Amendment XIX to the United States Constitution
“Susan B Anthony Amendment” was introduced to Congress in 1870, and enacted in her exact words on August 18, 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”
In 1848, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and three other ladies, put an invitation in the Seneca County Courier to attend “A convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman” in the Wesleyan Chapel at Seneca Falls New York on the 19th and 20th of July. This event was the catalyst that catapulted the women’s movement forward and resulted in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
Getting the vote was not an easy journey. Susan B Anthony joined the ladies of Seneca Falls a few years later and became a driving force in achieving their goal. In 1860, they achieved their first win: an amendment to the New York Married Woman’s Property Act of 1848, which allowed any property received by a woman to be her own, and gave her the right to keep her own earnings, to enter into contracts, and most important, to have joint guardianship over her children. It was later watered down in 1860 but it was an important first step.
In 1863, the National Women’s Loyal League was established, and gathered the petitions necessary to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery in America. Unfortunately, they were unable to get women included in the 1870 Fifteenth Amendment, which granted black males the right to vote. They were told they had to wait for another time. They waited another 50 years before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920 and they won the right to vote.
If you would like to learn more about the journey for women’s suffrage, read
The Ladies of Seneca Falls, The Birth of the Women’s Rights Movement,
by Miriam Gurko.
