Women's Suffrage History
Presented by the Alabama State Bar
The Alabama State Bar is proud to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of Congress’s passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing all American women the right to vote. From the early 1800s, women across the country organized, wrote, and protested in favor of equal voting rights.
It was not until 1878 that an amendment guaranteeing women’s suffrage was introduced to Congress. On June 4, 1919, Congress passed what became the 19th Amendment, readying it for ratification by the states on August 18, 1920. Here, we chronicle the history of women’s suffrage across the world, and share some of the best written and visual resources on the American journey to women’s voting rights.
Events
University of Alabama School of Law Symposium
Centenial Celebration: An Exploration of the Impact of Alabama Women
ASB 19th Amendment Task Force Capital City Celebration
Showings of The Fight for the Noblest Democracy
This short film by Jenna M. Bedsole briefly reviews the national suffrage movement and then turns its focus to the suffrage movement in Alabama. It features the leaders who advocated for women’s right to vote – their triumphs and their disappointments. The film also includes those who opposed the expansion of women’s right to vote, why they fought against it, and their tactics to stop the effort.
Birmingham Bar Association
Vulcan Museum
League of Women Voters
Blackburn Institute
Girlspring
Justice Bell
Resources
From the Archives
Browse historical documents from the collection of the Alabama Department of Archives & History.
- Scrapbook on Education and Women’s Suffrage: A scrapbook created by Ellen Hildreth of New Decatur, Alabama that contains clippings, correspondence, programs, publications, broadsides, photographs, and other memorabilia. Among correspondents are Carrie Chapman Catt, Laura Clay, Susan B. Anthony, and Helen Keller.
- Brochures for Women’s Continuing Education: hree brochures (one from Auburn University at Montgomery and two from Alabama State University in Montgomery) from the 1970s that encouraged women to seek education and careers.
- Pro-Suffrage Broadside: A pro-suffrage broadside from the early 20th century advocating for equal suffrage rights regardless of race.
- “Votes for Colored Women”: An anti-suffrage flier from the early 20th century discouraging the passage of the 19th amendment because it would lead to the enfranchisement of African American women.
- From the Page: Help the ADAH transcribe primary source documents relating to women’s history. While some materials are suffrage-related, they are all focused on Alabama women, their lives, and achievements.
- Alabama [email protected]: A clearinghouse of online resources for Alabama history from partner organizations throughout the state.
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Exhibits
See photos, artifacts, and other items of significance from the times of the fight for women’s suffrage.
2019 Exhibitions and Programs Explore America’s Changemakers, Library of Congress
19th Amendment Centennial of Women’s Right to Vote, American Bar Association
Votes for Women, The Smithsonian
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, National Portrait Gallery
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, Digital Version, Google Arts & Culture
Centennial Commemorations & History
Read more about the history of women’s suffrage in Alabama, and see more on the celebration of the 19th Amendment.
Alabama Women’s Suffrage Centenial, Alabama Women’s Suffrage Centennial Committee
“They Are Too Sweet and Angelic to Reason,” Or, How Women Got the Vote in Alabama, Huntsville History Collection
Alabama Equal Suffrage Association, Encyclopedia of Alabama
19th Amendment Centennial of Women’s Right to Vote, American Bar Association
Women’s Suffrage Centennial, 1920-2020, Humanities New York
Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote, Library of Congress Magazine
Women’s Issues Within Political Party Platforms, The Pudding
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Celebrates Centennial of “First Step” toward Equal Citizenship for Women, Says Work Remains, Georgetown Law
How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Helped Advance Women’s Rights, Smithsonian Magazine
What the Spanish Flu Had to do With Women’s Suffrage (audio), New York Public Radio
Listen & Read
Listen: Our Playlist
We’ve compiled a list of inspiring songs to accompany your journey through the history of women’s suffrage. Just click play below to listen!Singles
Brave by Sara Barielles
Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill
Try by Colbie Caillat
Miss Independent by Kelly Clarkson
Stronger by Kelly Clarkson
You Gotta Be by Des’ree
Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves by Eurythmics feat. Aretha Franklin
Respect by Aretha Franklin
You Don’t Own Me by Lesley Gore
I’m Every Woman by Whitney Houston
The Pill by Loretta Lynn
Paths of Victory by Odetta
9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
Just Because I’m A Woman by Dolly Parton
Roar by Katy Perry
Fight Song by Rachel Platten
I Am Woman by Helen Reddy
Different Drum by The Stone Poneys feat. Linda Ronstadt
Ain’t Got No – I Got Life by Nina Simone
She Works Hard for the Money by Donna Summer
Albums
Songs of the Suffragettes by Elizabeth Knight
Video
Read & Watch: Bibliography
Our bibliography contains works for all age groups covering the history of women’s suffrage in Alabama and across the United States. Download it as a PDF here, or click any of the headings below to browse the list.
