Timeline of women's suffrage in Alaska

This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Alaska. White women in Alaska had the right to vote in school board elections starting in 1904. In 1913, the first Territorial Legislature passed the Shoup Suffrage Bill which gave white women the right to vote in all elections. Alaska Native women had a longer road fighting for their right to vote. First, they had to be declared citizens of the United States, but even after that happened in 1924, additional barriers were put in place. These included literacy tests and segregation. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped remove many barriers that Alaska Natives faced in exercising their right to vote.

1900s
1904


 * Alaska women are given the right to vote in school board elections.

1910s
1912

1913
 * Representative Frank W. Mondell adds an amendment to a bill making Alaska an American Territory that would allow the territorial legislature to legislate equal suffrage for women.
 * Cornelia Templeton Hatcher drafts a petition to the territorial legislature of Alaska for women's suffrage.
 * Nellie Cashman is the first woman to vote in Alaska.
 * The Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) is formed.

1915
 * The Shoup Woman Suffrage bill is passed in 1913, giving women the right to vote in Alaska if they are considered United States citizens.
 * March 21: The Shoup Suffrage bill is signed into law.


 * The Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) is formed.
 * Alaska Natives are allowed to vote if they give up "tribal customs and traditions."

1920s
1924

1925
 * The Indian Citizenship Act is passed.


 * Alaska passes a literacy test to suppress the vote of Alaska Natives.

1940s
1943


 * Chinese Americans are able to vote after the passage of the Magnuson Act.

1945


 * Alaska anti-discrimination law ends segregation of Native Alaskans.

1950s
1950


 * The Anchorage League of Women Voters (LWV) is formed.

1959


 * The new state of Alaska has a more lenient literacy test.

1960s
1965

1967
 * The Voting Rights Act (VRA) is passed which helps remove many voting barriers to Native Alaskans.


 * The statewide LWV is formed.

1970s
1970 1975
 * Literacy tests are ended in Alaska.


 * The VRA is modified to provide voting information in Native languages.