Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
During the closing years of the long campaign for woman suffrage
street meetings were held. Among those who helped in this work were
Mrs. Frank Hiram Snell, Miss Florence F. Stiles, Miss Elizabeth
Eggert, Miss O'Toole and Miss Sellers. Receptions were given to the
"yellow flier," the automobile sent across the continent by the
National Association, and to the "prairie schooner," the car sent by
the Just Government League of Maryland to tour its southern counties.
Miss O'Toole travelled with the "schooner" two weeks, speaking several
times a day. A delegation from the College League met it at the
District line and a procession accompanied it into the city under
police escort. In the evening a public reception was given at the
Washington College of Law. From 1916 the association assisted the
National Association at its new headquarters, 1626 Rhode Island
Avenue, by serving tea afternoons and raising money through bazaars,
rummage sales, card parties, etc.
During 1918 all the suffrage societies in the District devoted their
energies to war work and co-operated in every possible way with the
Woman's Committee of National Defense, whose headquarters were in
Washington, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw chairman. They rejoiced in the
submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment by Congress in 1919 and
its ratification in 1920, although notwithstanding their many years of
loyalty and assistance to the National Association they could receive
no benefit from the victory.
More women hold office in Washington than in any city in the world
because of their very extensive employment by the National Government.
When Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage was written in 1900 an
official statement gave the total number of government employees in
the District as 20,109 men, 7,496 women, a total of 27,600. At the
request of Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, a vice-president of the National
Woman Suffrage Association and a member of the U. S. Civil Service
Commission, the following information was sent in 1920 to be used in
this volume, by the president of the commission, Martin A. Morrison:
In 1907 the Bureau of the Census issued a report in which it was
stated that men outnumbered women in the Government service by
about eleven to one in Washington, D. C., and outside. The
percentage of women in the District was much larger than outside
for the reason that the great bulk of the employees in field
branches are in services the duties of which are not ordinarily
performed by women--the mechanical forces at navy yards, ordnance
establishments, engineer departments, reclamation service
projects, lighthouse service and the like; also the
letter-carriers, city and rural, railway mail clerks and such
classes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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