Women’s History Month in Alaska

During the month of March, the many contributions women have made to our history, culture, and society are recognized and honored.

While Women’s History Month was officially created by Congress in 1987, the roots are much deeper, going back to the early 20th century and the Suffrage Movement that fought to give women the right to vote.

But more than that, in Alaska women have been forging a path of their own, fighting for the opportunities and freedoms they enjoy today. For example, the first territorial legislature, during its first session, gave women the right to vote on March 21, 1913 — seven years before women were granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment. Known as the “The Shoup Bill,” it was the first bill signed into law by the territorial governor Walter E. Clark.

While Alaska’s male-dominated government passed women’s suffrage, female leaders lobbied to make voting rights a reality. Cornelia Thompson Jewett Hatcher drafted a petition that would allow women the right to vote and gathered signatures around Alaska. Another important suffragist was Lena Morrow Lewis, who traveled around Alaska throughout the 1910s and advocating and speaking to large audiences in Fairbanks, Valdez, and Juneau about voting rights and other social reform issues. She herself ran for Territorial Delegate on the Socialist Party ticket in 1916, making her the first woman to run for national office in Alaska.

It was a victory to be sure, a trailblazing moment for the women of the Alaskan territory. But The Shoup Bill did not recognize the rights of Alaskan Native women to vote. That would come through the hard work of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, which formed in 1914 and fought to gain voting and citizenship rights, as well as land rights for Alaska Natives.

In 1915, the legislature recognized Alaska Natives’ right to vote but only if they abandoned their customs and traditional way of life.

It wasn’t until 1924 when Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, which recognized Native Americans and Alaska Natives as citizens under the law and recognized their right to vote.

Throughout March, the Frontiersman will highlight some of the many women who contributed to Women’s history here in Alaska.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Katie Stavick at katie.stavick@frontiersman.com.