Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

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Ratified on August 18, 1920, Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution granted American women the right to vote.^[1] The amendment marked the end of a long struggle for women in the United States that began in the mid-nineteenth century.^[1] The movement, called women's suffrage, marked a radical change in how women were viewed in America. When the Constitution was written, it was accepted that a woman did not have a separate legal identity from her husband.^[2] Women's suffrage challenged that concept. The Nineteenth Amendment overturned an earlier decision by the United States Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett.^[3] The Court held that the right to vote, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to all citizens of the United States, did not apply to women.^[3] Women were citizens, but did not have the right to vote.^[3] The Nineteenth Amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1878 by Senator Aaron A. Sargent. The bill calling for the amendment was introduced unsuccessfully every year for the next 40 years. Finally, in 1919, Congress approved the amendment and submitted it to the states for ratification. A year later Tennessee gave the final vote needed to add the amendment to the Constitution.^[a][6]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote". The National Archives. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
2. ↑ "Women's Rights". Digital History. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} "Minor v. Happersett". Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
4. ↑ "The Constitutional Amendment Process". The National Archives. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Cite error: The named reference 19HIST was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
6. ↑ "Teaching With Documents: Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment". The National Archives. Retrieved 13 March 2016.