Suffragist of the Month – August 2019

Inez Milholland Boissevain

1886 – 1916

“Martyr for the Cause”

Inez Milholland was born August 6, 1886 to a wealthy, progressive family in Brooklyn, New York. Her family spent much of their time in London, where she attended the Kensington High School for Girls. She then attended Vassar College, graduated in 1909, and, in an unusual move for a woman at that time, went on to work for a law degree from New York University, which she was awarded in 1912.

From her early years Inez was drawn to work for progressive and social causes, always demonstrating for the disenfranchised, the poor and those unable to help themselves. She represented shirtwaist and laundry factory workers in New York City when they struck for higher wages and better working conditions, and worked for fair child labor laws.

While at Vassar Inez had joined Harriot Stanton Blatch’s Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (later the Women’s Political Union), despite the fact the Vassar President, James Monroe Taylor refused to allow Vassar students any discussion of the suffrage movement. She continued to demonstrate and rally for suffrage, and in 1913 worked for the WPU in Washington, DC, headed by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. In 1913 she married Eugen Jan Boissevain, a Dutch coffee importer.

On March 3, 1913 in a daring publicity stunt designed to embarrass the new president, Inez led a massive parade in Washington DC that was scheduled for the day before President Wilson’s inauguration. Riding a majestic white horse, she led thousands of marchers down Pennsylvania Avenue, thus becoming a symbol of the brave, daring women working for suffrage. In May of that year she reprised that role, leading a massive parade down Fifth Avenue in New York City, becoming the symbol of the “new women” whose beauty, brains and brave spirit rallied thousands of women to work for suffrage.

In 1916 Alice Paul convinced Inez to undertake a tour of the western states in an effort to gain backing for the movement from women in states that had already granted women suffrage. But Inez had been in poor health for some time, and the arduous trip proved too much for her. On October 19, 1916, while giving a speech in Los Angeles she collapsed, and died ten weeks later from pernicious anemia. An article in the Philadelphia Public Lodger at the time of her death described her as epitomizing the “determination of modern women to live a full free life, unhampered by tradition.”

The woman suffrage movement claimed her as the first martyr to the cause, and her work for suffrage is regarded as some of the most important and influential. Unfortunately, she died before the battle was won, but will always be remembered for her unstinting devotion to the cause of freedom everywhere. Her funeral service was held in Statuary Hall under the dome of the  Capitol, the first woman to be so honored.

Happy Birthday, Inez Mulholland Boissevain!

Filmaker Martha Wheelock, in collaboration with Wild West Women, Inc., has created a short DVD of Inez’s life, Forward Into Light. To learn more about this inspirational story, and to order the DVD log onto: http://inezmilholland.org

4 Responses

  1. Linda Koenig August 6, 2019 at 12:15 pm | | Reply

    What a fantastic woman!

  2. John Tepper Marlin August 7, 2019 at 3:23 am | | Reply

    Fine summary of her abbreviated life.

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