Harriot Blatch, Socialist, for comptroller
One hundred years ago today … New York’s Socialist Party met at the Socialist Auditorium, 62 East 106th Street, and chose its candidates for citywide offices. At the top of the ticket were Jacob Panken for mayor and, daringly, Harriot Stanton Blatch for Comptroller.
Daily News, 11 July 1921, p. 6. Newspapers.com.
Cover of Blatch, Mobilizing Woman-Power. New York: The Woman’s Press, 1918. Internet Archive.
It was a rare move to nominate a woman for so high a position. No woman had ever been elected comptroller; that would take until 1990 (Elizabeth. Holtzman). (NYC of course still has yet to elect a woman mayor, as was confirmed this past week.)
Note: we will be posting more about the 1921 political races in the coming months.
Blatch (”Mrs.Harriot Stanton Blatch” as the News named her) was a longtime suffragist, activist, and author whose works included the 1918 Mobilizing Woman-Power, about women’s labor during World War I and how it paved the way for women to stay part of the labor force, and the anti-war A Woman's Point of View (1920).
– Jonathan Goldman, July 10, 2021
TAGS: women’s history, feminist history, gender, politics, elections, socialism