February 3 to March 28, 2020

Utah history is full of surprises, notably with respect to women’s rights and accomplishments. This year the nation will celebrate the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. However, the very first woman in the United States to vote in a general election in the modern era cast her ballot on February 14, 1870 in Salt Lake City, Utah, half a century before suffrage was won for all American women. A long and complicated chain of events followed, but when Utah achieved statehood in 1896, women’s suffrage was firmly ensconced in the new state’s Constitution. Utah women led the nation in running for, and winning, political office in those early years. For decades, women throughout the state inspired their sisters across the country to fight for the right to vote, to take part in government, to stand for freedom, in short, to seize the scepter.