{"id":297,"date":"2010-10-06T01:01:22","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T01:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/?p=297"},"modified":"2010-10-06T19:16:29","modified_gmt":"2010-10-06T19:16:29","slug":"1928-election-women-for-hoover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/2010\/10\/06\/1928-election-women-for-hoover\/","title":{"rendered":"1928 Election: Women for Hoover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Prior to the presidential election of 1928, Senator William Borah of Idaho\u00a0said<\/a> he\u00a0expected \u201cthe largest women\u2019s vote, by far, yet recorded.\u201d This prediction was reinforced by New York Times<\/a><\/em>\u2019 reports that in New York City there were 250,000 more women registered than in 1924, while the Chicago Daily Tribune<\/a><\/em> reported female registration in Chicago had increased by more than 188,000 since the last election.<\/p>\n

Sarah Schuyler Butler, Vice Chairman of the State Committee suggested<\/a>, \u201cthe tremendous increase in the number of women who have registered proves beyond a doubt the keen interest of women in the the campaign […] We feel confident that this will mean a substantial increase in the strength of the Republican Party.\u201d\u00a0For many women the election represented not just a choice between Herbert Hoover and Governor Al Smith as candidates, but also a referendum on the issue of prohibition. Thus Dr. F. Scott McBride of the Anti-Saloon League\u00a0predicted<\/a>, \u201cthousands of women who have never voted before, aroused by Smith\u2019s wet threats, will go to the polls next Tuesday to vote against liquor by voting for Hoover.\u201d Furthermore, a number of female voters believed that a Smith presidency would restrict the advancement of women’s rights, as National Woman’s Party Chairman, Mrs. Clarence M. Smith argued<\/a>,\u00a0“it is scarcely conceivable that any woman who believes in equal opportunities for women could give her support to Governor Smith, who, as he declared in his Newark speech, is unalterably opposed to industrial equality.”<\/p>\n

Not all women supported Hoover. As Ms. Ben Hooper of Oshkosh, Wisconsin declared<\/a>, “women are disgusted with the record of the last eight years […] I do not see how any progressively minded person can vote for Mr. Hoover.” Additionally, some Democratic leaders believed<\/a> that endorsements by high-profile women, such as Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and Mrs. Francis B. Sayre, would be enough to hold in line the Democratic women.<\/p>\n

As Republicans had predicted, however, early reports\u00a0suggested<\/a> that\u00a0on November 6th an unprecedented number of women had turned out to vote and feminist scholar Jo Freeman confirmed<\/a> that, according to straw polls, the female vote had overwhelmingly favored Herbert Hoover. In Huntington, Long Island most of the 23 districts reported<\/a> nearly two-thirds of those who had voted were women and that many of these women had voted for Hoover. Across the country stories of first-time, elderly women voting for Herbert Hoover also emerged, including in Brooklyn, where the New York Times<\/a><\/em> detailed the story of\u00a0a 98-year woman, Rachael Fayette, who had cast her first ballot ever for Hoover as an example \u201cwhich all of her associates followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoover won in a landslide, carrying 40 states and receiving nearly 60% of the national vote. Upon hearing of Hoover’s victory,\u00a0Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mrs. Alvin T. Hert\u00a0proclaimed<\/a>, \u201cthe result of yesterday\u2019s election may in large measure \u2013 larger than ever before \u2013 be attributed to the untiring activity of women voters […] They have every reason to be proud of their part in the unprecedented victory.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prior to the presidential election of 1928, Senator William Borah of Idaho\u00a0said he\u00a0expected \u201cthe largest women\u2019s vote, by far, yet recorded.\u201d This prediction was reinforced by New York Times\u2019 reports that in New York City there were 250,000 more women registered than in 1924, while the Chicago Daily Tribune reported female registration in Chicago had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":576,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13152],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1920s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/576"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}