Many women in Mainz had also joined the women’s suffrage movement early on. In 1907, for example, a local chapter of the Association for Women’s Suffrage was established. Founded in Hamburg in 1902 by the well-known women’s rights activist Dr. Anita Augspurg, this association represented one of the progressive currents within the suffrage movement with its demand for democratic suffrage for both women and men. Leading representatives of the Mainz local chapter were Lina Bucksath, a teacher and later city councilwoman, and Emma Nägeli, who was originally from Munich and active in many women’s organizations in Mainz. Both women were also active in the Hessian State Association for Women’s Suffrage, an umbrella organization comprising the local chapters from Darmstadt, Mainz, Nauheim, and Worms. With 104 members, the Mainz chapter was the largest in the Hessian State Association. All four Hessian local chapters combined had 270 members. In addition, the Social Democratic women waged their own political struggle for the right to vote. They at least had the certainty that, since the 1891 party convention resolution, their demand had official backing within the SPD.

Like all groups in the women’s suffrage movement, the women of Mainz also hosted group evenings and public events to spark or strengthen women’s interest in politics. A lecture evening organized by the Association for Women’s Suffrage on December 6, 1912, at the Liedertafel in Mainz became the talk of the town. A representative of the English suffragettes had been invited. However, her descriptions of the much more radical struggle waged by English women met with little enthusiasm from the audience of about one hundred people. The women of Mainz, just like the women’s suffrage movement in Germany as a whole, relied on appeals and petitions to achieve their goal.

Public relations work for women's suffrage in Mainz – this included a strong political focus on voting rights at the municipal level and also giving women access to positions in the city administration. In 1910, Mainz was one of the first cities in Germany to introduce the position of police assistant and appointed Klara Schapiro to the post. The women of Mainz found another field of activity in the reform of the municipal code for the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. In a joint campaign, the Hessian women's associations succeeded in bringing about a change. As a result, from 1911 onwards, women in the Grand Duchy could be elected as voting members of committees (then known as deputations) for poverty relief, education and training, health care, and hospitals. They did not have to fulfill the election requirements that generally applied to men.

This would have meant that a quarter of the committee seats in Mainz could have been filled by women, but the male majority in the city council could not bring themselves to agree to this. In March 1918, an alliance of 21 women's organizations sent an open letter to Mayor Göttelmann and the 49 city councilors to draw attention to the fact that only eight women had been appointed to the deputations, while in Offenbach 19 women had been elected and in Darmstadt as many as 21.

However, neither Mayor Göttelmann nor the Mainz city councilors were in a hurry to respond. By mid-October 1918, the gentlemen had not found the time to deal with the women's petition. They no longer needed to, because a month later, the six men on the Council of People's Representatives decided for them.

The women of Mainz were able to exercise their right to vote three times in 1919. The first time was on January 19, 1919, in the election for the Constituent National Assembly; the second time was on January 26, 1919, in the election for the Constituent Hessian People’s Chamber; and then on November 9, 1919, in the election for the City Council. And they certainly made active use of their new right. On January 19, 1919, for example, around 90 percent of eligible voters in Mainz—both men and women—went to the polls—and the women were every bit as active as the men.

Voting, yes; but getting elected—that was a different story. Among the 188 candidates who ran for the City Council on November 9, 1919, for example, there were just 23 women. Ultimately, three women were elected: Lina Bucksath for the German Democratic Party (DDP), Martha Seering for the SPD, and Elisabeth Schiffmacher of the Center Party. They were at least fortunate enough to be placed relatively high on their parties’ electoral lists. Most female candidates had to settle for lower positions on the lists. The number of female city council members remained at three, or at most four, throughout the Weimar Republic. By 1933, women’s foray into local politics had already come to an end. The National Socialists would tolerate only “male councilors.”

Even in the first local election after the end of Nazi rule in 1946, only three women managed to win seats on the city council. It wasn’t until the local elections of the 1990s that women reached a significant share of 40 percent. But even this percentage is not set in stone, as subsequent elections have shown.

More information on women's issues in Mainz local politics can be found in the accompanying brochure to the exhibition "90 Years of Women's Suffrage: Women in Mainz City Council," published in 2009.

The brochure published by the Working Group of Municipal Women's and Equal Opportunities Officers deals with 100 years of women's suffrage at the municipal level in Rhineland-Palatinate.

The brochure provides informative details about local politics for interested women in Mainz: