Votes for Women
25/06/1912
0h 20m



No media Available
Named by historian Kevin Brownlow as “the first important suffrage film”, this melodrama follows suffragist May Fillmore in her fight to sway Senator Herman, whose vote could pass a key reform bill. After exposing him and his fiancée Jane Wadsworth to the dire living conditions of a motherless tenement family—unsanitary housing, child labor, and workplace exploitation—Jane turns against her negligent fiancé and joins the suffrage cause. Ultimately, both Herman and Jane’s father are persuaded to support reform, and the film ends with the characters proudly taking part in a suffrage parade. (Note: This silent narrative film is distinct from Edison’s Votes for Women (1913), a Kinetophone short that recorded real suffragist leaders delivering speeches.)
Cast
Edgena De Lespine
Jane Wadsworth


Gertrude Robinson
Sue Balfour
Pearl Egan


Gladys Egan
Charles Herman


Edward P. Sullivan
J.W. Backus
Jane Addams
Self
Frances Maule Bjorkman
Self
Florence Maule Cooley
Self
Mary Ware Dennett
Self
Harriet Laidlaw
Self
Inez Millholland
Self
Harriet May Mills
Self
Mrs. L.H. Ozedam
Self
Anna Howard Shaw
Self
Mary Beard
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