List of women's rights conventions in the United States

This is a chronological list of women's rights conventions held in the United States. The first convention in the country to focus solely on women's rights was the Seneca Falls Convention held in the summer of 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York.^[1] Prior to that, the first abolitionist convention for women was held in New York City in 1837.^[2] Elizabeth Cady Stanton considered the first organized women's rights work to date back to the first National Women's Rights Convention held in 1850.^[3]

Contents
19th century: 1830s • 1840s • 1850s • 1860s • 1870s • 1880s • 1890s 20th century: 1900s • 1910s • 1920s • 1930s • 1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s 21st century: 2000s • 2010s • 2020s See also • References

"A Call to the Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference" in Minneapolis, May 7–10 in 1916

19th century

Report of the Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca July 19–20, 1848

1830s

1837

• First National Female Anti-Slavery Society Convention is held in New York City.^[2]

1840s

1848

• July 19–20: Seneca Falls Convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York.^[1]
• August 2: Rochester Women's Rights Convention is held in Rochester, New York.^[4]

1850s

1850

• April 19–20: Ohio Women's Convention at Salem is held in Salem, Ohio.^[4]
• October 23–24: First National Woman's Rights Convention, held in Brinley Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts.^[5]

1851

• May 28–29: The Ohio Women's Convention at Akron is held in Akron, Ohio and speaker Sojourner Truth gives her 'Ain't I a Woman?' speech.^[6]
• October 14–15: First Indiana Woman's Rights Convention is held in Dublin, Indiana.^[7]
• October 15–16: Second National Woman's Rights Convention, held in Brinley Hall in Worcester.^[5]

1852

• May 26: Ohio Women's Convention at Massillon.^[8]
• June 2–3: Pennsylvania Woman's Convention at West Chester.^[9]
• September 8–10: Third National Women's Rights Convention, held in Syracuse, New York.^[5]

1853

• September 6–7: "Mob Convention" is held in New York City.^[10]
• October 6–8: Fourth National Women's Rights Convention, held in Melodean Hall in Cleveland.^[5]

1854

• October 18–20: Fifth National Woman's Rights Convention, held in Sansom Street Hall in Philadelphia.^[5]

1855

• October 17–18: Sixth National Woman's Rights Convention, held in Nixon's Hall in Cincinnati.^[5]

1856

• November 25–26: Seventh National Woman's Rights Convention held in the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City.^[5]

1858

• May 13–14: Eighth National Woman's Rights Convention held in Mozart Hall in New York City.^[5]

1859

• May 12: Ninth National Woman's Rights Convention held in Mozart Hall in New York City.^[5]

1860s

1860

• May 10–11: Tenth National Woman's Rights Convention held at The Cooper Union in New York City.^[5]
• May 14: First Woman's National Loyal League Convention held at the Church of the Puritans in New York City.^[5]

1867

• May 9–10: First annual meeting of the American Equal Rights Association (AERA) is held in New York City.^[11]

1869

• November 23: The first Ohio Woman's Suffrage Association (OWSA) convention is held in Cleveland.^[12]
• November 24–25: The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was founded at a convention held in Case Hall in Cleveland.^[13]

1870s

1873

• October 15–17: First Congress of Women of the Association for the Advancement of Women (AAW) is held at the Union League Theater in New York City.^[14]

1874

• November 18–20: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded at their first convention held in Cleveland at the Second Presbyterian Church.^[15]

1880s

16th Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement of Women (AAW) in Detroit, 1888

1888

• November 14–16: The 16th Annual Congress of the AAW is held at the Church of Our Father in Detroit.^[16]

1890s

1890

• February 18: Founding convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).^[17]

1891

• February 26-March 1: Twenty-Third annual NAWSA convention is held in Albaugh's Opera House in Washington, D.C.^[18]

1893

• January 16–19: Twenty-Fifth annual NAWSA convention is held in Washington, D.C.^[19]

1895

• July 27–30: The First National Conference of the Colored Women of America is held at Berkeley Hall in Boston.^[20][21]

1896

• November 15–19: First National Jewish Women's Congress is held in Tuxedo Hall in New York City.^[22]

