Women's Suffrage: strides, setbacks and a first lady's role

<p dir="ltr">(March 7, 2020) As Hoosier History Live salutes <strong><a href= "https://www.womenshistory.org/womens-history/womens-history-month"> Women's History Month</a></strong>, we will spotlight Indiana suffragists - including a former first lady of the state - whom we have not previously explored.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src= "http://hoosierhistorylive.org/images/Lisa-Hendrickson-2020.JPG" alt="Lisa Hendrickson" width="222" height="313" align="left" />We took a deep dive into the women's rights crusade during our <strong><a href= "http://hoosierhistorylive.org/audio/2020-01-18-Women's-suffrage.mp3">Jan. 18 show</a></strong>, and now we delve into strides Hoosier women made in the political arena after achieving the right to vote in 1920. But there also were setbacks, including some that already had occurred by the late 1920s.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong><a href= "https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/15792">Virginia Jenckes</a></strong>, a widow who managed her family's farm near <strong>Terre Haute</strong>, became the first woman from Indiana elected to the U.S. Congress in 1932. During that era, <strong>Logansport</strong> resident <strong><a href="https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/leonora-uhl-flynn-collection.pdf">Leonora Uhl Flynn</a></strong> rose to prominence on the Democratic National Committee and became a valuable ally of <strong><a href= "https://www.fdrlibrary.org/er-biography">Eleanor Roosevelt</a></strong>.</p> <p dir="ltr">Long before that, <strong><a href= "https://www.ben-hur.com/zelda-harrison-seguin-wallace/">Zerelda Wallace</a></strong>, who served as Indiana's first lady from 1837 to 1840, was a pioneering suffragist. She also was the stepmother of <strong><a href= "https://www.nps.gov/people/lew-wallace.htm">Gen. Lew Wallace</a></strong>, author of the blockbuster bestseller <strong><em><a href= "http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2145">Ben-Hur</a></em></strong> published in 1880.</p> <p dir="ltr">Those women will be among the trail-blazers discussed in our periodic series as t