Emma Smith DeVoe

Emma Smith DeVoe (; August 22, 1848 – September 3, 1927) was an American women suffragist in the early twentieth century, changing the face of politics for both women and men alike. With May Arkwright Hutton, she led Washington's final women's suffrage movement. When she died, the Tacoma News Tribune called her Washington state's "Mother of Women's Suffrage".

Early life DeVoe was born on August 22, 1848, in Roseville, Illinois. As a child, she saw a speech made by Susan B. Anthony, which inspired her to become a suffragette when she was only eight years old. In 1880, she married John Henry DeVoe, a Union veteran of the American Civil War of the 9th New York Heavy Artillery, who supported her throughout her life and aided her in her campaigns, which, in addition to women's suffrage, included reform, statehood, and temperance. She became an excellent public speaker over time and was mentored by Susan B. Anthony herself.

Career DeVoe campaigned for a suffrage amendment in South Dakota in 1890.

In one of her earliest stops in Kentucky, she brought much needed national support to the beleaguered members of the Madison County Equal Rights Association—one of the first permanent suffrage clubs in the South. In the club's report to KERA regarding DeVoe's lecture at the courthouse in Richmond on October 9, 1897, Kate Rose Wiggins wrote that DeVoe was "a fine reasoner, giving a clear and forciable answer to all objections against Suffrage for women. Her lecture was highly appreciated, and several [new members] were added to our band."

DeVoe was good at building coalitions with labor, men’s groups, and the Grange Associations. She ran polls to determine where voters stood on the issue of suffrage. She was responsible for implementing many high-profile strategies such as publishing cookbooks, organizing women’s days, and blanketing neighborhoods with posters.

Washington State The DeVoes moved to Tacoma, Washington in 1905. In 1906, she was named president of the Washington Equal Suffrage Association, taking over the revival of the movement. She worked as a paid organizer under Anna Howard Shaw and National American Woman Suffrage Association, where she organized chapters of suffragists, set up meetings, and gave lectures. At the Washington Equal Suffrage Association she added new tactics such as penny posters, rallies, parades, publicity stunts, and different speeches to cater to the Washington campaign's needs.

She published the Washington Women's Cook Book in 1908 in part as a fundraiser for the suffragist movement and also to demonstrate that gaining the right to vote would not change women's domestic role. The title page of the cookbook read: "Give us the vote and we will cook/ The better for a wide outlook." Reinforcing that women would not abandon their domestic duties upon gaining the right to vote, as was the fear of many men at the time, was a key strategy in Emma's campaign. These methods and her stance led to women winning the right to vote in 1910 by a 64% majority, making Washington the fifth state in the country to grant women's suffrage.

At the 1909 NAWSA convention, due to complaints from a number of members of the Washington Equal Suffrage Association over the tactics DeVoe used to be elected president, DeVoe lost her salary from NAWSA. Nonetheless, she continued her battle for women's suffrage in Washington, and in November 1910 the voters approved women's suffrage by a margin of two to one.

In 1911, after her rebuff by NAWSA followed by her successes in Washington state, DeVoe became a founder of the nonpartisan National Council of Women Voters (NCWV), which was composed of women from the five equal suffrage states of Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Washington.

On September 3, 1927, DeVoe died aged 79. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.