Suffrage

Women of Utah were granted the right to vote in 1870. This right was taken away in 1887 when the United States government passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act. When Utah was granted statehood in 1896, women were again granted the right to vote, due in large part to the hard work of many Relief Society sisters.

Relief Society sisters were also highly involved in the national and international battles for suffrage. Researchers can find more information about Relief Society and woman’s suffrage in the Latter-day Saint Woman’s Suffrage Research Guide and the Church History Topic Woman’s Suffrage.

The following sources offer period-specific perspectives on the fight for suffrage:

From The First Fifty Years of Relief Society:

Minutes of “Ladies Mass Meeting,” January 6, 1870

The Relief Society women’s organized response to the Cullom Bill, an attempt by the United States Congress to prevent Latter-day Saints from practicing plural marriage.

Minutes of “Great Indignation Meeting,” January 13, 1870

Minutes from the mass gathering of Relief Society women protesting Congress’s passage of the Cullom Bill.

“Female Suffrage in Utah,” February 8, 1870

Deseret News article calling on the Utah legislature to give women the right to vote.