Which amendment to the U.S. Constitution recognized women's voting rights nationwide in 1920?

The Nineteenth Amendment recognized women's voting rights nationwide in 1920.

Congress approved the amendment in June 1919, and Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it on August 18, 1920. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the amendment on August 26, making it part of the Constitution. Its text prohibited the United States and the states from denying or abridging the right to vote on account of sex.

The amendment was the result of decades of organizing by suffragists, including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Carrie Chapman Catt, and many others. The movement used conventions, petitions, publications, demonstrations, and state-by-state campaigns.

The amendment did not create equal voting access for every woman. Many women of color still faced discriminatory state laws, intimidation, and administrative barriers. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped attack many of those practices. The Nineteenth Amendment nevertheless marked a major constitutional change in American democracy.