Votes for Women

Votes for Women (1912)

The feature that has the support of every suffrage organization in the country.

Named by historian Kevin Brownlow as “the first important suffrage film”, this melodrama follows suffragist May Fillmore in her fight to sway Senator Herman, whose vote could pass a key reform bill. After exposing him and his fiancée Jane Wadsworth to the dire living conditions of a motherless tenement family—unsanitary housing, child labor, and workplace exploitation—Jane turns against her negligent fiancé and joins the suffrage cause. Ultimately, both Herman and Jane’s father are persuaded to support reform, and the film ends with the characters proudly taking part in a suffrage parade. (Note: This silent narrative film is distinct from Edison’s Votes for Women (1913), a Kinetophone short that recorded real suffragist leaders delivering speeches.)

Date of release
1912-06-25
TMDB
8.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
20m
Director
Hal Reid

Casting

Interesting facts

Votes for Women is a 1912 American silent melodrama film directed by Hal Reid. It was produced by Reliance Film Company in partnership with the National American Woman Suffrage Association and was written by suffragists Mary Ware Dennett, Harriet Laidlaw, and Frances Maule Bjorkman. The film starred Edgena De Lespine, and featured cameos by prominent suffragists, including Anna Howard Shaw, Jane Addams, and Inez Milholland, and incorporated documentary footage of a women's suffrage parade in New York City. It was named by historian Kevin Brownlow as “the first important suffrage film.”

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