“Suffrage ‘Owns’ City,” 1913–1915

Abstract

The 1915 state referendum required leaders like Carrie Chapman Catt and Harriot Stanton Blatch to move beyond recruiting female allies and instead convince legislators and men with the ballot to support women’s rights. This chapter describes how activists quickly rallied their urban army to do so: public health nurses courted immigrant support, actresses used their celebrity to draw attention, socialites poured money into the treasury, and teachers forfeited their summer vacations for organizational work. City organizations, including the Woman Suffrage Party, pooled resources to form the Empire State Campaign Committee. Everyone recognized that winning the state’s forty-five Electoral College votes would be a pivotal step toward achieving a national amendment. However, obstacles remained. Organizers chafed at police restrictions, faced resistance at sporting events, and needed to relocate headquarters in an ever-changing rental marketplace. Ultimately, more than three hundred thousand men voted against women’s right to the franchise at the 1915 referendum, ensuring that polling places would remain distinctly male terrain in an increasingly heterosocial city.