TIMELINE OF THE AMERICAN WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT AND VOTING RIGHTS, 1600s to Present
1600 and 1700s In the Iroquois Confederacy, women participate in all major decisions including the power to veto any act of war, select chiefs, and approve any negotiation involving land
1776 Declaration of Independence is signed restricting the right to vote to white, male property owners, twenty-one years of age or older • New Jersey grants suffrage to women and African-Americans in its first state constitution as long as they possess a required amount of property or wealth • As circumscribed by common law from the English colonists, coverture laws state married women do not have a separate legal existence from their husbands, making them dependents like underage children and they are not allowed to own property or control their earnings
1777 Women in New York state lose the right to vote
1780 Women in Massachusetts lose the right to vote
1784 Women in New Hampshire lose the right to vote
1787 The United States Constitution is adopted with no federal voting standard • Women in all states, except New Jersey, lose the right to vote
1790 Naturalization Law limits citizenship to free whites
1791 The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified allowing the states to reserve the right to regulate their own voting laws
1807 New Jersey restricts voting to white male citizens • Kentucky passes the first statewide woman suffrage law allowing female heads of household to vote in elections deciding on taxes and local boards for the new county “common school” system
1820 - 1880 Society promotes “The cult of domesticity” and discourages women from participating in public affairs
1826 Maryland is the last state to extend civil rights to Jewish Americans
1837 Abolitionist Angelina Grimke’s “An Appeal to the Women of the Nominally Free States” is published arguing that women — as citizens have a duty to engage in the political concerns of their country such as slavery
1838 Kentucky granted limited suffrage for single women in rural school elections
1839-1840 The Anti-Slavery Movement divides along the lines of belief about the role of women
1840 Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are barred from the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London
1848 Seneca Falls, New York is the location for the first Women’s Rights Convention • Citizenship is granted to Mexican-Americans
1851 Sojourner Truth gives a famous speech at a woman’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio
1865 The KKK or the Klan is founded and extends into almost every southern state by 1870. It became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for African Americans
1865-66 Most Southern state legislatures enact restrictive laws known as Black Codes, which strictly govern Black citizens’ behaviors and deny them suffrage and other rights
1866 The American Equal Rights Association (AERA) is formed “to secure Equal Rights to all American citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color, or sex”
1867 The Michigan Legislature grants women taxpayers the right to vote for school trustees
1868 The 14th Amendment is ratified granting citizenship to all persons “born or naturalized in the United States”
1869 National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) are both founded • Wyoming Territory grants suffrage to women
1870 Utah Territory grants suffrage to women • The 15th amendment to the U. S. Constitution is adopted giving African American men the right to vote • Kentucky state legislature limits 1838 school suffrage law to white widows
1872 In Rochester, NY, Susan B. Anthony registers, votes and is arrested • In Grand Rapids, Michigan Sojourner Truth demands a ballot at a polling booth and is turned away • Victoria Woodhull is nominated as a presidential candidate representing the Equal Rights Party which championed women’s suffrage
1873 Illinois passes a state statute that recognizes women are eligible to serve in school offices • In the Slaughter-House cases, the Supreme Court holds that the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment only protects legal rights that are associated with federal citizenship, not those that pertain to state citizenship • Congress passes the Comstock Act making it a federal offense to disseminate birth control across state lines
1874 The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded to “temper” or moderate alcohol consumption, combat vice and promote a broad range of social reforms including woman suffrage, labor laws and prison reform
1875 In Minor v. Happersett, the Supreme Court rules unanimously that the right to vote is not protected by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution • The Civil Rights Act of 1875 includes a provision outlawing race-based discrimination in jury service
1876 The Supreme Court rules that Native Americans are not citizens as defined by the 14th Amendment and, therefore, cannot vote • In United States vs. Cruikshank, the Supreme Court holds that the Bill of Rights does not apply to private actors or to state governments despite the adoption of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution
1878 A Woman Suffrage Amendment is proposed in the United States Congress. It fails. Yet, the wording is kept and used 41 years later as part of the 19th Amendment
1879 Belva Ann Lockwood becomes the first woman lawyer admitted to practice before the Supreme Court
1880 New York State grants school suffrage to women • Belva Ann Lockwood is the first woman to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court • The Supreme Court strikes down a statute restricting jury service to whites in West Virginia
1882 The United States Senate appoints a Select Committee on Woman Suffrage that finds in favor of the enfranchisement of women, but it does not vote on the measure • The Chinese Exclusion Act bars people of Chinese ancestry from naturalizing to become United States citizens and prohibits immigration of Chinese laborers
1887 Territory of Montana grants full voting rights to women • The Dawes Act passes granting citizenship to Native Americans who give up their tribal affiliations • The Edmunds-Tucker Act is passed by Congress and among other things, it disenfranchised the women of Utah Territory
1888 The International Council for Women is founded and holds its first meeting in Washington, DC
1890 After several years of negotiations, the NWSA and the AWSA merge to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) • Wyoming joins the union as the first state with voting rights for women • The Indian Naturalization Act grants citizenship to Native Americans through an application process
1891 Illinois women are granted the right to vote in school board elections
1893 Colorado grants women the right to vote • The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) is established
