The right to vote was given to women in Utah in 1870, well before Women's Suffrage was added in the 19th Amendment in 1920. At that time only Wyoming, also a territory, had this right. The motive behind Women's Suffrage in Utah for those outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was to end polygamy. According to an article published in the Denver Tribune-Republican, "It was believed at one time that if the ballot were placed in the hands of the Mormon women they would seek their own redemption by voting with the Gentiles. The result proved that this was based upon a false assumption" (2). Leaders in the church were also welcome to the proposal of women's suffrage because they believed it would show the rest of the country that women in the church were not oppressed or opposed to their position in a polygamous marriage.
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During the 17 years from 1870 to 1887 when the Edmunds-Tucker anti-polygamy act took away women's right to vote in Utah, Mormon women consistently voted in favor of polygamy. Many critics of the church attributed this to the notion that Mormon women were essentially brainwashed by their male leaders. This can be seen in a quote by Utah Commissioner Algernon S. Paddock, who said, "What may be said in favor of female suffrage elsewhere cannot be applied here. It is certainly odious as practiced here. The women are completely controlled in their action by the church authorities" (2). But the women of the church fought hard to show the world that they were well educated, free-thinkers who deserved the vote. With the power given them with the Relief Society, they were able to organize mass meetings where they spoke out in support of polygamy and women's suffrage.
After hearing the speeches given by some of these Mormon women, one reporter from the New York Herald said, “In logic and in rhetoric, the so-called degraded ladies of Mormondom are quite equal to the women’s rights women of the East” (3). |