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From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues

Barnard, Catherine (Kate) Ann (1875-1930)

Corrections reformer and advocate for Native Americans, Catherine Barnard is often identified as the first woman elected to statewide office in the nation, but that distinction belongs to Laura J. Eisenhuth of North Dakota, who was the state superintendent of public instruction in the 1890s. Barnard served as Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections from 1908 to 1912.

Barnard entered the political arena in 1903, working as assistant to the chief clerk of the Democratic caucus of the Oklahoma territorial legislature. Through her job, she came to know many of the territory’s leading politicians and learned the legislative and political processes, knowledge that later helped her influence the development of the Oklahoma state constitution.

In 1904, Barnard was the hostess and secretary for the territory’s pavilion at the St. Louis World’s Fair, an experience that exposed her to the problems of urbanization, including child labor and unsafe working conditions. As the Oklahoma territory prepared to write its state constitution, Barnard saw an opportunity to protect children and workers through the new document. She worked with social reformers and unions to include mandatory school attendance and prohibitions against child and convict labor in the document. In 1906, she organized the Oklahoma City Child Labor League, as well as similar groups in other communities, to create a broad base of support for the constitutional agenda. With this informal coalition of reformers, unions, and child labor groups, Barnard coordinated a campaign to obtain pledges of support from candidates seeking to be constitutional convention delegates. Barnard’s coalition succeeded in electing their candidates, with 70 of the 112 convention delegates supporting their agenda. The proposed constitution included the prohibition against child labor as well as provisions sought by unions.

Barnard also successfully lobbied for the inclusion of an elected Commissioner of Charities and Corrections in the proposed constitution. In 1907, when Oklahoma women could not vote, Barnard sought the position, campaigned for it, and won it in the general election.

As Commissioner, Barnard investigated the treatment of Oklahoma convicts who were incarcerated in Kansas and reported the appalling conditions in which they lived, resulting in prison reform in Kansas and the construction of prisons in Oklahoma. Barnard also investigated reports that Native American orphans had been defrauded by their white guardians, resulting in the return of $950,000 to 1,361 minors. Her success in such a politically unpopular endeavor cost her significant support and essentially ended her political career. Her political friends deserted her, and the legislature reduced the appropriations to her agency. During her two terms in office, Barnard also instituted reforms in mental health care, widows’ pensions, union blacklisting, labor legislation, prison reform, and compulsory education. She did not run for a third term. Despite her successes as a candidate and politician, Barnard did not support woman suffrage, arguing that she had not needed it to accomplish her goals.

Born in Geneva, Nebraska, Catherine Barnard graduated from St. Joseph’s Academy, a parochial high school in Oklahoma City, and later took a business course.

See also: Democratic Party, Women in the

References: Bryant, “Kate Barnard, Organized Labor, and Social Justice in Oklahoma during the Progressive Era” (1969); Hardy, American Women Civil Rights Activists (1993).

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"Barnard, Catherine (Kate) Ann (1875-1930)." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, edited by Suzanne O’Dea, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0057.
APA 7th
Barnard, Catherine (Kate) Ann (1875-1930). From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, In S. O’Dea (Ed.), Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0057.
CMOS 17th
"Barnard, Catherine (Kate) Ann (1875-1930)." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, Edited by Suzanne O’Dea. Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0057.