Women's voting rights in the United States facts for kids

Women's suffrage (the right to vote) in the United States started slowly, at state and local levels, during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, ending in 1920 with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided: "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."

Beginnings

Lydia Chapin (Taft) (February 2, 1712 – November 9, 1778) was a starter of women's suffrage movement in Colonial America. She was the first woman legally allowed to vote in colonial America. After the death of her wealthy husband and elder son, the family was left without an adult Heir apparent. She was given this right by the town meeting of Uxbridge, Massachusetts in 1756. For the great majority of American women, voting rights for women were not granted until much later on.

Images for kids

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  Women's suffragists parade in New York City in 1917, carrying placards with the signatures of more than a million women.

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  Margaret Fuller

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  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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  Lucy Stone

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  Susan B. Anthony

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  Petition from the citizens of Massachusetts in support of woman suffrage

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  Frederick Douglass

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  Votes for Women pennant

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  It Doesn't Unsex Her–a women's suffrage postcard from 1915

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  An act of the Territory of Wyoming enfranchised women on December 10, 1869, which is commemorated as Wyoming Day in the state.

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  Susan B. Anthony in 1900

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  Carrie Chapman Catt

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  Headquarters of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.

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  Vote for the Woman Suffrage Amendment, 1915

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  "The Awakening" "Votes for Women in 1915 Puck Magazine

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  Official program of the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913. In the actual march, the woman on horseback was Inez Milholland.

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  Women suffragists demonstrating for the right to vote in 1913

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  Alice Paul

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  A chorus of disreputable men supports an anti-suffrage woman in this 1915 cartoon from Puck magazine. The caption "I did not raise my girl to be a voter" parodies the antiwar song "I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier".

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  Though accusations of bribery did not cause the Tennessee legislature to reconsider its ratification of the suffrage amendment, Alice Paul immediately cautioned that "women are not yet fully free" and that women "can expect nothing from the politicians...until they stand as a unit in a party of their own", saying that discrimination still exists "on the statute books which will not be removed by the ratification". Paul charged that the amendment passed only because "it at last became more expedient for those in control of the Government to aid suffrage than to oppose it".

See also

In Spanish: Sufragio femenino en Estados Unidos para niños