XIX Amendment

Under the US Constitution ratified in June 1788, the right to vote was left to each individual state to decide.  As an example, under the New York State Constitution of April 1777, "every male inhabitant of full age...shall be entitled to vote...if...he shall have been a freeholder (property owner)."  By the 1820s, New York dropped the property ownership requirement.    

In 1870, after the Civil War and the end of slavery, the XV Amendment was added to the US Constitution.  It provided that "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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude."  Thus, black men could now vote.  But not white women, nor any woman.

Ninety-nine years ago today, on August 18, 1920, the XIX Amendment was added to the Constitution, providing that "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 Brazil, women got the right to vote in 1932.

When my mother (Margaret) was born in 1907, she did not have the right to vote.  By the 1928 election (Herbert Hoover vs. Al Smith), I'm sure she voted.  How did this change happen?

In 1848, a group of activists met in Seneca Falls, NY to discuss women's rights in the US.  Borrowing from the words of Thomas Jefferson, they declared, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal..."  These suffragettes wanted the vote for women.

When the XV Amendment was being discussed in 1870, women leaders, such as Susan B. Anthony, refused to support its passage because it neglected to give women the right to vote.

In 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association was formed with Elizabeth Cody Stanton as president.  Now, women argued that they deserved the vote because they were different from men.  Women could create "a purer, more moral maternal commonwealth."  Temperance advocates believed that women could create an enormous voting bloc on behalf of their cause: to outlaw alcohol in the US.

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th Centuries, some western states started granting voting rights to women.  However, eastern and southern states resisted.  Women's groups mobilized, went on hunger strikes and picketed the White House.  The Great War proved that women were just as patriotic as men and deserved the vote.  Two years after the war, the got it.

As American women prepare next year for the 100th anniversary of the passage of the XIX Amendment granting their right to vote, I hope they will appreciate the sacrifices and hard work done by women in the past and will go out on election day, November 3, 2020, to show their appreciation by voting.