In 1870, 50 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified, thousands of Utah women voted under equal suffrage law, a first in the nation.
The bill, unanimously passed by an all male legislature, would grant voting to some women, while others would remain disenfranchised for generations.
Nationally, leaders of the women’s suffrage movement hoped that Utah would blaze a path for the women’s liberation and enfranchisement.
But the plan completely backfired and Utah women’s suffrage was taken away just 17 years after it was granted.
Learn how Utah’s early suffrage movement was deeply entwined with polygamy and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.