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March is Women’s History Month
ARRESTED FOR VOTING?
How long do you think women in this country have had the right to vote? 300 years? 200 years? 150 years? In the United States, women have had that right for only 106 years of the 249 years we have been a country. And getting the right to vote took decades of protesting and writing to lawmakers —who were all men at the time. In 1848, a group of people met in Seneca Falls, N.Y. to talk about the problems women faced because they didn’t have the same rights as men. At that time, women could not own Meeting for Women’s Rights Can you imagine a world in which women do not have the right to vote?
On Election Day, Nov. 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony walked into her polling place and voted. Two weeks later, a U.S. marshal knocked on her door. “I have a warrant for your arrest,”he told Susan.“You are charged with voting without the lawful right to vote.” In 1872, by U.S. law, a person had to be 21 years or older to vote. Susan was born in 1820. Was she old enough to vote? Susan met two other requirements for the right to vote. She was a U.S. citizen and she had never been convicted of a felony crime. Why was she arrested for voting? Would she have been arrested in November of 1920?
Victory!
property, could not vote, and very few could go to school. This meeting was the first women’s rights convention in the United States. At that meeting men and
On May 21, 1919, the U.S. House of Representatives finally approved the 19th Amendment , also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. That was just the first step. The U.S. Senate and at least three quarters of the states had to approve it before it would become the law of the land. The United States Senate approved the amendment a week after the House. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the last state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment. One week later, on August 26, the 19th Amendment officially became part of the U.S. Constitution, forever protecting American women’s right to vote.
women signed a document called the “Declaration of Sentiments and Reso- lutions.” By signing, these people agreed to the goals of what was becoming the women’s movement. For more than 70 years, women and men marched, wrote letters, articles, protested, and picketed to get an amendment to the Constitution which would give women the right to vote. These people were known as suffragists .
Today, more than 68 million women vote in elections because of the courageous su ragists who never gave up the ght for equality.
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© Vicki Whiting March 2025
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