Women’s suffrage in Nevada detailed in Carson City lecture

Efforts to secure voting rights for Nevada women began as early as 1869 – just five years after statehood – but it wouldn’t be until 1914 that male voters passed the state’s women’s suffrage amendment.

These actions coincided with national women’s suffrage efforts and issues and they are the subject of this month’s Frances Humphrey Lecture Series at the Nevada State Museum.

Joanne L. Goodwin, a professor of history and director emerita of the Women’s Research Institute of Nevada at UNLV, will present “Nevada and the Campaign for Women’s Voting Rights,” linking Nevada’s story with major turns in the national movement and providing profiles of women who were central to the state and national campaigns.

The lecture starts at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 at the museum, 600 N. Carson St., Carson City. Admission is $8; free for museum members and children 17 and younger. Seating is limited and those planning to go should reserve their seats by going to: http://nvculture.org/nevadastatemuseumcarsoncity/events/

Some Nevada women participated in campaigns in other states until passage of the 19th amendment in 1920. Others worked with the state legislature to pass laws improving women and children’s lives, or they entered politics and ran for office. The presentation concludes with information about the National Votes for Women Trail celebrating the centennial of the 19th Amendment and the historic markers that will be installed across the state.

Since arriving in Las Vegas in 1991, Goodwin developed numerous resources on the history of women in the region, including the Nevada Women’s Archive and the Las Vegas Women Oral History Project housed at UNLV. This past summer, her article on Suffrage in Nevada appeared in the journal Western Legal History. As a board member of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites she is dedicated to including Nevada on the National Votes for Women Trail and securing five historic markers noting important suffrage sites in the state.