A Protest Against Women’s Suffrage in Alabama
After the Vote Was Won: The Later Achievements of Fifteen Suffragists
Alice Paul and the American Suffrage: The Campaign
Princess of the Hither Isles: A Black Suffragist’s Story from the Jim Crow South
Daughters of a Nation: A Black Suffragette Historical Romance Anthology
The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays, 1st Edition
Rise Up Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes
Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited (Viewpoints on American Culture)
Sisters: The Lives of America’s Suffragists
Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist
With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote
A Look at the Nineteenth Amendment: Women Win the Right to Vote
The Concise History of Woman Suffrage: Selections from History of Woman Suffrage
Born Criminal: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Radical Suffragist
Women’s Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement
Treacherous Texts: U.S. Suffrage Literature, 1846-1946
Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment (Points in History)
Remembering Inez: The Last Campaign of Inez Miholland, Suffrage Martyr
Votes for Women: American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot
The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928
Alabama Women: Their Lives and Times (Southern Women: Their Lives and Times)
Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 1848-1869
The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader: Correspondence, Writing, Speeches
Fighting Chance: The Struggle over Women Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America
Woman Suffrage and Citizenship in the Midwest, 1870-1920
Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights
Women’s Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement (Classic Reprint)
Selling Suffrage: Consumer Culture and Votes for Women
Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States
Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Woman Suffrage
Suffrage Reconstructed: Gender, Race and Voting Rights in the Civil Rights Era
Women’s Suffrage in America: An Eyewitness History
Woman Suffrage and the New Democracy
Southern Strategies: Southern Women and the Woman Suffrage Question
Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull
How Women Got the Vote: The Story of Women’s Suffrage Movement in America
All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture, 1830-1900
The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States
The Suffrage Cook Book (Classic Reprint)
All Stirred Up: Suffrage Cookbooks, Food, and the Battle for Women’s Right to Vote
Free at Last to Vote: The Alabama Origins of the 1965 Voting Rights Act
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence
Mrs Despard and The Suffrage Movement: Founder of The Women’s Freedom League
Minnie Fisher Cunningham: A Suffragist’s Life in Politics
100 Years of the Nineteenth Amendment: An Appraisal of Women’s Political Activism
The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment
Are Women People? A Book Of Rhymes For Suffrage Times
The Suffragists in Literature for Youth: The Fight for the Vote
Gilded Suffragists: The New York Socialites Who Fought for Women’s Right to Vote
Women Together: A History of Documents of the Women’s Movement in the United States
Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography
Suffragette: The Battle for Equality
Hearts And Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote
Virtuous Lives: Four Quaker Sisters Remember Family Life, Abolitionism, and Women’s Suffrage
One Hundred Years of Struggle: The History of Women and the Vote in Canada
Quoting Matilda: The Words and History of a Forgotten Suffragist
Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics 1830-1930
Susan B. Anthony: In Her Own Words
The Valiant Nellie McClung: Selected Writings by Canada’s Most Famous Suffragist
Suffragists in the Imperial Age: U.S. Expansion and the Woman Question: 1870-1927
A Voice of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 1840-1910
Votes for Women!: The Story of Carrie Chapman Catt
The Women’s Bible: A Classic Feminist Perspective
Front Pages, Front Lines: Media and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage
Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote
African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920
The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848-1898
The New Woman in Alabama: Social Reforms and Suffrage 1980-1920
