Class and Gender Politics in Progressive-Era Seattle

Chapter 4: Chiffon Politics in Progressive-Era Seattle

In 1911, Seattle captured a great deal of national attention for its rather unique political scene. Readers from New York to Los Angeles not only read about Washington’s successful suffrage campaign in local papers and national magazines, but also learned how Seattle women exploited this newfound power to remove the city’s mayor from office. This triumph soon sparked a tidal wave of suffrage victories in the West that eventually ended with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. For Seattle residents, including many of the more passionate suffragists, the exact meaning of this victory was not so clear. Questions quickly arose. After the excitement of their victory would women seize this opportunity? What would they do with this new power the vote offered them? With the political glue of suffrage eliminated, could Seattle women sustain the energy of that movement and avoid fracturing into numerous competing interest groups? In short, would voting women truly make a difference? The answers to these questions would define progressivism and Seattle politics for years to come. chapter 4 Chiffon Politics in Progressive-Era Seattle 115 116 c l a s s a n d g e n d e r p o l i t i c s Scholars have written extensively on the suffrage movement’s ideas and methods, but the period after suffrage has been subjected to much less historical scrutiny. The few studies that have been undertaken largely focus at the national level following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. In general, most scholars have concluded that equal suffrage had little, if any, lasting impact on the course of American politics. One problem with this conclusion is that it is based on the assumption that women would vote as a bloc. Students of American politics in the 1920s failed to discover any clear evidence of a distinct woman’s vote, and thus determined that women simply voted according to their own class, race, ethnic, and cultural sensibilities. Many scholars who have explored female voting practices seemed to have held women to a different standard than male voters, whose voting behavior for more than a century reflected class, race, and other social factors. No doubt a partial explanation for this is that scholars, as well as contemporary observers, accepted one of the primary arguments suffragists employed in the struggle for the ballot. Most suffrage leaders argued that women would significantly transform politics if granted the vote, and it seems that when this change was not immediately evident, observers concluded that equal suffrage was a failure.1 Behind this flawed interpretation of woman suffrage was the rather narrow definition of politics adopted by many earlier scholars. Equating politics with electoral results masked the significant political activity undertaken by women following suffrage victories. Women had engaged in a great deal of civic and public business prior to gaining the ballot. By raising issues, debating them, and lobbying for solutions, women had clearly shaped local and state politics.2 After suffrage, most women continued the same behavior; voting was simply another means but not the sole indicator of political activity. On the surface, then, it may have appeared to many observers that women’s political behavior had not changed.3 Yet, as this chapter will illustrate, Seattle women engaged in a range of political activity, from organizing campaign committees and lobbying to forging cross-class alliances, that profoundly shaped the look and feel of progressivism along the Puget Sound. Several important factors informed female political behavior in the 1910s, producing a very different experience for Seattle women than for those who gained the ballot in 1920. The timing of Washington’s suffrage victory at the height of the Progressive Era was c h i f f o n p o l i t i c s 117 an important factor. However, the existence of a lightning rod issue like prostitution, the belief that suffrage victories elsewhere hinged on Seattle women’s behavior, the early effort to educate and politicize women, and important cross-class alliances also contributed to an active and engaged female citizenry. On Seattle streets in late 1910, suffragists celebrated their great victory and looked forward with much anticipation to the tasks before them. The revitalization and cleanup of the city’s tenderloin district was at the top of the list. Prior to the fall election, suffrage leaders stood on the sidelines in the escalating debate...