Introduction of the women's suffrage amendmentIn 1878 Senator Aaron A. Sargent, a friend of Susan B. Anthony, introduced into Congress a women's suffrage amendment. More than forty years later it would become the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution with no changes to its wording.
It was a decisive victory, and the split among Democrats and Republicans was staggering. In all, over 200 Republicans voted in favor of the 19th Amendment, while only 102 Democrats voted alongside them. Subsequently, on June 4, 1919, the 19th Amendment passed the Senate by a vote of 56 to 25.
December 14: Colorado became the last state to ratify in 1919. How many would follow in 1920? The final state over the finish line in 1919 in the race to ratification was Colorado. Women of Colorado had been voting on the same terms as men since 1893.
Nebraska ratified the 19th Amendment on August 2, 1919.
1869: The territory of Wyoming is the first to grant unrestricted suffrage to women.
The 15 states that did not ratify the Equal Rights Amendment before the 1982 deadline were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.
One of the most important anti-suffragist activists was Josephine Jewell Dodge, a founder and president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. She came from a wealthy and influential New England family; her father, Marshall Jewell, served as a governor of Connecticut and U.S. postmaster general.
Maryland ratified the amendment in 1941, and Florida and Virginia followed in the 1950s. Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina ratified the amendment between 1969 and 1971. Mississippi became the last state to do so, in 1984.
On January 15, 2020, Virginia's General Assembly passed a ratification resolution for the ERA in a 59–41 vote in the House of Delegates and 28–12 vote in the Senate, and voted again for each other's resolutions on January 27, 27–12 in the Senate and 58–40 in the House, claiming to bring the number of ratifications to
Wyoming. On December 10, 1869, Territorial Governor John Allen Campbell signed an act of the Wyoming Territorial Legislature granting white women the right to vote, the first U.S. state or territory to grant suffrage to women.
After the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, suffragists like Alice Paul knew that their work wasn't finished. Paul and other members of the National Woman's Party drafted the Equal Rights Amendment. If ratified, the amendment would guarantee equal rights to all people regardless of their gender.
