Votes for Women poster
Basic Info
Release: June 25, 1912

Votes for Women

1912
Overview

Named by historian Kevin Brownlow as “the first important suffrage film”, this melodrama follows suffragist May Fillmore in her fight to sway Senator Herman, whose vote could pass a key reform bill. After exposing him and his fiancée Jane Wadsworth to the dire living conditions of a motherless tenement family—unsanitary housing, child labor, and workplace exploitation—Jane turns against her negligent fiancé and joins the suffrage cause. Ultimately, both Herman and Jane’s father are persuaded to support reform, and the film ends with the characters proudly taking part in a suffrage parade. (Note: This silent narrative film is distinct from Edison’s Votes for Women (1913), a Kinetophone short that recorded real suffragist leaders delivering speeches.)

Production Countries
  • United States of America
Spoken Languages
  • No Language xx

No streaming providers available for this content

Cast
Edgena De Lespine
Jane Wadsworth
Gertrude Robinson
Gertrude Robinson
Sue Balfour
Pearl Egan
Gladys Egan
Gladys Egan
Charles Herman
Edward P. Sullivan
J.W. Backus
Jane Addams
Self
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Self
Frances Maule Bjorkman
Self
Florence Maule Cooley
Self
Crew
Hal Reid
Hal Reid
Director
Frances Maule Bjorkman
Writer
Mary Ware Dennett
Writer
Harriet Laidlaw
Writer
Posters
poster