Dr. Lori Lahlum speaking about women’s suffrage for Women’s History Month.

NEW ULM – The Brown County Historical Society hosted a special presentation and luncheon on women’s suffrage by Dr. Lori Ann Lahlum, this past Saturday in celebration of Women’s History Month.

According to the Women’s History Month website, (www.womenshistorymonth.gov) the month of March is a special time for commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. The presentation by Dr. Lori Ann Lahlum, a distinguished faculty scholar at Minnesota State University, highlighted the book, “Equality at the Ballot Box: Votes for Women on the Northern Great Plains,” that she co-edited with Molly P. Rozum and celebrated women gaining the right to vote.

“Women suffrage was a sustained organized movement, which took a long time to be successful. Scholarship disproportionately focused on the east, when the success comes in the west,” said Lahlum.

While the 19th amendment of the constitution was ratified in 1920 giving women the right to vote, Lahlum examined how women first earned the right to vote in territory days, and how the transition to statehood was important for suffrage.

Although a complicated and complex movement, Lahlum highlighted the mostly passive undertaking in the west, one with petitions, speeches, and parades. One argument for women’s right to vote, came from their ability to vote in schoolboard elections, as some taxpaying women were able to do as early as 1838 in Kentucky.

Women had separate ballots and ballot boxes, for trust reasons amongst men, but largely women gained men’s sympathies and proved that they could and would vote responsibly from such elections. Conversely some men, specifically men in German communities, believed that women would vote in favor of prohibition, and therefore should not be allowed to vote.

Elizabeth Bohlke, a former history major and an attendee of the presentation, brought up the question to Lahlum of men’s satisfaction with women once they did finally gain the right to vote in the 1920 presidential election.

“But were the men happy with how the women voted?” asked Bohlke.

“Well, some weren’t,” Lahlum said. “The thing is it can be hard to tell who’s voting for whom, but Warren G. Harding was a lady’s man and there was speculation that women voted for him. That’s kinda of unfair because women were just as capable as men of making good decisions about the person they were electing.”

The Brown County Historical research library is open 10am to 4 pm Tuesday through Friday and would like to welcome visitors to see a comprehensive file on women suffrage for those interested in the topic or wanting to continue to celebrate women’s history throughout the year.

“It’s worth stopping by the research library. You never know what you will find in there,” said Amy Johnson Director of Brown County Historical Society.

Sandi Bohlke, another attendee of the presentation, pondered much of what Lahlum discussed afterwards with her friend and daughter.

“Women suffrage is so interesting– how hard women had to fight for our rights, and now it has become a privilege that can be taken for granted,” said Bohlke.