The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920.
The amendment prohibits the United States and its states from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex. Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify it on August 18, 1920, supplying the three-fourths majority required for constitutional amendments at the time.
The amendment was the culmination of decades of organizing by women’s-rights advocates. Leaders and activists included Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul, although the movement included many other participants and sometimes excluded women of color.
Ratification did not immediately guarantee equal access to the ballot for every woman. Many Black women and other women continued to face discriminatory state laws, intimidation, poll taxes, literacy tests, and administrative barriers. The amendment marked a major constitutional change, but voting-rights struggles continued afterward.