Women's suffrage in Hawaii
Suffragists, Wilhelmine Kekelaokalaninui Widemann Dowsett and Emma Kaili Metcalf Beckley Nakuina, immediately began working towards women's suffrage.
As Hawaii was being annexed as a US territory in 1899, racist ideas about the ability of Native Hawaiians to rule themselves caused problems with allowing women to vote.
Dowsett created the National Women's Equal Suffrage Association of Hawaiʻi that year and Catt promised to act as the delegate for NAWSA.
In 1915 and 1916, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole brought resolutions to the U.S. Congress requesting women's suffrage for Hawaii.
In 1919, suffragists around Hawaii met for mass demonstrations to lobby the territorial legislature to pass women's suffrage bills.
The Hawaiian Kingdom, established before the country was annexed by the United States in 1898, gave women important roles in the government.
[5] In 1890, during the reign of King Kalākaua, Representatives William Pūnohu White and John Bush worked to amend the constitution for women's suffrage.
[7] The WCTU in Hawaii allied themselves with white business owners and military groups that would later take control of the country.
It was founded to oppose the overthrow and support the deposed queen, on March 27, 1893, by Emilie Widemann Macfarlane.
Under the leadership of Abigail Kuaihelani Campbell, the organization collected 21,000 signatures across the island chain opposing annexation in 1897.
[10] Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) wrote the "Hawaiian Appeal" in 1899.
[11][12] In this document, the suffragists asked that the United States Congress give women the same rights to vote as Hawaiian men are given in the territory.
[18] After the formation of the WESAH, Catt helped the organization by representing them at the National Suffrage Conventions held by NAWSA and by staying in touch.
[15] The Honolulu Star-Bulletin wrote an article that expressed the firm belief that Congress would take up the matter and allow the territory to decide women's suffrage issues on their own.
[27] In 1917, New England suffragist Almira Hollander Pitman, who was married to the son of Hawaiian chiefess Kinoʻoleoliliha, visited Hawaii and spoke to the territorial legislature on women's suffrage and later used her influence to speed-up congressional action on the issue.
[32] Women such as Emilie K. Widemann Macfarlane and Emma Ahuena Davison Taylor were prominent in working on knitting units in Hawaii which made items of clothing for soldiers.
[32] In 1917 Prince Kūhiō brought a bill to the United States Congress which was put forward by Senator John F.
[35] She, along with Maude Wood Park and Anna Howard Shaw testified in front of the House Committee on Woman Suffrage on April 29, 1918.
[37] Governor Charles J. McCarthy and Princess Elizabeth Kahanu Kalanianaʻole both spoke in favor of women's suffrage at the rally.
[38] Other present at the rally included Mary Dillingham Frear, Emilie K. Widemann Macfarlane, and Lahilahi Webb.
