Women’s Right to Vote in the United States
Women’s Equality Day / August 26, (1920)

Suffragists, 1917
Women’s suffragists parade in New York City in 1917, carrying placards with signatures of more than a million women.

Introduction

The struggle for women’s voting rights in the United States spanned over seven decades of activism, protest, and political campaigning. This movement, known as the women’s suffrage movement, ultimately culminated in the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on August 18, 1920, which prohibited states and the federal government from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. However, the path to universal women’s suffrage was neither straightforward nor inclusive, with significant variations in implementation and numerous barriers that continued to prevent many women, particularly women of color, from exercising their newly won right.




Early Foundations: Colonial Era to 1848

In colonial America and the early republic, women were generally excluded from political participation. Under the legal principle of coverture, married women had no independent legal identity separate from their husbands. However, there were limited exceptions:

  • New Jersey’s state constitution of 1776 granted voting rights to “all inhabitants” who met property requirements, inadvertently including women
  • Between 1776 and 1807, some property-owning women in New Jersey legally voted
  • This early experiment ended in 1807 when the state legislature explicitly restricted suffrage to white male citizens

The ideals of the American Revolution and Enlightenment philosophy planted seeds for later women’s rights activism. Early advocates like Abigail Adams famously urged her husband John to “remember the ladies” in the new nation’s legal code, foreshadowing later demands for political equality.

The Emergence of Organized Advocacy: 1848-1869

The modern American women’s suffrage movement is typically dated to the Seneca Falls Convention of July 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. At this groundbreaking gathering:

  • Approximately 300 attendees discussed women’s rights broadly
  • The convention issued the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence
  • Among its resolutions was a call for women’s enfranchisement, which proved controversial even among attendees
  • Frederick Douglass, the renowned abolitionist, spoke in favor of women’s suffrage

The women’s rights movement initially developed in close alliance with the abolitionist movement, with many early suffragists first becoming politically active in anti-slavery organizations. This connection established important principles but also created tensions that would later divide the movement.

Following the Civil War, the passage of the 14th Amendment (1868) introduced the word “male” into the Constitution for the first time in reference to citizens’ rights, while the 15th Amendment (1870) prohibited denial of voting rights based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” but remained silent on sex. These developments split the women’s movement over whether to support these amendments despite their failure to include women.

Split in the Movement: 1869-1890


In 1869, the suffrage movement divided into two major organizations with different strategies:

  • The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, focused on securing a federal constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage
  • The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), led by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell, pursued a state-by-state strategy to win voting rights

This division reflected both tactical disagreements and deeper differences over priorities and alliances. The NWSA took more radical positions on various social issues, while the AWSA maintained closer ties to Republican Party politics and abolitionist networks.

State-Level Victories in the West: 1869-1896


The first significant breakthrough for women’s suffrage came not at the federal level but in western territories and states:

  • Wyoming Territory granted women full voting rights in 1869, becoming the first jurisdiction in the United States to establish women’s suffrage
  • Wyoming maintained women’s suffrage when it achieved statehood in 1890, becoming the first state with women’s suffrage
  • Utah Territory granted women voting rights in 1870, though these were temporarily revoked by federal anti-polygamy legislation
  • Colorado approved women’s suffrage in 1893 by popular referendum
  • Idaho enacted women’s suffrage in 1896

These western victories reflected various regional factors:

  • The desire to attract women settlers to male-dominated frontier societies
  • Political calculations about potential partisan advantages
  • More fluid social structures and less entrenched opposition than in the East
  • In Utah, the influence of Mormon leaders who believed enfranchising women would strengthen their community against federal intervention

Reunification and New Strategies: 1890-1910

In 1890, the NWSA and AWSA merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as its first president, followed by Susan B. Anthony. This reunification brought renewed energy but also a narrowed focus on suffrage to the exclusion of broader feminist concerns.
New strategies emerged during this period:

  • The “winning plan” focused on securing voting rights in enough states to influence federal elections
  • Advocates increasingly emphasized mainstream arguments about women’s moral authority and domestic expertise
  • Public tactics shifted toward mass parades, open-air meetings, and more visible campaigning
  • Some groups adopted more militant approaches inspired by British suffragettes

By 1900, women could vote in four states: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. Washington state joined in 1910, followed by California in 1911, marking the beginning of faster progress.

The Final Push: 1910-1920

The suffrage movement gained significant momentum in the 1910s:

  • The formation of Alice Paul’s Congressional Union (later the National Woman’s Party) in 1913 brought more confrontational tactics to Washington, D.C.
  • President Woodrow Wilson initially opposed but gradually shifted toward supporting suffrage
  • America’s entry into World War I in 1917 gave new weight to arguments about women’s patriotic contributions
  • Suffragists increasingly used hunger strikes, picketing, and civil disobedience
  • Between 1910 and 1918, the number of states with full women’s suffrage grew to 15

After decades of advocacy, Congress finally passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919. The amendment read: “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.”
A dramatic ratification battle followed, culminating in Tennessee’s approval by a single vote on August 18, 1920. This provided the required three-fourths of states for adoption, and the amendment was officially certified on August 26, 1920.

