Selina Solomons

Selina Solomons (November 22, 1862 – February 9, 1942) was an American suffragist and writer. She was known for the campaign for Women's suffrage in California, which resulted in the passage of Proposition 4. Solomons wrote a first hand account of the movement titled How We Won the Vote in California.

Family, education and religious background Solomons was born on November 22,1862 in California to a sephardic Jewish family with roots in the United States. She was the eldest child of Seixas Solomons and Hannah Marks Solomons. Despite a humble background, her father founded one of the first Jewish temples in the state of California.

Solomons had five younger siblings, including brothers Theodore Seixas Solomons, a mountaineer; Leon Mendez Solomons, a scholar who died aged 26; and Lucius Levy Solomons, a lawyer. This committee would serve as a coalition of a variety of suffrage groups active throughout the state.

Votes for Women Club Solomons believed the 1896 defeat of the women's suffrage movement in Canada was due in part to a lack of emphasis on organizing working-class women. She was critical of the first all-women's club in the state, the Century Club, which she felt was "elitist." It was initially intended to appeal to shop girls and clerks. Reading materials on the suffrage movement were widely available in the club and it also offered food. It was in 1910 that the Mann Act was passed (previously called the White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910).

In 1912, Solomons attended the California Equal Suffrage Association convention in her role as president of the Votes for Women Club.

Writing Solomons wrote a first hand account of the suffrage movement titled How We Won the Vote in California (1912). The book outlined the campaigning, from lobbying to fundraising.