Articles

September 6, 2023 We’re pleased to announce the return of our annual “She Started It” art contest for students in grades 4 – 12! Utah women make history, and we need your help to show it. Download the contest flier here, or read on for full details. Submit to the contest here The task: Create […]

August 16, 2023 ✏️ We’re seeking a part-time education coordinator to join our team! Do you have an education background? Are you passionate about women’s history? Email info@betterdays2020.org with your resume and a short introduction to yourself. This position can be tailored to fit the right person. Because our team is fully remote, we’re looking […]

June 21, 2023 We’re incredibly excited to reveal the 8 women featured in our newest mural by artist Bill Louis, “Roses in the Garden”! In partnership with the Utah Historical Society, Wasatch Community Gardens, and NeighborWorks Salt Lake, we commissioned this mural to honor women who have shaped Salt Lake City’s westside neighborhoods. It stands […]

August 5, 2022 Black American Women of Utah’s History – Richmond Park Mural We’re pleased to share the new mural unveiled this summer at Salt Lake City’s Richmond Park! This project to highlight leading women in Utah history was a collaboration between Better Days, the Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation, and Wasatch […]

by Toni Pilcher, Better Days Graduate Intern May 18, 2022 In the fallout of the Civil War, many American women were trying to build new and meaningful connections within their communities. The war had really challenged what it meant to live in an increasingly diverse country. In response, women flocked to special interest clubs like […]

February 23, 2022 It’s been 125 years since Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon made history as the country’s first female state senator. Utah chose to send a statue of her to represent our state in Washington, D.C., but the pandemic delayed her planned installation in 2020. Her statue should make it to our nation’s capital this […]

November 3, 2021 Today marks the 125th anniversary of Utah women’s first elections to government! Our first election after statehood was the first time Utah women could run for public office, and Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon was the first woman elected to a state senate in the United States! Her statue will soon represent Utah […]

January 5, 2021 This year marks the 125th anniversary of Utah statehood. Utah women have always made history, but they’re often missing in our textbooks, classrooms, and public art. We need your help to change that! We’re holding a student contest and teacher awards this February and we hope you’ll participate and spread the word. […]

January 1, 2021 As we celebrate the 125th anniversary of Utah statehood this year, we’ll highlight women each month who shaped our state. In January, we’re featuring visionary women—who could see better days in the future and worked to get us there. Fanny Brooks was the first Jewish woman to make her home in Utah. […]

December 28, 2020 It’s safe to say 2020 didn’t turn out like we expected. Although countless events and exhibits had to be cancelled or postponed, we’re proud of the creative ways Utahns honored trailblazing women in our history. We hope you’ll follow along as we continue these efforts next year! 2020 by the numbers: 3 […]

November 22, 2020 Happy Holidays from Better Days 2020! We’ve curated some of our favorite inspiring gifts from women-owned businesses, mostly based right here in Utah. From books and magazines to crafts to limited edition art, we’ve got you and your stocking stuffers covered. Find more inspiring products for you and the kids in your […]

We’re thrilled with the new memorial to Utah women’s history! We unveiled this gift from Better Days 2020 to the state of Utah in a special ceremony for the centennial of the 19th Amendment in August 2020. “A Path Forward” was created by artists Kelsey Harrison and Jason Manley to honor Utah women’s contributions to […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director September 24, 2020 In honor of National Voter Registration Day this week, let’s take a look at Utah women’s involvement in voter registration over the years. When Utah was becoming a state, women hoped to regain the right to vote that Congress had taken from them in […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director September 10, 2020 As we’ve described in past blog posts, Utah suffragists were involved in the national movement for women’s voting rights from the 1870s onward. In the 1910s, Utahns worked with two rival suffrage organizations—the more moderate National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and the more radical […]

August 17, 2020 It’s 19th Amendment centennial week! As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, we honor the women (and men) who worked for women’s equal voting rights long before and long after 1920. We’ve been creating resources to help you learn about this history for the past 3 years! If you’re […]

August 13, 2020 There are hundreds of exhibits and digital programs happening across the country to commemorate this year’s voting rights anniversaries! Although the pandemic has closed most exhibits to visitors, there are still great virtual tours and other resources you can check out virtually. Here are some of our favorite national websites, documentaries, and […]

