Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer…

Her appointment may have been a nod to the growing women’s suffrage movement that is gathering momentum during Benjamin Harrison’s presidency, although it is not known whether or not Sanger actively supported women’s suffrage.

Two of the most influential organizations involved in the women’s suffrage movement, the American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association, will combine forces later in 1890 and become the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), representing a coalition of women’s suffrage activists, social reformers and temperance advocates.

Their demands include stronger female property rights, employment and educational opportunities for women, improved divorce and child custody laws, and reproductive freedom.