History of the 19th Amendment: Women’s Right to Vote, 100 Years Ago

One hundred years ago, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. This prohibited both the Federal government and State governments from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States based on sex. Effectively, this meant that the right to vote could no longer be denied to women. The text, in part, 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. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

For over 70 years before that, the women’s movement had been pressing for the legal right of women to vote, going back to the 1848 women’s rights Seneca Falls Convention, “a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman.” Two years later, the National Women’s Rights Convention in 1850 saw suffrage as an important part of the movement. In 1869 the Women’s Movement coalesced around two different organizations.

In 1860 Susan B. Anthony led the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The other was led by Lucy Stone, who and helped organize the earlier National Women’s Rights Convention, and had influenced both Anthony and Stanton.