This “BWC” ribbon, in the colors of the women’s suffrage movement, was most likely worn by a member of the Business Women’s Club. Many women became politically engaged through their involvement in women’s clubs. This ribbon was probably worn at one of the BWC’s suffrage meetings: perhaps in 1901 when leader Laura Clay visited the club or in the 1910s when voting rights for women became a popular (and divisive) cause.
Page from the papers of Melville Otter Briney of Louisville, Kentucky. On this page is pasted a streamer that reads "Votes for Women," accompanied by a note: "I was a page at Mrs. Snowden's lecture." Otter is referring to the November 1915 lecture given by British feminist Ethel Snowden at the Masonic Theater in Louisville.
