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Women's Suffrage: Overview

Women's Suffrage

Many women's rights activists viewed the right to vote as the necessary first step in achieving broader rights for women. Throughout the latter half of the 1800s and into the 1900s, women's rights activists fought for women's suffrage. In 1920, about 150 years after the nation was founded, the goal of women's suffrage was finally realized. With the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, women nationwide earned the right to cast their ballots and gained entry into the American political process.

 

Retrieved from: "The Women's Suffrage Movement." American Social Reform Movements Reference Library, edited by Carol Brennan, et al., vol. 2: Almanac, UXL, 2007, pp. 407-441. Gale eBooks, https://0-link.gale.com.alvin.iii.com/apps/doc/CX2587100025/GVRL?u=pl1855&sid=GVRL&xid=146967cf. Accessed 22 Mar. 2020.

Featured Suffragist: Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony (February 15, 1820- March 13, 1906)

“Suffrage is the pivotal right.” – Susan B. Anthony

Anthony led the women's suffrage movement for more than 50 years before her death in 1906. She was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and worked tirelessly for the passage of laws, both at the state and federal level, which would grant American women their full rights as citizens. In 1872, almost fifty years before women were legally granted the right to vote by the Nineteenth Amendment, Anthony managed to both register to vote in her hometown of Rochester, New York, and cast a ballot on Election Day. However, she was arrested for what authorities called an act of civil disobedience.

"Anthony, Susan B." American Social Reform Movements Reference Library, edited by Carol Brennan, et al., vol. 3: Biographies, UXL, 2007, pp. 11-19. Gale eBooks, https://0-link.gale.com.alvin.iii.com/apps/doc/CX2587100033/GVRL?u=pl1855&sid=GVRL&xid=8eb4132d. Accessed 14 Mar. 2020.

Women's suffrage images

Votes for women

Library Display: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Women's Right to Vote

Votes for Women!

A Call for Universal Suffrage

19th Amendment

19th Amendment: A Joint Resolution