Frances Noel
Noel, right, an activist in the Los Angeles Labor Council and Socialist
Party, wrote and spoke widely on child labor, birth control, and women’s
issues. Instrumental in founding the Wage Earners Suffrage League, she
toiled to provide an independent voice for working women, a viewpoint
not always represented in the mainstream suffrage organizations. She carried
her "votes for women" banner behind the horse-drawn wagon of
the WESL in parades and demonstrations, and led other women in "sidewalk
campaigning:" collaring men outside bars (where women couldn’t
go) and educating them on the need for suffrage. (Photo courtesy of
the Huntington Library.)