ABSTRACT
Born in Honolulu, Hawai‘i in 1866, Wilhelmine Kekelaokalaninui Widemann Dowsett was a half-German and half-Native Hawaiian suffragist whose connection to Hawai‘i and the local people was unmatched as she dedicated her life to advocating for Hawaiian civil rights. Throughout her life she was involved in a number of organizations that worked to promote women's rights, including the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the Hawaiian Suffrage Association. Believing that her community would be more successful in their endeavors if they worked with the territorial government, she organized the National Women's Equal Suffrage Association of Hawai‘i in 1912 and served as president. The territory legislature formulated by the US government forbade the territory from granting suffrage rights not granted by the federal legislature, but Dowsett's advocacy efforts were successful in getting Congress and President Wilson to allow Hawaiians the ability to make those decisions themselves.
