Timeline of women's suffrage in the United States

This is a timeline of women's suffrage in the United States.

Timeline

1777: Women lose the right to vote in New York.[1]

1780: Women lose the right to vote in Massachusetts.[1]

1784: Women lose the right to vote in New Hampshire.[1]

1787: The U.S. Constitutional Convention places voting qualifications in the hands of the states. Women in all states except New Jersey lose the right to vote.[1]

1790: The state of New Jersey grants the vote to "all free inhabitants," including women.[2]

1807: Women lose the right to vote in New Jersey, the last state to revoke the right.[1]

1848: The Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, is held in Seneca Falls, New York. Women's suffrage is proposed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and agreed to after an impassioned argument from Frederick Douglass.[1]

1853: On the occasion of the World's Fair in New York City, suffragists hold a meeting in the Broadway Tabernacle.[2]

1861-1865: The American Civil War. Most suffragists focused on the war effort and suffrage activity was minimal.[2]

1867: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone address a subcommittee of the New York State Constitutional Convention requesting that the revised constitution include woman suffrage. Their efforts fail.

1867: Kansas holds a state referendum on whether to enfranchise women and/or black males. Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton traverse the state speaking in favor of women suffrage. Both women and black male suffrage is voted down.[3]

1867: The American Equal Rights Association, working for suffrage for both women and African Americans, is formed at the initiative of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.[1]

1869: The territory of Wyoming is the first to grant unrestricted suffrage to women.[2]

1869: The suffrage movement splits into the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association. The NWSA is formed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony after their accusing abolitionist and Republican supporters of emphasizing black civil rights at the expense of women's rights. The AWSA is formed by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and it protests the confrontational tactics of the NWSA and tied itself closely to the Republican Party while concentrating solely on securing the vote for women state by state.[4] Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first president of the National Woman Suffrage Association, a position she held until 1893.[5] Julia Ward Howe was the first president of the American Woman Suffrage Association.[6]

1870: The Utah Territory grants suffrage to women.[3]

1870: The 15th amendment to the U. S. Constitution is adopted. The amendment grants suffrage to former male African-American slaves, but not to women. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton oppose the amendment, which for the first time in the constitution uses the word "males" with regard to a counting device for Congressional representation. Many of their former allies in the abolitionist movement, including Lucy Stone, support the amendment.[3]

1870: Wyoming territory grants its first women suffrage since 1807.[1]

1871: Victoria Woodhull speaks to the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, arguing that women have the right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but the committee does not agree.[3]

1871: The Anti-Suffrage Society is formed.[1]

1872: A suffrage proposal before the Dakota Territory legislature loses by one vote.[2]

1872: Susan B. Anthony registers and votes in Rochester, New York, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives her that right. However, she is arrested a few days later.[3]

1873: Susan B. Anthony is denied a trial by jury and loses her case.[1]

1873: There is a suffrage demonstration at the Centennial of the Boston Tea Party.[1]

1874: In the case of Minor v. Happersett, the Supreme Court rules that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not grant women the right to vote.[2]

1874: There is a referendum in Michigan on women's suffrage, but women's suffrage loses.[2]

1875: Women in Michigan and Minnesota win the right to vote in school elections.[2]

1878: A federal amendment to grant women the right to vote is introduced for the first time by Senator A.A. Sargeant of California.[2]

1880: New York state grants school suffrage to women.[3]

1882: The U.S. House and Senate both appoint committees on women's suffrage, which both report favorably.[1]

1883: Women in the Washington territory are granted full voting rights.[2]

1884: The U.S. House of Representatives debates women's suffrage.[1]

1886: The suffrage amendment is defeated two to one in the U.S. Senate.[1]

1887: Women in Utah lose the right to vote.[1]

1887: The Supreme Court strikes down the law that enfranchised women in the Washington territory.[2]

1887: In Kansas, women win the right to vote in municipal elections.[2]

1887: Rhode Island becomes the first eastern state to vote on a women's suffrage referendum, but it does not pass.[2]

1890: The National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association merge to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Its first president is Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The focus turns to working at the state level. Wyoming grants general women suffrage.[1][2][4]

1890: A suffrage campaign loses in South Dakota.[1]

1893: After a campaign led by Carrie Chapman Catt, Colorado men vote for women suffrage.[1]

1894: Despite 600,000 signatures, a petition for women suffrage is ignored in New York.[1]

1895: The New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage begins.[2]

1895: The National American Woman Suffrage Association formally condemns Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Women's Bible, a critique of Christianity.[2]

1896: Women suffrage returns to Utah upon gaining statehood.[1][7]

1896: The National American Woman Suffrage Association hires Ida Husted Harper to launch an expensive suffrage campaign in California, which ultimately fails.[2]

1896: Idaho grants women suffrage.[1]

1897: The National American Woman Suffrage Association begins publishing the National Suffrage Bulletin, edited by Carrie Chapman Catt.[2]

1900: Carrie Chapman Catt becomes the new leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.[1]

1902: Women from 10 nations meet in Washington, D.C. to plan an international effort for suffrage. Clara Barton is among the speakers.[2]

1902: The men of New Hampshire vote down a women's suffrage referendum.[2]

1904: The National American Woman Suffrage Association adopts a Declaration of Principles.[1]

1904: Because Carrie Chapman Catt must attend to her dying husband, Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw takes over as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.[2]

1906: Elizabeth Cady Stanton's daughter, Harriot Stanton Blatch, returns from England and disapproves of the National American Woman Suffrage Association's conservatism. She responds by forming the Equality League of Self Supporting Women, to reach out to the working class.[2]

1910: Emma Smith DeVoe organizes a grassroots campaign in Washington State, where women win suffrage.[2]

