Women Who Ran: A Grand Rapids Women’s Electoral History

American Women and Elective Office

Just when did women start running for elective office in the United States? Many assume that women entered electoral politics in 1920, only after the Nineteenth Amendment secured their full voting rights. But this assumption is wrong. American women did not wait for 1920 to claim their rights as candidates. Instead, American women have been running for office from at least as early as 1853.

How did women run for office before the Nineteenth Amendment? Contrary to popular perception, American suffragists were not exclusively focused on winning women’s suffrage by way of an amendment to the United States Constitution. Instead, suffragists charted a path to universal voting rights by fighting for smaller victories at the state and local levels. They hoped that winning votes for women in small-scale elections (school elections, for example) would give them the momentum necessary for their ultimate goal: the full enfranchisement of American women.

These modest victories came with a huge benefit: in elections where women won the right to vote, they also won the right to run as candidates. This resource celebrates their stories—the stories of women in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who not only embraced their right to vote but also their right to run as candidates in local, state, and national elections. Women Who Ran: An Electoral History of Grand Rapids is an ongoing project. The current resource focuses mostly on the stories of women who ran for office before the Nineteenth Amendment gave all American women the right to vote. In the future, we hope to add more entries so that each woman who has stood for elective office in Grand Rapids history is remembered and celebrated. Explore the stories of these pathbreaking women in the electoral history below. 

Learn more about the history of women’s suffrage and women’s rights as candidates here >>