08/18/2026
On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, and American women won the right to vote.
Achieving this milestone involved a lengthy and difficult struggle, with decades of agitation dating back to America’s founding. The movement included generations of women from every background who worked to secure and demand their place in democracy.
Among its most dedicated architects were women like Susan B. Anthony, Anna Julia Cooper, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Mary Church Terrell, Sojourner Truth, and Ida B. Wells, many of whom organized and led when mainstream suffrage organizations often would not make room for them. They fought for a constitutional right they understood better than most: that a law means nothing without equal access to its protections.
1920 was the finish line for many women across the country. However, for others, access still depended on race, ethnicity, and location; poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses limited their right to vote despite the new amendment. Full ballot access for all women would not come until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 45 years later.
