Wyoming Suffrage vs. Utah Suffrage: Who Let Women Vote First?

Wyoming proudly proclaims itself “The Equality State” for its role in women’s suffrage. But they’re not the only ones proud of being the first to let women vote. Confusingly, Utah also claims a similar honor. It’s even on one of their specialty license plates. So where did women actually vote first?

The answer is . . . well, both. Sort of. 

Wyoming's Case for Suffrage

In 1869, Congress passed the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave all men the right to vote. The amendment, however didn’t say a thing about women. Justifiably, women around the country starting raising their hands and saying, “Okay, um, what about us?” (We’re paraphrasing.) But while the federal government didn’t give women the right to vote, individual states could still so it.

So it was that in December 1869 Wyoming passed a law granting women the right to vote, making it the first US territory to do so. (It wouldn’t become a state till 1890, when it became the 44th state to join the Union.) Utah passed their own law in 1870, a little over a year after Wyoming.

Why Wyoming? The bill passed for a few reasons. According to National Geographic:

Historian C. G. Coutant wrote, “One man told me that he thought it right and just to give women the vote. Another man said he thought it would be a good advertisement for the territory. Still another said that he voted to please someone else, and so on.”

Some legislators—all of whom were male, of course—wanted the bill to entice women to come out west and bolster the state’s population. After all, another law let territories apply for statehood once they hit 60,000 residents. “We now expect at once quite an immigration of ladies to Wyoming,” wrote The Cheyenne Leader, a local newspaper, in the tone of a bunch of college guys waiting for girls to show up at their party. (At the time, there were six men for every woman.)

Later, when the federal government invited Wyoming to join the Union only if they revoked women's right to vote, Wyoming’s legislature told them—in very polite terms—to shove it. “We will remain out of the Union one hundred years rather than come in without the women.” The motion narrowly passed.

So there you have it. Case closed. Wyoming did it first.

Utah's Case for Suffrage

Except it’s not really that simple. Wyoming’s first election didn’t come till September 1870. By then, Utah had also passed its own suffrage law—and held municipal elections two days later, before Wyoming had its own elections. Thus, Wyoming gave women the right to vote first, but Utah’s women actually exercised that vote first. The first woman to vote in the United States was Seraph Young, a schoolteacher and grand-niece of Mormon leader Brigham Young.

So there you really have it. Let the record show that both states can back up their respective claims. Both states can get a pat on the back for being so progressive, and those early suffrage laws paved the way for other states to follow suit. In 1920, Congress ratified the 19th Amendment, declaring that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex”—though the fight for all women, especially women of color or from disenfranchised groups, would still continue for years to come. 

This post is brought to you by Flat Creek Inn.

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Ryan Kunz is a copywriter and freelance writer who writes on a variety of topics, including media, the outdoors, and whatever else strikes his fancy. Needless to say, he’s glad they can vote.