Suffrage in Utah & President Obama's rhetoric

Suffrage in Utah, 1870-1896.

Twenty-six years before even being admitted into the Union and granted formal statehood, Utah territory gave women the vote in 1870. This followed Wyoming territory which had passed female suffrage laws by December of 1869 and accordingly, was considered a groundbreaking piece of territorial legislature. 

However, most interesting to the history of women's suffrage in Utah was its alliance to the Mormon religion to which the overwhelming majority of Utahns belonged. Mormonism, or the Church of the Latter-Day-Saints is a somewhat radical branch of traditional Christianity holding a variety of beliefs that draw distinctions from many traditional elements of Christian faith - the most notorious of which is a belief in polygamy as a cornerstone of the familial unit and of a human's bond with his/her partner(s) and their creator. Ultimately, it was debates surrounding the practice of polygamy that came to shape Utah's history of female suffrage rather than the traditional motive of gender equality. 

During the early 1870s, Congress became increasingly concerned with polygamy and its impact, specifically within Utah where it was centered. As a result, many congressional anti-polygamy bills were drawn up and proposed to Congress, reaching various stages of ratification. This provoked predominantly female groups in Utah to campaign for their own suffrage so that they might vote to oppose such bills that they felt violated their religious freedom and way of life. While Utah did not have formal representation in congress, it could nonetheless influence Congressional decisions to a degree and vote in Presidential Primaries. As Carol Madsen writes, "Though far removed from the centers of agitation for women's suffrage [Utahn women were...] aware of efforts for a national suffrage act" they were simply unmotivated, seemingly content in their semi-frontier lifestyle. Ultimately, it was specific threats to their polygamy which provoked mass rallies of women asserting their right to "rise up [...] and speak for ourselves", earning recognition from territorial legislature who were encouraged by national campaigns for female suffrage, granting Utahn women the right to vote on February 12th, 1870. Particularly interesting is how these women show an early use of traditional feminist rhetoric, yet implement it in campaigns whose feminist qualities were purely incidental to their religious motivations. More ironic is the fact that, the practice of polygamy is easily interpreted as an anti-feminist ideal, granting men a higher status within society while simultaneously reducing women to an objectified and quantified resource. 

An anti-polygamy bill known as the 'Edmunds Act' removed the vote from polygamists in 1882 and was followed by the 'Edmunds-Tucker Act' which, despite the efforts of the Utahns, passed in 1887 to restrict many Mormon practises. One clause of this bill removed women in Utah of their right to vote, overpowering the previous territorial legislature in an attempt to dissuade dissent and political campaigning against the 'Edmunds-Tucker Act'. The passing of this act was met with much resistance from Utahn women who had enjoyed voting rights for seventeen years. They quickly realised that the best method through which they might obtain voting rights was through statehood under equal suffrage laws, something that materialised on January 4th, 1896. 

President Obama's Rhetoric

By the time President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, legal equality had been largely established between women and men, yet as a self-identified feminist, Obama continued to champion gender equality through enhancing pre-existing legislation and through his rhetoric which aimed to sway hearts and minds. Indeed, Obama concedes that "there are some changes that have nothing to do with passing new laws" and "the most important change may be the toughest of all - and that's changing ourselves".

In 2009, Obama created the 'White House Council on Women and Girls' in order for federal agencies to "take into account the needs of women and girls in the policies they draft, the programs they create, the legislation they support [...] to ensure that in America, all things are still possible for all people". Here, Obama invokes sentiments of the American dream, using this standard political device of America as a land of freedom to appeal to his entire audience, irrespective of partisan allegiance. Nonetheless, he seems to hint at an acknowledgement of the role partisan politics might play, specifying "the legislation they support" as something to be considered under this new council. This is because representatives of a certain party carry certain expectations and ideals from a coalescence of their electorate, their party goals and their personal conscience. This recalls the early suffrage movements of states and territories like Utah in the 1870s where voting power was measured more in terms of its effects on political representation rather than any kind of feminist progress. Nonetheless, in trying to reinforce gender equality within preexisting areas of the federal government, Obama has done his best to manifest his own beliefs in a way that remained difficult throughout his two terms given the scope of America and its inhabitants with their geographical-dependent beliefs and religious views.

Bibliography

Suffrage in Utah, 1870-1896 - Sources/Further Reading

Alexander, Thomas G."An Experiment in Progressive Legislation: The Granting of Woman Suffrage in Utah In 1870" Utah Historical Quarterly Vol. 38, No. 1 (1970): pp. 20-30.

Madsen, Carol Cornwall. "Woman Suffrage" in Encyclopedia of Mormonism. New York, NY: MacMillan Publishing, 1992.

White, Jean Bickmore. "Women's Suffrage in Utah" in Utah History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from <http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/statehood_and_the_progressive_era/womenssuffrageinutah.html> Last accessed 23/03/2017.

Channel 4 Documentary - Three Wives, One Husband, 2017. Review: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/24/three-wive-one-husband-review-channel-4

President Obama's Rhetoric

Merod, Anna. "Obama Calls for Cultural Shift to End Gender Inequality" NBC News, August 4th 2016. Retrieved from <http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/barack-obama/obama-calls-cultural-shift-end-gender-inequality-n622996>

Reno, Annika. "A Look at Obama's Legacy on Women's Rights" Global Citizen, July 29th 2016. Retrieved from <https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/white-house-legacy-on-womens-rights/> last accessed 13/03/2017.