August 1, 2020 by Tiffany Greene, Better Days 2020 Historical Consultant August 1, 1870: Utah Territory. In the peak of the summer season, when crops were nearing harvest and trees were heavy with fresh fruit, women in Utah went to the polls for the second time in six months. The first time, back in February, […]

August 3, 2020 We’re thrilled to have two temporary art installations up this month celebrating voting rights in Utah! The Voting Rights Act became law on August 6, 1965 to ensure that all people had access to the ballot, regardless of race. Our interactive art pieces celebrate the women of color who fought for equal […]

By Maya Brimhall, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern July 21, 2020 Although many exhibits and libraries are closed due to COVID-19, we wanted to give you a taste of some records here in Utah that highlight women who made a difference in our country’s history. Zitkála-Šá (Gertrude Bonnin) was a committed activist for Native citizenship […]

by Katherine Kitterman, BD2020 Historical Director July 10, 2020 You’ve seen the photos of sash-wearing suffragists holding banners outside the White House or marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. But do you know the meaning of the colors they wore? And what about the colors of other important organizations working for women’s rights? The first major campaign […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director July 8, 2020 If you’ve been watching the new PBS documentary The Vote, you may have wondered how Utahns fit in with the national suffrage parades and protests of the 1910s. In 1913, Alice Paul organized a grand parade down Washington, D.C.’s Pennsylvania Avenue for the National […]

June 1, 2020 Welcome back to Reading Club! For our last week, we’re looking at the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), an essential piece of legislation protecting the rights of people of color who often faced significant obstacles when trying to vote. This Vox article by Dara Lind features 19 different charts and maps […]

By Tiffany Greene, Better Days 2020 Historical Research Consultant May 25, 2020 Dr. Ellen Ferguson and Claire Ferguson: A talented speaker and intelligent thinker, Dr. Ellen Ferguson began practicing medicine in Salt Lake in the 1870’s. One newspaper noted: “In…all that relates to the medical profession, Mrs Dr. Ferguson has no superiors and few equals.” […]

May 21, 2020 EDIT: Deadline is June 12–but if you need more time to submit a proposal, please let us know at the email address below! Better Days 2020 is seeking artists to design and create a temporary interactive art installation that honors Utahns’ work for civil and human rights and encourages voting and civic […]

May 18, 2020 Welcome back to Reading Club! Up to this point, we have discussed the creative methods women from all walks of life used to gain voting rights, from bicycles to pop culture. Once the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, suffragists wanted to enshrine this important step forward in American history — but […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director May 13, 2020 125 years ago today, the Rocky Mountain suffrage convention opened in Salt Lake City. As women packed into the Salt Lake City and County Building, national suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Rev. Anna Howard Shaw took the stand. Seated next to them were leaders […]

May 11, 2020 A warm welcome back to Better Days 2020 Reading Club! Last week we dove into the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade; this week, we turn to Indigenous activists’ fight for political legitimacy. The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, but many women and men were still ineligible to vote due to racist and […]

by Tiffany Greene, Better Days 2020 Historical Research Consultant May 10, 2020 Today we honor the mothers and other women in our lives whose hard work, example, and support help us grow to our full potential. Here are a few mother/daughter duos in Utah suffrage history: Hannah Kaaepa and Makanoe Kahluhilaau Kaaepa: Twenty-five-year-old Hannah Kaaepa […]

By Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director May 7, 2020 Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of V-E Day! Here’s a sampling of Utah women’s experiences on the home front during World War Two. After the United States entered the war in December 1941, millions of men were called up for military service and women […]

May 4, 2020 The day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration in 1913, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) held a parade down Washington, DC’s Pennsylvania Avenue in support of a constitutional women’s suffrage amendment. It was the first large, organized, political march on Washington in U.S. history. The parade was organized by Alice Paul, […]

by Tiffany Greene, Better Days 2020 Historical Research Consultant April 30, 2020 We live in an era when communication happens instantaneously; we can send a text across zip codes and state lines and get a response within a few seconds. Our now-frequent virtual meetings allow us to not only talk with co-workers, friends, and family […]

