"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand."

"There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers."

100th Anniversary of 19th Amendment

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote.

It took 72 years!! The woman suffrage movement actually began in 1848, when a women's rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. ... Thus, over time women began to realize that in order to achieve reform, they needed to win the right to vote. Beginning in the 1800s, women organized, petitioned, and picketed to win the right to vote. By 1916, almost all of the major suffrage organizations were united behind the goal of a constitutional amendment. When New York adopted woman suffrage in 1917 and President Wilson changed his position to support an amendment in 1918, the political balance began to shift.

Women's suffrage has had a profound impact on the USA and us individually. My grandmothers (one born in 1894 and the other who was born in 1903) was the first generation of women in my family that could vote. Voting has always been important in my family. I remember going to the voting booths with my parents, watching feet and legs behind the curtains of the booths, wondering what was so important on the other side of the curtains. What I later learned was that it IS important to have a stake in your own future. It is not only our right to vote, it is our responsibility to vote. I think the best way to thank and acknowledge these women who lead and fought for our right to vote is to do that. VOTE!

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