Wyoming, women, and “Equal Rights”

On this day in 1890, Wyoming, ‘The Equality State,’ joins the union as the 44th state.

Here is the Preamble to Wyoming Constitution:

“We, the people of the State of Wyoming, grateful to God for our civil, political and religious liberties, and desiring to secure them to ourselves and perpetuate them to our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution.”

It was the first constitution in the United States explicitly giving women the right to vote. That is why the “Equal Rights” banner appears prominently in the Great Seal of the State of Wyoming, seen here: