Keith Mack
The right of women to vote, also known as women's suffrage, was a long and arduous struggle that took nearly a century of conferences, protests, hunger strikes, speeches, court cases, lobbying, organizing, and marches. In the United States, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote, was approved by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920. However, it is important to note that the fight for women's suffrage varied across different states and territories, with Kentucky passing the first statewide woman suffrage law in the antebellum era in 1838, and Wyoming Territory granting women the right to vote in 1869. Even after the passage of the 19th Amendment, women of color and women with disabilities continued to face discrimination and were only afforded protections under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, respectively.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Name of the law | The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution |
| Year passed by Congress | 1919 |
| Year ratified | 1920 |
| States that passed women's voting rights in the 1870s and 1880s | Utah, Washington, and Montana |
| States that adopted woman suffrage legislation by 1912 | Nine western states |
| First women's suffrage law in the United States | Wyoming Territory, 1869 |
| First statewide woman suffrage law | Kentucky, 1838 |
| States that granted Native Americans the right to vote in 1957 | Utah |
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What You'll Learn
The 19th Amendment
The text of the amendment reads: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." This amendment was a culmination of a prolonged and arduous fight for women's enfranchisement, with several generations of activists advocating for change through lecturing, writing, marching, lobbying, and civil disobedience. Notable figures in this movement include Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone, who played leading roles in establishing women's suffrage organisations.
The first national suffrage organisations were established in 1869, with one led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the other by Lucy Stone and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. These organisations merged in 1890 as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The movement faced opposition and setbacks, such as the arrest of Susan B. Anthony for voting in 1872, but they persevered and achieved partial successes.
By the late 1910s, shifting views on gender roles during World War I created a more favourable political environment for the amendment. The House of Representatives passed the amendment on May 21, 1919, and the Senate followed suit two weeks later. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, securing its passage with the required agreement of three-fourths of the states. The 19th Amendment was a significant milestone in the history of women's rights, but the struggle for full enfranchisement continued, especially for women of colour, who faced additional hurdles due to discriminatory state voting laws.
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Women's Suffrage Organisations
The right to vote for women, or women's suffrage, has been a long and arduous journey. Women's suffrage organisations have played a pivotal role in this struggle, advocating for voting rights and equality. One of the earliest recorded instances of a call for women's suffrage in the United States was in 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, organised the Seneca Falls Convention. Stanton presented the Declaration of Sentiments, a radical document demanding changes to empower women in society and the law.
In the following years, several women's suffrage organisations were established, with varying approaches and levels of inclusion. The first national suffrage organisations emerged in 1869, with two competing groups: one led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the other by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. These groups merged in 1890 as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), with Anthony as its driving force.
The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), established in 1873, was the largest women's organisation at the time and also advocated for women's suffrage. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), founded by Stone, Howe, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, petitioned Congress in 1872 to allow women in DC and the territories to vote and hold office. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), formed by Stanton and Anthony, sent a similar petition to Congress in 1871.
Other notable organisations include the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government (BESAGG), founded in 1901, which focused on educating women about government functions and promoting civic engagement. After 1920, BESAGG became the Boston League of Women Voters. The Cambridge Political Equality Association (CPEA), founded in 1896, had a broader focus on securing political equality for all American citizens, including African-American suffrage.
The suffrage movement also extended beyond the United States, with organisations like the British Dominions Women's Suffrage Union, active from 1913 to 1922, which included members from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Canada. The International Alliance of Women, founded in 1904, promoted women's suffrage internationally. Additionally, groups like the Suffrage Atelier, an artists' collective, and the Women's Franchise League, a major British group founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1889, contributed to the growing momentum for women's voting rights.
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Women's Rights Convention
The right for women to vote, or women's suffrage, was a long and hard-fought battle. In the United States, the campaign for women's suffrage emerged as part of a broader movement for women's rights.
The Seneca Falls Convention, held in July 1848, is considered the first women's rights convention in the country. It was organized by leading women's rights advocates Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who were inspired to hold a women's rights convention after being excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. The Seneca Falls Convention attracted 300 attendees, mostly local residents, and launched the women's suffrage movement. The convention's Declaration of Sentiments, written primarily by Stanton, described women's grievances and demands, asserting women's equality in politics, family, education, jobs, religion, and morals.
