''Votes for Women'' is a 1912 American silent melodrama film directed by Hal Reid. It was produced by

Reliance Film Company Reliance Film Company (1910–1915) was an early movie production studio in the United States. It was established in 1910 in Coney Island by Adam Kessel Jr. and Charles O. Baumann. Harry Aitken purchased the Reliance Film Company in 1911 from Cha ...

in partnership with the

National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National ...

and was written by suffragists

Mary Ware Dennett Mary Coffin Ware Dennett (April 4, 1872 – July 25, 1947) was an American women's rights activist, pacifist, homeopathic advocate, and pioneer in the areas of birth control, sex education, and women's suffrage. She co-founded the Nationa ...

, Harriet Laidlaw, and Frances Maule Bjorkman. The film featured cameos by prominent suffragists, including;

Anna Howard Shaw Anna Howard Shaw (February 14, 1847 – July 2, 1919) was a leader of the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was also a physician and one of the first ordained female Methodist ministers in the United States. Early life Shaw ...

Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 May 21, 1935) was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, and author. She was an important leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage ...

, and

Inez Milholland Inez Milholland Boissevain (August 6, 1886 – November 25, 1916) was a leading American suffragist, lawyer, and peace activist. From her college days at Vassar, she campaigned aggressively for women’s rights as the principal issue of a wide ...

, and incorporated documentary footage of a women's suffrage parade in New York City.

Plot

May Fillmore, one of the most ardent of the workers, discovers that the father of a little motherless tenement brood has died of tuberculosis, after having vainly importuned the owner. Senator Herman, to make building alterations that will remedy unsatisfactory conditions. She goes to the Senator's fiancée, Jane Wadsworth, and succeeds in securing her help. Jane accompanies May to the poor bereaved family, and she is shocked at the terrible lack of sanitation. They find three little girls and a baby left to fight the world alone. Elsie, the eldest, is doing embroidery sweat-shop work at home, and minding the baby, while Hester works in a department store. The other tot is a half-time scholar, and in the afternoons assists her sister working on corset covers for another shop. All these fearful conditions are pointed out by May and have their desired effect upon Jane. She is further shocked upon learning that her fiancé is the negligent owner. Jane goes to him and pleads that he do something in the matter. He waves her away and treats her like a child. Angered, she joins the suffragists and assists in bringing both her father and the Senator to terms. Hester is insulted by a floorwalker in her father's shop, which proves another shock to Jane, when her father does nothing in the matter. Later she is stricken with scarlet fever, which she contracted from the embroidery on one of her trousseau gowns, which came from her father's store. The father and Senator, upon learning that they were in part guilty, as the embroidery was made in the Senator's unsanitary tenement, gives in and most enthusiastically joins the suffrage movement. They are seen with the girls at suffrage headquarters, at the Men's League, and finally in the parade.

References

External links

* 1912 films American silent films Films about activists Melodrama films Silent American drama films 1912 drama films American black-and-white films Media about women's suffrage in the United States 1910s American films {{Silent-drama-film-stub

Plot

See also

References

External links