Lowell and the 1915 Massachusetts Suffrage Referendum

In 1915, Massachusetts put woman suffrage to its male voters: if a majority said yes, every woman in the state could vote in state elections. They said no — and in the mill city of Lowell, the no was overwhelming. Five years later the question was settled for the whole country.

A campaign that never caught

Lowell never had much of a suffrage movement. A few rallies were held that year on Kirk, Merrimack and John Streets, but they were neither frequent nor well attended enough to draw attention or sympathy.

The exception was the Fourth of July parade. Local women marched in costume as Justice and as the twelve states that had already given women the vote. A heavy rainstorm soaked the parade, and the marchers kept going — which showed their resolve and impressed the crowd more than any rally had.

The antis, and the liquor rumour

Massachusetts was home to one of the most determined anti-suffrage movements in the country. It mostly ignored Lowell, where there was little to fight. In September 1915 it struck anyway, claiming that Lowell's suffragists were secretly taking money from liquor interests.

The charge fell apart quickly: the liquor trade opposed woman suffrage, afraid that women voters would pass laws banning alcohol. Still, it caused a stir for a while.

The vote

Women from working-class and immigrant neighbourhoods were pushed to the margins in more than one way. As in many cities, men in those neighbourhoods worried about their social clubs and pastimes, and about whether votes for women would bring prohibition.

Five years later

The 1915 defeat was one of many state campaigns that, together, built toward that national victory.

Where to read more

The National Park Service's article Massachusetts and the 19th Amendment covers the state's part in the wider story. This page is part of the series Women's Activism in Lowell, from Lowell National Historical Park.

Sources

Written from "The 1915 Massachusetts Referendum," Lowell National Historical Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.