Women’s Equality Day: Commemorating the 19th Amendment

The date of August 26—when the 19th Amendment was certified by U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby in 1920—would later become enshrined as Women’s Equality Day.

The establishment of Women’s Equality Day has its own history rooted in second-wave feminism and the struggle for gender equality in the 1970s:

  • Congresswoman Bella Abzug (D-NY), a prominent feminist and civil rights advocate, first introduced a bill to designate August 26 as Women’s Equality Day in 1971
  • The date was chosen specifically to commemorate the certification of the 19th Amendment
  • The designation also acknowledged the 1970 Women’s Strike for Equality held on the same date, which marked the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage with nationwide demonstrations
  • President Richard Nixon issued the first proclamation for Women’s Equality Day in 1972
  • Every president since Nixon has issued a proclamation designating August 26 as Women’s Equality Day

The joint resolution of Congress (House Joint Resolution 52) that created Women’s Equality Day stated that August 26 was designated as the date “commemorating the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote.”

The resolution’s text also highlighted ongoing struggles for equality, noting that “women’s rights are still not constitutionally guaranteed,” referring to the then-pending Equal Rights Amendment.

Today, Women’s Equality Day serves multiple purposes:

  • Commemorating the suffrage victory of 1920
  • Highlighting continued efforts for full equality
  • Providing educational opportunities about women’s history
  • Recognizing the intersection of voting rights with broader issues of democracy and representation
  • Acknowledging both progress made and challenges that remain

The observance connects contemporary gender equality efforts directly to the suffrage movement, creating a through-line in American history between different eras of activism for women’s rights.

Limitations and Continuing Struggles: 1920-1965

Despite the 19th Amendment’s constitutional guarantee, many women remained effectively disenfranchised after 1920:

  • African American women in the South faced the same barriers of poll taxes, literacy tests, violence, and intimidation that prevented Black men from voting
  • Native American women were denied voting rights until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, and even then faced state-level barriers
  • Asian American women were largely excluded from citizenship and thus voting rights until immigration reforms in 1943 (Chinese) and 1952 (Japanese and other Asian groups)
  • Puerto Rican women gained the right to vote in 1929, but as territorial residents could not vote in presidential elections
  • Literacy tests impacted women from various immigrant communities

The struggle for truly universal suffrage continued through the civil rights movement, culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provided federal enforcement mechanisms against discriminatory voting practices.

Key Figures in American Women’s Suffrage

The movement for women’s voting rights involved thousands of activists across generations. Among the most influential were:

  • Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) – A Quaker minister and abolitionist who co-organized the Seneca Falls Convention, Mott represented the movement’s roots in religious reform and anti-slavery activism.
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) – A principal organizer of Seneca Falls and author of the Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton provided intellectual leadership throughout the movement’s first fifty years.
  • Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) – Perhaps the movement’s most recognizable figure, Anthony devoted her life to women’s suffrage, forming a crucial partnership with Stanton and becoming the movement’s most tireless campaigner.
  • Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) – A former slave, Truth’s speeches challenged both racial and gender barriers, most famously in her “Ain’t I a Woman?” address.
  • Lucy Stone (1818-1893) – An early organizer who broke with Stanton and Anthony over the 15th Amendment, Stone led the AWSA and represented a more moderate wing of the movement.
  • Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) – An investigative journalist and civil rights activist, Wells-Barnett challenged racism within the suffrage movement while advocating for both women’s rights and anti-lynching legislation.
  • Alice Paul (1885-1977) – The founder of the National Woman’s Party, Paul introduced more militant tactics and kept the pressure on President Wilson during the crucial final years of the campaign.
  • Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) – As president of NAWSA during its final victorious phase, Catt implemented the “Winning Plan” that combined state campaigns with federal pressure.
  • Bella Abzug (1920-1998) – Though not part of the original suffrage movement, Abzug connected its legacy to modern feminism by establishing Women’s Equality Day to commemorate the 19th Amendment’s certification.

Racial Dynamics Within the Movement

The women’s suffrage movement had a complex and often troubled relationship with issues of race:

  • Early connections between abolitionism and women’s rights created natural alliances in the 1840s and 1850s
  • After the Civil War, conflicts over the 15th Amendment pitted women’s enfranchisement against Black male suffrage
  • Some white suffragists, including Stanton and Anthony, made explicitly racist appeals arguing that educated white women deserved the vote more than formerly enslaved men
  • Black women’s organizations like the National Association of Colored Women, founded in 1896, advocated for suffrage while also addressing racism
  • Southern suffrage organizations often explicitly excluded Black women or supported voting rights only for white women
  • The mainstream movement frequently marginalized or segregated Black suffragists to avoid alienating Southern white supporters

This complicated legacy has led historians to examine how the movement both challenged and reinforced racial hierarchies, with many contemporary scholars highlighting the often-overlooked contributions of women of color to the struggle.

