Humorous Cowboy Poetry -WYOMIN'S GONE AND DONE IT

WYOMING AND WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE

Women won the right to vote when the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920. But some states passed laws prior to 1920 giving women the right to vote, and some women were elected to public office before the 19th Amendment became law. In the United States, it was in the Western states that the Suffrage movement first found acceptance. Wyoming was the first territory and state to give women the right to vote. In 1869, the Territory of Wyoming passed the first Women's Suffrage Act; and in 1889, Wyoming became a state and retained the women's suffrage legislation. Colorado passed a similar act in 1894; followed by Idaho and Utah in 1896. For the first time in 1916, a women was seated in Federal legislative halls when Miss Josephine Rankin was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Montana.

The drive for woman suffrage gained strength after the passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870, which gave the vote to black men but not to women. Suffrage Movements also arose in other Western Countries. The first countries to give women the right to vote was New Zealand in 1893 and Australia in 1902. But ahead of every other country and state, it was WYOMING that first gave women the right to vote.

Opponents of woman suffrage believed that women were less intelligent and less able to make political decisions than men. They argued that men could represent their wives better than the wives could represent themselves. Some people feared that women's participation in politics could lead to the end of the family.

Headquarters Opposed to Woman Suffrage
(Library of Congress photos)

WYOMIN'S GONE AND DONE IT
(State of Wyoming , 1889)

Wyomin's gone and done it!
Why, they must be plumb insane.
There's gotta be a reason....
maybe water on the brain.
They gave the vote to women.
They done it, God forbid.
God save our noble country
from the dastard deed they did.

They gave the vote t' women.
They can vote just like the men.
That state'll never prosper
or be the same again.
Them western states have always spawned
a crazy kind a' breed.
I've long suspected Western folk
were smokin' loco weed.

Wyomin's gone and done it-
such a vile and devilish deed!
The pity is they ever taught
them females how t' read.
Them cowboys ain't the brightest.
Why couldn't they at least
learn to keep their women
in their place, like men out East.

A female's place is in the home
a' carin' for the men;
a' cookin', cleanin', tendin' kids.
That's how it's always been
Women just ain't like us men.
They lack our common sense.
They ought t' leave the vote to men...
it takes intelligence.
Wyomin's gone and done it.....
passed a Suffrage Act somehow.
Them Suffragettes are all stirred up.
God help our country now!

Bette Wolf Duncan
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