BILL NUMBER: SCR 16	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Evans
   (Coauthor: Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal)

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2011

   Relative to Women's History Month and women's suffrage.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 16, as introduced, Evans. Women's history.
   This measure would celebrate Women's History Month and the
achievement of women's suffrage in California 100 years ago.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, In 1896, women in California had lost their first contest
for the right to vote; and
   WHEREAS, In 1910, a progressive Republican administration was
swept into power and woman suffragists seized the opportunity and
successfully lobbied the Legislature to put the issue on the ballot;
and
   WHEREAS, Senate Constitutional Amendment 8, authored by Senator
Bell, was introduced to put the question to voters of whether women
should be allowed to vote; and
   WHEREAS, Supporters only had eight months to organize their
campaign to win voter approval; and
   WHEREAS, Suffragists spoke to voters in the streets and from
automobiles, held mass rallies, picnics, and small meetings,
addressed congregations, unions, factory workers, women's clubs, and
spoke to any audience that they could find; and
   WHEREAS, A popular opening line when addressing a crowd was: "I
appeal to you as a mother, a grandmother, as a garment worker, a
school teacher, a trained nurse," or as the case might have been; and

   WHEREAS, To publicize their cause as widely as possible, the
suffragists produced pin-back buttons, pennants, playing cards,
posters, shopping bags, billboards, and electric signs; and
   WHEREAS, Over three million pieces of literature and over 90,000
"Votes for Women" buttons were distributed in southern California
alone; and
   WHEREAS, Suffragist leaders, who anticipated strong oppositions by
saloon and business interests in the cities who feared prohibition,
concentrated their forces on the rural districts, organizing
automobile tours and press to reach distant voters in the remote
corners of our great state; and
   WHEREAS, Ten thousand people gathered for a final rally in San
Francisco with fireworks and a band concert; and
   WHEREAS, On election day, October 10, 1911, when the measure was
defeated soundly in the San Francisco Bay area and passed just barely
in Los Angeles; suffragist organizers believed they had been
defeated; and
   WHEREAS, When the long count was finally completed several days
later, Equal Suffrage passed by only 3,587 votes, an average majority
of one vote in each precinct in the state, making the final tally
125,037 to 121,450, rural districts contributing immensely to the
victory; and
   WHEREAS, With the passage of votes for women in California, the
number of women with full suffrage in the United States doubled, and
San Francisco became the most populous city in the world in which
women could vote; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That, as we celebrate Women's History Month in
March, we commemorate the centennial of women's suffrage in
California.