For Well-Behaved Women Who May Never Make History

Sometimes an inadvertent remark can change the course of events. Here’s one of our favorite stories about how a sarcastic remark challenged a group of women to make a big difference that changed history. It’s a wonderful example of how women can take a putdown and let it put power under their wings.

It happened in Jackson, Wyoming, in 1920. The town was a mess. Heavy winter snows combined with spring rains and fast thaws had created massive puddles of mud and pools of nasty, stagnant water. Trash littered the town, and quality of life was severely lacking for residents and their families. The women in town were tired of the do-nothing city council. When the women expressed their concerns to elected officials at a council meeting, their grievances fell on deaf ears and were ultimately dismissed.

The men who populated the city council were neither impressed nor motivated to make any suggested improvements. One offered to the women a solution that brought a roar of laughter from the men at the meeting: “If you don’t like it, why don’t you run for office? Let’s elect the women.”

It was all the women needed to hear. They held a caucus that same evening and formed the Woman’s Party. They presented a party ticket to the citizens of Jackson for an all-woman leadership slate: mayor and city council. As if shocked by an electrical current, the men immediately formed an opposition party, with a status quo all-male slate.

The women ran on a platform promising to clean up the town by building a walkway to the school, constructing ditches and culverts to deal with the water and mud, and building a refuse facility outside of town to handle the garbage. They said they would pass health laws making it a misdemeanor to dump garbage in vacant lots and build a much-needed road to the cemetery.

The citizens of Jackson overwhelmingly elected the Woman’s Party, and the newly elected city council delivered on all their promises!

The victorious women were Rose Crabtree, Mae Deloney, Faustina Haight, Grace Miller, and Genevieve Van Vleck. Dubbed the new “petticoat government,” they took a dispirited town and transformed it into what Mayor Grace Miller described as a “clean, well-kept, progressive town in which to raise our families.”

The women first tackled Jackson’s finances. Upon discovering only $200 in the treasury, they went door-to-door to collect unpaid taxes and fines. increasing the town coffers to $2,000. Their efforts paid for the culverts and ditches and with the financial help of the parent-teachers association, they built the sidewalks. They engaged the men in town to cut logs and build the walkways.

To build on the all-women government, the council appointed only women to vacant administrative positions. One of the most notable was Pearl Williams, who became town marshal at the age of 22. She carried a pearl-handled revolver and locked up drunks and outlaws who allowed their cattle to graze on the town square.

Not only did the five bold women make history as the first all-woman city council in America, Wyoming went on to become the first state to grant women the right to vote, in 1869.

When an outrageous remark was made to these motivated women, they mobilized their power and took action.

Writer Virginia Woolf said, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”

As with the passionate and determined women of Jackson, Wyoming, we can change anonymous to famous. So, let’s make some history together, well-behaved or not!