The fight for women's right to vote began long before the Progressive Era, at Seneca Falls in 1848. It took 72 years, two generations of leaders and two very different strategies to win the Nineteenth Amendment.
Key idea
After decades of work by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and others, Carrie Chapman Catt's National American Woman Suffrage Association lobbied state by state, while Alice Paul's National Woman's Party picketed the White House. The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, when Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.
Why it works
Why did the West lead? New territories wanted settlers and families, women's work on farms and ranches was plainly essential, and Western politics were less fixed. Wyoming (1869 as a territory), Colorado (1893), Utah and Idaho (1896) came first; Washington (1910) and California (1911) started a second wave. Each state victory added voters whom members of Congress had to answer to. During World War I, suffragists pointed out that women were serving the war effort while the country fought "for democracy" abroad. In 1918 President Wilson came out for the amendment, and Congress passed it in June 1919.
| NAWSA (Catt) | National Woman's Party (Paul) | |
|---|---|---|
| Members | About two million; the larger group | Smaller and younger |
| Method | "Winning Plan" (1916): win states, then press Congress; lobby politely; support the war effort | Parades (1913), picketing the White House as "Silent Sentinels" (from 1917), hunger strikes in jail |
| Blamed | Those who opposed suffrage | The party in power (Wilson's Democrats) |
Work it through
Worked example: Counting to ratification
In 1920 there were 48 states. How many had to ratify the amendment?
- Article V requires three-fourths of the states.
- Three-fourths of 48 is 36.
- Tennessee was the 36th, on August 18, 1920, when the young legislator Harry Burn changed his vote after a letter from his mother.
Answer: 36 states.
Common mistake
Many students think no woman voted anywhere before 1920. Wyoming let women vote from 1869, and by 1919 women had full voting rights in fifteen states, most in the West, and could vote for President in several more. The opposite slip matters too: the amendment did not end every barrier. Many Black women in the South were still kept from voting by Jim Crow laws, and many Native women could not vote until later.