Congress ratifies 19th amendment; women get right to vote

August 19th, 1920

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this by appropriate legislation”

Thus runs the landmark Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which grants women the right to vote in the United States. Ratified by Congress yesterday, the amendment is a culmination of decades of relentless effort by women’s suffrage advocates, led by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

The women's suffrage movement dates back to the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, the first ever women's rights convention in the United States. Although the movement was well-organised by the early twentieth century, activists faced opposition from various quarters- brewers and distillers, businesses using child labor, even upper-class women.

The success of the most recent movement is due, in large part, to the efforts of Ms Carrie Chapman Catt, head of the NAWSA. She took the controversial decision to support the War, thereby portraying the women's suffrage movement as patriotic. This was a masterstroke, for in his 1918 State of the Union address President Wilson declared his support for female enfranchisement.

Women's suffrage leaders hailed the victory, with jubilant women crowding the streets after the move. The Nineteenth Amendment will go down in history as a turning point in the women's rights movement in the United States.