On October 11, 1916, Inez Milholland Boissevain (1886-1916) speaks in Seattle. Boissevain -- or Milholland, as she says she prefers to be known soon after her arrival -- is a well-known suffragist who is touring the western United States to promote nationwide suffrage for women. Known for her charisma and dynamism, Milholland makes a vivid impression, and not only in Seattle. The next day she speaks in Tacoma and the day after that, Spokane.
A New Woman
Inez Milholland was born August 6, 1886, in Brooklyn, New York, into a wealthy and progressive family. She attended college at Vassar, and during these years became active in the growing women's suffrage movement. She next attended law school at New York University, and in 1912 began work with a New York law firm. These accomplishments were all the more remarkable in an era when most women did not attend college, much less law school -- and if they did become an attorney, they often had trouble finding a firm that would hire a woman.
In addition to being bold and intelligent, Milholland was attractive and elegant. She put these attributes to good use when she led a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. in March 1913, one day before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). Wearing a crown and a white cape and riding a white horse, Milholland was a striking presence as she escorted thousands of women along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Later that year she met and proposed to Eugen Boissevain (1880-1949), a Dutch coffee importer who shared her adventurous spirit, so much so that the couple had an open marriage, and Milholland continued to use her maiden name when she could. This was all jaw-dropping in 1910s America, but Milholland exemplified the early twentieth century ideal of the New Woman; in later years she would have been considered a feminist.
When World War I began in Europe in 1914, she turned her talents toward trying to end the war. She traveled on Henry Ford's "Peace Ship" to Europe in 1915 in an unsuccessful attempt to prompt a peace conference, and briefly worked there as a reporter. In October 1916 she returned to her roots when she embarked on a speaking tour with other suffragists, travelling by train through the American West to promote the suffrage movement. Though 11 states (all in the West, except for Kansas) had granted women full voting rights by 1916, the remaining 37 states had not, and President Wilson had not shown much interest in endorsing a national suffrage amendment. Milholland's plan was to speak in roughly 30 western cities where women had the vote and encourage them to vote against Wilson, as well as Democrats generally, for their lack of support for a suffrage amendment.
"Will You Do It, Women?"
Milholland arrived in Seattle on October 11, 1916. She gave a short talk to the Northwest Land Products Exposition that afternoon at The Arena, where she attacked Wilson's and the Democrats' indifference to women's suffrage and assured the audience that the Woman's Party would be a force to be dealt with in the future. The Woman's Party -- later the National Woman's Party -- had formed earlier that year to fight for women's rights. Milholland explained that it was not a political party but was instead an organization formed to get results. (She declined to endorse any political party.) "It was almost like a revival meeting, that little lecture ..." described one attendee in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article the next morning, "and most moving of all, the final personal appeal of 'Will you do it, women?'" ("Fair Inez ...").
Milholland appeared at the Moore Theater that evening at 8 p.m., and she spoke and took questions for nearly two hours. The 2,400-seat theater was filled almost to capacity, mostly with admirers but also with a number of men in the gallery who tried unsuccessfully to heckle Milholland during her presentation. Much of her speech focused on urging the crowd to vote against Wilson and the Democrats: "You women of the West have the destiny of womankind in your hands. Don't turn like the hound dog and lick the hand that strikes you. At the coming election put every consideration aside except 'where can I best serve women?'" ("Fair Suffragette ...").
She struck a personal note when she told of how she lost her U.S. citizenship when she married Boissevain. Because she lost her citizenship, she could no longer practice law. She described how Boissevain had applied to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, which would also have restored her citizenship once his application was approved. But she declared, "I will not regain my freedom and citizenship through him, native of another soil, who has under the law more rights than I" ("Fair Suffragette ...").
Milholland left for Tacoma the next day. She spoke to an appreciative crowd that afternoon at the Tacoma Hotel, where she again argued for a national suffrage amendment and attacked Wilson and the Democratic Party, and specifically southern Democrats: "Women are kept in subjugation by that portion of the republic which believed in and tried to perpetuate the institution of slavery," she asserted ("Beautiful Inez ..."). The following evening, she spoke to a crowd estimated at 1,000 at Spokane's Strand Theater and urged the women in the audience, "Women, don't do what you have always done; don't tag along after the men" ("Urges Women ...").
A Premature End
Milholland was battling pernicious anemia during the tour, and as it continued she became exhausted and weak. She collapsed during a speech in Los Angeles on October 23, immediately after speaking what were said to be her last public words: "Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?" ("Who Was Inez Milholland?"). She had given more than two dozen speeches in eight states and had travelled thousands of miles in less than three weeks. She lived long enough to see Wilson reelected two weeks later, but died in Los Angeles on November 25, 1916, at age 30. One can't help but wonder what she might have accomplished had she lived to old age.
On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution became effective, guaranteeing women the right to vote.