Following the Seneca Falls Convention, women's rights conventions became annual events until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. These conventions played a crucial role in spreading awareness of the women's rights movement and bringing the issue of women's suffrage to the forefront.
The first national suffrage organizations were established in 1869, and the fight for suffrage escalated when the United States entered World War I in 1917, with women adopting new strategies such as regularly picketing the White House. Finally, on June 4, 1919, Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This amendment was subsequently ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on August 19, 1920.
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State-by-state voting rights
The 19th Amendment, passed in 1920, is the law that granted women the right to vote in the United States. The amendment states: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." The road to achieving this amendment was long and winding, with many states granting women the right to vote before it became law across the nation.
The state-by-state voting rights history for women in the US is a complex one. In the late 1830s, the push for women's suffrage was deeply intertwined with the movement to abolish slavery. The New Jersey constitution of 1776 enfranchised all adult inhabitants who owned a specified amount of property, and women regularly voted until a law passed in 1807 that excluded them from voting in that state. Kentucky passed a similar law in 1838, allowing any widow or feme sole (legally, the head of the household) over 21 who resided in and owned property subject to taxation for the new county's "common school" system to vote.
In 1869, Wyoming Territory lawmakers enacted the first women's suffrage law in the United States, extending the right to vote to women without any restrictions based on property ownership or marital status. In the decade leading up to the 19th Amendment's passage, 23 states granted women full or partial voting rights through a series of successful campaigns. Montana, for example, granted women the right to vote in 1914, and in 1919, Jeannette Rankin, a Montana homesteader turned suffragist, became the first woman elected to Congress.
Colorado was another early adopter, with women there voting on the same terms as men since 1893. Colorado was the first state to enfranchise women by referendum, meaning that the people of Colorado voted in an election to enfrage women. South Dakota became the 21st state to ratify the 19th Amendment in December 1919, with Colorado being the final state to ratify it in 1919.
Despite the promise of women's suffrage in 1920, many states continued to curtail minority voters' ability to exercise that right. It wasn't until Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that participation increased among women of color and voters of color more broadly. This legislation barred racially discriminatory voter suppression and marked a significant step toward achieving more equal voter participation.
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Women's Suffrage in the UK
The women's suffrage movement in the UK, also known as the women's liberation movement, began in the mid-19th century. At the time, women were excluded from voting by the reform bills of 1832 and 1867. In 1840, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who had been excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, formulated the idea of a women's rights convention. This led to the historic women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, where Stanton presented the Declaration of Sentiments, a radical document demanding changes to empower women in society and the law.
In England, the organised suffrage movement began in 1866 when prominent women's rights reformers gathered around 1500 signatures on a petition to Parliament requesting the right to vote. Signers included John Stuart Mill, who had successfully run for Parliament on a platform that included votes for women. In 1867, a proposal to give women the vote based on equal rights with men was rejected in Parliament. In the years that followed, women's suffrage campaigns and groups throughout the British Isles gained momentum. By 1872, the National Society for Women's Suffrage was created, the first national movement with women's rights solely in mind.
In 1897, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was formed with the support of 20 national societies. The NUWSS was led by prominent feminist Millicent Fawcett, who favoured peaceful demonstrations and tactics. However, within the NUWSS, there was friction between different groups, and by 1903, the more militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) split from the main group. Led by Emmeline, Christabel, and Sylvia Pankhurst, the WSPU led marches and pageants in their trademark colours of white, green, and purple, and engaged in dramatic scenes of smashing windows and burning empty buildings.
The suffrage campaign was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. When the war ended, the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed, extending suffrage to men over 21 and some women over 30. Finally, in 1928, the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act was passed, granting voting rights to all women over 21 and signalling the first time that women achieved electoral equality with men in the UK.
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Frequently asked questions
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote, was approved by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920.
The New Jersey Constitution of 1776 enfranchised all adult inhabitants who owned a specified amount of property. However, women were stripped of their voting rights in 1807 when the state passed a law allowing only free white males the right to vote. The first statewide woman suffrage law in the antebellum era was passed in Kentucky in 1838. Wyoming territory granted women the right to vote in 1869, becoming the first territory to do so.
The 19th Amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. The text of the Amendment states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
The campaign for women's suffrage was long and difficult, involving conferences, protests, hunger strikes, speeches, court cases, lobbying, organizing, and marches. Some pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state, while others challenged male-only voting laws in the courts.
