“In Relation to the Rights of Suffrage”: The 1911 Amendment for Women’s Voting Rights in California

Ahead of the second California Constitutional Convention held in Sacramento from September 28, 1878 to March 3, 1879, petitions were circulated around California in support of amending Article II of the 1849 constitution. The petitions included over 2,500 signatures and asserted that “no citizen of the State shall be disenfranchised on the account of sex.” The petition shown here from October 10, 1878 contains hundreds of signatures and measures over seven feet long.

However, the many signatures indicating support for the amendment were not enough to sway the all-male delegation at the 1878-1879 Constitutional Convention. Several delegates expressed fears about the impact of enfranchising women as well as concerns that the inclusion of women’s suffrage in the new 1879 constitution would threaten its ratification. After several days of debate, the amendment did not move forward.