Which amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted women the right to vote nationwide?

The Nineteenth Amendment granted women the constitutional right to vote nationwide.

Congress approved the amendment in 1919, and it became part of the Constitution on August 18, 1920, when Tennessee supplied the required thirty-sixth state ratification. Its text prohibits the United States or any state from denying or abridging the right to vote on account of sex.

The amendment was the result of a long women’s suffrage movement involving organizers, petitioners, lecturers, journalists, and political campaigners. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 is often treated as a landmark in the movement, although women’s voting rights developed unevenly across states and territories before 1920.

The amendment did not eliminate every barrier to voting. Many women of color, including Black women in the South, continued to face discriminatory registration rules, intimidation, and violence. The Fifteenth Amendment addressed race-based voting discrimination in 1870, but enforcement was weakened for decades.