April 27, 2020 We’ve read five articles together through the Better Days 2020 Reading Club, and we hope you’ve enjoyed all of them so far! We have some great topics planned for the next few weeks, so make sure to stay tuned to our social media for our weekly posts. When we discussed the division […]

April 20, 2020 Welcome back to another week of the Better Days 2020 Reading Club! We hope you enjoyed last week’s article on rivalries within the women’ suffrage movement. This week, we’ll be taking a little bit of a different direction. For the this week’s reading club, we’re jumping back in time and looking at […]

By Katherine Kitterman and Rebekah Clark April 18, 2020 125 years ago, in the spring of 1895, delegates gathered in Salt Lake City to write a state constitution for Utah. Each of the 107 male delegates came to the convention pledged to support women’s equal voting rights. Utah suffragists had spent the past five years […]

April 13, 2020 Welcome to Week Four of the Better Days 2020 Reading Club! We hope you enjoyed last week’s article. This week’s article was written by Dr. Lisa Tetrault, who we read from our very first week about the Seneca Falls Convention. We’ll be learning about the divisions and tensions that arose within the […]

April 6, 2020 Welcome back to another week of the Better Days Reading Club! We are really excited about this week’s topic because of its ties to Utah history, but also because it relates to modern women’s rights movements as well. The article we’ll be reading together this week is by Adrienne LaFrance in The […]

March 31, 2020 Welcome to week two of the Better Days Reading Club! We hope you enjoyed the wonderful article from Dr. Tetrault last week, as well as our discussion guide. If you missed it, they’re linked the sources below. This week we’re getting into Utah’s voting history specifically, and it’s something you won’t want […]

March 24, 2020 In light of recent events, we’re launching the Better Days Reading Club as a way to stay more connected and discuss topics we’d planned to explore at events this spring. At the beginning of every week, we’ll dig into an interesting article about the history of women’s voting rights and share a […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director On January 13, 1870, 5,000 women crowded into the “Old Tabernacle” in Salt Lake City for an indignation meeting. These meetings were pretty common throughout the country in the 1800s, providing opportunities for people to gather in protest to unpopular policies or leaders. But this one was […]

by Katherine Kitterman and Rebekah Clark February 6, 2020 This is a two-part series: click here for part two. On February 14, 1870, Seraph Young and about 25 other women cast ballots in Salt Lake City’s municipal election. They made history by becoming the first in the United States to vote under a women’s equal […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director January 31, 2020 The 150th anniversary of Utah’s first women’s suffrage law is this February. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting more on the context behind Utah’s 1870 suffrage law and the effects it had for Utah women. It’s important to remember this year that […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director December 12, 2019 This post continues our series on Utah women’s work with national suffrage organizations. Utah women were involved in the national suffrage movement for 50 years, from the time they first cast ballots in 1870 until the Nineteenth Amendment became law in 1920. Suffragists in Utah learned from suffrage leaders […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director December 6, 2019 Utah women were involved in the national suffrage movement for 50 years, from the time they first cast ballots in 1870 until the Nineteenth Amendment became law in 1920. Suffragists in Utah learned from suffrage leaders in the eastern United States, and those leaders […]

by Kenzi Christensen, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern November 22, 2019 Ada Quinn was a talented inventor and successful businesswoman. She started her own corporation from her home, built several factories, patented a dozen designs, provided jobs to hundreds of women during the Great Depression, sold products around the world, and ran for governor of […]

by Tiffany Greene, Better Days 2020 Historical Research Consultant November 8, 2019 On February 22, 1897, when Nannie Cordell, Mary Hayt, and Jeanette Ferry decided to form the Woman’s Athenaeum Club in the small mining town of Park City, one can assume they didn’t consider the long-reaching effects this club would have on the lives […]

