Women's Voting Rights: 5 Facts About the 19th Amendment

Women finally were given voting rights in 1919 with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Here are five facts about the 19th Amendment:

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1. The first gathering

"The movement for women’s rights began to organize at the national level" in 1848, History.com said, with the first women’s rights convention taking place in Seneca Falls, New York. A "Declaration of Sentiments" was drawn up that stated, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal," a phrase closely modeled after the Declaration of Independence.

2. Central figures

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were responsible for organizing the women’s rights convention. Someone who would become synonymous with women’s rights would soon join them in their struggle: Susan B. Anthony. “Anthony was described as the ‘Napoleon’ of the suffragist movement [and] displayed her skill by appearing before every Congress between 1869 and 1906 on behalf of women’s suffrage,” according to the Anthony Center for Women's Leadership at the University of Rochester.

Alice Paul, president of the National Women’s Party, also played a key role in the movement. In 1913, on the day before Woodrow Wilson's presidential inauguration, 8,000 women led by Paul picketed the White House.

Sadly, many of the pioneers for women’s rights would not live to see the 19th Amendment become law.

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3. Amendment sat for nearly 40 years

When a proposed amendment (called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment) for women’s right to vote was introduced to Congress, it sat, "regarded with fear and loathing, for almost 40 years," said HistoryNet.com. Lawmakers believed there was no point in passing voting rights for women because women would have simply voted the way their fathers or husbands told them.

4. Final victory

It took three tries to get the amendment passed through Congress. The House of Representatives introduced it to the Senate twice, in 1918 and 1919. Finally, the Senate passed the amendment on June 4, 1919, and it was quickly ratified. Tennessee was the final state to ratify the Amendment and women's voting rights became law on Aug. 18, 1920.

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