California Women and Politics

In 1911 as progressivism moved toward its zenith, the state of California granted women the right to vote. However, womens political involvement in Californias public life did not begin with suffrage, nor did it end there. Across the state, women had been deeply involved in politics long before suffrage, andalthough their tactics and objectives changedthey remained deeply involved thereafter. California Women and Politics examines the wide array of womens public activism from the 1850s to 1929including the temperance movement, moral reform, conservation, trade unionism, settlement work, philanthropy, wartime volunteerism, and moreand reveals unexpected contours to womens politics in California. The contributors consider not only white middle-class womens organizing but also the politics of working-class women and women of color, emphasizing that there was not one monolithic womens agenda, but rather a multiplicity of womens voices demanding recognition for a variety of causes.