1910: Harriet Stanton Blatch's Equality League changes its name to the Women's Political Union.[2]

1910: Emulating the grassroots tactics of labor activists, the Women's Political Union organizes America's first large-scale suffrage parade, which is held in New York City.[2]

1910: Washington grants women the right to vote.[8]

1911: California grants women suffrage.[1]

1911: In New York City, 3,000 people march for women suffrage.[1]

1912: Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party includes women suffrage in its platform.[1]

1912: Abigail Scott Duniway dissuades members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from involving themselves in Oregon's grassroots suffrage campaign; Oregon women win the vote.[2]

1912: Arizona grants women suffrage.[1]

1912: Kansas grants women suffrage.[1]

1912: Alaska's territorial legislature grants women suffrage.[2]

1913: Alice Paul becomes the leader of the Congressional Union (CU), a militant branch of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.[2]

1913: Alice Paul organizes the women's suffrage parade on the eve of Wilson's inauguration. It is the largest suffrage parade to date and consists of 10,000 people marching down Fifth Avenue in New York City on May 10. The parade is attacked by a mob. Hundreds of women are injured, but no arrests are made.[1][2][9]

1913: The Alaskan Territory grants women suffrage.[1]

1913: Illinois grants municipal and presidential but not state suffrage to women.[1]

1913: Kate Gordon organizes the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference, where suffragists plan to lobby state legislatures for laws that will enfranchise white women only.[2]

1913: The Senate votes on a women suffrage amendment, but it does not pass.[2]

1914: Nevada grants women suffrage.[2]

1914: Montana grants women suffrage.[2]

1914: The Congressional Union alienates leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association by campaigning against pro-suffrage Democrats in the congressional elections.[2]

1915: Anna Howard Shaw's tactical conservatism culminates in a loss of support from the National American Woman Suffrage Association members. She resigns and Carrie Chapman Catt replaces her as president.[2]

1916: Alice Paul and others break away from the National American Woman Suffrage Association and form the National Women's Party.[1]

1916: Woodrow Wilson promises that the Democratic Party Platform will endorse women suffrage.[2]

1916: Montana elects suffragist Jeannette Rankin to the House of Representatives.[2] She is the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.[10]

1917: Beginning in January, the National Women's Party posts silent "Sentinels of Liberty," also known as the Silent Sentinels, at the White House. The National Women's Party is the first group to picket the White House. In June, the arrests begin. Nearly 500 women are arrested, and 168 women serve jail time.[1][11][12]

November 14, 1917: The "Night of Terror" occurs at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia, in which suffragist prisoners are beaten and abused.[13]

1917: The U.S. enters W.W.I. Under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt, the National American Woman Suffrage Association aligns itself with the war effort in order to gain support for women's suffrage.[2]

1917: Arkansas grants women the right to vote in primary, but not general elections.[2]

1917: Indiana grants women presidential suffrage.[1]

1917: Nebraska grants women presidential suffrage.[1]

1917: North Dakota grants women presidential suffrage.[1]

1917: Michigan grants women presidential suffrage.[1]

1917: Rhode Island grants women presidential suffrage.[1]

1917: The New York state constitution grants women suffrage.[1] New York is the first Eastern state to fully enfranchise women.[2]

1917: The Oklahoma state constitution grants women suffrage.[1]

1917: The South Dakota state constitution grants women suffrage.[1]

1918: The jailed suffragists are released from prison. An appellate court rules all the arrests were illegal.[1]

1918: The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which eventually granted women suffrage, passes the U.S. House with exactly a two-thirds vote but loses by two votes in the Senate. Jeannette Rankin opened debate on it in the House, and President Wilson addressed the Senate in support of it.[1][2]

1918: President Wilson declares his support for women suffrage.[1]

1919: Michigan grants women full suffrage.[2]

1919: Oklahoma grants women full suffrage.[2]

1919: South Dakota grants women full suffrage.[2]

1919: The National American Woman Suffrage Association holds its convention in St. Louis, where Carrie Chapman Catt rallies to transform the association into the League of Women Voters.[2]

1919: In January, the National Women's Party lights and guards a "Watchfire for Freedom." It is maintained until the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passes the U.S. Senate on June 4.[1]

1920: The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, stating, "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.[1][14]

1920: In the case of Hawke v. Smith, anti-suffragists file suit against the Ohio legislature, but the Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of Ohio's ratification process.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 "The Woman Suffrage Timeline". The Liz Library. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 "A History of the American Suffragist Movement". The Moschovitis Group. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "US Suffrage Movement Timeline, 1792 to present". Anthony Center for Women's Leadership at the University of Rochester. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  4. 1 2 "Teaching With Documents: Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment". The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  5. ↑ Daniel Coit Gilman; Harry Thurston Peck; Frank Moore Colby (1904). The New International Encyclopaedia, Volume 16. Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 188. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  6. ↑ Catherine Clinton; Christine A. Lunardini (2000). The Columbia Guide to American Women in the Nineteenth Century. Columbia University Press. p. 179. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Constitution of the State of Utah (Article IV Section 1)". 1896-01-04.
  8. ↑ "The History of Voting and Elections in Washington State". Secstate.wa.gov. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Chronology of Woman Suffrage Movement Events". Scholastic Corporation. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Jeannette Rankin". United States House of Representatives - Office of Art & Archives. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Woodrow Wilson: Women's Suffrage". PBS. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  12. ↑ "PSI Source: National Woman's Party". McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Night of Terror Leads to Women's Vote in 1917". Women's eNews. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  14. ↑ "ARTICLE XIX The Nineteenth Amendment (The Susan B. Anthony Amendment)". The Liz Library. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
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