It was November 2, 1920—Election Day—and people were lined up all across the United States to choose a president. But something was different this year. For the first time, women were among those in line to vote.
In a democracy, suffrage is a basic right, but American women had to fight for it. That fight began at the first women’s rights convention, which took place in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. At this meeting, women discussed ways they were unequal to men, and they demanded the right to vote.
Nearly 70 years later, they had made little progress. The president at the time, Woodrow Wilson, refused to support them, and many Americans sided with him. Women shouldn’t vote because they didn’t know enough about how government worked, they claimed. Furthermore, voting would be a distraction from their housework and children.
In January 1917, a women’s rights leader named Alice Paul got fed up with waiting. She gathered a large group of protesters. Every day, they stood in front of the White House, carrying signs that read, “How long must women wait for liberty?”
By the fall, hundreds had been arrested. In prison, some were beaten. Others refused to eat as a way of protesting—and were fed by force.
As the women were released, they shared their stories with newspapers. Americans were shocked. Finally, President Wilson changed his mind. In a speech to lawmakers, he said: “Give justice to women.”
And they did exactly that in August 1920, when they approved the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. It granted women the right to vote—131 years after the first president was elected. •