Contrary to what you may think, the election of America’s first female mayor did not begin as some progressive movement to illustrate the power of women in politics. Instead, the candidacy of Susanna M. Salter began as a sick joke by men.
Back in 1887, 27 year old Susanna Madora Salter was on the verge of her first election. In Argonia, Kansas, where Salter lived, women had only recently been granted the right to vote in city elections, and the city council election would be the first during which women like Salter were allowed to finally express themselves through the ballot box.
In preparation for the election, Argonia’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), of which Salter was a member, held a meeting to nominate and support several prohibitionist men to the city council. With their combined votes, they hoped to elect these men to pass alcohol prohibition laws which were central to the WCTU’s political stance. During this meeting, two anti-prohibitionist men (nicknamed ‘wets’) showed up to heckle the meeting and intimidate the women. However, the women didn’t budge. So, the ‘wets’ came up with another plan. They called their own secret meeting and came up with a plot to derail the WCTU: they were going to nominate Salter for the mayoral race.
Because of the way elections worked back in the 1800s, candidates did not need to register before election day. Instead, partisans would distribute ballots listing candidates to the townsfolk who would drop them off to vote. This allowed the ‘wets’ to create their own set of ballots to distribute which listed Salter in place of the WCTU candidate. By doing this, they hoped to create confusion and split the vote as they assumed most people would not vote for a woman.
As the morning of election day arrived, ballots were distributed and, understandably, confusion ensued. A delegation of townsfolk went to Salter’s house where she was washing clothes to explain what had happened. They gave her a chance to remove her name from the ballot, but Salter refused. Instead, she stood by the ballots and agreed to serve if elected. Empowered by this decision, the WCTU fully backed Salter. In the end, Susanna Salter ended up winning the vote by 60%. Instead of humiliating women, they had ended up electing the first woman mayor in the country.
Word of Salter’s election spread quickly, and many either expressed displeasure or a ‘wait and see’ attitude. On Salter’s first day in office, a New York Sun reporter showed up to document the unprecedented event. Afterwards, the reporter ended up describing her as “a good parliamentarian” and having a strong sense of decorum. In the end, Salter’s term was fairly uneventful with no major ordinances passed; however, her election was still a momentous event that broke the glass ceiling for women in politics.
This is actually quite amusing. The definition of backfire right there. While I am not surprised that Salter didn’t rock the boat much during her time in office, it would have been interesting if she pushed the envelope a bit.
I remember learning about this and just laughing. Just now, I giggled a bit again. It’s quite humorous how far people are willing to take a joke or mess with people… and the results of that joke. Especially since the election this past week between two older white men, the thought of our first female mayor being unintended is fascinating, but also says a lot. I remember in 2016, people thinking Trump should be president as a joke too. In civics class when the primaries were going on, I jokingly debated on Trump’s side while the majority of my class supported people like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, etc. I had no idea that my “prediction” would come to fruition.
I remember learning about this and just laughing. Just now, I giggled a bit again. It’s quite humorous how far people are willing to take a joke or mess with people… and the results of that joke. Especially since the election this past week between two older white men, the thought of our first female mayor being unintended is fascinating, but also says a lot. I remember in 2016, people thinking Trump should be president as a joke too. In civics class when the primaries were going on, I jokingly debated on Trump’s side while the majority of my class supported people like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, etc. I had no idea that my “prediction” would come to fruition.
I remember this story but never with any details. I didn’t know she was part of the temperance movement, so I guess she held some beliefs that would not be acceptable today (I’m not talking about alcohol). Nevertheless, in 2016 I never considered Trump would become president but here we are and the same shocking outcome came about back in 1887 with Ms. Salter. It’s interesting that there was no backlash from the people that put her on the ballot or from anti-feminist movements or just pricks in general. She received a large majority of the voters in an unprecedently progressive election. I don’t like the fact that she was only given the opportunity because of a joke, but I admire her willingness to serve at the drop of a hat and of course the outcome was a momentous leap for the first election where women could vote. Great Post!
I feel like this post is so fitting with the election being last week. Honestly, I did not know this before and I find it so amusing. Their plan backfired, while also being a progressive moment for women. I love the flow of this post, great job:)