The Suffragettes (Penguin Little Black Classics)
Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage 1870-1896
The Women’s Suffrage Movement Paperback
A Woman’s Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot
Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote
Victory for the Vote: The Fight for Women’s Suffrage and the Century that Followed
The Women’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote
One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Women’s Suffrage Movement
The 19th Amendment (We The People: Modern America)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed the World
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box
Fighting Chance: The Struggle Over Women Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America
Francesca Vigilucci: Washington DC, 1913 (American Diaries #17)
Suffrage Reconstructed: Gender, Race and Voting Rights in the Civil War Era
Because They Marched: The People’s Campaign for Voting Rights that Changed America
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life
In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The Nineteenth Amendment: Women Get the Vote
March of the Suffragettes: Rosalie Gardiner Jones and the March for Voting Rights
The Ideas of the Women’s Suffrage Movement: 1890-1920
A Time For Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen (Dear America)
Maria Takes a Stand: The Battle for Women’s Rights (Sisters in Time #18)
My Best Friend the Suffragette
Susan B. Anthony: Champion of Women’s Rights (Childhood of Famous Americans)
African American Women and the Vote, 1937-1965
Rebel Voices: The Rise of Votes for Women
African-American Women in the Struggle For the Vote 1850-1920
The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and First Womens Right’s Convention
Roses and Radicals: The Epic Story of How American Women Won the Right to Vote
A Voice From the Wilderness: The Story of Anna Howard Shaw
Why Couldn’t Susan B. Anthony Vote?: And Other Questions About Women’s Suffrage
You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton?
A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women’s Rights
She’s Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!
Secrets on 26th Street (American Girl History Mysteries #5)
If You Lived When Women Won Their Rights
Mama Went to Jail for the Vote
Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote
Heart on Fire: Susan B. Anthony Votes for President
Suffrage Sisters: The Fight for Liberty
Marching with Aunt Susan: Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage
Elizabeth Started All the Trouble
Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass
Miss Paul and the President: The Creative Campaign for Women’s Right to Vote
Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Miles
When Esther Morris Headed West
Great Women of the Suffrage Movement (We the People: Industrial America)
Created Equal: Women Campaign for the Right to Vote 1840-1920
Women of the Suffrage Movement (Women Who Dare)
The Taxing Case of the Cows: A True Story About Suffrage
Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote
Voting Rights Days (Hitty’s Travels, #3)
I Could Do That!: Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote
Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
When Esther Morris Headed West: Women, Wyoming, and the Right to Vote
Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Before the US
New Zealand
September 19, 1893
New Zealand becomes the first self-governing country in the world to grant women the right to vote when its governor, Lord Glasgow, signs the Electoral Act into law.
Australia *
April 10, 1902
Parliament enacts the Commonwealth Franchise Act. Women over the age of 21 become able to vote in national elections, and stand for the Australia Parliament, regardless of whether or not they have the right to vote in their home states.
Finland
June 1, 1906
The Diet, the legislative assembly of the Grand Duchy of Finland, approves electoral reforms establishing universal suffrage.
Norway
June 11, 1913
With no members speaking in the debate, the Norwegian Parliament unanimously votes for women's suffrage. Norway becomes the first sovereign state in the world to introduce universal suffrage.
Denmark
June 5, 1915
King Christian X signs the constitution passed by parliament. This replacement of the 1849 and 1866 constitutions, which reserved political office and voting rights for head-of-household men over 30, grants all Danish citizens the right to vote and run for office.
