On October 10th the GFWC Antelope- County Women’s Club will be celebrating Women in California gaining the right to vote. The club women of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs along with suffrage groups and politically skilled men waged an eight month “whirlwind campaign” to approve Amendment 8 on the ballot that enfranchised women. The solid strength of Southern California and the rural districts defeated the strong opposition of the San Francisco Bay Area.
This is also a celebration of the men who supported the right to vote for their mothers, sister and wives. This was very “radical” for these men to support the rights of women to vote. Interestingly, California was the sixth western state to ratify women’s right to vote. No eastern state had given women the right to vote at this time.
On October 9th and 10th there will be several programs here in the Sacramento area at the Crest Theater, the Capitol History Museum, and the State Capitol. The National Women’s History project has created a great newspaper called the CA WOMAN SUFFRAGE CENTENNIAL GAZETTE. This is an excellent resource if you would like to learn more about California women gaining the right to vote. The newspaper has an article on the history of the movement and a section with the names of women who worked to gain the right to vote. All of us - men and women - should know more about these brave women and men. This great organization is located in Santa Rosa and they have a wonderful website: www.nwhp.org. You may order an assortment of resource materials as well as buttons, ribbons and posters.
We would like to thank everyone who attended our October 1st Foster Kids Seminar at the North Highlands–Antelope library at 1:30 pm. We want to thank Kohl’s Department stores and Raley’s & Bel Air markets for their support.
Our next meeting will be Saturday November 12 at the Super 8 Motel off of Madison Ave and Hwy 80 at 11:30am. Contact Dori at 332-7133, check us out on Facebook at GFWC Antelope-North County Women’s Club or online at www.cfwc.org or www.gfwc.org. You can e-mail us at antelopeCFWC@comcast.net. We would love to see you at the meeting.