Wyoming: The Equality State That Led Women's Suffrage

While American women didn't win the right to vote nationwide until 1920, the women of Wyoming had been casting ballots for more than half a century by then. On December 10, 1869, Wyoming Territory became the first government in the United States to grant women full voting rights—a radical move that earned it the nickname "The Equality State."

The law didn't just allow women to vote. It gave them the right to hold public office, serve on juries, and own property on equal terms with men. This wasn't just progressive for America—it was groundbreaking for the entire world.

Why Wyoming? The Surprising Reasons Behind the Law

You might expect such a progressive law to emerge from enlightened philosophy, but the reality was more pragmatic. The Wyoming Territory had a severe shortage of women—men outnumbered women six to one. Territorial legislators hoped that granting women's rights would attract more female settlers and lend respectability to the rough frontier territory.

There was also a political angle. William Bright, the bill's main sponsor, allegedly supported it partly to embarrass the territorial governor, who opposed it. And some legislators thought women voters would support temperance laws to clean up the territory's rowdy saloons.

Whatever their motivations, they made history. Governor John Campbell signed the bill into law, and Wyoming became a beacon for the suffrage movement nationwide.

Louisa Swain: First Woman to Vote

On September 6, 1870, in Laramie, Wyoming, a 70-year-old Quaker woman named Louisa Swain became the first woman in the United States to cast a legal vote under an unrestricted suffrage law. According to accounts, she was on her way to buy yeast when she stopped at the polling place and made history.

That same year brought more firsts: Esther Hobart Morris became the first female justice of the peace in the nation, and Laramie empaneled the first jury of women in the United States.

From Territory to State: Holding the Line

When Wyoming applied for statehood in 1890, Congress suggested it might gain admission faster if it removed women's suffrage from its proposed constitution. The territorial legislature's response was defiant and has become legendary: "We will remain out of the Union 100 years rather than come in without the women."

Wyoming didn't have to wait. On July 10, 1890, it became the 44th state and the first state in the nation where women could vote from day one. The right to vote was enshrined in Article 6 of the state constitution.

The Ripple Effect

Wyoming's example influenced the broader suffrage movement, though progress was slow. It would take 51 years after Wyoming's territorial law before women's suffrage became the law of the land with the 19th Amendment in 1920.

The western states followed Wyoming's lead more quickly than the East:

• Colorado granted women's suffrage in 1893
• Utah and Idaho followed in 1896
• Washington in 1910
• California in 1911

Why the West first? Frontier territories were more willing to experiment with social reforms, needed to attract settlers, and had less entrenched political opposition than Eastern states.

Today, Wyoming's legacy lives on in its official nickname and its state motto, adopted in 1955: "Equal Rights." The Equality State didn't just talk about women's rights—it led the nation in making them real, proving that sometimes the frontier isn't just a place, but an idea.