The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Women’s Suffrage Amendment, prohibited the United States and its states from denying the right to vote to the citizens of our country on the basis of sex, recognizing the right of women to vote.

This amendment was the result of a decades-long movement for women’s suffrage in the United States.

The first women’s suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress in 1878, but it failed. A new suffrage amendment was ratified Aug. 26, 1920. This amendment allowed twenty-six million women to vote in the 1920 U.S. presidential election. Congress proposed the Nineteenth Amendment on June 4, 1919. Ohio was the fifth state to ratify the proposal on June 16, 1919.

The ratification process required the approval of 36 states. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify the proposal on Aug. 20, 1920 and Congress deemed the Woman’s Suffrage Amendment as law. Women now had the right to vote!

Several states, especially in the South, were very slow to recognize the Women’s Suffrage Amendment. Even though women had been voting since 1920, Mississippi was the last state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment in 1984. It was then that the Woman’s Suffrage Amendment was finally ratified by all 48 states existing at the time of adoption in 1920.

Over many decades, women of diverse ethnic backgrounds participated in the Woman’s Suffrage movement by joining organizations that staged marches, demonstrations, and hunger strikes.

Some were treated very harshly by law enforcement officers; jailed, beaten, and force fed due to hunger strikes. One may want to view more in the video “Iron Jawed Angels.”

Because of their efforts, women can participate in the voting process at all levels of government: local, county, state, and national. People today can be thankful for the dedicated work and leadership of women, such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucretia Mott, Francis Dana Barker Gage (native of Washington County), Alice Paul and Lucy Stone. Many other women participated in organizations including the National Suffrage Association, the American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Association of Colored Women to support the movement. African American women such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Harriett Tubman, Mary Church Terrell and Sojourner Truth worked tirelessly for civil rights and voting rights, but often they could not exercise their right to vote due to discriminatory state laws. The passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned discriminatory voting practices and helped overcome barriers preventing Blacks from voting.

The Constitution was written in 1787 and ratified in 1788. Women were not given full citizenship and a “voice” in our nation’s voting process until the Woman’s Suffrage Amendment in 1920. It was a long hard struggle for women to gain the right to vote. Enjoy the fruits of their labor and cast your vote on Election Day, Nov. 4, 2025.

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Joyce Robinson, member of Living Democracy: Engaging Citizens, a local citizen group. Our mission is to inform and educate the Mid-Ohio Valley about how government works on the local, state, and federal levels and how citizens can be involved to make our democracy work. Join us the third Monday of each month at 10:30 in the Armory. Check out livingdemocracymov@gmail.com and facebook/speak foryourselfvote and Youtube channel@Living Democracy