it actually only applied to rural areas that had school trustees and where decisions were
made at open meetings. Women in larger towns and cities that held formal elections or
many of these women were WCTU members who saw an opportunity to use their
annual meeting of the WCTU of Middlesex County in May 1891, it was resolved
we should have extended to us the full right of citizenship.” Another resolution
era when the Catholic population of the county was growing. Despite such hurdles,
women did vote on school issues at times in Middlesex County: for instance, in
1894 sixteen women, including the mayor’s wife, voted on whether to locate a school on
voters and was roundly defeated, particularly in urban counties and in cities like New
movement. Although African American women participated, the temperance movement
immigrants, Catholics, and urban dwellers of Middlesex County’s growing cities.
Washington School, New Brunswick,
undated. Women voted in an election
that decided the location of this school.
Courtesy of the New Brunswick Free Public Library
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