By Kenzi Christensen, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern October 10, 2019 “All suffragettes were suffragists, but by no means [were] all suffragists suffragettes.”[1] We often hear the terms “suffragist” and “suffragette” thrown around interchangeably when discussing women’s suffrage history. However, the labels held particular differences and at the height of the suffrage movement, the distinction […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director October 3, 2019 Utah ratified the 19th Amendment 100 years ago today, on October 3, 1919. Unlike women elsewhere, Utah women had already been voting for 40 years, and in fact, four female lawmakers led the way for Utah to ratify the amendment extending women’s voting rights […]

by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director September 17, 2019 This Constitution Day, Better Days presents a look at the numbers on our favorite constitutional amendment (the 19th, of course). Constitution Day commemorates the day in 1787 that the Constitutional Convention delegates in Philadelphia signed the document they had drafted that summer. When that […]

By Ian McLaughlin, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern “As I have often told my sisters … if they had the privilege of studying, [they] would make just as good mathematicians or accountants as any man; and we think they ought to have the privilege to study these branches of knowledge that they may develop the […]

by Amy Tanner Thiriot   Mrs. William Henry Jones was a slender woman, married, but without any living children. She put on a black dress that day in 1900, fastened its white trim with a plain gold band, and went from her hotel to the Exposition Auditorium in Philadelphia, where she became one of the […]

by Tiffany Greene, Better Days Historical Research Consultant August 1, 2019 Monday, August 1, 1870: Having already voted in several municipal (city/town) elections across Utah Territory, female citizens participated in a territory-wide election for the first time on August 1, 1870. It was the first time in the post-Seneca Falls era that women voted to […]

by Emmalyn Pykles, Better Days 2020 intern   All my life I have carried, and I will carry, the names of two strong women: Emmalyn, after Emmeline B. Wells, and my middle name, Aline, after my great-grandmother. I say “carry” for a reason, because the weight of these women’s lives upon my own is something […]

by Gabi Price, Historical Intern May 2, 2019 I’ve been working with Better Days 2020 for about eight months now, and I can confidently say I’ve been overwhelmed with the wealth of information that exists about women in Utah history. Had you asked me what I expected out of this internship in August, you would […]

by Rebekah Clark April 15, 2018 “I wanted to write a law on our statute books in the interest of art for the masses.” Hailed as Utah’s “First Lady of the Arts,” Alice Merrill Horne exemplifies the impact of women’s political participation in early Utah. As the third woman to serve in the Utah House […]

By Jennifer Robinson March 28, 2019 “..a group denied the effective exercise of the vote is necessarily deprived of the ability to protect its rights.  Because elected officials are free to disregard its needs and concerns, a disfranchised group is denied an effective voice in policy-making decisions and is relegated to second-class status.”¹ Utah women […]

by Tiffany Greene March 18, 2018 On Feb 18, 1894, a full-house crowd gathered at the Salt Lake Theatre for the closing event of the Sunday night charity series hosted by the Salt Lake Press Club. Part of the program for the evening was devoted to a debate on equal suffrage between two local female […]

By Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director February 21, 2019 Women’s suffrage in America grew out of the movement to end slavery. Many of the people who spearheaded the women’s rights movement were abolitionists. Although women in the early United States weren’t allowed to vote, many of them found ways to be involved in […]

by Candace Brown February 14, 2019 It’s now been over a decade since my first grade year. Since then, I’ve forgotten most of the details about my teacher, my classmates, and our little classroom at the end of the school’s longest hallway. I believe we were learning to read that year, so I’m fairly certain […]

by Naomi Watkins January 31, 2019   Becky Petersen’s seventh graders at Hillside Middle School in Salt Lake City were upset to learn that there was a time in our U.S. history when women were not allowed to vote. It didn’t make any sense to them. Why weren’t women allowed to vote? “We started with […]

by Sarah Hancock Jones January 17, 2019 Here in Utah, the news can sometimes be as dismal as a gray January day, the inversion is at its worst. From poverty to education to the gender pay gap, we’re often inundated with articles about the serious challenges facing our society. It can be enough to make the […]

By Gabi Price November 29, 2018 In February of 1870, Utah territory granted Utah women citizens the right to vote. Many Americans hoped that Utah women would use their votes to help end the common Mormon practice of polygamy, or plural marriage, believing that it did not align with the goals of enfranchised women, who […]

Over the airfield, a wounded aviator fell from the sky. He lay there for what felt like hours, waiting to die, but suddenly, he felt hands lifting him onto a stretcher and gently setting him in the back of an ambulance. The aviator kept his eyes closed as the truck lurched forward. He hardly dared hope he’d survive the journey to the nearest hospital.

