More than a century ago, a group of men tried to humiliate a woman by nominating her for mayor in a small town in Kansas. It was a lesson to keep women out of politics. But what happened next was remarkable.
The town? Argonia, Kansas. The year? 1887. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) had recently organized in Argonia, and with their newfound voting rights, local women carefully selected a male candidate they trusted to serve the town’s best interests.
Politics wasn’t just a man’s domain anymore, and this group of women was making sure their voices were heard. But not everyone was happy. This didn’t sit well with a group of men in town. To “teach them a lesson,” they hatched a plan to embarrass the women.
A faction of men heckled and mocked the women in an attempt to intimidate them, hoping they’d retreat from politics. Politics, they believed, was a man’s world, and they wanted to keep it that way. But when that didn’t work, they took it a step further.
In the smoky back room of a local restaurant, 20 men hatched a plan to embarrass these ambitious women. They decided to nominate a woman as a candidate for mayor. Mrs. Susanna Salter. They were certain that no one would ever want a woman in public office.
Susanna was a mother of two, a Quaker, and married to Argonia’s city clerk. Her father had been the town’s first mayor. But the men thought her candidacy would be humiliating—a way to embarrass the W.C.T.U. and curb the women’s political activities.
In those days, candidates didn’t have to file before Election Day, so it was easy for the men to print ballots with her name—without her knowledge or consent. That morning, early voters were stunned to see Mrs. Salter’s name on the ticket.
The chairman of the local Republican Party quickly sent a delegation to find her. They found her doing the family washing at her home.
They explained the prank and asked: “If elected, would you really serve?”
Mrs. Salter quietly replied, “Yes.”
The men waited for the votes to come in, smugly expecting humiliation. They were certain the lady from this small town would receive only about 20 votes. But as the ballots were counted, the results were nothing short of astonishing. History often has its own plans.
The little town of Argonia didn’t reject Susanna Salter; they elected her in a landslide. She received a two-thirds majority, becoming the first woman elected as mayor in the history of United States. Instead of silencing women, these men had unintentionally made history.
News of the election spread like wildfire. Journalists from across the country flocked to Argonia. At one of her first council meetings, a New York Sun reporter watched as Mrs. Salter led with a firm hand, showing the nation that a woman could hold an office.
What began as a joke became the start of something much bigger. Susanna Salter’s story reminds us that democracy belongs to everyone and a woman can win too.
Mocking a woman with sexist remarks or s**t-shaming her for her political ambition is a widespread phenomenon, whether in the USA or India. You can mock or humiliate a woman as much as you can, but she is bound to make history—today, tomorrow, or the day after.
Source:
Washington Post washingtonpost.com/news/morning-m Monroe Billington, Susanna Madora Salter – First Woman Mayor, Kansas Collection Susanna Salter Was Added to the Ballot as a Joke, But Won Two-Thirds of the Vote, historyhustle.com/susanna-salter/ Wikimedia Commons
