Timeline of women's suffrage in Montana

1883

• First women's suffrage speech is given in Montana by Frances Willard.[1]

1884

• Women's suffrage is proposed during the state constitutional convention by Judge W. J. Stephens of Missoula, but it is not accepted.[2]

1887

• Clara McAdow requests aid for women's suffrage organization from suffragists in the east of the United States.[3]
• March 8: Women gain the right to vote in school board elections in their own districts.[3][4]

1889

• Women's suffrage is proposed at the Montana State Constitutional Convention.[5]
• Petitions to the convention for women's suffrage came from Jefferson County and Madison County.[6]

1890

• Women's suffrage club formed in Helena.[7]

1895

• May: Emma Smith DeVoe comes to Montana to organize chapters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).[7]
• September: A suffrage convention is held in Helena with Carrie Chapman Catt as a speaker.[8]
• The Montana Woman's Suffrage Association (MWSA) is formed.[8]
• A women's suffrage bill for a constitutional amendment is proposed in the state House, but fails in the Senate.[9]

1896

• DeVoe returns to Montana to continue organizing clubs and getting more women interested in suffrage.[10]
• November: MWSA holds their annual convention in Butte.[11]
• November 20: Ella Knowles Haskell becomes the president of MWSA.[4]

1897

• November: MWSA holds their annual convention in Helena.[12]
• Formation of an Equal Suffrage Party.[13]

1898

• February 16: Haskell speaks at the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Conference held in Washington, D.C.[4]
• November 1: MWSA holds their annual convention in Helena with Catt speaking.[14]
• Suffragists ask all state legislative candidates to explain their positions on women's suffrage.[15]

1899

• A women's suffrage bill was introduced to the state legislature through the lobbying of Mary B. Atwater, but it never makes it out of committee.[9]
• October: MWSA convention is held in Helena with Catt and Mary Garrett Hay attending.[16]

1900

• Fall: Helena women lobby Republican, Democratic and Populist party conventions to include a women's suffrage plank.[17]

1902

• Carrie Chapman Catt returns to Montana and brings Gail Laughlin and Laura A. Gregg to reorganize suffrage groups.[18]

1903

• A women's suffrage amendment is introduced in the Montana legislature, but it doesn't pass.[19]

1905

• Another women's suffrage amendment is introduced in the legislature, but it doesn't pass again.[19]

1911

• Jeannette Rankin becomes the first woman to address the Montana Legislature when she speaks to the Senate on women's suffrage.[20]
• Suffragists host a women's suffrage booth at the Montana State Fair.[21]

1912

• The Montana Equal Suffrage Association (MESA) is created.[22]
• Suffragists again host a women's suffrage boot at the Montana State Fair.[21]

1913

• A women's suffrage bill passes in the Montana Legislature and is sent to the voters in 1914.[23]
• Jeannette Rankin travels from Montana to Washington, D.C. by car, collecting signatures in support of women's suffrage along the way.[24]
• October: The Montana WCTU decides to focus solely on women's suffrage for the next year.[25]
• December: WCTU paper, Woman's Voice, starts publishing again.[25]

1914

• The Suffrage Daily News is published in Helena.[22]
• January: MESA opens headquarters in Butte.[26]
• Spring: James Lees Laidlaw and Wellington D. Rankin found a Montana chapter of the National Men's Suffrage League.[26]
• May 2: Governor Sam Stewart declares "Woman's Day" on May 2.[27] A suffrage car parade held on Last Chance Gulch in Helena.[27]
• June: Jeannette Rankin gives a speech at the meeting of the Montana Federation of Women's Clubs (MFWC) in Lewistown.[27] MFWC came out in support of women's suffrage.[28]
• September 24: The Montana State Fair has a women's suffrage booth.[29][22]
• November 3: The women's suffrage amendment passed 41,302 to 37,588.[29] Montana is now one of eleven states to give women the vote.[30]

1915

• January: Suffragist meeting in Helena to discuss "intelligent use of the ballot."[31] Women change the name of their suffrage groups to the Montana Good Government Association.[32]

1919

• August 2: Montana ratifies the Nineteenth Amendment, becoming the thirteenth state to ratify.[33]

1924

• The Indian Citizenship Act is passed, providing rights for Native Americans to vote in Montana.[5]

• Anthony, Susan B. (1902). Anthony, Susan B.; Harper, Ida Husted (eds.). The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 4. Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press.
• Baumler, Ellen; Ferguson, Laura K.; Foley, Jodie; Hanshew, Annie; Jabour, Anya; Kohl, Martha; Walter, Marcella Sherfy (Summer 2014). "Women's History Matters: The Montana Historical Society's Suffrage Centennial Project". Montana: The Magazine of Western History. 64 (2): 3–20, 91–92. JSTOR 24419894 – via JSTOR.
• Harper, Ida Husted (1922). The History of Woman Suffrage. New York: J.J. Little & Ives Company.
• Larson, T. A. (Winter 1973). "Montana Women and the Battle for the Ballot". Montana: The Magazine of Western History. 23 (1): 24–41. JSTOR 4517748 – via JSTOR.
• Ward, Doris Buck (1974). The Winning of Woman Suffrage in Montana (PDF) (Master of Arts in History thesis). Montana State University.
• Winestine, Belle Fligelman (Summer 1974). "Mother Was Shocked". Montana: The Magazine of Western History. 24 (3): 70–79. JSTOR 4517906 – via JSTOR.