Suffrage's Second Act: Women in the New York State Legislature, 1919–1930

We know much more about the struggle to win the vote than we do about those who first ran for and won elective office in New York. This essay assesses the impact of the first women in the New York State Legislature after suffrage. In the "long decade" of the 1920s (1919–30), five women won seats, all in the Assembly: Ida B. Sammis (R) 1919–20, Mary Lilly (D) 1919–20; Elizabeth Gillette (D) 1920–21, Marguerite Smith (R) 1920–22; and Rhoda Fox Graves (R) 1924–32. Graves would break the invisible barrier of the Senate, becoming the first woman elected there in 1934 and remaining until her retirement in 1947. Their experiences show us what it was like for the first cohort of women who entered the world of New York State electoral politics. Their political careers illuminate the new challenges women faced as they confronted a masculine political culture and parties reluctant to share power with women. Sammis, Lilly, Gillette, Smith, and Graves deserve recognition as pioneers in the second act of women's suffrage in New York.

Political and Cultural Dynamics

The main focus of this essay is on the experiences of the women as they became politicians—in particular how they had to learn how to work effectively within parties and with political leaders. Women had to learn how to campaign and govern at an accelerated pace. Until 1938 legislative terms were for one year, not two as they are now, so new legislators had a single session in which to seek reelection. Sessions in the 1920s were also shorter, running from January through April and not through the end of June as they do now.

Once elected, what was reasonable to expect in terms of achievements? Here normal political considerations about which party held power and whether each woman had the support of the leadership mattered. At the same time, the women politicians also contended with cultural expectations about what was or was not acceptable behavior for female office holders. Finally, these women struggled with how to represent women's interests given that so few women were elected to office during this period and that the interests of the state were anything but homogeneous. In the introduction to their 2001 book, New York Politics: A Tale of Two States, Edward Schneier and John Murtaugh make the case that "social and economic cleavages in New York reinforce and confound each other." They see New York divided socially and politically.¹ They argue that the state's partisan, economic, and political divides "are so extraordinarily dualistic as to put traditional theories of government … to the test."² Parts of New York rank among the richest areas in the country and have a record of supporting policy innovations to expand the state's involvement in overall economic and urban development. But its status as one of the most urbanized states in the union overshadows how thinly populated much of the state is. More than 50,000 people live within one square mile in Manhattan; yet there are just 3.1 per square mile in Hamilton County, an hour outside the city of Albany. While the urban areas of the state are ethnically and racially diverse, rural demographics show a more homogeneous pattern.³ Those rural areas have historically taken a more reserved attitude toward an expansive state presence.⁴ Democrats and Republicans each have their "centers of gravity" within the state: downstate and urban for the Democrats, and upstate and rural for the Republicans.⁵ Women in politics have been no less affected by the existence of such differences than have men. Even when big issues like suffrage seemed unifying, women's attitudes and behaviors differed by party affiliation, region, socioeconomic background, and the gendered boundaries of society.⁶ Additionally, whether women voted in larger or smaller numbers than expected reflected residual local sentiment on the suffrage question itself.⁷

The political tumult of the 1920s resulted in redrawing of boundaries regarding male and female roles in the political arena. Women gained access to new areas, like...