Which amendment, ratified in 1920, expanded voting rights to women in the United States?

The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, expanded voting rights to women in the United States.

Its text prohibits the federal government and the states from denying a U.S. citizen the right to vote on the basis of sex. Congress approved the amendment in 1919, and Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify it on August 18, 1920, providing the required approval.

The amendment was the result of a long women’s suffrage movement involving activists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul, and Carrie Chapman Catt. The movement included campaigns, public speaking, petitions, legal challenges, and demonstrations.

Ratification did not guarantee that every woman could vote immediately in practice. Racial discrimination, intimidation, citizenship restrictions, and other barriers continued to exclude many women, especially women of color, for decades.