Breaking 'the bronze ceiling': Arizona Capitol statue honors leader of women's right to vote

Frances Willard Munds stands tall among the statues and monuments on the east end of the Arizona Capitol.

A suffragist, leader of the drive to give women the vote, and the state's first female state senator, Munds is now honored with a towering bronze statue.

It is the first time a real woman has been memorialized at Wesley Bolin Plaza in its nearly 50 years of existence, according to Melanie Sturgeon, president of the Arizona Women's History Alliance.

"We finally broke the bronze ceiling!" Sturgeon proclaimed at a dedication ceremony on a warm May morning.

While other memorials represent women as a group, this is the first woman to be singled out for recognition on the plaza for her accomplishments.

The Munds sculpture was years in the making, the fundraising and organizing efforts slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a way, the efforts to bring the statue to fruition parallel Munds' efforts to win the vote for women. There were setbacks and dry spells, but persistence won the day, Gloria Cuádraz said. Her words about the early 20th-century drive for women's suffrage seemed also appropriate for the Munds memorial. Cuádraz is a board member of the Women's History Alliance.

Mary Melcher, a committee member who worked to create the monument, chronicled Munds' efforts at the dedication ceremony, which included some of Munds' relatives.

Munds led suffragist movement, became first female state senator

Frances Willard was born in Franklin, California in 1866, but moved to Arizona where she taught in rural Yavapai County schools. She married John L. Munds, a cattleman and later Yavapai County sheriff.

She became interested in the suffragist movement in the late 1890s. While raising three children, she joined efforts to secure the vote for women in what was then the Arizona territory. Munds became president of the Women’s Suffrage Association in 1909, Melcher said, bringing a "less traditional view" of the role than her predecessors.

“She was frustrated with women's traditional role," Melcher said.

Reading from a 1903 writing from Munds, Melcher said: "So many noble women have been crushed beneath conventionality and though their fear of doing something out of their sphere. They have allowed their superior intellect to become dwarfed because of misuse. When I think of this so-called women’s fear, my blood boils to think of the opprobrium she meets when she dares step over the limit.”

Munds emphasized equal treatment, striking an egalitarian theme in her appeals to convince male politicians to give women the vote.

But efforts to get a law through the territorial Legislature failed. So did efforts to convince the delegates to the 1910 state constitutional convention to put women's right to vote in the constitution of what would soon become the 48th state.

So Munds changed tactics. She took the appeal for the vote directly to the very people who could make it happen: men.

The 19th Amendment: The Arizona women who led the effort in the Legislature

To get support, the suffragists created clubs all over Arizona. They talked wherever they could find an audience: homes, schools and opera houses, Cuádraz said as she continued the Munds' story. They staffed a booth at the state fair in the summer of 1912, weathering the heat in heavy petticoats and restrictive corsets.

“These women persisted and their efforts paid off," Cuádraz said.

On Nov. 5, 1912, the women's right to vote passed with 68% of the vote — all from men.

The next election cycle, in 1914, voters elected Rachel Berry to the House and Frances Willard Munds to the Senate. They were the first women to ever serve in those chambers.

The organizers were quick to note not all women got the right to vote.

The same ballot that contained the women's suffrage initiative also contained a measure that deemed only people who were U.S. citizens and who could read English could vote. That didn't happen for all classes of women until 1953, as noted in inscriptions on the base of the statue.

Artist Stephanie Hunter created the Munds sculpture and lived with it for years.

“I was quarantined with Frances in my living room," told the audience at the dedication ceremony. “I feel like I’ve been pregnant with her for five years. It’s been a long pregnancy. I just hope you think my baby is beautiful.”

The statue shows Munds holding a flag in her right hand, symbolizing forward progress for the cause, Hunter said. In her left hand, she holds the leaflet suffragists would distribute to promote the vote, outlining the reasons to vote "yes." It included such reasons as "those who obey laws should hae something to say as to their making," and "Remember this! Arizona women struggled as mightily as men in building the State."

Hunter used her speech to encourage greater exposure for women in public monuments, as well as wider exposure for female sculptors.

Fontes highlights 'how hard our foremothers fought for the vote'

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who gave opening remarks, noted while other states were ahead of Arizona in granting women the right to vote, Arizona was the first to do it by popular vote.

That came seven years before women nationally got the right to vote, due to the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Fontes lauded the hard work of the suffragists in canvassing for their cause. Melcher, in her remarks, echoed that praise and said women should draw inspiration from their predecessors' efforts.

“These women I’ve been discussing made many sacrifices to gain the vote," she said. “As we worked these last six years to make this statue a reality, their persistence was a model for us. They would not give and neither would we.

"Today, in May of an election year, it’s important for all women to remember how hard our foremothers fought for the vote. We need to take our place in this democracy.”

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on Threads as well as on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @maryjpitzl.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Capitol statue honors suffragist, women's voting rights