1897

• January: NAWSA holds their 29th annual convention in Des Moines, Iowa.^[23]

1898

• February 14–19: Thirtieth Annual convention of NAWSA held in Columbia Theater in Washington, D.C.^[24]

1899

• April 30-May 6: The thirty-first annual NAWSA convention is held in Grand Rapids, Michigan.^[25]
• August 14–16: The second annual convention of the NACW is held in Quinn Chapel in Chicago.^[26]

20th century

1900s

1902

• February: First Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held in Washington, D.C.^[27]

Elizabeth Cady Stanton quote from NAWSA convention in Baltimore in February of 1906

1905

• June 29-July 5: The 37th Annual NAWSA convention is held in Portland, Oregon.^[28]

1906

• Annual NAWSA Convention is held in Baltimore.^[29]

1910s

1911

• October 19–25: NAWSA holds their annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky in the De Molay Commandery Hall.^[30]

1912

• May: Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference is held in Chicago and Milwaukee.^[31]
• October 15–18: Forty-fourth New York State Suffrage Convention held in Utica, New York.^[32]
• November 21–26: Forty-fourth Annual NAWSA conference is held in Philadelphia.^[33]
• Midwestern Suffragists' Conference is held in Chicago.^[34]

1913

• April 2–4: Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference is held at the Buckingham Hotel in St. Louis.^[35][36][34]
• November 12–13: First Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference is held in New Orleans.^[37]
• November 29-December 5: Forty-fifth annual NAWSA convention is held in Washington, D.C.^[38]

1914

Delegate's badge worn by Mamie Williams at the 1914 National Association of Colored Women's Convention

• March 29–31: Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference is held in Des Moines, Iowa.^[39]
• November 12–17: NAWSA holds its annual convention in Nashville, Tennessee.^[40]

1915

• Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference is held.^[35]

1916

• September 6–10: Annual NAWSA Convention is held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.^[41]
• May 7–10: Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference is held in Minneapolis.^[35][42]
• June: The Woman's Party Convention is held in Chicago, where the National Woman's Party (NWP) is formed.^[43]

1917

• Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference is held.^[35]

1918

• May 10: National Woman's Party Convention held in Hartford, Connecticut.^[44]

1920s

1920

• February 12–18: Final NAWSA convention, the "Victory Convention" is held in Chicago.^[17][45]

1960s

1969

• April 18–20: Connecticut College Black Womanhood Conference is held.^[46]

1970s

1971

• May 28–30: La Conferencia de Mujeres por la Raza is held in Houston.^[47]

See also

• List of women's conferences
• Feminism in the United States
• Women's suffrage in the United States

