Votes for Women: How Culture Impacted the Nebraska Women's Suffrage Movement

“Votes for Women: How Culture Impacted the Nebraska Women’s Suffrage Movement” Hannah Earnhardt Speaks at Homestead National Monument of America
 
Peru State College Student Hannah Earnhardt will be presenting her essay “Votes for Women: How Culture Impacted the Nebraska Women’s Suffrage Movement” on Sunday, March 31, 2019,  at 1 p.m. at the Homestead Education Center. Her talk will immediately precede a screening of the NET documentary film Willa Cather: The Road is All at 2:00 p.m.   Join Homestead National Monument of America in our ongoing celebration of Women’s History Month.
 
Earnhardt’s essay examines the impact of early twentieth-century cultural factors on the suffrage movement in Nebraska, especially regarding immigration, prohibition, and contemporary religious movements. In 1917, Senator J.N. Norton introduced House Roll No. 222 into the Nebraska House of Representatives, where it passed – but the Nebraska Association Opposed to Women’s Suffrage (NAOWS) petitioned to have the new law placed on the upcoming ballot. Join us on Sunday, March 31, 2019,^t to learn how Nebraskan women were guaranteed the right to vote.
 
Earnhardt notes that “House Roll No. 222, passed April 21, 1917, gave women “limited suffrage,” which meant Nebraska’s women could vote for anything except ‘United States Senator, United States Representative, or for any officers specified and designated in the constitution of Nebraska.”
 
“Homesteading and women’s suffrage went hand in hand,” stated Superintendent Mark Engler.   Wyoming’s territorial legislature was the first to enfranchise American women in 1869. Of all the Great Plains and Western homesteading states, only New Mexico did not guarantee women’s suffrage before ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The economic power of property ownership was a major factor in this transition, and the Homestead Act of 1862 and the land available in the West allowed women to access that power in a way that many women in the eastern states were not able to.
Remember, Homestead National Monument of America has an exciting schedule of events planned for 2019. Keep up with the latest information by following us on Twitter (HomesteadNM) and Facebook (HomesteadNM).
Homestead National Monument of America is a unit of the National Park Service located four miles west of Beatrice, Nebraska and 45 miles south of Lincoln. Hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free of charge. For additional information, please call 402-223-3514 or visit http://www.nps.gov/home/.
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