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In the mid-1800s women began to seek support from others to pass legislation that would give them the right to vote.
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The women's suffrage movement involved traveling to give lectures, writing the government, lobbying the government, and holding civil disobedience events such as hunger strikes, vigils, parades to bring attention to the cause.
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Supporters of the women's suffrage movement were sometimes jailed and abused for their participation.
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New Jersey temporarily granted unwed women the right to vote back in 1797, when it adopted its constitution that gave all inhabitants who owned fifty pounds of property the right to vote. In 1807 the law changed and only free, white males were allowed to vote.
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In 1868 women in Wyoming were given the right to vote if they were over the age of 21. Wyoming was almost denied statehood because of this law but the state refused to budge. Wyoming became the 44th U.S. state in 1890, 30 years before women in the rest of the states would be allowed to vote.
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When the 19th Amendment was first proposed in 1878 it was defeated. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had great influence on the first attempt.
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The 19th Amendment was originally called the Susan Anthony Amendment.
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The House of Representatives introduced the 19th Amendment to Congress three times. The first attempt was in 1918, then 1919. In 1919 it was finally successful in passing through Senate.
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The last U.S. state to ratify the 19th Amendment was Tennessee, giving women the right to vote as of August 18th, 1920.
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the two women who was instrumental in the women's suffrage movement, died in 1902. Susan B. Anthony, the other woman who spawned the movement, died in 1906. Neither were ever granted the right to vote in Congress.
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Prior to the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920, several states had already granted women the right to vote. These states included Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Washington, Illinois, South Dakota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Nevada, Nebraska, Montana, Michigan, Kansas, New York, and Indiana.
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In 1918 President Wilson switched his stance on women's right to vote from opposition to support. Because of World War I women were involved in the war effort and the feeling was they should have say in government policy.
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On November 2nd, 1920, 8 million women voted in the U.S. elections for the first time in history.
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