It may be the 10th largest state in the US, but Wyoming is the least populated state, with fewer than 577,000 people calling the state home, according to the 2020 Census. For reference, the city of Dallas, Texas alone has twice the population of the entire state of Wyoming.
Wyoming granted women over 21 the right to vote in 1869—nine years before the 19th Amendment was first proposed. The state was the first to grant this right and encouraged other states to do the same. By 1912, eight other states in the West had also passed women’s suffrage amendments.
Following the death of her husband, Nellie Tayloe Ross was the state’s first (and only) female governor when she took office at the end of her husband’s term. William Bradford Ross won the race for governor in 1922, but died in 1925. Nellie won the Democratic nomination and beat out her Republican opponent, becoming her husband’s successor for two years. Although Nellie was not re-elected to another term, she continued to serve as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt’s director of the United States Mint for 10 years.