Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920)
On June 4, 1919, the United States Congress voted to approve the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. The struggle for women's suffrage was a long and protracted one that began in the 1840s and lasted nearly eighty years. The battle embraced a multitude of strategies and spanned two generations of leaders. It was not until the aftermath of World War I (1914–1918) that the long-anticipated passage of a constitutional amendment legalizing suffrage for women in the United States finally occurred. Its author, Susan B. Anthony, and its proponents had hoped the amendment would follow on the heels of the Fifteenth Amendment, providing for universal male suffrage in 1870. Their hope for a sixteenth amendment allowing women to vote was frustrated, however, and they had to settle for a fifty-year wait and the position as the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
The Nineteenth Amendment was approved by the House of Representatives in a...
