Timeline of women's suffrage in Ohio

1802

• November: The Ohio Constitutional Convention votes to provide suffrage in the state to only white men.[1] Ohio becomes the second state to restrict voting by race in their constitution.[1]

1850

• April: The first convention of women's rights held outside of New York took place. The Ohio Women's Convention had an attendance of 500 people.[2]
• May 6: A state Constitutional Convention is convened in Columbus.[3] A proposal to remove both "white" and "male" from the legal description of a voter in the constitution fails by a large margin.[4]

1851

• The Ohio Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio had Sojourner Truth as a speaker on African-American women and equality.[2]

1852

• The Ohio Women's Convention in Massillon, Ohio established the Ohio Women's Rights Association (OWRA).[5][6]

1853

• October 5: The National Women's Rights Convention is held in Cleveland.[7]
• May 25: First meeting of the Ohio Women's Rights Association (OWRA) takes place in Ravenna, Ohio.[8]

1854

• Caroline Severance, president of the Ohio Women's Rights Association (OWRA) reads a petition for women's rights to the Ohio Senate.[7]

1855

• October 18: The National Women's Rights Convention is held in Cincinnati.[7]

12th annual convention of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association 1897

1867

• Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and George Francis Train campaign for women's suffrage in Ohio, starting in Cleveland.[9]

1869

• The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) is established in Cleveland.[10]
• November 24–25: AWSA holds its first convention in Cleveland.[11]
• The Toledo Women's Suffrage Association (TWSA) is created.[7]
• The Dayton Woman's Suffrage Association (DWSA) is formed.[12]

1871

• DWSA disbands.[12]

1873

• A women's suffrage petition is presented at the Ohio Constitutional Convention.[13] Proposals for women's suffrage fail at the convention.[14]

1874

• The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded in Cleveland.[15]

1876

• The Toledo Woman Suffrage Association (TWSA) refuses to participate in a Fourth of July celebration saying, "We feel it inconsistent as a disfranchised class to unite with you in the celebration of that liberty which is the heritage of but half the people."[16]

1880

• Susan B. Anthony attends the Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati.[7]

1884

• A small suffrage convention takes place in Columbus.[17]

1885

• The Ohio Woman Suffrage Association (OWSA) is founded in Painesville, Ohio.[18]

1888

• Louisa Southworth of Cleveland starts enrolling the names of people from Ohio endorsing women's suffrage in order to counter the narrative that women don't want to vote.[19]
• Two referendum for full and municipal women's suffrage were introduced in the Ohio Legislature, but both fail.[20]

1889

• Another bill for full suffrage is introduced in the Ohio Senate, but does not make a required three-fifths majority to pass.[20]

1891

• Suffragists petition the Ohio Legislature, but no bills for women's suffrage are introduced.[20]

1892

• A bill for women's suffrage in school board elections is introduced in the Ohio House by E. W. Doty.[21] It does not pass.[21]

1893

Let mother vote pin Ohio 1911

• Another bill for school board suffrage is introduced, but does not pass.[21]

1894

• January: Gustavus A. Wood introduces another school board suffrage bill in the House, but it is narrowly defeated.[21]
• April 10: A similar school board suffrage bill is introduced in the Ohio Senate by William T. Clark and it passes by a large measure.[21]
• April 24: The Senate bill is turned over to the House where it passes.[21]
• Law passed in Ohio to allow women to vote in school board elections and also to run for office in the school board.[7]
• December: Ida M. Earnhart in Columbus is one of the first women to register to vote in the next school election.[22]

1895

• January: A suit is filed against Earnhart and the board of elections to strike her name from the list of voters.[23] It is argued in the Franklin County Circuit Court in January.[23]
• February 1: The Franklin County Circuit Court declares that the law allowing women to vote in school board elections is constitutional.[23]
• Women vote in their first school board elections.[24]

1896

• Henrietta G. Moore of Springfield, Ohio and Laura A. Gregg from Kansas travel Ohio on behalf of OWSA to help set up additional local groups.[19]

1897

• A suffrage conference is held in the Fall in Toledo.[19]

1898

• February 10: An amendment introduced by A. J. Hazlett in the Ohio House to repeal school board suffrage is defeated by 76 against and 22 for.[23]
• April: The National Woman Suffrage Conference is held in Cincinnati.[25]
• May: The fifth annual Ohio Women Suffrage Convention takes place in Akron. Speakers include Susan B. Anthony, Anna Howard Shaw and Zerelda G. Wallace.[26]

1899

• Harriet Taylor Upton becomes president of OWSA.[7]

1900

• Harriet Taylor Upton visits "fifteen principal towns" in Ohio to help set up organized suffrage groups.[27] By the end of the year, she had doubled organized suffrage participation.[20]
• January: The Ohio Legislature considers an equal suffrage bill.[28]

1903

• The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) headquarters is moved to Warren, Ohio.[7]

