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

Absent of terms such as “women” or “sex”, the language for Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 8 appears intentionally neutral, labeled as “A Resolution to Propose to the People of the State of California an Amendment to Section One of Article Two of the Constitution in Relation to the Rights of Suffrage.”

However, feelings about the amendment were decidedly strong. The arguments for and against Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 8 were closely watched by suffrage organizations, with crowds of onlookers filling the gallery and the lobby of the Capitol. Authored by Republican State Senator Charles W. Bell from Pasadena, Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 8 was passed by the Senate on February 2, 1911, receiving 66 ayes and 12 noes.

Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 8 would be introduced to the public as Proposition 4 on the ballot for the special election scheduled for October 10, 1911, along with a variety of other reform amendments passed by the Senate. Despite his commitment to put the suffrage amendment forward to voters, Governor Johnson and the state’s other Progressive leaders concluded that officially campaigning in support of women’s suffrage would jeopardize the potential to pass the other reforms on the ballot. As a result, Johnson remained explicitly silent on suffrage in his speeches while actively campaigning for the other reforms ahead of the special election.

For the next 8 months, state and national suffrage organizations worked tirelessly to fill the void of support for the amendment that the governor had left. They distributed over 3 million pieces of literature in support of the amendment, and held countless rallies and public meetings throughout the state. Over 90,000 “Votes for Women” buttons were distributed in Southern California alone. In San Francisco, suffrage campaigning ended on October 9 with a closed meeting for “businessmen only” to convince male voters to support the amendment, along with a public concert in Union Square by Lilian Nordica, an internationally renowned opera singer who was a vocal supporter of women’s suffrage.