Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial
The Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial is a permanent feature on the grounds of the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul. It commemorates the women’s suffrage movement in the state and 25 women whose achievements were important to the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA). The memorial was designed by architects Raveevarn Choksombatchai, Martha McQuade, and Ralph Nelson.
Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial
Bertha Moller
Josephine Schain
Image: Saint Paul (15187929074)
Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association
The Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) operated from 1881 to 1920. The organization was part of the broader women's suffrage movement in the United States and it sought to secure the right of women to vote in Minnesota. Its members organized marches, wrote petitions and letters, gathered signatures, gave speeches, and published pamphlets and broadsheets to compel the Minnesota Legislature to pass legislation that recognized their right to vote. As a result of the movement's efforts, the legislature ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1919, which prohibited the denial of citizens to vote based on sex.
Sarah Burger Stearns was named the organization's first president in 1881.
Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial at the State Capitol in 2021.