Abigail Scott Duniway

Vocation

American women's rights advocate, newspaper editor and writer, whose efforts were instrumental in gaining voting rights for women. She moved to Portland, Oregon in 1871 to found The New Northwest, a weekly newspaper devoted to women's rights, including suffrage. She published the first issue on 5 May 1871 and continued The New Northwest for 16 years. Duniway encountered personal setbacks such as poor health, money problems, and opposition from her brother Harvey W. Scott, who also edited a Portland paper, The Oregonian. She persisted despite political opposition in the form of local resistance, the consistent failure of women's suffrage referendums on state ballots, and divisions with Eastern suffrage organizations. She and her newspaper actively supported the Sole Trader Bill and the Married Women's Property Act which, when passed, gave Oregon women the right to own and control property. Her persistence paid off in 1912 when Oregon became the seventh state in the U.S. to pass a women's suffrage amendment. Governor Oswald West asked her to write and sign the equal suffrage proclamation. She was the first woman to register to vote in Multnomah County. Abigail Scott Duniway died in Portland on 11 October 1915, aged 80. Link to Wikipedia biography