Governor to Sign Equality Resolution Today

Governor Mark Gordon will put his pen to paper today, signing into law the first bills to come out of this year’s legislative session.

The first bill that the Governor is set to sign is the bill that will set aside December 10th, 2019, as Wyoming’s Women’s Suffrage Day. Representative Sandy Newsome of Cody says the joint resolution will commemorate 150 years of women’s equality in Wyoming.

Wyoming was the first government to affirm women’s right to vote and hold office. Prior to the territory’s passage of a women’s suffrage law in 1869, women were not allowed to divorce their husbands or even show their booted ankles without risk of public scandal, or worse. Upon its entry into statehood in 1890, Wyoming was the first state in the union that allowed women to vote and serve in elected office.

Newsome says that the signed resolution will be sent to the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. She adds that they hope to have Esther Hobart Morris, the first elected judge in the nation, installed into the Women of the Hall.

Newsome says that in this year’s Wyoming Legislature, there are 14 total women – eight in the House and six in the Senate – out of a total of 90 legislators. However, she says that Wyoming does have a majority of women on the State Supreme Court.