August 18, 1920

On this day in history in 1920 Congress ratified the 19th Amendment allowing women the right to vote.

Suffragettes Take Over

Women at the Seneca Falls Convention that spurred the suffragette movement

The suffrage movement was founded seventy years before women finally won their right to vote. One of the first movements was in July 1848 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized over 200 women suffragists at the Seneca Falls Convention to discuss women's rights. They were able to get more educational and employment rights but they still lacked the right to vote. They passed a resolution declaring, "it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.” The women's suffrage movement was born.

Seeing as it took another seven decades to actually win that right to vote it is clear that it was not an easy feat for women to achieve. In fact, many women were ridiculed for their proclamation at the Seneca Falls Convention and some backers of women's rights took away their support.

Achieving Suffrage

Women marching for the right to vote during WWI

At the turn of the century women's suffrage took another push towards the right to vote. Carrie Chapman Catt took over as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and prioritized fighting for a new amendment to give women the right to vote. At the onset of World War I NAWSA encouraged women to help the war effort to prove their worth, hoping it would lead to a new amendment. The National Women's Party took a different route to their suffrage movement, however. They engaged in civil disobedience and held protests outside the White House.

With pressure coming from multiple fronts President Woodrow Wilson made a special session of Congress in May 1919 and appealed for women's suffrage himself. Congress voted down the amendment six times, then finally approved it and sent it to the states for ratification. It wasn't until over a year later when the final state, Tennessee, ratified the amendment. The constitution then formally adopted the amendment on August 26.