The 19th Amendment Is 100 Years Old

Women gained the right to vote in the United States, nationwide, 100 years ago today (about 55 years after the end of the Civil War) when the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted.

Initially introduced to Congress in 1878, several attempts to pass a women's suffrage amendment failed until passing the House of Representatives on May 21, 1919, followed by the Senate on June 4, 1919. It was then submitted to the states for ratification. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee was the last of the necessary 36 ratifying states to secure adoption. The Nineteenth Amendment's adoption was certified on August 26, 1920:

It was basically a story of the rest of the country finally overcoming the backward and misogynistic South, a recurring theme in American history. It is also a case where the ordinary assumptions of political science that those in power will act in ways to keep themselves in power, didn't hold true in this exceptional historical moment.

Before the 19th Amendment was adopted, the Southeast generally didn't allow women to vote, but the comparatively newly admitted Western states uniformly granted women the right to vote and proved that it was viable to do so.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to authorize the 19th Amendment by a more than 75% majority with Southern state members of Congress providing the main opposition.

It took many attempts in the U.S. Senate, but eventually it passed.

In 1919, the Republicans were the socially liberal party and the Democrats were the party of the unreconstructed South. The 19th Amendment needed 54 votes in the U.S. Senate. It got 56 votes over several attempts culminating in the June 4, 2019 vote required to send the proposed constitutional amendment to the states.

Once the 19th Amendment was formally proposed by Congress, ratification of the 19th Amendment came quickly and followed the same regional divide.

The 19th Amendment has absolutely shifted the balance of power in U.S. politics to the left, something clearly visible in the last two national elections in the U.S., in which the gender gap in partisan preferences in voting has never been greater.

For example, in the Presidential election in 2016, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by a percentage point or two in a few key swing states. But, if only men had been allowed to vote, Trump would have won in a landslide election.

Likewise, in the 2018 midterms, the Democrats easily won control of the U.S. House of Representatives. But, if only men had been allowed to vote in that election, the Republicans would have had a safe majority in the House.

The 2016 and 2018 election results would have been even more one sided if blacks and other non-white voters were voting only in the small proportions that were able to do so prior to the reforms of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and an earlier reform that gave Native Americans the right to vote.

The United States was not a particularly early adopter of women's suffrage on a national basis, nor was it particularly late, as a timeline at Wikipedia summarizes. There are still countries where women can't vote (and indeed, countries where nobody can vote in meaningful national elections for elected officials holding almost all of a country's sovereign power). The more notable women's suffrage adoptions at the national level after the U.S. adopted the 19th Amendment in 1920 include the following:

1921
Federal Republic of Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) established in the 9 September 1921 federal constitution that married or widowed literate women of 21 or more, or single literate women of 25 or more could vote or hold office as long as they met any property requirements. When the Federation fell apart the following year, women lost the right to vote.

1922
Irish Free State (equal parliamentary (Oireachtas) suffrage to that of men upon independence from UK. Partial suffrage granted as part of UK in 1918.)

1924
Ecuador (a doctor, Matilde Hidalgo de Prócel, sues and wins the right to vote)
Mongolia (no electoral system in place prior to this year)
Saint Lucia
1926
Uruguay (women's suffrage is broadcast for the first time in 1927, in the plebiscite of Cerro Chato) 

1928
United Kingdom (franchise made equal to that for men by the Representation of the People Act 1928) 

1929
Ecuador (the right of women to vote is written into the Constitution)
Puerto Rico (literate women given the right to vote. Equal suffrage granted in 1935.)

1930
South Africa (Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930: limited to white women on the same basis as white men.)