International Context

The American women’s suffrage movement existed within a broader international context:

  • New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant women’s suffrage in 1893
  • Australia followed in 1902 (though excluding Aboriginal women)
  • Finland established women’s suffrage in 1906, becoming the first European country to do so
  • Britain granted partial women’s suffrage in 1918 and full suffrage in 1928
  • American suffragists both influenced and were influenced by these international movements

International suffrage organizations facilitated the exchange of tactics, arguments, and moral support across national boundaries, creating what some historians have called the first global feminist movement.

Legacy and Contemporary Significance

The ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 represented both an end and a beginning:

  • The victory demonstrated the power of organized political activism over decades
  • Subsequent women’s political participation transformed American political life, though more gradually than some expected
  • The first woman elected to Congress was Jeannette Rankin in 1916 (before national women’s suffrage)
  • It took until 1992 for women to reach 10% representation in Congress
  • Gender gaps in voting patterns eventually emerged but took decades to develop consistently
  • Many suffragists moved on to advocate for other causes, from the Equal Rights Amendment to birth control access

Women’s Equality Day celebrations have evolved to connect historical achievements with contemporary challenges:

  • The 75th anniversary in 1995 saw major commemorative events across the country
  • The centennial in 2020 prompted nationwide exhibitions, publications, and public programs despite pandemic restrictions
  • Modern celebrations often highlight the connections between voting rights and other aspects of gender equality
  • Many organizations use the day to encourage voter registration and civic participation

The centennial of the 19th Amendment in 2020 prompted renewed attention to both the achievement and limitations of women’s suffrage, with particular focus on:

  • Recovering the stories of women of color in the movement
  • Analyzing continuing barriers to political participation
  • Understanding the complex interplay of gender, race, class, and citizenship in American democracy

Women’s Right to Vote in the United States

The achievement of women’s suffrage in the United States represented a fundamental expansion of American democracy, even with its significant limitations. The movement’s 72-year struggle from Seneca Falls to ratification demonstrated both the power of sustained activism and the deep resistance to women’s full political participation.

Wyoming’s pioneering decision to grant women voting rights in 1869 created the first practical example of women’s suffrage in America, while the 19th Amendment in 1920 extended this right nationwide—at least in theory. However, the reality of universal women’s suffrage would require additional decades of civil rights activism to more fully realize.

The establishment of Women’s Equality Day in 1971, commemorating the certification of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920, serves as an annual reminder of both the historic achievement of women’s suffrage and the ongoing work toward full equality. This observance links past struggles with present challenges, creating a continuous thread of civic engagement across generations of American women.

The complexities of the suffrage movement—its alliances and divisions, its inclusive and exclusive elements, its radical and conservative aspects—remind us that progress toward greater equality rarely follows a straight line. As the United States continues to grapple with questions of representation, participation, and voting rights today, the history of women’s suffrage offers both inspiration and cautionary lessons about the ongoing project of creating a more perfect democracy.

The National Women’s History Project

Women’s Equality Day

Women’s Equality Day commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting the right to vote to women. The amendment was first introduced in 1878. In 1971, the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as Women’s Equality Day.
› nwhp.org/womens-equality-day/10-ideas-for-womens-equality-day/

How Women Vote: Separating Myth From Reality

Oct 6, 2020 – Suffragists said women voting would transform politics. Here’s how women have wielded the ballot in the past century, according to a political scientist.
> smithsonianmag.com/history/how-have-women-voted-suffrage

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
The 19th Amendment

The 19th Amendment guarantees American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation. Beginning in the mid-19th century, woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered radical change.

Between 1878, when the amendment was first introduced in Congress, and 1920, when it was ratified, champions of voting rights for women worked tirelessly, but their strategies varied. Some tried to pass suffrage acts in each state—nine western states adopted woman suffrage legislation by 1912. Others challenged male-only voting laws in the courts. More public tactics included parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. Supporters were heckled, jailed, and sometimes physically abused.
› archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/amendment-19

The Library of Congress

19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution granted women the right to vote and was ratified by the states on August 18, 1920. A women’s suffrage amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1878. Forty-one years late, on June 4, 1919, Congress approved the women’s suffrage amendment and sent it to the states for ratification. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920.
› loc.gov/19thamendment.html




Women’s March
January 21, 2017
Women’s March on Washington

We did it! On January 21, over 5 Million of us worldwide and over 1 Million in Washington, D.C., came to march, speak and make our voices heard. But it doesn’t end here – now is not the time to hang up our marching shoes – it’s time to get our friends, family and community together and make history.
› womensmarch.com
› Women of America: we’re going on strike. Join us so Trump will see our power

Women's March on Washington

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)
Families, fertility and feminism: landmarks in women’s rights

by Liz Ford
Women have fought long and hard to secure access to family planning and abortion, and reduce maternal mortality. A modern timeline of that struggle tells a story full of highs and lows.
› theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jul/27/families-fertility-feminism-landmarks-in-womens-rights-timeline

Facts and figures

Leadership and political participation – [UN Women]
IPU-UN Women in politics map – [IPU]