American Women’s Suffrage Movement

In America, support for women’s rights was building steam early in the 19th century, but many mark the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement with the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. Prior to the convention, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met in London at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention. They were told they could not participate in the proceedings because of their gender but could silently observe from the women’s section. Mott, a Quaker minister and abolitionist from Philadelphia, and Stanton, an activist and social reformer from New York, vowed to each other that they would hold a women’s rights meeting in the US.

On July 9, 1848, Mott, Stanton, Mary Ann M’Clintock, Martha Coffin Wright, and Jane Hunt gathered in Waterloo, New York. Over tea they expressed their frustrations and decided to hold a Women’s Rights Convention later that month in Seneca Falls, New York. A few days before the convention, the women gathered again to draft an agenda and create a “Declaration of Sentiments” (primarily authored by Stanton). Modelled after the Declaration of Independence, the document outlined a series of grievances against the social, civil, and religious rights of women.

The two-day Women’s Rights Convention began on July 19, 1848, attracting approximately 300 attendees, including both men and women. The agenda addressed various issues facing women, and the “Declaration of Sentiments” was read aloud, discussed, and edited. Of the document’s 12 resolutions, only one lacked unanimous support – women’s right to vote. The issue was debated, and Frederick Douglass, the only Black attendee of the convention, spoke powerfully in support of women’s suffrage. In the end, the resolution passed by a majority and the “Declaration of Sentiments” was signed by 100 of the attendees (68 women, 32 men).

The Seneca Falls Convention marked the first formal call for women’s suffrage. Public response was mixed. While it garnered support from some progressive circles, it was also met with substantial criticism. Many traditionalists viewed women’s suffrage as radical and unwelcome. However, the event helped the suffrage movement gain traction, resulting in women’s rights conventions and organizations being subsequently organized and established across the United States. Over the following decades, the principles established at Seneca Falls informed the strategies and demands of the women’s suffrage movement, culminating in the eventual passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Of the “Declaration of Sentiments” signers, Charlotte Woodward was the only one still alive in 1920 when the 19th Amendment passed, but she wasn’t well enough at the time to vote herself.

A Timeline of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in America

  • 1840

    Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton meet in London at the World Anti-Slavery Convention. They’re told they aren’t allowed to participate in the proceedings because of their gender but can silently observe from the women’s section. This inspires them to hold a Women’s Convention in the US.

  • 1848

    A two-day Women’s Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, NY. Elizabeth Cady Stanton pens “The Declaration of Sentiments.” Women’s suffrage is included after much debate and strong support from Frederick Douglass.

  • 1850

    The first National Woman’s Rights Convention is held in Worcester, MA, with more than 1,000 participants from 11 states. Frederick Douglass, Paulina Wright Davis, Abby Kelley Foster, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone and Sojourner Truth are amongst the attendees. A strong alliance is formed with the Abolitionist Movement.

  • 1851

    Second National Women’s Rights Convention is held in Worcester, MA. Participants include Horace Mann, New York Tribune columnist Elizabeth Oaks Smith, and Reverend Harry Ward Beecher, one of the nation’s most popular preachers.

    At the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, OH, Sojourner Truth, a formerly enslaved abolitionist and women’s rights activist, delivers her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech.

  • 1852

    The issue of women’s property rights is presented to the Vermont Senate by Clara Howard Nichols.

  • 1853

    While the World’s Fair is held in NYC, suffragists hold a meeting in the Broadway Tabernacle.

  • 1857

    At a New York State Teachers’ Convention in Binghamton, Susan B. Anthony calls for education for both women and Black people.

  • 1858

    Suffragist Lucy Stone refuses to pay her property taxes, citing “no taxation without representation.”

  • 1861-1865

    During the Civil War, efforts for the suffrage movement are minimal as women focus their energies on the war effort.

  • 1866

    Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the American Equal Rights Association, an organization for White and Black women and men, dedicated to the goal of suffrage for all. They petition Congress for “universal suffrage.”

  • 1868

    Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Parker Pillsbury publish the first edition of The Revolution, with the motto “Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less!”

    Caroline Seymour Severance establishes the New England Woman’s Club. Dubbed the “Mother of Clubs,” it inspires the club movement which became popular by the late 19th century.

    In Vineland, NJ, 172 women cast ballots in a separate box during the presidential election.

    Senator S.C. Pomeroy of Kansas introduces the federal woman’s suffrage amendment in Congress.

    Many early suffrage supporters, including Susan B. Anthony, remain single because in the mid-1800s, married women could not own property in their own rights and could not make legal contracts on their own behalf.

    The 14th Amendment is ratified. “Citizens” and “voters” are defined exclusively as male.

  • 1869

    Wyoming territory is the first to grant unrestricted suffrage to women.

    The American Equal Rights Association becomes divided over the 14th Amendment and the question of whether to support the proposed 15th Amendment, which would give Black American males the vote, while avoiding the question of woman suffrage entirely.

    Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony found the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in NY, a more radical institution, in an effort to achieve the vote through a Constitutional amendment as well as push for other women’s rights issues.

    Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, and other more conservative activists form the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in Boston to work for woman suffrage through amending individual state constitutions.

