History ETDs

Publication Date

5-11-1984

Abstract

This study traces the history of the women's suffrage movement in New Mexico from 1900 to 1930. The movement in the state was an urban phenomenon. City life provided women the opportunity to organize and engage in reform work outside their homes. The suffragists were concerned primarily with various problems in their urban communities. The suffrage movement in New Mexico, therefore, occurred because of local concerns and not national ones.

Beginning around 1900, middle class urban women in New Mexico formed various organizations to work for the improvement of their communities. Their main concerns fell within women's separate sphere. Female social reformers, for example, aimed to better public health, education, child welfare, and crime. In 1911, female activists formed an umbrella organization, the New Mexico Federation of Women's Clubs, to coordinate their reform work.

These early organizations made a suffrage movement possible. The demand for the vote began in 1912 when New Mexico became a state. The new state constitution made it virtually impossible for women to vote in general elections. The suffrage movement lasted until 1920 when New Mexico became the thirty-second state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. What is more important, suffragists in the state argued for the ballot on the grounds of women's special concerns.

Most New Mexicans began to support female suffrage during World War I because of women's war work. After women received the vote, female activists in the state continued their reform work by forming new organizations and entering public office. By the 1920s, most New Mexicans accepted women's new public and political role. In this sense, the women's suffrage movement in New Mexico was a success.

Level of Degree

Masters

Degree Name

History

Department Name

History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Ferenc M. Szasz

Second Committee Member

M. Jane Slaughter

Third Committee Member

Howard Neil Rabinowitz

Language

English

Keywords

women's suffrage, Nineteenth Amendment

Document Type

Thesis

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