The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the United States and its states from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex,in effect recognizing the right of women to vote. The amendment was the culmination of a decades-long movement for women's suffrage in the United States,at both the state and national levels,and was part of the worldwide movement towards women's suffrage and part of the wider women's rights movement. The first women's suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress in 1878. However,a suffrage amendment did not pass the House of Representatives until May 21,1919,which was quickly followed by the Senate,on June 4,1919. It was then submitted to the states for ratification,achieving the requisite 36 ratifications to secure adoption,and thereby go into effect,on August 18,1920. The Nineteenth Amendment's adoption was certified on August 26,1920.
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would,if added,explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. It was written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman and introduced in Congress in December 1923 as a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The purpose of the ERA is to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and women in matters of divorce,property,employment,and other matters. Opponents originally argued it would remove protections that women needed. In the 21st century,opponents argue it is no longer needed and some fear it would be extended to abortion and transgender rights.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18,1890,to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations,the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Its membership,which was about seven thousand at the time it was formed,eventually increased to two million,making it the largest voluntary organization in the nation. It played a pivotal role in the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,which in 1920 guaranteed women's right to vote.
Alice Stokes Paul was an American Quaker,suffragist,feminist,and women's rights activist,and one of the foremost leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote. Paul initiated,and along with Lucy Burns and others,strategized events such as the Woman Suffrage Procession and the Silent Sentinels,which were part of the successful campaign that resulted in the amendment's passage in August 1920.
Birch Evans Bayh Jr. was an American Democratic Party politician who served as U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1963 to 1981. He was first elected to office in 1954,when he won election to the Indiana House of Representatives;in 1958,he was elected Speaker,the youngest person to hold that office in the state's history. In 1962,he ran for the U.S. Senate,narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Homer E. Capehart. Shortly after entering the Senate,he became Chairman of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments,and in that role authored two constitutional amendments:the Twenty-fifth—which establishes procedures for an orderly transition of power in the case of the death,disability,or resignation of the President of the United States—and the Twenty-sixth,which lowered the voting age to 18 throughout the United States. He is the first person since James Madison and only non–Founding Father to have authored more than one constitutional amendment. Bayh also led unsuccessful efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and eliminate the Electoral College.
Marcia Carolyn Kaptur is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from Ohio's 9th congressional district. Now in her 21st term,she has been a member of Congress since 1983.
Eleanor Marie Smeal is an American women's rights activist. She is the president and a cofounder of the Feminist Majority Foundation and has served as president of the National Organization for Women for three terms,in addition to her work as an activist,grassroots organizer,lobbyist,and political analyst.
Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum has been primarily focused on social issues;it describes itself as pro-family and reports membership of 80,000. Critics have described it as socially conservative and anti-feminist.
Harriet Taylor Upton was an American political activist and author. Upton is best remembered as a leading Ohio state and national figure in the struggle for women's right to vote and as the first woman to become a vice-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Florence Price Dwyer was an American Republican Party politician who represented much of Essex County,New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives from 1957 to 1973. From 1967 to 1973,she also represented parts of Union County,New Jersey.
Mildred McWilliams "Millie" Jeffrey was an American political and social activist during the labor reforms,women's rights,and civil rights movement.
Emmett Wilson Hanger Jr. is an American politician of the Republican Party. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1983 to 1991,when he was unseated by Creigh Deeds. He then served as member of the Senate of Virginia,representing the 24th district from 1996 to 2024. This district,located in the central Shenandoah Valley and nearby sections of the Blue Ridge Mountains,included the independent cities of Staunton,and Waynesboro,as well as Augusta County,Greene County,Madison County,and parts of Rockingham County and Culpeper County.
Zoe Nicholson is a feminist activist,author,and a longtime member of the National Organization for Women. Openly lesbian,she is known for her work at a historian of Alice Paul as well as her role in the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment.
Women's suffrage was established in the United States on a full or partial basis by various towns,counties,states,and territories during the latter decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. As women received the right to vote in some places,they began running for public office and gaining positions as school board members,county clerks,state legislators,judges,and,in the case of Jeannette Rankin,as a member of Congress.
Linda Smith Dyer was an American lawyer,lobbyist,and women's rights activist. After a two-decade legal career,she entered public service as deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture. She co-founded the Maine Women's Lobby and was active in the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Maine. A member on numerous boards and committees,she was a past president of the Maine State Bar Association and the Family Planning Association of Maine. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2001,a few months before her death.
Amelia Nava is the founder and president of Auxilio y Amistad,based in Tiffin,Ohio. Nava was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1986 for her work providing community services to Mexican-American migrant farm workers.
Dorothy Alice Cornelius was an American registered nurse from Ohio who served in executive and in leadership positions in nursing. Cornelius was the only person to be president of the American Nurses Association,the International Council of Nurses,and the American Journal of Nursing Company.
Women's rights issues in Ohio were put into the public eye in the early 1850s. Women inspired by the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention created newspapers and then set up their own conventions,including the 1850 Ohio Women's Rights Convention which was the first women's right's convention outside of New York and the first that was planned and run solely by women. These early efforts towards women's suffrage affected people in other states and helped energize the women's suffrage movement in Ohio. Women's rights groups formed throughout the state,with the Ohio Women's Rights Association (OWRA) founded in 1853. Other local women's suffrage groups are formed in the late 1860s. In 1894,women won the right to vote in school board elections in Ohio. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was headquartered for a time in Warren,Ohio. Two efforts to vote on a constitutional amendment,one in 1912 and the other 1914 were unsuccessful,but drew national attention to women's suffrage. In 1916,women in East Cleveland gained the right to vote in municipal elections. A year later,women in Lakewood,Ohio and Columbus were given the right to vote in municipal elections. Also in 1917,the Reynolds Bill,which would allow women to vote in the next presidential election was passed,and then quickly repealed by a voter referendum sponsored by special-interest groups. On June 16,1919,Ohio became the fifth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Ohio. Women's suffrage activism in Ohio began in earnest around the 1850s,when several women's rights conventions took place around the state. The Ohio Women's Convention was very influential on the topic of women's suffrage,and the second Ohio Women's Convention in Akron,Ohio,featured Sojourner Truth and her famous speech,Ain't I a Woman? Women worked to create organizations and groups to influence politicians on women's suffrage. Several state constitutional amendments for women's suffrage did not pass. However,women in Ohio did get the right to vote in school board elections and in some municipalities before Ohio became the fifth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
Geraldine Macelwane (1909–1974) was the first woman judge on the Lucas County Common Pleas Court in Ohio.
