Introduction
California’s first constitution in 1849 granted married women in California the right to own and maintain property during and after marriage, a notion that that was adopted from Spanish-Mexican law. When the Constitution of California was updated and rewritten in 1879, women were also granted the legal right to enter any business, vocation, or profession. However, despite having some rights, women in California were still not enfranchised to vote on the state or federal level. That would only change in 1911 when California would vote to amend Article II of California’s Constitution, making California the sixth state in the nation to give women the right to vote.
This exhibit explores the 1911 women’s suffrage amendment to the California Constitution through primary source materials available at the California State Archives. This amendment was crucial in granting California women more political power through direct participation in the democratic process and was part of the movement that led to women’s suffrage being granted on the federal level almost a decade later.