ChronoFive
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Setting the scene
The American women's suffrage movement began at Seneca Falls in 1848, but by 1910 had made little federal progress despite 70 years of organizing. The movement split into two strategies: the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) under Carrie Chapman Catt pursued state-by-state campaigns, while Alice Paul's National Woman's Party used militant tactics—picketing the White House, hunger strikes, and civil disobedience. By 1919, 15 states, mostly in the West, had granted women full voting rights, but the South and East held out. World War I proved decisive—women worked in factories, served as nurses, and kept the economy running, undermining arguments they were unfit for citizenship.
What happened
The 19th Amendment, stating '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,' passed the House on May 21, 1919, and the Senate on June 4, 1919. Ratification required 36 states. The battle came down to Tennessee in August 1920. The state legislature was tied 48-48. Twenty-four-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn, who opposed suffrage, received a letter from his mother Febb urging him to 'be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the rat in ratification.' Burn changed his vote, breaking the tie. Tennessee ratified on August 18, 1920.
Why it still matters
Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920, enfranchising 27 million American women overnight and doubling the electorate. It was the largest expansion of democracy in U.S. history and the culmination of a 72-year struggle. However, the victory was incomplete—Black women in the Jim Crow South were largely prevented from voting through poll taxes, literacy tests, and violence until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Native American women couldn't vote until 1924, and Asian American women until 1952. The amendment transformed American politics, with women voting at higher rates than men by the 1980s, and inspired suffrage movements worldwide. The suffragists' tactics—marches, civil disobedience, and lobbying—became the template for all subsequent civil rights movements.
Background
It capped decades of organized suffrage activism.