1894 Following the lead of other States, Kentucky passes the Married Woman’s Property Act allowing women to hold property after they are married, rather than it becoming the property of their husband
1895 The Woman’s Bible is published by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of 26 women to challenge the traditional position or religious orthodoxy that woman should be subservient to man
1896 Idaho grants women the right to vote • Utah joins the Union as the 45th state and reinstates women’s voting rights • Mary Church Terrell becomes the president of the newly founded National Association of Colored Women (NACW)
1898 Terrell addresses the NAWSA convention challenging white suffragists to not abandon their Black sisters
1904 The United States House of Representatives debates whether the 14th and 15th Amendments had been legally adopted or whether they should be repealed • The International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) forms to campaign for women’s suffrage worldwide • Anna Howard Shaw is elected President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
1906 Congress passes the Nationalization Act of 1906 in order to establish a uniform rule for citizenship
1907 The Expatriation Act passes mandating that “any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband.” The law did not apply to a man marrying a foreign woman
1908 The first street parade for women suffrage is organized by the Harlem Equal Rights League in New York
by 1910 The broad disenfranchisement of African American men is all but secured in the South through Jim Crow laws
1910 The State of Washington grants women the right to vote • The Women’s Political Union held its first suffrage parade in New York City
1911 California gives women the vote • A plebiscite - the direct vote of all the members of Congress - is called to consider repealing the 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution • National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) is founded • International Woman’s Day is celebrated for the first time on March 19th.
1912 Suffrage referendums are passed in Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon • Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party, “Bull Moose,” is the first major national party to include women’s suffrage in its platform • Two suffrage parades are organized in New York City. The second one in November had 15,000 suffragists marching during the rainy, cold and windy night.
1913 Territory of Alaska grants full voting rights to women and Illinois allows women to vote in Presidential elections • Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organize a suffrage parade in Washington, DC, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration • Ida B. Wells-Barnett organizes the first suffrage club for African American women in Chicago, Illinois called the Alpha Suffrage Club • The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU) is formed by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns to campaign for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women’s suffrage
1914 Montana and Nevada grant voting rights to women • The General Federation of Women’s Clubs endorses suffrage signifying that the cause has been taken up by mainstream women • 15,000 supporters march in a suffrage parade on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.
1914 - 1918 WWI
1915 Suffrage referendum in New York State is defeated • Suffrage parades are held in support of suffrage referendums in New York and Boston • The Ku Klux Klan is revived and is now not only anti-black but also takes a stand against Roman Catholics, Jews, foreigners and organized labor. It is still in operation today • Carrie Chapman Catt resumes the position of president of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) • The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage nominates two envoys to drive a suffrage petition cross country
1916 Jeannette Rankin from Montana, becomes the first woman to serve in Congress • Rep. Thomas Sisson of Mississippi introduces a resolution to ask the Justice Department to bring to the Supreme Court a test case that would determine whether the 14th and 15th Amendments were “legally adopted and are a part of the Constitution” • National Woman’s Party (NWP) is formed by Alice Paul as an outgrowth of the Congressional Union to fight for women’s suffrage, ignoring all other issues • The Western Campaign is launched by the National Woman’s Party • Carrie Chapman Catt reveals her “winning plan” that devises a strategy involving coordinated activities by state and local suffrage associations across the nation forming a collective strength of the suffrage movement
1916 - 1970 The Great Migration - 6 million Blacks relocate to Northeast, Midwest and Western urban areas
1917 Women win the right to full suffrage in New York and the ability to vote in Presidential elections in North Dakota, Ohio, Indiana, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Nebraska • United States enters World War I • Arkansas becomes the first non-suffrage state to allow women to vote in primary elections • Members of the National Woman’s Party are arrested and jailed for picketing the White House. When they go on a hunger strike, they are force-fed • Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1917
1918 Michigan, Oklahoma and South Dakota grant voting rights to women • House of Representatives passed a resolution (HJ200) in favor of a woman suffrage amendment, but it is defeated in the Senate • WWI ends and women’s roles in the war shift society’s perspective on woman suffrage
1918 - 1919 The influenza pandemic breaks out and derails the fight for woman suffrage
1919 Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin allow women to vote in Presidential elections • The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution granting women the vote is adopted by a joint resolution of Congress and sent to the states for ratification • New York and twenty-one other states ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. • Native Americans who served in the military during World War I are granted US citizenship • The 18th Amendment (Prohibition) is ratified • The “Prison Special” tours the country to gain support for woman suffrage
1920 Tennessee becomes the thirty-sixth, and final state, to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment • August 26: The Nineteenth Amendment is adopted and most of the women of the United States are finally enfranchise. • Mary McLeod Bethune leads an African American voter registration drive in Florida despite threats from the KKK • The League of Women Voters is officially founded • American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded to “defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in by the Constitution and laws of the United States”
1920s The New Negro Movement promotes a renewed sense of racial pride, cultural self-expression, economic independence and progressive politics.
1921 The Sheppard-Towner Act provides funding for maternity and child care. It is short-lived, however.
1922 The Cable Act of 1922 partially reverses the Expatriation Act of 1907 allowing women who had married foreigners to reapply to restore their United States citizenship • The Supreme Court rules that people of Japanese heritage are ineligible to become naturalized citizens.
1923 Equal Rights Amendment proposed to remedy inequalities not addressed in the 19th Amendment • The Supreme Court rules that “Asian Indians” are also not eligible to become naturalized citizens
1924 Indian Citizenship Act is passed granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. The right to vote, however, was governed by state law. Until 1957, some states barred Native Americans from voting • Congress Passes the Immigration Act of 1924 limiting the number of immigrants allowed into the United States
1924 - 1925 Widows succeed their husbands as governors of Texas and Wyoming
Late 1920s Many states continue to bar women from jury duty and public office
Late 1920s and on Southern states stop passing explicitly discriminatory jury service laws, but continue empaneling all-white juries • Middle-class women attend college and enter the labor force
By 1929 Anticipated “women’s vote” fails to materialize by end of decade
1929 - 1939 The Great Depression causes millions of Americans to lose their jobs, but employment for women rose
1933 In the New Deal years, many women are appointed to federal service positions • 21st Amendment is passed officially repealing prohibition
1935 Mary McLeod Bethune becomes the founding president of the National Council of Negro Women
1936 Federal court rules birth control legal for its own sake, rather than solely for prevention of disease • Mary McLeod Bethune is appointed a special advisor on minority affairs by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
1937 The Passport Division of the Department of State issues a memo eliminating the “wife of” requirement allowing married women to travel under their own names
1939 - 1945 WWI
1940 The Nationality Act of 1940 reserves citizenship for white individuals, and those individuals of African and Native American descent
1941 United States enters World War II • Millions of women are recruited for defense industry jobs • The Women’s Army Corps (WAC), Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES - Navy), and United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (SPAR) are established as first women’s military corps
1942 Oklahoma women are granted the right to hold state executive offices, but, it will be three decades before the number of elected state women officials actually start to increase.
1942 - 1945 By government order, people of Japanese descent are interred in camps.
1945 - 1946 Percentage of women in the labor force declines as women leave jobs to get married and to make way for returning soldiers.
1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act passes letting women serve as full, permanent members of all branches of the United States military
1949 By end of decade, number of working women is again on the rise
1950s - 1960s Membership numbers in the KKK surge for the third time
1950 - 1953 Korean War
1951 The all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment is disbanded, eliminating the formal practice of segregation in the Army.
1952 The McCarran-Walter Act grants all people of Asian ancestry the right to become citizens and vote • The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 is passed • Democratic and Republican parties eliminate women’s divisions
1955 Civil Rights movement escalates in the South - sit-ins and demonstrations provide models for future protest strategies
1960 FDA approves birth control pills.
1961 President’s Commission on the Status of Women is established and successfully pushes for passage in 1963 of Equal Pay Act, first federal law to require equal compensation for men and women in federal jobs. • The 23rd Amendment passes giving citizens of Washington D.C. the right to vote for the United States President.
1962 Utah is the last state to guarantee voting rights for Native Americans.
1964 Civil Rights Act passes and the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution becomes law making poll taxes illegal in federal elections
1965 Voting Rights Act of 1965 becomes law in August. Its purpose was to overcome legal barriers at the state and local level that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to United States Constitution. Section 2 of the Act applied a nationwide prohibition against the denial or abridgment of the right to vote based on literacy tests • Earlier in the year, on March 7th a peaceful voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama turned violent when Alabama State Troopers attacked the marchers • The United States Supreme Court rules in Griswold v. Connecticut that the Constitution of the United States protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction • The Immigration Act of 1964 ends 40 years of bans against immigration from Japan and other formerly restricted areas
1966 The United States Supreme Court bans poll taxes in state elections • National Organization for Women is founded and promotes child care for working mothers, abortion rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, and “full participation in the mainstream of American society now”
1968 Shirley Chisholm, a New York Democrat, is the first Black woman to serve in Congress
1970 United States Congress extends Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for five years which allowed for special enforcement provisions targeted at areas of the country where Congress believed the potential for discrimination to be the greatest. Jurisdictions covered could not implement any change affecting voting until the Attorney General or the United States District Court of Columbia determined that the change did not have a discriminatory purpose and effect.
1971 The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution passes lowering the voting age to 18 • Contraception is removed from the “obscene” items list of the Comstock Act of 1873
1972 After nearly 50 years, Equal Rights Amendment is passed, and moves to the ratification phase • Civil Rights Act bans sex discrimination in employment and education • Title IX is passed barring discrimination in education settings under penalty of denying federal assistance • Shirley Chisholm is first black American to run for president• Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) allows women to compete in marathons • In Eisenstadt v. Baird, the United States Supreme Court established the right of unmarried people to possess contraception on the sme basis as married couples overturning a Massachusetts law that made distributing birth control to single people illegal.
1973 In Roe v. Wade, U.S. Supreme Court affirms women’s right to first trimester abortions without state intervention
1974 The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 passes making it unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status allowed women to access lines of credit (credit cards) without a male cosigner on their applications • Ella Grasso of Connecticut becomes the first woman Governor elected in her own right.
1975 Voting Rights Act is amended to include protection of voting rights for non-English speaking American citizens by requiring that certain voting materials be printed languages besides English. • Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is extended for another 7 years • In Taylor v. Louisiana the United States Supreme Court holds that women cannot be excluded from a jury on the basis of having to register for jury duty
1976 Mary Rose Oakar becomes the first woman elected to Congress in Ohio and the first Arab-American woman to serve in Congress
1977 By this year, three separate court cases rule in favor of a woman having the right to sue her employer for sexual harassment under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
1978 The Pregnancy Discrimination Act passes forbidding discrimination on pregnancy when it comes to any aspect of employment including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, such as leave and health insurance and any other term or condition of employment
1980 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issues guidelines defining sexual harassment and circumstances under which an employer may be held liable
1981 Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice
1982 Deadline for Equal Rights Amendment ratification expires - final count is three states short of adoption • Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is extended for 25 years, continuing to use a formula to identify areas in the country that are prone to racial discrimination in voting
1984 Geraldine Ferraro is first woman from a major political party nominated as Vice President
1986 The Supreme Court rules that a prosecutor’s use of a peremptory challenge (dismissing of a potential juror without a valid cause) in a criminal case may not be used to exclude jurors based solely on their race.
1988 The Women’s Business Ownership Act passes giving women equal access to capital in order to start their own business, no longer requiring husbands or male relatives to cosign for business loans
1992 More women run for and are elected to public office than in any other year in United States history
1993 The National Voter Registration Act passes requiring states to offer voter registration opportunities at the Department of Motor Vehicles, and public assistance and disabilities agencies • All 50 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws against marital rape
2000 A federal court decides that residents of United States colonies – including Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands (nearly 4.1 million total people) are citizens, but are unable to vote
2001 The National Commission on Federal Election Reform recommends that all states allow felons to regain their right to vote after completing their criminal sentences. Nearly 4 million U.S. citizens in various states are prohibited from voting based on past felony convictions
2002 The Help America Vote Act passes creating new mandatory minimum standards for states to follow in several key areas of election administration
2006 Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 extend the prohibition of the use of tests or devices to deny the right to vote and the requirement for certain States to provide voting material in multiple languages for 25 years
2012 Olympic Rules change allowing both men and women to compete in every sport
2013 The United States Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ruling that it is unconstitutional to require states with a history of voter discrimination to seek federal approval before changing their election laws, freeing nine states (mostly in the South) to change their election laws • The United States Pentagon states women can now serve in front-line combat positions in the United States military
2015 The Supreme Court rules that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry
2017 Nevada is the 36th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
2018 A record number of women are elected to Congress • Illinois is the 37th state to ratify the ERA
2019 The United States has only 9 women governors and 20 states have never had a woman serve as governor
2020 The State of Virginia becomes the 38th and final state needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment • The U.S. House of Representatives passes HJ79, a joint resolution to remove the original time limit assigned to the Equal Rights Amendment • Women of color are running for congress at an all-time high
ONWARD The fight for equality is waged on many fronts; women are seeking political influence, better education, health reform, job equity, and legal reform. The demands echo those of the movement throughout its history.