O'Neill, Pauline

Pauline O'Neill was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 1916 and again in 1918. Prior to her election, she had been active in campaigning for woman suffrage in the state. She was the president of the Territory of Arizona Woman Suffrage Organization in 1898, and was active in the campaign for suffrage in Arizona that began in 1909. In 1920, O'Neill was one of the women in the State House of Representatives who introduced the bill to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. O'Neill was one of Arizona's first presidential electors, in 1912, the year that Arizona became a state and granted women suffrage. O'Neill was also an advocate for labor legislation; as the president of the Civic League of Phoenix, she campaigned for legislation mandating a universal eight-hour workday. During World War I, she served as the chair of the Arizona Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense.