Women's History: 19th Amendment

[Detail] Yellow ribbon from 1911 Suffrage Parade

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. . . . In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object.

—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments, 1848

The woman suffrage movement in the Unites States began in 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY, at the Seneca Falls Convention. The goal was to invoke reform of the conditions of women and children and to abolish slavery. Among others the movement was led by Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. These women's rights pioneers circulated pamphlets and petitions and lobbied Congress to pass constitutional amendments enfranchising women, granting them the right to vote. In order to improve and reform working and living conditions and wages for working women and children, reformers found it essential to gain the vote to make their voices heard on a national platform. Often contentious, frequently violent, and regularly resulting in arrest and incarceration, women's groups exerted pressure on Congressmen to pass the constitutional amendment granting women in the United States the right to vote. Finally on August 18, 1920 the last state, Tennessee, approved the 19th Amendment, and the U.S. Secretary of State proclaimed it ratified on August 26, 1920.