Selina Solomons

Selina Solomons (1862–1942) was a California suffragist active in the 1911 campaign which resulted in the passage of Proposition 4. Solomons wrote a first hand account of the movement titled, "How We Won the Vote in California".^[1]

Solomons worked with many notable California suffragists including Maud Younger and Lillian Coffin Harris.^[2] These women all worked together in September 1911 to form an election committee.^[2] This committee would serve as a coalition of a variety of suffrage groups active throughout the state.^[2] Women won the vote in California in 1911.

Solomons believed the 1896 defeat was due in part to a lack of emphasis on organizing working-class women.^[3] To address this, she opened the Votes for Women Club near Union Square in San Francisco. By 1910, the club was receiving publicity in local newspapers.^[4] It was initially intended to appeal to shop girls and clerks.^[5] Reading materials on the suffrage movement were widely available in the club.^[5] 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.^[6] It was in 1910 that the Mann Act was passed. In 1912, Solomons attended the California Equal Suffrage Association convention in her role as president of the Votes for Women Club.^[7]

Solomons was born in 1862 to a sephardic Jewish family with deep roots in the United States.^[8] She was the daughter of Seixas and Hannah Marks Solomons.^[9] Despite a humble background, her father founded one of the first Jewish temples in the state of California.^[10] Selina Solomons died in 1942.^[11]