Seminars

Upcoming Seminars

Seminar 3: The Politics of Suffrage in Eastern Washington
As women entered into the political debates surrounding suffrage, two very different women came to the forefront as advocates of women’s right to vote. Emma Smith Devoe, the preeminent suffragist from Seattle was refined, well educated, and had risen up among the ranks for Washington suffragists after working for the cause over many years. On the other hand, May Arkwright Hutton, whose meteoric rise from the working class life of cook in the mining camps of North Idaho to a wealthy club woman and wife of a successful business man in Spokane, enabled her to become the pre eminent suffragist on the Eastern side of the state.

Presented by Dr. Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, Rose Kraus December 6, 2008
Location: Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture

Seminar 4: Regional Economic Forces Promoting and Hindering Women’s Right to Vote
Economic interests were influential in the discussions surrounding giving women the right to vote. Political opponents argued that giving women the right to vote would hurt them economically. At the same time woman suffragists participated in economic activities that helped influence their political initiatives, and their interest in the economic well being of their communities.

Presented by Dr. Katherine Aiken February 7, 2009
Location: Spokane's Woman Club

Seminar 5: Women’s Clubs and the Temperance Movement: Organizing for Suffrage
Nineteenth century women who were limited to the private sphere by societal expectations, found collective strength in joining with other women in various clubs. By banding with like-minded women to learn, to improve themselves, and even participate in the local political discussion, they created political avenues for themselves that would not have been open to individual women. Teachers examine how memberships in clubs and organizations like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union offered ordinary women extraordinary opportunities to become political actors in the public realm

Presented by Dr. Karen Blair April 25, 2009
Location: Spokane’s Downtown Public Library

Seminar 6: Women’s Suffrage in the Secondary Curriculum
The final seminar will be used to bring the strands together so that teachers can discuss curriculum across topics. Teachers will work together to refine curriculum units and resource lists they have written and align them with state standards. They will report on their experiences with small museums. Teachers will plan for full classroom implementation in 2009-2010. Teachers will prepare the material to be placed on the project web site.

July 21-23, 2009
Location: Spokane’s Downtown Public Library

Past Seminars

Seminar 1: Washington’s Path to Women’s Suffrage in the National Context
An overview of the nationwide struggle for women’s suffrage and how the efforts in Washington state both reflected that larger effort and differed from it. This seminar presents an introduction to forces influential in the women’s suffrage movement, including economic, social, political and cultural forces, plus an overview of local and regional resources for research.

Presented by Dr. Susan Armitage August 25-26, 2008
Location: Spokane Masonic Center

Seminar 2: The Cultural Context of Women’s Lives in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries
Woman suffragists both participated in the forces that shaped the belief systems within which they lived, and at other times found themselves at odds with popular cultural assumptions. Women who were suffragists sometimes encountered opposition to their political positions within their own families. For example
Helga Estby, a working class immigrant in Spokane Washington found her views on woman suffrage silenced by her own adult daughters.

Presented by Drs. Nancy Engle October 4, 2008
Location: Rockford Pioneer Museum 10 S. 1st Street, Rockford, WA