1931
Ceylon
Portugal (with restrictions following level of education)
Spain (universal suffrage) 

1932
First women electors of Brazil. Brazil (universal suffrage)
Maldives Thailand

1934
Cuba Portugal (suffrage is expanded)
Turkey (parliamentary elections; full voting rights).
1935
British Burma (women are granted the right to vote)

1937
Dutch East Indies (for European women only)
Philippines

1938
Bolivia
Western Samoa (European women) 

1939
El Salvador (with restrictions requiring literacy and a higher age)
Romania (women are granted suffrage on equal terms with men with restrictions on both men and women; in practice the restrictions affected women more than men)
South West Africa (white women)

1941
Dutch East Indies (limited to European women only)
Panama (with restrictions. Full suffrage granted in 1946.) 

1942
Dominican Republic 

1944
Bermuda (limited to property-holding women)
Bulgaria (full rights) 

1945
France Dutch East Indies Guatemala (Literate only)
Italy
Japan Senegal French Togoland Yugoslavia 

1946
Cameroon French Somaliland Kenya North Korea
Liberia (Americo women only; indigenous men and women were not enfranchised until 1951)
Mandatory Palestine Portugal (expands suffrage)
Romania (extended to full rights)
Venezuela Vietnam 

1947
Argentina
Republic of China (includes Taiwan: with restrictions)
Malta
India (establishment of the state)
Nepal Pakistan (establishment of the state)
Singapore 

1948
Belgium Israel (establishment of the state)
South Korea Niger Dutch Surinam 

1949
Chile
Netherlands Antilles
People's Republic of China (establishment of the state)
Costa Rica Syria 

1950
Barbados El Salvador (all restrictions removed) 

1951
Antigua and Barbuda Dominica Grenada Nepal Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ghana 

1952
Bolivia Côte d'Ivoire Greece 

1953
Bhutan British Guiana Mexico (all women and for national elections) 

1954
British Honduras Gold Coast 

1955
Cambodia Ethiopia (all political parties forbidden)
Indonesia Honduras Nicaragua Peru 

1956
Dahomey Comoros Egypt Gabon Mali British Somaliland 

1957
Colombia (by Constitution)
Malaya Southern Rhodesia Lebanon (nationwide) 

1958
Upper Volta Chad Guinea Laos Nigeria (South) 

1959
Brunei
Madagascar San Marino Tanganyika Tunisia Cayman Islands
1960
Cyprus Gambia
Tonga 

1961
Burundi Mauritania Malawi Paraguay Rwanda Sierra Leone 

1962
Algeria Australia (universal suffrage Australian Aboriginals men and women)
Bahamas Brunei (revoked) (including men)
Monaco Uganda Northern Rhodesia 

1963
Congo Equatorial Guinea Fiji Iran (after a referendum)
Kenya Morocco 

1964
Libya
Papua New Guinea (Territory of Papua and Territory of New Guinea)
Sudan 

1965
Botswana Lesotho Guatemala (all restrictions removed). 

1967
Democratic Republic of the Congo Ecuador (women's vote made obligatory, like that of men's)
Kiribati Tuvalu South Yemen 

1968
Bermuda (universal)
Nauru Portugal (few electoral rights were reserved for men)

1970
Andorra North Yemen 

1971
Switzerland (federal level) 

1972
Bangladesh (suffrage enshrined in constitution adopted after independence) 

1973
Bahrain[ (Bahrain did not hold elections until 2002) 

1974
Jordan Solomon Islands 

1975
Angola Cape Verde Mozambique São Tomé and Príncipe Vanuatu 

1976
Timor Timur (Indonesia)
Portugal (all restrictions were lifted after the Carnation Revolution) 

1977
Guinea-Bissau 

1978
Marshall Islands Federated States of Micronesia Nigeria (North)
Palau
1980
Iraq 

1984
Liechtenstein 

1985
Kuwait (first time) 

1986
Central African Republic 

1989
Namibia (universal suffrage)

1991
Appenzell Innerrhoden (Swiss canton) was forced to accept women's suffrage by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland Western Samoa (universal suffrage) 

1996
Afghanistan (revoked by Taliban) 

1999
Qatar
Kuwait (revoked)

2001
Afghanistan (re-granted after the fall of Taliban) 

2003
Oman 

2005
Kuwait
Iraq 

2006
United Arab Emirates (UAE) (limited suffrage for both men and women).

2015
Saudi Arabia (introduced along with right to run for municipal elections)

Note: in some countries both men and women have limited suffrage. For example, in Brunei, which is a sultanate, there are no national elections, and voting exists only on local issues. In the United Arab Emirates the rulers of the seven emirates each select a proportion of voters for the Federal National Council (FNC) that together account for about 12% of Emirati citizens.