Women Voting in Boston

One of the arguments that suffragists put forward on why women should have the right to vote was that they needed the franchise to perform their traditional role as mothers. If it was their responsibility to guide and care for children, should they not have a voice in the political construct that determined such policies as education, safety of milk and other foods given to children, etc.? Some communities responded by giving women limited access to the ballot, generally for local school board elections only. Boston gave women full voting rights in 1888 for all municipal offices, including that of mayor. This was considered such an event that lithographs of women voting in Boston appeared in several papers.
To vote in Boston, a woman had to be able to both read and write, pay a poll tax of 50 cents, have resided in Massachusetts for at least a year and at least 6 months in Boston, and be at least 21 years of age.