Women Get the Vote!

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (certified 26 August 1920)

Those darn women! Always wanting things. Like the right to vote. Here's the text of the amendment that finally extended the franchise to women:*

1. 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.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by appropriate legislation.

Passed by the House of Representatives on 21 May 1919 and by the Senate on 4 June 1919, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified on 18 August 1920, when Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to approve it. 

Alice Paul, 1920,
raising a glass (of juice) in victory

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified on 26 August 1920.

Just over two months later, on 8 November 1920, some eight million American women voted in the first national elections for which they were eligible to vote. 

(It took more than sixty years for the rest of the states to pass the Nineteenth Amendment--Mississippi didn't get around to ratifying that pesky amendment until 22 March 1984. Go, Mississippi!)

Of course extending the franchise to women by amending the constitution did not go unchallenged--for the Supreme Court case Leser v. Garnett (1922), unanimously upholding the constitutionality of the Nineteenth Amendment, click here.

And here's a bonus note for the day: on the fiftieth anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, on 26 August 1970, women across America conducted a Women's Strike for Equality. Here are a few images from the march in New York City, headed by Betty Friedan:

Betty Friedan at the march

I hope somebody's planning a kick-ass celebration for 26 August 2020!!

*If you consider the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 as the start of the women's suffrage movement, it took more than seventy years for women to achieve this goal. If you missed them, here are posts for the first and second days of the Convention. And if you ever wondered what happened to the Equal Rights Amendment, click here.

Update, August 2019: And the centennial begins! Check out Jennifer Schluesser's "The Complex History of the Women's Suffrage Movement." The New York Times piece notes three exhibitions on the subject of women's suffrage that complicate and expand the discussion of the movement. Schluesser's piece contains links to exhibitions opening at the National Portrait Gallery, the Library of Congress and the National Archives (all in Washington, D.C.).

Update, 26 August 2020: Well, because of the pandemic there were no kick-ass celebrations. At least there was a PBS documentary.  And a postage stamp. For more, click here.

Carrie Chapman Catt: Suffragist, Political Activist, Organizer

Carrie Chapman Catt (co-founder, International Woman Suffrage Alliance, 3 June 1904)

Born on 9 January 1859 in Wisconsin, Carrie Clinton Lane played an important part in the American suffrage movement after becoming involved in 1887, though her role and views are not without controversy.

Carrie Chapman Catt,
1914

As Carrie Lane, she attended Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), one of only six women in her class of twenty-seven. After her graduation in 1880, she worked as a law clerk and a teacher before becoming the first female superintendent of schools in the district of Mason City, Iowa.

In 1885 she married Leo Chapman, editor and publisher of the Mason City Republican newspaper. Shortly after their marriage, he traveled to San Francisco, where he died.

Although Carrie Chapman was not with him on the trip, she arrived a few days later and decided to remain in San Francisco, where she worked as a newspaper reporter.

She returned to Charles City, Iowa, in 1887 and joined the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association. In June 1990, she married George Catt, a wealthy engineer whom she had met in San Francisco (although he was, like his wife, a graduate of Iowa State Agricultural College). It was Catt who encouraged her to become involved in the suffrage movement at the national level.

Carrie Chapman Catt was an active member of the National American Women Suffrage Association and, in 1902, began working on the formation of an international women's group that would be formally constituted in Berlin on 3 June 1904, with Catt as the organization's first president. (The organization has been renamed several times since, and now is called the International Alliance of Women.)

New York Times, 1912

Catt continued her active political advocacy after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

After 1920, she helped to establish the League of Women Voters, and in 1923, with co-author Nettie Rogers Shuler, Catt published a history of the American suffrage movement, Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement.

She took up the pursuit of child labor laws, was actively involved in peace movements during both world wars, protested against Hitler's persecutions of the Jews in the early 1930s, well before the war began, and after World War II worked on behalf of disarmament.

But her advocacy for women did involve her in controversy. After Elizabeth Cady Stanton published The Woman's Bible in 1895, Catt was among those who broke with the NAWSA over fear that Stanton's challenge to religion's conventional views of women would alienate women of faith. Catt also made statements that support white supremacy. For an excellent essay exploring the links between white supremacy and the suffrage movement, posted by the New York Historical Society Museum & Library, click here. (The essay includes information about Catt and her activities.) 

