Film

Votes for Women

1912 · 20m

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.)

Edgena De Lespine

Jane Wadsworth

Gertrude Robinson

Sue Balfour

Pearl Egan

Gladys Egan

Charles Herman

Edward P. Sullivan

J.W. Backus

Jane Addams

Self

Frances Maule Bjorkman

Self

Florence Maule Cooley

Self

Mary Ware Dennett

Self

Harriet Laidlaw

Self

Inez Millholland

Self

Harriet May Mills

Self

Mrs. L.H. Ozedam

Self

• Hal ReidDirector
• Harriet LaidlawWriter
• Mary Ware DennettWriter
• Frances Maule BjorkmanWriter

Release date

June 25, 1912

Status

Released

Original language

English

Runtime

20m