Julia Nelson

Title: Points on Municipal Suffrage
Type: Document
Date: no date
Source: Goodhue County Historical Society

Description: Nelson wrote and distributed this document describing her arguments for municipal suffrage for women.
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Activities:

1. Studying a source like this can often give us a great deal of information about the attitudes in time period in which it was written. From this document, what arguments do you think were made against giving women the right to vote in city elections?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Nelson's points suggest that many people thought women should not be given the vote because they could not serve in the military, that some were concerned about men and women meeting at the polling place, and that not all women were interested in getting the vote.
2. Why would Nelson mention that the qualifications for voting for school board were no different than the qualifications for voting in municipal elections?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: She was making the argument that since women at that time were allowed to vote in elections for school board members, womenshould also be able to vote in city elections. The requirements and type of issues being decided were similar.
3. There is no date on this handbill, but what clues does it give about when it was printed?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Nelson mentions that women had been given the right to vote in the State Constitution, so the flyer was printed after that event. We could also findout when Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska and Wyoming were considering the legislation she mentioned and use those dates to suggest a general time period in which this could have been written.
4. What does Nelson's comment in her third point about military service say about her?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Her comment that war is not declared over city issues such as the location of public buildings suggests that she is making fun of the argument that women should not vote in elections because they cannot serve in the military. It shows that she has a sense of humor about the issue and is willing to make fun of her opponents' position.