While she was married twice, Catt lived for more than twenty years with her domestic partner Mary Garrett Hay. Catt died on 9 March 1947, choosing to be buried alongside Hay rather than either of her husbands. The single monument marking their graves reads: "Here lie two, united in friendship for 38 years through constant service to a great cause."

Her role in developing the "winning plan" to pass the Nineteenth Amendment is portrayed in the 2004 film Iron Jawed Angels.

There are several biographies, but I like Jacqueline Van Voris's Carrie Chapman Catt: A Public Life, published by Feminist Press. You might also be interested in Nate Levin's biography for young-adult readers, Carrie Chapman Catt: A Life in Leadership.

Phebe Ann Hanaford: Minister, Writer, Activist

Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford (born 6 May 1829)

Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford

Over the course of her long life--she died in on 2 June 1921, just two months after her ninety-second birthday--Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford accomplished a great deal. 

Born in Nantucket, she was a wife and mother, roles expected of most women of her day. But she also was well educated (taught by an Episcopalian minister who offered the girl a curriculum that included mathematics and classical languages), and she went on to become a writer, a teacher, a minister, a public speaker, a chaplain for the Connecticut legislature, and an important, if now little recognized, figure in the women's suffrage movement. 

Phebe Hanaford is also a significant figure in gay and lesbian history, identified as the "earliest certifiable lesbian minister" in the United States.

One reason for the obscurity of Hanaford today may, in fact, be due to her sexuality. According to Lisa M. Tetrault, a split at the Universalist Church of the Good Shepherd in Jersey City, after her three-year term as minster, may have been the result not of her activism on behalf of women's suffrage, as it has been conventionally explained, but because of her lesbian identity:

After separating from her husband (whom she never officially divorced), Hanaford had begun living with a woman named Ellen Miles. Newspaper clippings preserved in Hanaford's scrapbook reported that the disgruntlement among congregation members was, in fact, over Hanaford's liaison with Miles, whom the papers called the "minister's wife." Hanaford, it seems, was not simply asked to cease her women's rights activities, but more specifically, to "dismiss" Miss Miles. The split in the Jersey City congregation, then, actually appears to have been over Hanaford's intimate personal life. While we cannot know for certain the exact nature of Hanaford and Miles's relationship, their letters testify to a deep and abiding affection. The two remained life-long companions, separated after forty-four years together only by Miles's death in 1914.

Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford's published writing includes anti-slavery tracts, an 1865 life of Lincoln (it was the first biography of Lincoln to be published), and a volume of poetry.

And unlike so many of the women she had worked with to secure women the right to vote--Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Julia Ward Howe, among them--Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford lived long enough to see the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

When she died, her family buried her in an unmarked grave in Orleans, New York.

As a result of the efforts of Loretta Cody and the Reverend Sarah Barber-Braun, there is now a grave marker, funded by the New York State Universalist Convention.

There is an excellent biography: Loretta Cody's A Mighty Social Force: Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford, 1829-1921. But you might want to start with Tetrault's essay, "A Paper Trail: Piecing Together the Life of Phebe Hanaford," written for the Nantucket Historical Association.

Geraldine Ferraro: A Woman Runs

Geraldine Ferraro (died 26 March 2011)

Fittingly, Geraldine Ferraro was born on 26 August 1935--the fifteenth-anniversary of the certification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1984, Ferraro became the first woman nominated by a major political party (Democratic) to run for the office of Vice President of the United States.

Geraldine Ferraro, U.S. House of Representatives
from the Biographical Dictionary
of the United States database

If you're not familiar with Ferraro's historic run, you may be interested in the documentary film, Geraldine Ferraro: Paving the Way. And for a brief overview of her life and career, here's the New York Times obituary, "She Ended the Men's Club of National Politics," accompanied by a photo gallery, several multi-media features, including the video feature "Last Word: Geraldine Ferraro" and a slide show entitled "A Barrier-Breaking Woman on a Major-Party Ticket," and, finally, a link to Joyce Furnick's essay, "Why Gerry Ferraro Mattered" (I added a link here, in case it disappears from the obituary).