  • 1870

    The Utah Territory grants suffrage to women.

    The 15th Amendment gives Black men the right to vote.  NWSA refused to work for its ratification, instead advocating for a 16th Amendment that would grant universal suffrage.  Frederick Douglass broke with Stanton and Anthony over the position of NWSA.

    The Woman’s Journal is founded and edited by Mary Livermore, Lucy Stone, and Henry Blackwell.

  • 1871

    Victoria Woodhull addresses the House Judiciary Committee, arguing women’s rights to vote under the 14th Amendment.

    The Anti-Suffrage Party is founded.

  • 1872

    Susan B. Anthony casts her ballot for Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election and is subsequently arrested and brought to trial in Rochester, NY.  15 other women are arrested for illegally voting.  Sojourner Truth appears at a polling booth in Battle Creek, MI, demanding a ballot to vote; she is turned away.

    Abigail Scott Duniway convinces Oregon lawmakers to pass laws granting a married woman rights such as starting and operating her own business, control of money she earns, and the right to protect her property if her husband leaves.

    Victoria Woodhull, nominated by the Equal Rights Party, is the first female to run for President of the United States, with a platform supporting women’s suffrage and equal rights.

  • 1873

    A suffrage demonstration is held at the Centennial of the Boston Tea Party.

    In Minor v. Happersett, the Supreme Court rules that the 14th Amendment does not guarantee women the right to vote, determining that citizenship does not give women voting rights, and women’s political rights are under individual states’ jurisdictions.

  • 1874

    Annie Wittenmyer founds The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). With Frances Willard at its head (1876), the WCTU became an important proponent in the fight for woman suffrage. Fearing women might use their vote to prohibit the sale of liquor, the liquor lobby became a strong opponent to the suffrage movement.

  • 1875

    In Michigan and Minnesota, women gain the right to vote in school elections.

  • 1876

    Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage disrupt the official Centennial program at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, presenting a “Declaration of Rights for Women” to the Vice President.

  • 1878

    Senator Aaron A. Sargent of California proposes a Woman Suffrage Amendment in the U.S. Congress. Although unsuccessful, when the 19th Amendment passes 41 years later, it’s worded exactly as this 1878 Amendment.

  • 1882

    The U.S. House and Senate both appoint committees on women’s suffrage.

  • 1883

    Washington territory grants women full voting rights.

  • 1884

    The U.S. House of Representatives debates women’s suffrage.

  • 1887

    The first vote on woman suffrage is taken in the Senate and is defeated.

    The Edmunds–Tucker Act takes away the women’s vote in Utah in order to suppress the Mormon vote in the Utah territory.

    Kansas grants women the right to vote in municipal elections.

  • 1888

    The National Council of Women in the United States is established to promote the advancement of women in society.

  • 1890

    Wyoming is admitted to the Union with a state constitution granting woman suffrage.

    NWSA and AWSA merge and the National American Woman Suffrage Association is formed. Elizabeth Cady Stanton is the first president. The Movement focuses efforts on securing suffrage at the state level.

    The American Federation of Labor declares support for woman suffrage.

  • 1890-1925

    The Progressive Era begins. Women from all classes and backgrounds enter public life. Women’s roles expand and result in an increasing politicization of women. As a result, the issue of woman suffrage becomes part of mainstream politics.

  • 1892

    Olympia Brown founds the Federal Suffrage Association to campaign for woman’s suffrage.

  • 1893

    Colorado adopts woman suffrage.

  • 1894

    600,000 signatures are presented to the New York State Constitutional Convention but efforts fail to bring a woman suffrage amendment to the voters.

  • 1895

    Elizabeth Cady Stanton publishes The Woman’s Bible. Considered too radical by conservatives, NAWSA distances itself from Stanton.

  • 1896

    Utah reinstates women’s suffrage upon gaining statehood.

    Idaho grants women suffrage.

    Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Frances E.W. Harper, and others found the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs.

  • 1897

    Edited by Carrie Chapman Catt, the National American Woman Suffrage Association begins publishing the National Suffrage Bulletin.

  • 1903

    Mary Dreier, Rheta Childe Dorr, Leonora O’Reilly, and others form the Women’s Trade Union League of New York, an organization of middle- and working-class women dedicated to unionization for working women and to woman suffrage.

  • 1906

    Harriot Stanton Blatch (Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s daughter) returns from England and forms the Equality League of Self Supporting Women with a membership based on professional and industrial working women. It initiates the practice of holding suffrage parades.

  • 1908

    The first US suffrage march is held in Oakland, California. Approximately 300 women marches nearly a mile along Broadway in Oakland to the site of the California State Republican Convention to demand California suffrage be added to the Republican platform (state Democratic and Labor parties had already done so).

  • 1910

    Washington State grants women suffrage.

    The Women’s Political Union organizes a large-scale suffrage parade in NYC.

  • 1911

    California grants women suffrage.

    The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) is organized. Led by Mrs. Arthur Dodge, its members included wealthy, influential women, some Catholic clergymen, distillers and brewers, urban political machines, Southern congressmen, and corporate capitalists.

