When male voters went to the polls in California in 1911, one of
the questions on the ballot was: Should women be allowed to
vote? The issue of woman suffrage was being raised across the
country and 5 states, all in the west, had approved the radical
and controversial idea. Women had been working for decades to
win the franchise. They had to organize in each state because
the U.S. Supreme Court took the phrase "all men are created
equal" literally. It ruled that protection under the U.S.
Constitution did not include women. In response, suffragists
began a nationwide campaign in 1848 to win their basic civil
rights, which did not reach its goal until August 1920. In 1896
women in California had lost their first contest for the right
to vote. When conditions suddenly changed in 1910 and a
progressive Republican administration was swept into power,
woman suffragists seized the opportunity and successfully
lobbied the state legislature to put the question before the
voters. Supporters had only eight months to org