1924 Women for Congress Campaign
In 1924 the Women’s Party campaigned to elect women to Congress. According to the Equal Rights magazine, “[their] object in this fight was not to back women just because they were women, but to back women who seemed qualified to sit in Congress and who will support the Equal Rights Amendment and a general feminist program.” Women have had the vote for four years but have had practically no share in the national government. The Women’s Party believed in order to be equally represented in governmental positions, “women must themselves organize to put women in Congress and all national administrative positions.” (Equal Rights Magazine 1924)
Four women candidates were nominated for Congress in Pennsylvania state. Headquarters have been opened in Philadelphia, from where the campaign would be directed. The four Pennsylvania women candidates included: Anna Van Skite (nominee for Congress from ninth congressional district), Jennie Rantz Dornblum (nominee for third congressional district), Daisy Detterline (nominee for 10th district on the Labor Ticket), and Elizabeth Culbertson (nominee for 29th district on the Prohibition and Labor Ticket). They were all members of the Woman’s Party.
On January 10, 1925, calculations of the results from the 1924 fall elections placed 122 women in State offices, more than 100 women in public offices, 108 women in State legislatures, and one woman to Congress. This past election made history as two women governors—Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming and Miriam A. Ferguson of Texas—were appointed, making them the first women to hold the office of chief executives of their States.
Three women were elected to the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, which was one of the first State offices won by women. Mrs. C.C. Bradford was re-elected to serve her fifth term in Colorado, Minnie J. Neilson was re-elected in North Dakota, and Mrs. Josephine Corliss Preston in Washington. In the past, women have held this position in Texas, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming.
In Connecticut and Ohio, Judge Florence Allen and Mary Bartelme were elected as judges for the probate court. Judge Allen (Ohio) remains the only woman justice of a State Supreme Court, while Mary Bartelme is the first woman ever elected to the position of judge in the circuit court. In New York, Florence E. S. Knapp was elected Secretary of State, becoming the only woman to run on the State ticket for either of the two major parties. At this point, virtually every office, except that of coroner, has been held somewhere, at some time, by a woman.
The five women from Pennsylvania “for whose election the Women’s Party was particularly,” were all defeated by their Republican opponents. All five women made a good showing at the polls and all polled many votes beyond the regular number that went with the ticket on which they ran.
