Selina Solomons

Solomons worked with notable California suffragists including Maud Younger and Lillian Coffin Harris.^[8] These women all worked together in September 1911 to form an election committee.^[8] This committee would serve as a coalition of a variety of suffrage groups active throughout the state.^[8] Women won the vote in California on October 10, 1911.^[9]

Solomons believed the 1896 defeat of the women's suffrage movement in Canada was due in part to a lack of emphasis on organizing working-class women.^[2][10] She was critical of the first all-women's club in the state, the Century Club, which she felt was "elitist."^[11]

To address this, she opened the Votes for Women Club in a loft near Union Square in San Francisco.^[11] By 1910, the club was receiving publicity in local newspapers.^[12] It was initially intended to appeal to shop girls and clerks.^[11] Reading materials on the suffrage movement were widely available in the club and it also offered food.^[11]

Under Solomons leadership, in 1910, the Votes for Women Club also aimed to combat the "white slave trade" in girls which was a euphemism in this era for prostitution.^[13] It was in 1910 that the Mann Act was passed (reviously called the White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910).^{[citation needed]}

In 1912, Solomons attended the California Equal Suffrage Association convention in her role as president of the Votes for Women Club.^[14]

Solomons wrote a first hand account of the suffrage movement titled How We Won the Vote in California (1912).^[15] The book outlined the campaigning, from lobbying to fundraising.^[16]

Solomons also wrote poetry which explored women's issues, such as Agnodice, Miriam’s Lullaby, and The Girl from Colorado.^[1]

Solomons died in 1942, aged 79.^[1][16]