California Women and Politics: From the Gold Rush to the Great Depression ed. by Robert W. Cherny, Mary Ann Irwin, and Ann Marie Wilson (review)

A century ago California granted voting rights to women. California Women and Politics: From the Gold Rush to the Great Depression, an essay collection marking the one hundredth anniversary of that event, suggests it was less a watershed than the ratification of a longstanding pattern. The contributors to this volume, all alumni of San Francisco State’s history graduate program, document a wide array of women’s civic work in California stretching from the 1850s to the 1920s. Most of the essays recount the work of middle-class clubwomen; a few explore the ideas and activism of their working-class counterparts. As the editors acknowledge, ethnic and racial minorities are mostly missing from the book. Nevertheless, the fourteen essays compiled here offer compelling evidence of the intensity and impact of women’s activism in an important state.

The book makes it abundantly clear that women’s civic work mattered long before they had the vote. Their lobbying ranged from temperance efforts, to saving redwoods, to minimum wage laws, to the policing of dance halls. It seems safe to conclude activist women were key players in nearly every regulatory initiative undertaken by the state and local governments during the period covered by the book. One also comes away with a good sense of the thick web of connections among women activists. Wealthy women such as Phoebe Appleton Hearst (ably profiled by Mildred Nichols Hamilton) and Katherine Edson were at the hub of these networks, but they extended across a variety of organizations and issues.

The sense of density conveyed by the essays collected here reflects the book’s principal strength and its most obvious weakness. The reader gains a clear sense of the significance of the public work undertaken by white middle-class women. But the focus on this cohort also highlights the limited circle of women featured in most of the essays. Several do an excellent job of exploring tensions between working-class and middle-class women’s agendas, particularly Rebecca Mead’s account of the campaign for the minimum wage. But the voices, interests, and efforts of women from California’s racial and ethnic minority communities are largely absent, save for Linda Heidenreich’s intriguing essay on the testimonios of indigenous California women. We know from Mary Ann Irwin’s closing historiographical essay that there has been a good deal of work on the activism of Latino, Asian, and African-American women, but little of it is reflected here.

This limited attention to the distinctive racial and cultural dynamics of California is one reason the book seems to lack a strong sense of place. There are tantalizing hints of what makes the activism of California women distinctive, ranging from the campaign to save the Redwoods to battles against vice in wide-open San Francisco. But most of the essays strive to demonstrate how California women’s activism fit broader patterns evident in other states rather than what made it distinctive. Even so, they pack a punch, illustrating in clear and detailed fashion the enduring vitality, effectiveness, and importance of women’s politics in California.