You will find Robin Pogrebin's excellent New York Times essay "Ferraro Remembered as Inspiration to a Nation’s Daughters," by clicking here. 

Leser v. Garnett: The Nineteenth Amendment (and Women's Suffrage) Challenged

Leser v. Garnett (decided 27 February 1922)

Although the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States--the amendment affirming that women had the right to vote--was ratified on 26 August 1920 (actually, the amendment's ratification was certified on that date), the constitutionality of the amendment was challenged, the case winding up in the Supreme Court.

The Court's opinion, delivered on 27 February 1922 by Justice Louis Brandeis, summarized the origins of the case:

On October 12, 1920, Cecilia Streett Waters and Mary D. Randolph, citizens of Maryland, applied for and were granted registration as qualified voters in Baltimore City. To have their names stricken from the list Oscar Leser and others brought this suit in the court of Common Pleas. The only ground of disqualification alleged was that the applicants for registration were women, whereas the constitution of Maryland limits the suffrage to men. Ratification of the proposed Amendment to the Federal . . . Constitution, now known as the Nineteenth, . . . , had been proclaimed on August 26, 1920. . . . The Legislature of Maryland had refused to ratify it. The petitioners contended, on several grounds, that the Amendment had not become part of the Federal Constitution. 

The plaintiffs disputed the constitutionality of the Nineteenth Amendment on three principle "grounds": that the power to amend the Constitution did not cover this amendment "because of its character"; that several states had ratified the amendment despite the fact that their state constitutions prohibited women from voting; and that, in particular, the ratifications of the states of Tennessee and West Virginia were were invalid because they were adopted without following the rules of legislative procedure in place in those states.

In its decision, the court addressed, and responded to, each objection in turn. The Court's response to the first objection reveals the fears of Leser and his fellow plaintiffs: "The argument is that so great an addition to the electorate, if made without the State's consent, destroys its autonomy as a political body." The Court refutes this argument by referring to the Fifteenth Amendment (while noting that the state of Maryland had rejected that amendment, granting the right to vote to former slaves--or, at least, to male slaves).

To the second, the Court argued, "the function of a state legislature in ratifying a proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution, like the function of Congress in proposing the amendment, is a federal function derived from the Federal Constitution; and it transcends any limitations sought to be imposed by the people of a State."

Finally, while responding in some detail to the arguments about Tennessee and West Virginia, the Court noted that the "question raised may have been rendered immaterial by the fact that since the proclamation the legislatures of two other States — Connecticut and Vermont — have adopted resolutions of ratification."

The decision was unanimous.

Caroline Seymour Severance, Activist and Organizer

Caroline Seymour Severance (born 12 January 1820)

Abolitionist, suffragist, social reformer and political organizer, Caroline Seymour Severance is less well known than many of the American women with whom she worked during her lifetime, women like Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony.

Caroline Severance in California,
c. 1910

Born in New York and educated in several female academies, the young Caroline Seymour was a teacher before she married Theodoric Severance in 1840.

Between 1841 and 1849, she gave birth to five children--and although we might expect her time to be fully occupied with her family, Severance later wrote that her marriage had freed her: "I was under bondage to authority, dogmas and conservative ideas until I married." 

Her husband may have been a banker but, she said, he was "very concerned with great movements to reform society, rather than simply bemoan its decaying state." She credits her marriage and family life with helping to shape her as a social reformer.

In their Cleveland home, the Severances welcomed abolitionists and women's rights activists: "We . . . became very active in the woman's rights movement of the time, attending our first convention in Akron in 1851. I was asked to prepare a tract for the Ohio Woman's Rights Association in 1853 arguing for equal property rights, and delivered it proudly at the state convention, in spite of the hooting and laughter from many of the disreputable sort who had infiltrated the audience."

The Severance family relocated to Boston in 1855 and to Los Angeles in 1875. In that Southern California city, she continued her dedication to political activism and social causes: she and her husband created the First Unitarian Church in Los Angeles in 1877, while Caroline herself worked to bring the kindergarten movement to Los Angeles, helped to establish the Los Angeles Women's Club, dedicated to improving the lives of homeless children, and founded the Los Angeles Public Library. She also helped develop the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, worked to found a local branch of the University of California (UCLA), promoted historic preservation, and opened an employment bureau.

