Women Win the Right to Vote

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of American Women Winning the Right to Vote by J.Q. Rose

Hello and welcome to the Girls Succeed! blog. We celebrate girls and women here, so we definitely have to have a party in August 2020 to commemorate women's right to vote. I know it sounds crazy that women could not vote in the US until 1920. Some states allowed it, but through the ages women did not have a say in government. That really changed after 1920. Read the article below to find out more. 

The struggle to win the right to vote for women 

became active in the mid-19th century in the USA.

The 19th amendment to the US constitution was passed by Congress on June 4 and ratified on August 18, giving American women the right to vote in the USA. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1918. Although the amendment became law in the land, it did not eliminate state laws in place that kept black Americans from voting due to the requirement to pay taxes and pass literacy tests. It would take another fifty years to gain suffrage for black women.

Women began organizing, petitioning, picketing and parading in what today we would call protesting, to achieve awareness and support for laws to allow women to vote in the mid-1800s. Several Western states had passed laws by 1912 due to men's support of the suffrage movement.

Wyoming hoped to attract females to their state filled with gold miners--a ratio of six men to one female. But just as in contemporary politics, an ulterior motive played into the decision. Wyoming's political party in power allowed the vote, figuring if they gave women the right to vote in Wyoming elections, the ladies would vote for them!

According to ourdocuments.gov, " Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see the final victory in 1920."

Voting is the way to let your leaders in government know what you want as a citizen. This is a right that not every person in the world has. We need to protect it.

Now it's time to party!! 

The photo above is courtesy of pixabat.com by artist fotshot

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Election Time: When Did Women in the USA Win the Right to Vote?

Hello and welcome to the Girls Succeed blog.

Election Day is November 6, 2018

An important event for US citizens happens on Tuesday, November 6. It's election time when we vote for the people who will lead our country, states, counties, and cities. We also vote on proposals that will affect us such as making medical and/or recreational marijuana legal and increase the minimum wage for workers.

Flag of the United States of America
"Old Glory"

Women won the right to vote in the USA in 1920 when the US Congress passed the 19th amendment June 4, 1919, and ratified it on August 18, 1920. The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. 

But as early as 1869, the women of Wyoming received the right to vote. One reason the men decided on supporting the women's vote was because there were six men to every one woman in Wyoming at the time. The men hoped by giving women the right to vote, they would realize the Wyoming legislature was forward-thinking and cared about women's rights, so women would move to the state.

Mighty Girl has a fantastic list of books filled with information about The Suffrage Movement, the women's movement to win the right to vote. Go there and learn more about these strong, courageous women and the fight for the right to vote!

Click here to find out more about the Suffrage Movement in this article on the Girls Succeed blog.

We can't imagine not having the right to vote. We need to honor those women who fought and sacrificed in order to make the 19th amendment the law of the land. So, if you're old enough, please go vote!

Voting Day is November 6, 2018