August 26, 1920 - 19th Amendment to U.S. Constitution - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

The 19th amendment gives American women the vote. In July 1848, approximately 260 women and 40 men met in Seneca Falls, New York “to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman.” Prior to this convention, a few women had been drafting declarations and resolutions. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton proposed the right to vote, fellow rights supporter Lucretia Mott said, “Why Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous.” Stanton later explained, “I persisted, for I saw clearly that the power to make the laws was the right through which all other rights could be secured.” After the convention, the women were ridiculed, but so began decades of struggle to secure American women the vote. Wyoming became the first state to give women the vote in 1890 and progress continued state by state, but slowly. On the national front, the vote for women was first introduced to the U.S. Congress in 1878, but it would be another 42 years before it came to pass through the 19th amendment to the U.S. constitution. When President Woodrow Wilson finally decided he was in favour of the amendment, he put the political pressure in motion that eventually achieved the required two-thirds Senate and House of Representatives, and three-quarters states vote. The amendment’s ratification took place August 26, 1920. In 1971, Congresswoman Bella Abzug convinced her colleagues to designate every August 26th as Women’s Equality Day.

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