Constructing the Woman Citizen and Struggling for the Vote in California, 1896-1911

Abstract

California women waged two state campaigns for suffrage, one that failed in 1896 and a successful one in 1911. Women activists struggled in these campaigns to win the vote and to create an identity for women as citizens. As historian Jane Rendall states, Citizenship is a question not only of rights and duties but also of identity. This paper uses the two suffrage campaigns as arenas to examine how California women developed that identity.l In their fight for the vote, women activists were influenced by Progressive Era understandings of male citizenship and women's citizenship status. Americans used a contradictory blend of republican, liberal, and ascriptive traditions to define citizenship. Citizens in the United States were defined as white men whose work made them independent individuals and hence prepared to participate in democratic civic life. Male citizens spoke for all the dependents of their household who could not speak for themselves, namely, women and minor children. Women's work of moral guardianship preserved Ameri-