Page 7 - Issue 22

Israel, in its relatively short history, has once elected a
woman as Prime Minister – Golda Meir was the leader of the
Labor Party, and indeed of the country for five years, until a
month before I was born.
* * *

Passive suffrage is a term often used to denote the right to
run for office, which is clearly not the same as the right to
vote. Usually, the right to vote preceded the right to hold
office. Indeed, the Suffragette movement never put much
emphasis on the latter, rather deeming the former as the
most significant step to fight for. In this sense, The Union of
Hebrew Women, established in the land of Israel in 1919,
differed from most suffragist organizations throughout the
world, since it campaigned for women’s right to vote and be
elected to office, together with egalitarian legislation
applying equally to women and men.

The women of the Yishuv exercised the right to vote and to
be elected in 1920 and 1925, before their right was actually
ratified. As Rosa Welt Straus, the Union of Hebrew Women’s
president, put it, the Yishuv’s women fought not to gain a
right but to prevent one from being revoked.

I want to share a few significant milestones on the road to
women gaining the right to be elected, from the three places
that I have a connection to: The Zionist Movement (including
the pre-state Yishuv and the State of Israel), the UK and the
USA.

1. Let’s start back in 1853, when the first woman
elected was in the state of Maine. Olive Rose was
elected Register of Deeds by Lincoln County and
scholars believe she may have been the first woman
elected anywhere in the United States. Here’s what
she had to say at the time: