# Canonical recap data for American Women's Suffrage Ratified (1920)
# Source: https://recap.at/1920/19th-amendment-ratified
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: 19th-amendment-ratified
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1920/19th-amendment-ratified"
title: American Women's Suffrage Ratified
aliases:
- 19th Amendment
- Women's Suffrage Amendment
- The Susan B. Anthony Amendment
subtitle: The 19th Amendment's ratification on August 18, 1920 enfranchised 26 million American women overnight, doubling the electorate.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1920-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1920
decade: 1920
country:
name: United States
slug: united-states
summaryShort: The legal status of women in the United States has advanced significantly over the past two centuries, but not yet equal to that of men in comparison to other high-income democracies.
summaryLong: The legal status of women in the United States has advanced significantly over the past two centuries, but not yet equal to that of men in comparison to other high-income democracies.
lede: On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, granting women the right to vote nationwide. The amendment capped a 72-year campaign led by suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt, transforming women's political participation and marking a watershed moment in American democracy.
heroImageUrl: "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1760829130145-2ea0ac80f8b0?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w5NjI1OTZ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwzfHxBbWVyaWNhbiUyMFdvbWVuJTI3cyUyMFN1ZmZyYWdlJTIwUmF0aWZpZWR8ZW58MHwwfHx8MTc4MTY5MTA1NXww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080"
heroImageCredit: Mike Newbry on Unsplash
importance: 85
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Years of campaigning
  value: 72 years (1848–1920)
- label: First women's rights convention
  value: Seneca Falls, New York, July 19–20, 1848
- label: States required to ratify
  value: 36 of 48 (three-fourths majority)
- label: Final ratifying state
  value: Tennessee (August 18, 1920)
- label: Vote margin in Tennessee
  value: One vote in the state legislature
- label: Key organizers
  value: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt
- label: Women added to eligible electorate
  value: Approximately 26 million
timeline:
- date: 1848-07-19
  title: Seneca Falls Convention
  description: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organize the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, where the Declaration of Sentiments calls for voting rights alongside other reforms.
- date: 1872-11-05
  title: Susan B. Anthony's Illegal Vote
  description: Susan B. Anthony casts a ballot in the presidential election in Rochester, New York, and is arrested for violating federal law. She is convicted and fined $100, which she refuses to pay.
- date: 1878-01-10
  title: Federal Suffrage Amendment Introduced
  description: The Women's Suffrage Amendment is first introduced in Congress by California Senator Aaron A. Sargent, remaining stalled for decades.
- date: 1913-03-03
  title: Washington D.C. Suffrage Parade
  description: Carrie Chapman Catt organizes a massive suffrage parade in Washington D.C. the day before President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, drawing an estimated 5,000 marchers and generating national media attention.
- date: 1919-06-04
  title: Amendment Passes Congress
  description: After decades of pressure, the 19th Amendment passes both chambers of Congress with the required two-thirds majority and is sent to the states for ratification.
- date: 1920-08-18
  title: Tennessee Ratification
  description: Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, reaching the three-fourths threshold required for constitutional adoption. The deciding vote is cast by 24-year-old Harry Burn, a state representative who changes his position after receiving a letter from his mother urging support.
- date: 1920-08-26
  title: Amendment Officially Adopted
  description: The 19th Amendment is formally certified and adopted into the U.S. Constitution, becoming binding law nationwide.
- date: 1920-11-02
  title: First Presidential Election with Women Voters
  description: Women vote in a U.S. presidential election for the first time, participating in Warren G. Harding's successful campaign against James M. Cox.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_States"
  title: American women
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: The ratification fundamentally expanded the American electorate and established a constitutional basis for women's political equality. It triggered cascading changes in women's economic participation, labor organizing, and political representation over the subsequent decades, though formal parity in voting power and political access remained incomplete.
categories:
- election
taxonomy:
domain: political
eventTypes:
- constitutional_reform
canonicalClasses:
- transformation
- mobilization
- governance
impactRadius: national
velocity: gradual
predictability: forecastable
intentionality: coordinated
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: transition
metaDescription: "August 18, 1920: The 19th Amendment grants U.S. women the right to vote after 72 years of activism."
wikidataQid: Q17514041
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The New York Times
  publisherSlug: the-new-york-times
  headline: Woman Suffrage Wins in the States - Tennessee Ratifies the 19th Amendment
  publishedAt: 1920-08-26
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable
  excerpt: The Tennessee legislature's ratification of the 19th Amendment delivered the decisive 36th state needed to enshrine women's voting rights in the Constitution. The historic vote, secured after intense political maneuvering and last-minute appeals, marks the culmination of a 72-year suffrage campaign.
  significance: 90
  type: newspaper
  region: United States
- publisher: The Times of London
  publisherSlug: the-times-of-london
  headline: America Grants Women the Vote - Constitutional Amendment Ratified
  publishedAt: 1920-08-27
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - The ratification of America's 19th Amendment is watched closely in Britain, where women over 30 secured limited suffrage two years prior. American newspapers trumpet the result as a vindication of democratic principles.
  significance: 75
  type: newspaper
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: The Chicago Tribune
  publisherSlug: the-chicago-tribune
  headline: Votes for Women - The Nation's Daughters Win Their Rights
  publishedAt: 1920-08-26
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Illinois women, long at the forefront of the suffrage movement, prepare to cast ballots in the coming presidential election. Chicago's civic leaders hail the amendment as a triumph of American democracy.
  significance: 65
  type: newspaper
  region: United States
- publisher: The Literary Digest
  publisherSlug: the-literary-digest
  headline: The Woman Voter - What America's Press Says About the Historic Amendment
  publishedAt: 1920-09-04
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - The weekly magazine synthesizes editorial reactions across the country, capturing both jubilation from suffrage advocates and warnings from conservative commentators about women entering the political sphere.
  significance: 70
  type: magazine
  region: United States
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260111155532/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_States"
  capturedAt: 2026-01-11
  label: American women
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_States"
