Wisconsin is formed.[35]

• Anthony, Susan B. (1902). Anthony, Susan B.; Harper, Ida Husted (eds.). The History of Woman Suffrage. 4. Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press.
• Grant, Marilyn (Winter 1980). "The 1912 Suffrage Referendum: An Exercise in Political Action". The Wisconsin Magazine of History. 64 (2): 107–118 – via JSTOR.
• Harper, Ida Husted (1922). The History of Woman Suffrage. New York: J.J. Little & Ives Company.
• Neu, Charles E. (Summer 1960). "Olympia Brown and the Woman's Suffrage Movement". The Wisconsin Magazine of History. 43 (4): 277–287 – via JSTOR.
• Unger, Nancy (Winter 1999). "The Two Worlds of Belle Case La Follette". The Wisconsin Magazine of History. 83 (2): 82–110 – via JSTOR.
• Youmans, Theodora W. (September 1921). "How Wisconsin Women Won the Ballot". The Wisconsin Magazine of History. 5 (1): 3–32 – via JSTOR.