"Come west, young woman, come west!" Susanna Salter and her unlikely rise to first woman U.S. mayor
In 1776, early women's rights advocate Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, future President John Adams, urging him to "Remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by laws in which we have no voice or representation."
She was right—women would eventually reach a point where they would demand equal representation and a political voice. It took more than a century before they found that voice in Susanna Salter.
Kansas women were outspoken in their desire for the right to vote, and because of this, they won that hard-fought victory in 1912, eight years before the 19th Amendment was ratified.
On April 4, 1887, Kansas women achieved another milestone by electing Susanna Salter as the first woman to hold political office in the United States. She was elected Mayor of Argonia, Kansas. While not the first woman to win an election, that prize went to Nancy Smith of Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1862; Salter was the first woman to complete her term since Nancy chose not to serve. Similarly, men nominated both women as a joke, never expecting their victories—a lesson in never underestimating women's power when given equal opportunities.
Susanna was born in 1860 and grew up on a Quaker family farm in Ohio. When she was twelve her family relocated to a farm outside of Topeka, Kansas. Salter attended the Kansas State Industrial College in Manhattan. She studied dressmaking and proudly made all but one of her dresses.
While at school, she met her husband, Lewis Salter, an aspiring attorney and the son of the state's former Lieutenant Governor. A few years after their 1883 marriage, they moved to Argonia, Kansas, bringing her father, Oliver Kinsey, and his family. Upon settling there, Oliver became the town's first mayor, paving the way for his daughter's future political success.
Prior to Susanna's historic 1887 win, she was a member and secretary of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). This connection played a large part in her nomination and election victory. At the time of Susanna's nomination, prohibitionary laws were on the books in Kansas but lacked enforcement. As a result, the WCTU convened a special caucus where they invited voters to select five councilmen as candidates for Mayor.
On election day, male anti-prohibitionists had special ballets printed with Mrs. Salter's name to ridicule her, expecting her only to receive a handful of votes. As Kansas didn't announce candidates until election day, Susanna had no idea that she had been added to the ballot. In fact, reports say she was doing laundry at home when she learned of her nomination. Once Susanna formally accepted the nomination, the WCTU dropped support for their prior candidates in favor of her. She also secured a majority of the Republican vote, which led to her victory.
Navigating a male-dominated political world was not easy, but Susanna held her ground. Many reported that Mayor Salter used flattery to get things done with her male councilmen stating:
...the first thing I tried to do was to make them think that they were the very finest men on earth, and after that, I had not the slightest trouble with them.
In town meetings, she presided with great decorum—not afraid to speak up and keep meetings on track. One reporter who attended a council meeting wrote:
Mrs. Salter, wearing a street dress and fashionable straw hat, presided with great decorum, and several times checked dissensions which she deemed irrelevant to the evident dislike of the aldermen, who, though respectful, bore the air of protesting pupils of a not over-popular school mistress.
Many reporters didn't know how to write about a female mayor often describing her outfits and physical appearance.
...rather the reverse of plump, weighing about 128 pounds, and is of a quick, active temperament. Her eyes are dark gray, and her hair, which she wears parted in the center and "crimped" is of a blonde shade. She dresses neatly, but not expensively...
Reporters often referred to her important role as a mother, especially since she gave birth while in office.
At the end of her term, Susanna did not seek reelection. However, the impact of her term formed ripples across the country. In 1912, the same year that Kansas women won the right to vote, 200 women had been elected to offices in Kansas, ranging from district court clerks to county treasurers. This new development caused a stir amongst the Kansas men, who believed that electing women would lead to an entirely female-run government without men.
If the women keep on at the rate that they are going now it will be less than ten years until they will have all men locked out of every local office in the state except road overseer and dog catcher...
Since Susanna's term, 51 women have served as governors across the U.S., and women now make up 26% of the U.S. Senate and 28% of the U.S. House of Representatives. While this marks progress, much work remains. Despite numerous female governors, 18 states have never elected a woman, and women remain underrepresented in the highest U.S. federal offices. The path to true equality in leadership remains unfinished.
