05/29/2026
Flashback Friday continues with the month of May theme of exploring the life of May Arkwright Hutton and her efforts with suffrage politics.
"All advocacy is, at its core, an exercise in empathy." Samantha Power
As May continued to work on the suffrage movement in Washington State, she ran into several individuals whom had conflicting agendas with leaders in western WA and at one point the EWA membership in the WA Equal Suffrage Association began to threaten the power of the WWA chapter. The Association even returned May's yearly dues informing her that she was ineligible for membership because of "(May's) habitual use of profane and obscene language..." Rumors of May were created by the suffrage leaders of WWA. The differences between EWA and WWA leaders were vast: they included class, education, appearance, demeanor and political affiliation. These differences contributed to the antagonism between DeVoe (leader of WWA) and May. DeVoe was well-educated and feminine while May was an earthy Democrat who had risen from the working class. Part of May's crusade for woman suffrage was for the benefit of working women: "the laundry worker, the shop girl, the stenographer, the teacher, the working woman of every type, whose home and fireside and bread earned by their own efforts." May was mystified by the actual opposition of some privileged, educated women to woman suffrage and challenged them to support it at least for the sake of their poorer sisters.
After WA women received the vote in 1910, May claimed to have been the first Spokane woman to register. Along with another Spokane woman, May was the first woman to serve on a Spokane County jury. She continued to advocate for women's worker's rights including eight-hour workdays. In 1912, May was among WA delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore.
Next week, we will close out this series with her last days.
