SCHOOL SUFFRAGE IN WINCHESTER

 

By ELLEN KNIGHT

 

A curious thing, given that the right for women to vote was not guaranteed by a constitutional amendment until 1920, is that Winchester newspapers of the 1880s were printing lists of women voters.  It was, however, a limited right to vote. In 1879, Massachusetts passed a School Suffrage Law allowing women who paid property tax to vote for and serve as members of school committees.   

 

In Winchester, women were first elected to the School Committee in 1874.  According to a suffragist writing in 1882, "We all know of the grand struggle which was necessary in order to secure the right of women to a position on the School Board." (Winchester Star, June 9, 1882)  Unfortunately, in 1874 there was no Winchester newspaper to record that struggle, but it is known that the first women elected to the School Committee were Mary Lamson, Elizabeth Pressey, and Ann Winsor.    

 

In 1881 the Winchester Star began, and its pages document some of the local controversy over women in government.  Some letters, for example, appeared in 1882, perhaps stimulated by the creation in December 1881 of an Equal Suffrage League in Winchester and the subsequent announcement that the third convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts would be held in Winchester's Lyceum Hall in June.    

 

In May, an anonymous “Observer” delivered a scathing denunciation of women on the School Committee, including the following excerpts:

 

 "Well, we have women on the school committee, and what have we gained? Have they...drawn to themselves anything in the nature of increased respect from those of their own sex? ...With a majority...they lose, rather than gain in this regard. …

 

"Men look on indifferently and some say 'Let 'em do it if they like,' and others are disgusted and scratch the women's names off the ticket, while yet a few solemnly go to the polls and vote for women, believing that they are doing the correct thing and that much good will come of it.... 

 

"Have the schools gained? … I think no one will assert that anything has been gained, as we should have done equally as well if we had had all men. ...I suppose that if there is anything a woman dislikes, it is to be bossed by a woman. ...When it comes to women telling male teachers what is what, they probably feel as though a dose of castor oil was being administered, but of course they try not to show it. 

 

"What do scholars think of it?  Again we are obliged to find that the majority look on with a feeling of amusement, and pay about as much attention to anything they do or say as they would to a circus, and in about the same spirit....  

 

"I have been told by men who have served on boards where women had a part in the proceedings that many things that ought to have been said, had to be omitted on account of their presence, and much time was wasted on frivolous matters.  …. (May 19, 1882)    

 

Two weeks later “A Suffragist” replied. “The prejudice against women taking part in political affairs is melting away.  Indeed some of our most intelligent men express the wish that women might have the entire control of the schools, but I think it is better as it is--men and women should work together.  We need some good lectures on woman suffrage--most women do not understand the subject (nor men either).  Many have expressed their willingness to vote on the liquor question could they have the privilege.... The time has been when it was deemed improper for women to mix in general gatherings, but that time has passed and most people acknowledge that society has been improved by the addition of the feminine element." (Sept 21, 1881)   

 

Observer’s letter was also discussed at the meeting of the National Women Suffrage Association, the newspaper reported. Another subject addressed then was the argument that "women are indifferent." (June 2, 1882)  “Observer” had reported hearing women wonder why another woman would want to go “to a caucus with a lot of men.”  Another anonymous writer in 1881 encouraged women to vote, saying, "The best way to get the full right of suffrage conceded is to vote whenever it is legally possible to do so.  The spectacle of women voting is worth more than volumes of abstruse arguments."  Yet women did not flock to the polls. In 1889 when 160 women were said to be eligible to register, only 29 did. 

 

However, as “A Suffragist” argued, numbers should not matter. "It is no argument to say that women should not vote because they will not.  If one out of millions should desire to perform an act which is not criminal, is there justice in restriction?  If they will not use the ballot, then they cannot do the harm which anti-suffragists pretend to fear.  Give them the privilege, and let them use it or not, as they like, and it cannot then be said that the most important laws of our country discriminate unjustly."   

 

Though the suffrage movement continued in town, the practice of women serving on the school committee ended in 1887 when the size of the committee was reduced again to three.  Women did not rejoin the committee until 1921, following passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.