(inspirational instrumental music) - Clara Dillon Darrow, Anna Gates, Helen deLendrecie of Fargo, those women that went out and fought for the right to vote.

They rocked the boat a little bit, and if you rock the boat politically, you're not looked favorably upon.

(inspirational instrumental music) - This exhibit was created by the League of Women Voters of Minnesota and it's a really fantastic traveling exhibit looking at women's suffrage across the country and also within kind of Minnesota and the Red River Valley.

(upbeat instrumental music) - 1848 is kind of the official start of the women's suffrage movement.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she became incensed with how she was treated in the world.

In a two week time period, she was able to organize hundreds of people coming for this convention.

There were just a long list of grievances that she was interested in addressing, and they included women's property rights.

Abolition was another issue that they're concerned about.

And then women's suffrage.

And at that convention, the majority of the issues that were brought before the people were voted on unanimously, but the issue on granting women the right to vote, that was a split decision.

There was the National Women's Suffrage Movement and then the American Women's Suffrage Movement, and they split in part because of Susan B. Anthony lobbying for the federal amendment for granting women's suffrage and the, you know, the other group saying that we need to approach it state by state.

They finally mended fences towards the end of the 1800s and became the National American Women's Suffrage Association.

- Both North Dakota and Minnesota had some early attempts to pass women's suffrage before it was passed on the national level.

And in North Dakota, they were able to pass some partial suffrage for women so women can vote for things like school board but they weren't able to vote in national elections like for president or for, you know, U.S. House or Senate.

- Moorhead was a pretty typical prairie town, so if you're looking at the history of women's suffrage in Moorhead, you're looking at the history of women's suffrage all across the country.

So, this is something that really ties Moorhead to the national narrative.

- With Fargo and Moorhead, one of the things that happened in 1912 is that one of the militant suffragists from Great Britain, Sylvia Pankhurst, she was on a lecture circuit in the United States and she was approached by people in this area to come and speak in Fargo at the Grand Theater Sunday Lecture circuit, and it was standing room only.

And while Sylvia Pankhurst was here in Fargo, the North Dakota Votes for Women's League was founded.

Helen deLendrecie, she and her husband came to Fargo in the 1870s and started the deLendrecie department store.

And she was an active suffragist.

When the North Dakota Votes for Women's League was founded, she and her husband gave office space at the deLendrecie building for that state organization to, you know, have a place to organize.

- I admire these women because back in the 19th century there were these social constructs that didn't allow women to even work outside the home.

One of the suffragists actually stated that she was raising citizens, so why does she not have a role in her government?

Why doesn't she get to vote?

- You know, one of the things that anti-suffragists would say is that women didn't want to vote, or they didn't need to vote because their husbands or fathers would vote for them.

There was a concern that if women voted, that they would become he-men.

You know, they would lose their femininity.

If women had the right to vote, then men would be the ones raising children and cleaning houses and cooking.

Men were the ones that were deciding whether or not women had the right to vote or would get the right to vote.

And so, it was kind of scaring, trying to scare men into thinking that, you know, they would become lesser.

- To think about half the population of your country not having the right to vote and not being involved in decision-making really does seem ridiculous to us.

It's been a long time for people, all people in our country, to have that right to vote.

20 million new voters were basically created with the 19th Amendment in the United States.

To us now, women having the right to vote seems obvious and fundamental but at the time it really was not.

It's a place where all Americans are equal.

You know, a lot of people that in their regular lives they don't have as equal access to voice or opportunity as some other people do.

Whereas voting is a place where we all have the same voice to make our values and opinions known.

(upbeat instrumental music) - [Announcer] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the Vote of the People of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.