  • 1912

    Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona grant women suffrage.

    Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party is the first major political party to support women’s suffrage on a national level.

    20,000 supporters participate in a NYC suffrage parade.

  • 1913

    Alaska territory grants Black and White women suffrage.

    Illinois grants municipal and presidential but not state suffrage to women.

    On the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) organizes the Women’s Suffrage Procession, its largest spectacle to date. The parade marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, is attacked by a mob. Hundreds of women are injured but no arrests are made.

    Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organize the Congressional Union, later known at the National Women’s Party (1916) to campaign for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women’s suffrage. They borrowed strategies from the radical Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in England, who demonstrated in the streets, chained themselves to buildings, heckled politicians, broke store windows, planted explosive devices, and engaged in other destructive activities fueled by the motto “Deeds not words.”

  • 1914

    Nevada and Montana grant women suffrage.

    The National Federation of Women’s Clubs, with over two million women members across the U.S., formally endorses the suffrage campaign.

  • 1915

    Mabel Vernon and Sara Bard Field are involved in a transcontinental tour which gathers over a half-million signatures on petitions to Congress.

    40,000 march in a NYC suffrage parade.  Many women are dressed in white and carry placards with the names of the states they represent.

  • 1916

    Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.

    Woodrow Wilson states that the Democratic Party platform will support suffrage.

  • 1917

    New York and Rhode Island grant women suffrage.

    Arkansas women are allowed to vote in primary elections.

    National Woman’s Party picketers appear in front of the White House holding two banners, “Mr. President, What Will You Do For Woman Suffrage?” and “How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty?”  They are the first group to picket the White House. In June, the arrests begin. Nearly 500 women are arrested, and 168 serve jail time. In November, the government unconditionally releases the picketers in response to public outcry and an inability to stop National Woman’s Party picketers’ hunger strike.

    Jeannette Rankin of Montana, the first woman elected to Congress, is formally seated in the U.S. House of Representatives.

    Alice Paul, leader of the National Woman’s Party, was put in solitary confinement in the mental ward of the prison in an effort to “break” her will and to undermine her credibility with the public.

    November 14 becomes known as the “Night of Terror” at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia when suffragist prisoners are beaten and abused.

  • 1918

    Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma grant women suffrage.

    Representative Rankin opens debate on a suffrage amendment in the House. The amendment passes but fails to win the required two thirds majority in the Senate.

    President Woodrow Wilson declares his support for a federal woman suffrage amendment.

    President Wilson addresses the Senate about adopting women’s suffrage at the end of World War I.

  • 1919

    The Senate finally passes the 19th Amendment. The ratification process begins.

  • August 26, 1920

    Three quarters of the state legislatures ratify the 19th Amendment.

    American women win full voting rights.

7 Things You Might Not Know About the Women’s Suffrage Movement
https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-womens-suffrage-movement
Amelia Bloomer
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/amelia-bloomer#:~:text=After%20noticing%20the%20health%20hazards,in%20the%20women’s%20rights%20movement.
Bloomers
https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/bloomers/
Britannica – Seneca Falls Convention
https://www.britannica.com/event/Seneca-Falls-Convention
Democracy Limited: The Politics of Dress
https://www.nps.gov/articles/democracy-limited-the-politics-of-dress.htm
Dressing for the Movement
https://wiltonhistorical.org/dressing-for-the-movement/
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust
https://elizabethcadystanton.org/mrs-stanton/life-times/
From Indifferent to Cosmopolitan: Transportation and Social Change in Seneca Falls
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/transportationsenecafalls.htm
History of the Women’s Rights Movement
https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/history-of-the-womens-rights-movement/
Kesselman, Amy. “The ‘Freedom Suit’: Feminism and Dress Reform in the United States, 1848-1875.” Gender and Society, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 495-510.
More Women’s Rights Conventions
https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/more-womens-rights-conventions.htm
National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House
https://susanb.org/timeline-2/#
Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I A Woman?
https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm
The International History of the US Suffrage Movement
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-internationalist-history-of-the-us-suffrage-movement.htm#:~:text=The%20history%20of%20the%20US,led%20to%20the%20Nineteenth%20Amendment.
Timeline of Legal History of Women in the United States
https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/resources/womens-rights-movement/detailed-timeline/
What Is Suffragette White? Symbolic Dressing for Women’s Right to Vote, From 19th Century Protest Movement to 2024 Democratic National Convention
https://wwd.com/feature/suffragette-white-history-1236408015/
Who Was Alice Paul?
https://www.alicepaul.org/about-alice-paul/ Why the Women’s Rights Movement Split Over the 15th Amendment
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/why-the-women-s-rights-movement-split-over-the-15th-amendment.htm
Wikipedia – Seneca Falls Convention
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention
Wikipedia – Timeline of women’s suffrage in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_States
Wikipedia – Women’s Suffrage in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_States
Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage#background
Woman Suffrage Timeline (1840-1920)
https://www.crusadeforthevote.org/woman-suffrage-timeline-18401920
Women’s Suffrage Timeline
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/programs/19th-amendment-centennial/toolkit/suffrage-timeline/