A Revolution: Nearly a century of protest for suffrage results in voting rights for some, but not all, women

The campaign for women’s suffrage began in small numbers decades before the Civil War and launched on the national stage in 1848 when reformers Stanton and Mott organized the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls to an audience of more than 300 women and men.

Stanton and other delegates drafted a “Declaration of Sentiments” document, which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence and outlined the belief that men and women were created equal and women should have the right to vote.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

— From The Declaration of Sentiments, drafted by a group of delegates led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton modeled after the U.S. Declaration of Independence

Facing Setbacks

When the Civil War began in 1861, the suffrage movement lost some of its momentum and many women shifted their focus to helping their country through the conflict.

At the conclusion of the war, the country passed the 15th Amendment granting — on paper — the right to vote to black men. Stanton and some other suffrage leaders objected to this amendment because it failed to extend voting rights to American women of any skin color. But the passage of this amendment made Stanton — joined by Anthony to form the National Woman Suffrage Association — to set her sights on a federal constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote.

Progress in the States

There was a victory for voting rights in 1869 when the Wyoming Territory granted all female residents 21 and older the right to vote. This victory helped steer the suffrage movement toward the states after the constitutional amendment proposal was defeated in the U.S. Senate in 1886.

The National American Women’s Suffrage Association lobbied for women’s voting rights in the states, and within six years, Colorado, Utah and Idaho adopted amendments — versions similar but not identical to the 19th Amendment — to their state constitutions granting women the right to vote. Between 1910 and 1918, the Alaska Territory, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington all extended voting rights to women.

(Some) Women Get the Right to Vote

On May 21, 1919, U.S. Rep. James R. Mann proposed the House resolution to approve the Susan B. Anthony Amendment granting women the right to vote, and it passed the House 42 votes above the required majority. Two weeks later, the U.S. Senate passed the 19th Amendment by two votes over its two-thirds required majority, and the amendment was sent to the states for ratification.

Within six days, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin had ratified the amendment. Kansas, New York and Ohio followed shortly. By March 1920, 35 states had approved the amendment, but it was one state shy of the three-fourths majority required for ratification.

Strongly opposed in the southern states, Tennessee tipped the scale with 23-year-old Rep. Harry T. Burn casting the deciding vote.

On Nov. 2, 1920, more than 8 million women across the U.S. voted in elections for the first time.

But that wasn’t the end. It took more than 60 years for the remaining 12 states to ratify the 19th Amendment. Mississippi was the last state to do so in 1984.

Women in Office

Women could run for public office before they could vote in the U.S., and many women — particularly minority females — still struggle with modern voting issues including voter ID requirements, lack of language access, polling location closures and consolidations, ballot requirements and redistricting. But women have come a long way since the fight for suffrage.

In 2019, women held 2,132 seats in state legislatures including 508 of 1,972 state senate seats and 1,624 of the 5,411 state house seats. Since 1971, the number of women serving in state legislatures has more than quintupled. There are nine female governors and 15 lieutenant governors.

For Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, the state’s third female governor, it is important that women continue to bring their skills and expertise to public service.

I’d encourage women to think less of what they want to ‘be’ and more on what they want to ‘do.’ Public service should be the reason anyone runs for office — man or woman,” said Kelly, who is serving as the 2020 CSG national president. “I’d also encourage women to think strategically about what skills and expertise they bring to the table and how they enhance their qualifications for whatever elected position they seek — and to not be shy about it. Finally, I’d encourage women to be both thoughtful and fearless. There’s nothing easy about public service, but if people understand that you’ve put serious thought into an issue or problem, they are more apt to come along with you — even if they may not fully agree.”

NAMES TO KNOW

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) helped lay a foundation for the 19th Amendment. In 1869, she founded the National Woman Suffrage Association with fellow movement leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, serving as the organization’s primary leader. In 1890, multiple suffrage associations merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Anthony served as president of NAWSA from 1892-1900. She died in 1906, 14 years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) led the first organized demand for women’s suffrage in 1848. As a young woman, her study of law — particularly laws that discriminate against women — led her to devote her life to the pursuit of equal rights. She presented her Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, during the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 and served as the first president of NAWSA from 1890-1902.

Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) began lecturing on religious and social reform issues in 1820. Along with Stanton, she organized the 1848 Seneca Falls convention. She served as president of the American Equal Rights Association in 1866, wrote prolifically and remained active in reform causes until her death.

The foremost leader of the abolition movement, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was also an outspoken supporter of women’s suffrage. Born into slavery, Douglass wrote his now-classic autobiography, founded a newspaper, advised President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and achieved high-level appointments in U.S. government. Along with Stanton, Anthony and Lucy Stone, he was a co-founder of the American Equal Rights Association and was one of only 32 men to sign the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments.

Along with other conservative reformers, Lucy Stone (1818-1893) broke ranks with the women’s rights movement in 1869 to form the American Woman Suffrage Association in protest of the more progressive approach championed by Stanton and Cade. Stone founded the Woman’s Journal and chaired the executive board of NAWSA after the rival groups reunited in 1890.

Throughout his marriage to Lucy Stone, Henry Browne Blackwell (1825-1909) played a supporting role in key events of the women’s suffrage movement, including the founding of the American Woman Suffrage Association.

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883) was an evangelist and social reformer. Enslaved from birth until 1827, Sojourner Truth spoke for the abolition movement beginning in 1843, and in 1850, she became the first black woman to speak at a women’s rights convention (the first National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts).

Having lost her property following the death of her husband, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was keenly aware of social and legal discrimination against women. A novelist and poet, Harper spoke at the 11th National Women’s Rights Conference, was a director of the American Association of Education of Colored Youth, helped found the National Association of Colored Women and was elected a vice president of that organization 1897.

Born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1862, Ida B. Wells was a prolific investigative journalist and suffragist who campaigned tirelessly for anti-lynching legislation. Her activism began in 1884 when she refused to give up her train car seat, and she later took part in the first suffragist parade in Washington, D.C., in 1913.

A Timeline of Suffrage

1840 - Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are barred from attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, England. This inspires them to hold a women’s convention in the U.S.

1848 - The first Women’s Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafts “The Declaration of Sentiments.”

1850 - The National Women’s Rights Convention is held in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1866 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the American Equal Rights Association, an organization dedicated to the goal of suffrage for all regardless of gender or race.

1869- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony found the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), a more radical institution, to achieve the vote through a Constitutional amendment as well as push for other woman’s rights issues. Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe and other more conservative activists form the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) to work for woman suffrage through amending individual state constitutions.

1870 - The 15th Amendment gives Black men the right to vote.

1872- Susan B. Anthony casts her ballot for Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election and is arrested and brought to trial in Rochester, New York. Fifteen other women are arrested for illegally voting. Sojourner Truth appears at a polling booth in Battle Creek, Michigan, demanding a ballot to vote; she is turned away.

1878 - A Woman Suffrage Amendment is proposed in the U.S. Congress. When the 19th Amendment passes 41 years later, it is worded exactly the same as this 1878 Amendment.

1919 - The Senate finally passes the 19th Amendment and the ratification process begins.

1920 - Three quarters of the state legislatures ratify the 19th Amendment