Petition to Governor Holcomb
In October of 1916, hundreds of women in Connecticut launched a letter-writing campaign to Governor Marcus H. Holcomb. Letters poured into his office imploring him to, in his reelection campaign, add his support of the female suffrage movement to his platform. Leading this campaign was a long letter by Katharine Houghton Hepburn, a head of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association. In her letter, Hepburn states that Holcomb’s party’s presidential candidate, Charles Evans Hughes, has thrown his support behind the suffrage movement, and implores Holcomb to do the same. Hepburn also mentions that the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association had created a petition which was signed by 43,867 Connecticut citizens of legal voting age and presented to the Connecticut Legislature.
In his third term, Holcomb was faced with the passing of the nineteenth amendment, which would grant women nationwide the right to vote. When he learned it’s passing would require a special session of the Connecticut Legislature to vote, it took the pressures of suffragists to convince him to call the session, and with his help, the 19th amendment became law. In addition to helping with this amendment, Holcomb also helped give retirement to teachers, most of whom were female at that time, and limited the hours women were allowed to work in factories to make the work more bearable and less dangerous.