1910

• NAWSA headquarters is moved from Warren.[7]

1911

• June: Elizabeth Hauser organizes a suffrage rally at Cedar Point. Speakers include Harriet Taylor Upton and Newton D. Baker.[29]
• October: The Ohio Women's Suffrage Association (OWSA) holds their annual convention in Dayton with Anna Howard Shaw as a featured speaker.[30]

1912

Toledo Woman Suffrage Association, 1912

• January 18: Dora Bachman of Cincinnati presents a women's suffrage amendment proposal to the Ohio Constitutional Convention's committee.[31]
• A women's suffrage voter referendum for an amendment to the Ohio Constitution is on the ballot.[32]
• August 27: OWSA organizes a suffrage parade in Columbus.[18] Around 5,000 women attend the parade.[33]
• September 3: The 1912 Ohio suffrage amendment does not pass.[7]
• A law is passed in Ohio allowing individual municipalities to choose if they wished to grant women's suffrage within their city.[34]
• An umbrella group, the Franklin County Women's Suffrage Association (FCWSA) is formed.[35]
• The Woman's Suffrage Party of Montgomery County is formed.[12]
• The Lima Federation of Women's Clubs invites Emmeline Pankhurst to speak in Lima, Ohio.[36]
• Cornelia Cassady Davis wins the prize for "best suffrage poster" from OWSA for her "Let Ohio Women Vote" image.[37]
• The Shelby Equal Franchise Association is formed in Shelby, Ohio and was part of the local WCTU.[38]

1914

• January: The Socialist Party and Progressive Party in Ohio came out in support of women's suffrage.[39]
• May 9: Preachers who were members of the Ministerial Association of Columbus preached on Mother's Day how giving women the vote would help them "better fulfill their maternal duties."[40]
• October: Carrie Chapman Catt and Harriet Taylor Upton came to speak in Lima, Ohio. A parade was held that drew more than 1,500 people in support of women's suffrage.[41]
• October: Suffragists in Cleveland held a parade that drew more than 10,000 women and 400 men marching and riding on horseback.[10]
• November 3: The 2nd Ohio women's suffrage amendment is rejected.[7]

1915

• The Ohio Woman Suffrage Association (OWSA) invites NAWSA and the Congressional Union (CU) to set up offices in Ohio.[15]

1916

• June 6: The Municipal Suffrage Amendment in East Cleveland passes with 426 votes, allowing women to vote in city elections.[42]

Suffragist from Ohio on Horseback 1914.

1917

• February: Representative from Cuyahoga County, James A. Reynolds introduces a bill into the Ohio legislature for women to vote in presidential elections.[42]
• February 21: Governor James M. Cox signs the "Reynolds Bill," granting women the right to vote in presidential elections.[7]
• Lakewood, Ohio passes municipal suffrage measures for women.[42]
• Challenges to municipal suffrage are rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court.[7]
• November 6: A voter referendum rejects the "Reynolds Bill."[7]

1919

• June 16: Ohio ratifies the Nineteenth Amendment.[2] It is the fifth state to ratify the amendment.[7]
• The Colored Women's Republican Club changes their name to the Colored Women's Independent Political League.[15]

1920

• April 23: Hawke v. the Secretary of the State of Ohio decides that a federal amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not have to be decided by direct voter referendum, which ended a problem Tennessee had with ratifying the 19th Amendment.[43]
• April: The Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Party dissolves and reforms as the League of Women Voters of Cleveland.[44]
• September: The Political Equality Club of Lima dissolves and creates the Lima League of Women Voters.[41]

1923

• A voter referendum passes to remove the phrase "white male" from the description of a voter in the Ohio Constitution.[45]

• Anthony, Susan B. (1902). Anthony, Susan B.; Harper, Ida Husted (eds.). The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 4. Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press.
• Little, Sarah Miller (Summer 2005). "A Woman of Property: From Being It to Controlling It - A Bicentennial Perspective on Women and Ohio Property Law, 1803 to 2003". Hastings Law Journal. 16 (2): 177–200.
• National American Woman Suffrage Association (1922). Harper, Ida Husted (ed.). The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 5. New York: J. J. Little & Ives Company.
• Pliley, Jessica R. (2008). "Voting for the Devil: Unequal Partnerships in the Ohio Women's Suffrage Campaign of 1914". Ohio History. 115: 4–27. doi:10.1353/ohh.0.0018. S2CID 144676061 – via Project MUSE.
• Shilling, D. C. (1916). "Woman's Suffrage in the Constitutional Convention of Ohio" (PDF). Ohio Arch. And Hist. Society Publications. 25: 166–175.
• Staples, Sarah (Spring 2020). "The Fight to Let Cincinnati Women Vote". Ohio Valley History. 20 (1): 79–83 – via Project MUSE.
• Steinglass, Steven H.; Scarselli, Gino J. (2004). The Ohio State Constitution: A Reference Guide. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313267650.