In May 1905, the Columbia City Council received a petition signed by 83 women, requesting that they close the local pool hall (a popular male hangout) on Sundays. Two weeks later, a second petition appeared, this one signed by 90 men who requested that the council ignore "a certain petition presented at your last meeting." Predictably, the all-male City Council sided with the men: The pool hall remained open on Sundays.
This incident could be seen as just another amusing anecdote in the war between the sexes, but it also clearly illustrates women's political powerlessness in the pre-suffrage era. Columbia's female citizens may have berated their husbands over the dueling petitions, but without the vote, their voices did not carry beyond the dining-room table.
By 1905 the struggle for women's suffrage in Washington state had been going on for half a century, and it would be another five years before the Legislature finally put "Votes for Women" on the ballot. When Washington's male citizens passed the measure in 1910, the state became the fifth in the Union to give women the franchise.
"Of course, women weren't given the vote," points out Shanna Stevenson of the Washington Women's History Consortium. "They earned it."
Stevenson will detail this history in her presentation "Women's Votes, Women's Voices" at the Rainier Valley Historical Society's 118th-annual meeting on Saturday, May 2. (Stevenson's research is also on display at the Washington State History Museum through Sept. 27; information is available at www.wshs.org.)
LOCAL WOMEN LEADERS
The May 2 program also includes a presentation about local women leaders. The Rainier Valley did not produce prominent suffrage leaders, but South End women have raised their voices and made their marks in other ways - from the Rainier Beach Mother's Club, which founded a public kindergarten at Emerson School in 1910, to Denise Gloster, who organizes against youth violence in the Rainier Valley today.
In the early years, women's work in the public sphere often grew out of their experiences as wives and mothers at home. The women of Rainier Beach, for instance, worked with the principal at nearby Emerson School to make kindergarten available to everyone.
These mothers were volunteers, of course, but in those days even women with paying jobs were limited to traditionally "feminine" occupations like nursing and teaching, and they generally had to forego marriage and motherhood to pursue their careers.
Some women who gave up their professions to raise families found ways to continue to use their skills in the wider world. Social worker Marion Southard Weiss married in 1926 and turned to volunteer work, serving with the Council on Aging, Health & Welfare Council, Planned Parenthood and the League of Women Voters. In 1961 she was appointed to the Seattle Housing Authority Commission, where she served until 1967.
In the 1960s, pioneering businesswomen began to emerge as community leaders. As a successful business owner who spoke fluent English, Ruby Chow became a leader within the Chinese community, defying traditions that often kept women in the background. She eventually turned her talents to public office. As the first Asian American to serve on the King County Council (from 1973 to 1985), she pushed for programs that helped vulnerable minorities, including bilingual education in the public schools.
Jean Vel Dyke opened her real estate office in 1962 after working at Allstate Insurance for 11 years.
As a business leader and Rainier Valley native, Vel Dyke felt a special responsibility to improve the neighborhood. She helped to build the Southeast Seattle Senior Center at Holly Street and to establish the Brighton Apartments next door as senior housing. She served as the Rainier Chamber of Commerce's first woman president, and through her role there she played a big part in the community's efforts to fight crime in the 1980s.
These days the women of the Rainier Valley are still out there, changing the world in all kinds of ways and for all kinds of reasons. Dawn Mason's career began in the 1970s, with a job recruiting people of color to work for city government under Mayor Charles Royer. Visiting Olympia to discuss city issues, Mason "caught the bug" and decided to run for office herself, eventually serving three terms as a state legislator. Since leaving office she has continued to advocate for children in need through her work with Parents for Student Success and First Place, a school for homeless kids.
Denise Gloster's anti-violence activism grew from the loss of her son John in 2000; the March for Youth she organized in 2008 brought together hundreds of concerned citizens and drew attention to the deadly gang violence that continues in our community today.
PIONEERING WOMEN
As we celebrate a century of female suffrage in Washington, let's tip our hats to the many pioneering, irrepressible women who have fought to make their community better, found strengths they didn't know they had and risen to the challenge of sexism to show the world what women can do.
Like the mothers of Rainier Beach a century ago, many are driven to public action by personal experience. But unlike those mothers, women today are no longer limited to volunteer work on "women's issues," many of which are finally starting to be recognized as universal concerns.
And if they get tired of petitioning male politicians to close the pool halls or stop youth violence or fund kindergarten for every child, they can always step up and do it themselves.
Mikala Woodward is director of the Rainier Valley Historical Society.