References

1. "History of the Women's Rights Movement". National Women's History Alliance. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
2. "One Hundred Years Towards Suffrage - An Overview". Prints and Photographs Reading Room, Library of Congress. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
3. "Why Commemorate the 1850 Woman's Rights Convention?". Worcester Women's History Project. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
4. Gable, Walter (February 2017). "Timeline of Events in Securing Woman Suffrage in New York State" (PDF). The History Center. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
5. "More Women's Rights Conventions - Women's Rights National Historical Park". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
6. "WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University. 2021-06-09. Retrieved 2021-07-03.
7. "Indiana's First Woman's Rights Convention". Indiana Historical Bureau. 2020-12-07. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
8. "Women's Rights Convention". The Summit County Beacon. 1852-05-12. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-07-15 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "The proceedings of the Woman's Rights Convention, held at West Chester, Pa., June 2d and 3d, 1852". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
10. "Mob Convention | United States history". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
11. "This Week in 19th Amendment History: Shifts and Splits in the Suffrage Movement". Arlington Public Library. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
12. Morton, Marian J. (2020-11-18). "OHIO WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION (OWSA)". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
13. Morton, Marian J.; Scharf, Lois (2020-11-18). "AMERICAN WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE ASSN". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
14. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Association for the Advancement of Women (1877). "Appendix". Souvenir Nineteenth Annual Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women Invited & Entertained by the Ladies' Literary Club (Public domain ed.). pp. 121–122.
15. Clark, Norman H. (2018-05-12). "WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION CONVENTION". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
16. "Sixteenth Annual Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women ; 16th Annual Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women ; Annual Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women ; 16th Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement of Woman ; invited by Detroit Woman's Club : meeting in Church of Our Father ... November 14, 15 and 16, 1888, Detroit, Mich". Women Working, 1800-1930 - CURIOSity Digital Collections. 1888. Retrieved 2021-06-27 – via Harvard Library.
17. "Timeline | National American Woman Suffrage Association Records". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
18. The Twenty-Third Annual Washington Convention. Leslie Suffrage Collection. February 1891.
19. "Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, held in Washington, D.C., January 16, 17, 18, 19, 1893 / edited by Harriet Taylor Upton". Villanova Digital Library. 1893. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
20. "Colored Women in Conference; National Association for Their Betterment Formed in Boston". The New York Times. 1895-07-30. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
21. "'Shall We Have a Convention...?'". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
22. "National Council of Jewish Women holds first national convention". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
23. Anthony 1902, p. 631.
24. "Thirtieth Annual Convention and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of the National American Woman Suffrage Association". Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
25. "NAWSA Comes to Grand Rapids". Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
26. "Minutes of the Second Convention of the National Association of Colored Women : held at Quinn Chapel, 24th Street and Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Ill., August 14th, 15th, and 16th, 1899". Library of Congress. 1899. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
27. "History of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance". Report of Congress. 1908. pp. 53–54.
28. "Susan B. Anthony and Others". Women in Oregon · Lewis & Clark Digital Collections. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
29. Sander, Kathleen Waters (2020-08-04). "The 1906 NAWSA Convention in Baltimore: Mary Elizabeth Garrett Brings Suffrage 'Straight into the Heart of Conservatism'". Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemoration. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
30. Dawson, Kristen (28 June 2016). "1911 NAWSA Convention in Louisville". H-Kentucky | H-Net. Retrieved 2022-05-20.
31. "U.S. Women Plan English Boycott". Chicago Tribune. 1912-05-24. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-06-21 – via Newspapers.com.
32. "Forty-Fourth NY State Suffrage Convention". Freethought Trail - New York. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
33. NAWSA (1912). Proceedings of the 44th Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
34. Hollingsworth, Randolph. "Biographical Sketch of Belle Harris Bennett". Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920 – via Alexander Street.
35. Simmons, Ariel (2003). Firor Scott, Anne (ed.). Grassroots Women's Organizations: Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association Records 1894-1923 (PDF). Bethesda, Maryland: LexisNexis. pp. x, 4. ISBN 1556557957.
36. "Suffragettes Particular". Lead Daily Call. 1913-04-04. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-06-21 – via Newspapers.com.
37. Johnson, Kenneth R. (August 1972). "Kate Gordon and the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the South". The Journal of Southern History. 38 (3): 368, 371. doi:10.2307/2206099. JSTOR 2206099 – via JSTOR.
38. Anthony, Susan B.; Stanton, Elizabeth Cady (1913). Proceedings of the Forty-Fifth Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association – via Hathi Trust.
39. "Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference". Iowa Digital Library. 1914. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
40. "Cover of National Suffrage Convention pamphlet". Tennessee Virtual Archive. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
41. "Women and the Vote in Atlantic City". The Atlantic City Experience. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
42. "Leaflet: A Call to the Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference". Ann Lewis Women's Suffrage Collection. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
43. O'Gan, Patri (2014-03-26). "Traveling for Suffrage Part 4: Riding the rails". National Museum of American History. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
44. "Senators Too Old- Eat So Much That They Can't Think". Hartford Courant. 1918-05-30. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-11-13 – via Newspapers.com.
45. "Invitation: Victory Convention". Ann Lewis Women's Suffrage Collection. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
46. Herskewitz, Lynda (19 March 1969). "Black Womanhood Weekend To Emphasize Exposure". Conn Census. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
47. Bueno, Marianne M. (2015). "Conferencia de Mujeres por La Raza". In Wayne, Tiffany K. (ed.). Women's Rights in the United States: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Issues, Events, and People. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 61–62. ISBN 9781610692151.

Sources

• Anthony, Susan B. (1902). Anthony, Susan B.; Harper, Ida Husted (eds.). The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 4. Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press.