Myrtle Agnes Cain (April 11, 1894 – February 6, 1980) was an American politician and labor activist. She served as president of the Women's Trade Union of

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

and was a member of the Minnesota Farmer Labor Party. In 1923 and 1924, Cain served in the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the U.S. state of Minnesota's Minnesota Legislature, legislature. It operates in conjunction with the Minnesota Senate, the state's upper chamber, to write and pass legislation, whic ...

. Governor Wendell Anderson named February 15, 1973 "Myrtle Cain Day." She is one of 25 women recognized on the '' Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial'' in

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

Early life

Born in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, to Irish immigrant parents, Cain went to public schools in the city and to St. Anthony's Convent.

Career

Union work

Cain led a strike with the Telephone Operators Union in 1918. She was also a member of the Women's Trade Union League of Minneapolis and the

National Woman's Party The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NWP ...

Minnesota House of Representatives

After the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified and upheld in the 1922 Supreme Court case of ''Leser v Garnett'', Cain and three other women won seats in the

in the 1922 election. During Cain's single session in office (1923-1924), she co-sponsored a bill about anti-masking, which prevented

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

members from wearing masks or hoods in public (House File No. 138 that became Minnesota Laws of 1923, Chapter 160). This ended up being the first of fifteen similar bills to be passed in the United States.

Post-electoral career and activism

After serving in the state house, she served on the staff of United States Senator

Eugene McCarthy Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...

of Minnesota. In 1923, Cain advocated for passage of an

Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution that would explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. It is not currently a part of the Constitution, though its Ratifi ...

to the Minnesota Constitution, but the effort ultimately failed. In 1973, Cain spoke at the state capitol in favor of the federal

Later life and death

Cain died on February 6, 1980 in Minneapolis.

Notes

1894 births 1980 deaths Politicians from Minneapolis Women state legislators in Minnesota Minnesota Farmer–Laborites Members of the Minnesota House of Representatives 20th-century American women politicians 20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature {{Minnesota-MNRepresentative-stub