The United States Congress approved the Woman's Suffrage Amendment by joint resolution in 1919.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

—19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

After decades of lobbying, civil disobedience, lectures, demonstrations and marches, women suffragists were finally rewarded when Congress, by joint resolution, recognized their right to vote. The 19th Amendment, which granted this right, was passed in the House by a vote of 304-89 and in the Senate by a vote of 56-25. Since the late 1800s, suffragists had followed a two-front approach to gain voting rights, lobbying on both a national and state level. Although suffrage had met with success at the state level, the amendment had to be ratified by three-fourths, or 36, of the states before becoming national law. On August 18th, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, when the state’s legislature passed it by only one vote. The deciding vote was cast by Harry Burn, who wore a red rose on his lapel marking him as an anti-suffragist. Chaos ensued when Burn changed his mind and cast his vote for suffrage, thus ensuring universal voting rights for all American women. Burns was chased around the room by his angry colleagues and escaped out a third story window to hide in the attic of the State Capitol. Later, Burns acknowledge that a telegram from his mother had influenced him to vote for suffrage. The 19th amendment officially became law on August 26, 1920.

EDSITEment
In Voting Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage (6–8), students research archival material to examine nineteenth and early twentieth century arguments for and against women’s suffrage.

In Women’s Equality: Changing Attitudes and Beliefs (6–8), students begin to appreciate the deeply entrenched opposition the early Women’s Rights crusaders had to overcome by analyzing archival materials contemporaneous with the birth of the Women’s Rights Movement.

Students examine some of the arguments used to win the vote for American women and explore the cultural dimension of these arguments in Cultural Change (9–12).

Students compile information to examine hypotheses explaining why the first nine states to grant full voting rights for women were located in the West in Women’s Suffrage: Why the West First? (6–8).

Who Were the Foremothers of Women’s Equality? introduces students to the achievements of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the “foremothers” of women’s equality.

Students study the historical context of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper,” focusing on changing roles for women, and apply their knowledge in a close reading of the text in the companion lessons Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper”—The “New Woman” (9–12) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper”—Writing Women (9–12).

Nearly a century before the ratification of the 19th Amendment, voting qualifications were quite different. In the four-lesson unit, The 1828 Campaign of Andrew Jackson and the Growth of Party Politics (9–12), students learn about the changes in voter participation that took place during the late 1820s.

ReadWriteThink
Voting! What’s It All About? (3–5) focuses on the history of voting, voting as a civil right and current elections, while asking students to explore the difference between fact and opinion.