Although she died before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, the indefatigable Severance lived long enough to see the state of California extend the suffrage to women in 1911, and she voted in the 1912 presidential election in California. She died in November 1914.

Ella Giles Ruddy's 1906 "appreciation" of Severance, The Mother of Clubs: Caroline M. Seymour Severance, is available for free at Google Books; to read or download, click here.(I linked to an Internet Archive copy, above.) California historian Virginia Elwood-Akers's 2012 full-length biography, Caroline Severance Seymour, is available at Amazon. 

Caroline Severance's grave,
Angelus Rosedale Cemetery,
Los Angeles

Update, 12 January 2023: A primary source here was Connecticut History on the Web, but that is a source that no longer exists. I've left the information in, but I’ve removed the dead links--I’m hoping that the account will be back online at some point . . . 

Update, 12 January 2025: Some of the information from Connecticut History on the Web is still accessible, thanks to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Here is a link Constance Severance’s letter about her life, quoted above, and from this preserved capture of the now-disappeared site, you can still find a few more resources about her. 

Alice Paul and the Fight for Women's Suffrage

Alice Paul (born 11 January 1885)

Alice Paul, c. 1917

The American feminist and activist Alice Paul lived a long and full life--she died in 1977, aged ninety-two. Over the course of this long life, she succeeded in many of her political and civil rights goals, credited as one of the early twentieth-century strategists who finally achieved the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, in 1920, granting women in the United States the right to vote.

Paul continued her work on behalf of women even after the passage of the women's suffrage amendment, ensuring that women were included as a protected class in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

But she was unable to accomplish the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Along with Crystal Eastman, Paul first proposed the amendment in 1923 and presented it as the "Lucretia Mott Amendment" at the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention: 

Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The ERA was introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and 1970. After decades of debate, discussion, study, revision, and clarification, the ERA was finally adopted in 1970 by the 92nd Congress. It was never ratified. It has been reintroduced in Congress every session since 1982, most recently, in the U. S. Senate on 7 May 2015, by New Jersey's Robert Menendez, and in the House on 14 May 2015, by New York's Carolyn Maloney.*

There are many online resources available for Alice Paul, and many excellent books. I like Mary Walton's A Woman's Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot.

You might also enjoy the HBO film, Iron Jawed Angels, which focuses on the last decade of the fight to gain the right to vote for women.

Alice Paul, second from left, 1920

This photo shows Alice Paul (second from left) with members of the National Women's Party, protesting the Republican Convention of 1920 with a banner quoting Susan B. Anthony.

*Update, January 2017: An Equal Rights Amendment was introduced into the 115th Congress shortly after it was convened in January. In the Senate, on 20 January 2017, Robert Menendez (D-NJ) once again introduced the amendment; in the House, on 24 January 2017, the bill was once again introduced by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). In both houses, the resolution was sent to committee. Where, once again, it died.

Update, January 2019: The Equal Rights Amendment was again introduced into the 116th Congress. In January, "Three-State Strategy" legislation was proposed by Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) in the Senate and by lead sponsor Jackie Speier (D-CA) in the House. In March, "traditional" legislation was proposed by Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).

Update, January 2022: Nope. Introduced in the 117th Congress. Still not passed.

Update, 12 January 2024: Dead in the 118th Congress too. For more on this, click here. 

Updat, 17 January 2025: Just three days before the end of his term, President Joe Biden said that “he believes that the Equal Rights Amendment has met the requirements of ratification and therefore is now part of the Constitution." The problem? Biden "declined to order the government to finalize the process by officially publishing it.” So, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Here's my favorite comment, from writer Elie Mystal: "Biden had FOUR YEARS to try to move the needle on this. Making this ERA statement now, with a foot literally out the door, and shirting the focus to a humble government functionary, is not courage and is not progress. It’s cowardice, from a party that has gotten all too used to it." 

Update, 22 March 2025: Under the current misogynist regime (also racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and depraved), there is little hope for the ERA. As this piece in Axios describes the current situation, “Weeks into Trump 2.0, Equal Rights Amendment advocates see a bleak political landscape.”