Contention at the Convention By Sarah Hancock Jones October 18, 2018   Filing into the Salt Lake City and County building in the spring of 1895, Utah women thought they had it in the bag. They had been working for years to build support for universal suffrage in the state constitution: collaborating with national leaders […]

By Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director September 13, 2018   Our mission at Better Days 2020 is to share the stories of Utah women – who were the first women citizens in the U.S. to vote under a women’s equal suffrage law! We’re pretty proud of that fact, so let’s take a closer […]

On This Day: A Mother’s Influence By Candace Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern August 18, 2018   On this day in history, August 18, 1920, Tennessee’s youngest state representative, Harry T. Burn, sat in his Nashville hotel room, poring over a letter from his mother. Postmarked August 17, most of the seven-page note was […]

The Suffrage Resolution at Seneca Falls By Candace Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern July 27, 2018   On July 19, 1848, in the opening speech of the Seneca Falls Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared, “We [women] now demand the right to vote.” Her audience applauded her gumption. But when she later presented the ninth […]

On This Day: Seneca Falls Convention By Candace Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern July 19, 2018 One hundred seventy years ago today, on July 19, 1848, thirteen-year-old Daniel Cady Eaton broke into the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel with both his aunt’s blessing and her assistance.Once inside, he made his way to the front of the […]

“None Of The Unpleasant Results Have Occurred” By Katherine Kitterman, Historical Director, Better Days 2020 July 10, 2018   On February 15, 1898, Susan B. Anthony led a delegation of women and men up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to speak in support of women’s suffrage. It was her 78th birthday, and the fifteenth […]

Gaining, Losing, and Winning Back the Vote: The Story of Utah Women’s Suffrage By Barbara Jones Brown, Naomi Watkins, and Katherine Kitterman     When Utah became a U.S. territory in 1850, all free white male inhabitants over the age of 21 had the right to vote if they were U.S. citizens. This meant many […]

By Rebekah Clark, Better Days 2020 Historical Research Associate January 23, 2018   Martha “Mattie” Hughes Cannon (1857 – 1932) blazed trails for women as a skilled physician, ardent suffragist, progressive public health reformer, and most notably, the first female state senator in the United States. Born in Wales, young Mattie immigrated with her family […]

Susan B. Anthony and Her Strong Utah Ties By Barbara Jones Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Director December 15, 2017   Like many American suffragists, Susan Brownell Anthony (1820 – 1906) began her activism by working to abolish slavery. Raised in upstate New York in the Quaker tradition, she became passionate about social equality and […]

Zitkála-Šá And The Struggle For Minority Voting Rights By Barbara Jones Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Director November 7, 2017   Ratified in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State […]

In Behalf Of The Ladies: Eliza R. Snow (1804–1887) By Jennifer Reeder October 31, 2017 Eliza Roxcy Snow, one of Utah’s earliest settlers, worked to empower women. She encouraged women to act independently, speak publicly, participate in civic activity, and defend religious freedom. In February 1870, one week after territorial governor Stephen A. Mann signed […]

Winning Back the Vote: Ruth May Fox Congress Took Away Utah Women’s Voting Rights in 1887. But Utah Suffragists Like Ruth May Fox Won Them Back. September 20, 2017   In February 1870, Utah women became the first to vote in the modern nation.  For the next seventeen years they cast their ballots in high […]

2020 Marks Monumental Anniversaries In Suffrage History August 28, 2017   August is a banner month in the nation’s voting history. On August 18, 1920, Congress ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, making women’s suffrage national law. Forty-five years later, on August 6, 1965,President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act, protecting suffrage rights for women and […]

Emmeline B. Wells: A Leading Suffragist In Utah And The Nation By Barbara Jones Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Director August 28, 2017   After receiving the franchise in 1870, Utah women enthusiastically voted and worked alongside Eastern leaders in advocating for national women’s suffrage. Thrilled at the enfranchisement of Utah women, the president and […]