Selina Solomons

Selina Solomons
Born(1862-11-22)November 22, 1862
California, United States
DiedFebruary 9, 1942(1942-02-09) (aged 79)
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Known forCalifornia women's suffrage movement
Notable workHow We Won the Vote in California (1912)

Selina Solomons (November 22, 1862 – February 9, 1942) was an American suffragist and writer. She was known for the campaign for Women's suffrage in California, 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.

Family, education and religious background

Solomons was born on November 22,1862 in California to a sephardic Jewish family with roots in the United States.[1][2] She was the eldest child of Seixas Solomons and Hannah Marks Solomons.[3][4] Despite a humble background, her father founded one of the first Jewish temples in the state of California.[5]

Solomons had five younger siblings, including brothers Theodore Seixas Solomons, a mountaineer;[6][7] Leon Mendez Solomons, a scholar who died aged 26; and Lucius Levy Solomons, a lawyer.[1] One of her sisters died from typhus as a child and her other sister Adele Solomons earned a medical degree and became a physician.[1]

Solomons did not practice Judaism, corresponded with Carl Jung and joined the local Theosophical Society in San Francisco, of which her mother was a founding member.[6]

Solomons completed two years of higher education at the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California. She had to leave before graduating to support her family as a piano and English teacher.[1]

Involvement with the California suffrage movement

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]

Votes for Women Club

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).

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

Writing

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]

Death

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

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Harrison-Kahan, Lori (August 14, 2025). "Selina Solomons". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  2. ^ a b "Selina Solomons, Jewish Immigrants in San Francisco". American Jerusalem. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  3. ^ "Hannah Marks Solomons: Jewish Pioneer Woman and Her Distinguished Family". Jewish Museum of the American West (JMAW). Retrieved July 2, 2021.
  4. ^ Silver, M. K. (July 1, 1999). "SELINA SOLOMONS AND HER QUEST FOR THE SIXTH STAR (WOMENS' SUFFRAGE)". Western States Jewish History. 31 (4): 301. ISSN 0043-4221. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  5. ^ Abel, Lauren (2018). "The California Plan: California's Suffrage Strategy and Its Effects in Other States and the National Suffrage Campaign". Voces Novae. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Rosenbaum, Fred (July 1, 2011). Cosmopolitans: A Social and Cultural History of the Jews of the San Francisco Bay Area. University of California Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-520-27130-2.
  7. ^ "Jews in the Wilderness - History". Tablet Magazine. January 25, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  8. ^ a b c "San Francisco Call 14 September 1911". California Digital Newspaper Collection. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  9. ^ Gullett, Gayle (2001). "Women Progressives and the Politics of Americanization in California, 1915-1920". In Bakken, Gordon Morris; Farrington, Brenda (eds.). The Gendered West. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781315053660. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  10. ^ Elinson, Elaine (2020). "Selina Solomons, Iconoclastic Suffragist of San Francisco". California History. 97 (4): 151–160. doi:10.1525/ch.2020.97.4.151. ISSN 0162-2897. Archived from the original on July 15, 2025.
  11. ^ a b c d Elinson, Elaine (March 4, 2007). "Soup, salad, suffrage: How women won their right to vote in California". SFGate. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  12. ^ "San Francisco Call 24 October 1910". California Digital Newspaper Collection. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  13. ^ "San Francisco Call 26 April 1910". California Digital Newspaper Collection. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  14. ^ "San Francisco Call 6 January 1912". California Digital Newspaper Collection. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
  15. ^ Solomons, Selina. "How We Won the Vote in California". Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  16. ^ a b "Selina Solomons (1862–1942)". Turning Point Suffragist Memorial. January 14, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2021.
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