Women's suffrage
The concept of women's suffrage refers to the right of women to vote in political elections. At the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, which was the first women’s rights convention in the United States, organizers declared that men and women are created equal and, therefore, have the same civic rights and privileges, including "the inalienable right to the elective franchise."[1]
In the United States, women's suffrage was addressed in the federal constitution with the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920. Before the 19th Amendment, 15 states adopted state constitutional amendments that granted women's suffrage.
United States
The 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the amendment on May 21, 1919, and the U.S. Senate passed the amendment on June 4, 1919. At least three-fourths of the states (36 of 48) needed to pass resolutions for the amendment to become law. The 19th Amendment prohibited the government from denying or abridging the right to vote on account of sex.
The 15th Amendment prohibited the government from denying a citizen's right to vote on account of race, and the 19th Amendment prohibited the government from denying a citizen's right to vote on account of sex. However, some states and localities had laws that disenfranchised men and women of color. Intimidation was also used to keep people of color from registering to vote and voting. Historian Susan Ware, writing about the effect of the 19th Amendment, stated, "The primary beneficiaries of the 19th Amendment at first were white women and the small minority of African American women who lived in northern and western states, where there were no racial restrictions on voting."[2]
States
- See also: State women's suffrage ballot measures
Before the 19th Amendment, the women's suffrage movement also campaigned for changes to state constitutions to provide women with a right to vote. Suffragists Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler, in their book Woman Suffrage and Politics (1923), wrote that state ballot measures "spun the main thread of suffrage activity" in the movement's earlier years and were seen as stepping stones to national suffrage. "I don't know the exact number of States we shall have to have," said Susan B. Anthony, "but I do know that there will come a day when that number will automatically and resistlessly act on the Congress of the United States to compel the submission of a federal suffrage amendment." When asked about federal support for women's suffrage in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt told the suffrage movement to "Go, get another State."[3]
Between 1867 and August 18, 1920, 54 ballot measures to grant women's suffrage were on the ballot in 30 states. Fifteen (15) of the ballot measures were approved, giving women the right to vote in 15 states. Since women did not have suffrage until after the ballot measures were approved, male voters decided the outcome of suffrage ballot measures. The 15 states that passed suffrage amendments were Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
See also
- State women's suffrage ballot measures
- Suffrage on the ballot
- History of women's suffrage in the United States
Footnotes
- ↑ National Park Service, "Declaration of Sentiments," accessed May 28, 2020
- ↑ Teen Vogue, "The 19th Amendment Only Really Helped White Women," August 16, 2020
- ↑ Catt, Carrie Chapman and Nettie Rogers Shuler. (1923). Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement. New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. (pages 149-150)
