Why did some of the western states allow women to vote before the other states?

[raccoon]

Anybody got an idea?

[islandmkl]

1. lots of Annie Oakley types??

[notadmblnd]

2. my uneducated guess....

low population numbers and allowing women to vote would give them a louder voice.

[supernova]

3. Not enough population

to have a quorum, i.e. majority vote to decide things?

Just a guess.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Why do some states not let former felons vote in FEDERAL elections and others do?

That makes NO sense to me.

[dkofos]

5. To get women to those states.

[democracyindanger]

6. Pioneer women nt.

[Xithras]

12. Your two sentence answer is largely the right one.

East coast women existed in a more formalized society. Most women didn't work, and most were forced by either social norms or their own families to exist in a subservient position to their husbands. The vast majority of these women were passive toward the idea of womens liberation. They may have supported the idea internally, but the actual number who spoke up about it was fairly small. It was a social no-no.

Things were different out west. Pioneer women often worked alongside their husbands on the farm or establishing new businesses and were often seen as equal partners in the relationship. They were far more likely to speak up when wronged, and it wasn't uncommon for them to own property in their own names. In that kind of environment, it was much harder for men to argue that women were somehow inferior, and a much larger percentage of men were open to the idea of giving their "partners" the same legal rights they had.

[democracyindanger]

13. You wrote what I wanted to

but I've got a serious game of Minesweeper going on. :)

[proud patriot]

7. land ownership

[democracyindanger]

11. best answer ^^^^

Although I think the role that pioneer women played had a lot to do with setting the table.

[ZombieHorde]

8. Because western states are better than non-western states.

West > North > East > Middle > South

[DavidDvorkin]

9. The West was more egalitarian from the start

[Generic Other]

10. Cause they didn't want to treat white women like Indians?

besides the women were the ones who knew how to read and write. :)

[SheilaT]

14. What several others have said.

Women worked along side the men in a fairly egalitarian way and were more likely to be seen as capable persons. There was far less of the "sheltered" woman in the west. There were fewer rich people with servants, far fewer of the idle classes in the west. I also suspect that the women who were out there then were much more outspoken and willing to assert their rights, especially given their life experiences.

Another factor is that in the west people were cut off very much from the "civilized" east, and not as subject to the social norms and pressures of that society. It's important to understand that California became the California we all know and love (or hate and despise) in no small part because so many of its citizens went out there, cut all or most ties with family and friends back wherever, and totally re-invented themselves.

[unc70]

15. Jim Crow in the South; similar things in the North

The literacy requirement that was widely used to disenfranchise black men would not be as effective in preventing black women from voting since many more of them could read and write. Thus, gender and race were tightly joined in efforts to gain and hold the right to vote.

I suggest "The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics" by Rob Christensen (2008, UNC Press) for an interesting discussion of this and much more. This topic is discussed particularly beginning at page 49.

Similar techniques were used elsewhere to disenfranchise many new citizens who were recent immigrants from non-English countries.

[Hannah Bell]

16. The west was lightly populated, but higher % of people w/ property.

The East & New England: higher % of immigrants, working class, unpropertied.

Western women's votes counterbalanced labor votes, as educated propertied women more likely to vote. If you look at the votes for women movement, it tended to be upper middle to upper class women leading it.