Nevada’s suffrage centennial officially started on October 31, 2013 and it will continue through 2014. Women’s right to vote was a long process beginning in 1869 when the Nevada State Legislature approved a constitutional amendment allowing women the vote. The 1871 legislature failed to ratify the amendment as did the subsequent 12 legislatures.
For the next 40 years, women were as politically active as they could be by lobbying their male representatives and in some instances running for various school boards. In 1911, Nevada native Anne Martin, home from recent suffrage activities in Great Britain and Bird Wilson, a lawyer practicing in Goldfield spearheaded the campaign to get Nevada women the vote. Their dedication and hard work paid off when the 1914 legislature ratified the amendment and the voters approved that amendment in a general vote on November 3, 1914. Women voted in Nevada for the very first time in 1915. Stay up to date with the Nevada Women’s History Project’s web site.
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