Timeline of Women Voting (or not) in the United States

Early years

1787: U.S. Constitutional Convention places voting qualifications in the hands of the states; women in all states except New Jersey lose the right to vote.

1807: Women lose the right to vote in New Jersey, the last state to revoke the right.

1848: The Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, is held in Seneca Falls, New York. Women's suffrage is proposed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and agreed to after an impassioned argument from Frederick Douglass.

1861–1865: The American Civil War. Most suffragists focus on the war effort, and suffrage activity is minimal.

1868: The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, introducing the word "male" into the Constitution for the first time.

1869: The territory of Wyoming is the first to grant unrestricted suffrage to women.

1870: The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is adopted. The amendment holds that neither the United States nor any State can deny the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," leaving open the right of States to deny the right to vote on account of sex.

1872: Susan B. Anthony registers and votes in Rochester, New York, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives her that right. However, she is arrested a few days later.

"Well I have been & gone & done it!!" Anthony writes to a friend on November 5, 1872.

1873: The trial of Susan B. Anthony is held. She is denied a trial by jury and loses her case. She never pays the $100 fine for voting.

1888–1889: Wyoming had already granted women voting and suffrage since 1869–70; now they insist that they maintain suffrage if Wyoming joins the Union.

1890: The National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association merge to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Its first president is Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The focus turns to working at the state level. Wyoming renewed general women's suffrage, becoming the first state to allow women to vote.

1913: Alice Paul organizes the Woman's Suffrage Procession, a parade in Washington, D.C. on the eve of Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. It is the largest suffrage parade to date. The parade is attacked by a mob, and hundreds of women are injured but no arrests are made.

1913: The Senate votes on a women's suffrage amendment, but it does not pass.

1918: The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which eventually granted women suffrage, passes the U.S. House with exactly a two-thirds vote but loses by two votes in the Senate.

1918: President Wilson declares his support for women's suffrage.

1920: The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, stating: "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."

Later years

1924: Native American women played a vital role in passing the Nineteenth Amendment, but are still unable to reap the benefits until four years later on June 24, 1924 when the American government grants citizenship to Native Americans through the Indian Citizenship Act. Nonetheless, many states make laws and policies that prohibit Native Americans from voting, and many are effectively barred from voting until 1948.

1943: Chinese immigrants are no longer barred from becoming U.S. citizens with the passage of the Magnuson Act, allowing some Chinese immigrants, including women, to become naturalized and gain the right to vote.

1952: The race restrictions of the 1790 Naturalization Law are repealed by the McCarran-Walter Act, giving first generation Japanese Americans, including women, citizenship and voting rights.

1964: The Twenty-fourth Amendment is ratified by three-fourths of the states, formally abolishing poll taxes and literacy tests, which were heavily used against African-American and poor white women and men.

1965: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 strenuously prohibits racial discrimination in voting, resulting in greatly-increased voting by African American women and men.

1984: Mississippi becomes the last state in the union to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.

Today

It's November 3, 2020. Have you voted?

Last night, at 9:40 p.m. Eastern Time, 35.7 million people had voted in person and 62.9 million cast ballots by mail, for a total of 98.7 million early votes.

Allison Rowe, who lives and works in London, voted early by fax (at right, her confirmation of mail ballot status from the San Francisco Department of Elections). A California resident, her last place of domicile before leaving for England in 2013, Rowe never misses an election! (See the 2018 post “Then and Now: Catching Up with Zonta Recipient Allison Rowe.”)

For voting numbers today, check this nonpartisan website run by Michael McDonald, a University of Florida professor who tracks county-level data.

Go here for a detailed timeline of women's suffrage in the United States.