Source: Denmark marks 100 years of women's rights, TheLocal.dk
Estonia
April 12, 1917
While under the control of the Russian Provisional Government, Estonian women were granted the right to vote along with Estonia gaining autonomy as a nation. Later, in 1920, universal suffrage was included in independent Estonia's constitution.
Russia
July 20, 1917
The Provisional Government issues a decree granting voting rights for women aged 20. A mass rally on March 19, 1917, with over 40,000 marchers, saw protestors occupying the Tauride Palace grounds until the Provisional Government and Soviet committed to women's suffrage.
Source: Equality & Revolution, by Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild
Canada **
May 24, 1918
Women not included in racial and Indigenous exclusions become eligible to vote in federal elections, regardless of their provincial franchise status.
Source: Women's Suffrage in Canada, The Canadian Encyclopedia
Georgia
May 26, 1918
In the wake of the Russian Revolution, Georgia declares itself an independent republic on May 26, 1918. Equality regardless of race, sex and religion were among its founding principles, including women's suffrage.
Source: #GEORGIA100, Embassy of Georgia to the United States
Austria, Germany, Kyrgyzstan and Poland
1918
Throughout 1918, women are granted the right to vote across Europe. The legislative bodies of Austria and Germany approve women's suffrage; Poland grants the right by decree of Provisional Chief of State Józef Piłsudski. The Soviet government grants universal suffrage to the Kyrgyz SSR.
Source: 100 years of women's right to vote in Poland, Poland.pl et al
Latvia
November 18, 1918
Latvia becomes an independent nation by declaration of the People's Council of Latvia. As a territory of the Russian Empire, Latvian women had been granted the right to vote in 1905; universal suffrage in independent Latvia was granted by the Law on Elections to the Constitutional Assembly.
Source: The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe: Voting to Become Citizens, Brill
Belarus
February 4, 1919
While the nation was under Soviet control, Belarussian women were granted suffrage nationwide.
The Netherlands
May 9, 1919
The Dutch House of Representatives votes 64-10 in favor of women's suffrage, granting women within the Dutch mainland the right to vote.
Source: Hundred years of universal suffrage, a celebration, HouseOfRepresentatives.nl
Luxembourg
May 9, 1919
After a parliamentary act, all Luxembourg citizens, including women, gained the right to vote. Previously, voting was limited to property owners, and only 25% of men were able to vote.
Source: Right to vote, Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
* Aboriginal men and women were not granted the right to vote until 1962.
** First Nations men and women did not become eligible to vote until 1960.
Resolution
The Alabama Legislature has passed a resolution recognizing the Alabama Centennial of Women’s Suffrage Committee. It states:
WHEREAS, a proposed women’s suffrage amendment was first introduced in the United States Senate in 1878 and was brought to a vote, unsuccessfully, in 1887, 1914, 1918, and 1919; and
WHEREAS, during 1919 and 1920, the Sixty-Sixth Congress debated, and the state legislatures considered, an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to provide suffrage for women; and
WHEREAS, on May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives approved a proposed amendment, followed by the United States Senate on June 4; several state legislatures followed within a few days of the approval of the amendment; and
WHEREAS, on August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th State to ratify the amendment, providing the support of three-fouths of states necessary under Article V of the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS, Alabama’s celebration of the centennial of women’s suffrage offers an opportunity for Alabamians to learn more about, and commemorate, the efforts of the women’s suffrage movement and the role of women in our democracy; now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, BOTH HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That we endorse the efforts of the existing Alabama Centennial of Women’s Suffrage Committee for the purpose of leading the state in its centennial commemoration of women’s suffrage, and hereby resolve to support the Alabama Centennial of Women’s Suffrage Committee in promoting, planning, and executing the Committee’s historic, educational, celebratory, and cultural initiatives to observe and commemorate the centennial of women’s suffrage in the State of Alabama.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we encourage the Secretary of State to provide support to the Centennial of Women’s Suffrage Committee, through his position as Alabama’s election official and his efforts to educate Alabamians about the importance of the right to vote and voter participation.