Comic of Mabel Ping-Hua Lee fighting for rights of women and immigrants

Illustrations by Berat Pekmezci; Shutterstock.com (ribbon)

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee

She fought for the rights of women and immigrants.

As You Read, Think About: What made Mabel Ping-Hua Lee’s achievements remarkable?

On May 4, 1912, more than 10,000 people took to the streets of New York City. They were marching in one of the biggest women’s suffrage parades the nation had ever seen. One of the leaders was a 16-year-old named Mabel Ping-Hua Lee.

At the time, most women in the United States did not have the right to vote. Like her fellow protesters, Lee thought it was unfair that women did not have the same rights that men had. But as an immigrant from China, Lee had even fewer rights than most of the other women.

“In the early 20th century, women weren’t respected, and immigrant women got even less respect,” says historian and author Cathleen Cahill. 

Unfair Rules

Lee was born around 1896 in Guangzhou (gwahng-joh), China. When she was a kid, her family moved to the U.S. At the time, it was rare for Chinese immigrants to do so.  

The U.S. government had passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. Jobs were scarce, and many people blamed Chinese workers. The law banned nearly all Chinese immigrants from entering the country.  

Lee’s parents had jobs that made them exceptions. Her father was a missionary at a church in New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood. Lee’s mother was a teacher.

Although they lived in the U.S., Lee and her family were not citizens. So they were not allowed to vote. 

Speaking Up

Despite the discrimination they faced, Lee’s parents made sure their daughter got a good education. As a teenager, Lee began writing and speaking publicly about women’s suffrage. She believed Chinese immigrants—both men and women—should also be able to vote. She hoped voting would give them a say in the issues that affected them.  

Lee graduated from college in 1916. That was unusual for most women back then.

The Granger Collection 

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee 

Community Leader

In New York, women finally won the right to vote in 1917. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was approved three years later, granting women across the U.S. the same right. But Lee was not among them. Most Chinese immigrants were not allowed to vote in the U.S. for several more decades. 

Lee continued to work for Chinese immigrants, founding a community services center in Chinatown. And she carried on her fight for women’s rights until she died in 1966.

“Her story tells us a lot about the struggles women and immigrants faced,” says Cahill. “She’s somebody who deserves to be remembered. She lived an extraordinary life.”


  1. What was the Chinese Exclusion Act, and why were Mabel Ping-Hua Lee’s parents exceptions?
  2. Why did Lee believe it was important for women and immigrants to have suffrage?
  3. What are two facts you can learn from the illustrations in the sidebar, “Let Us Vote!”? 
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