August marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. A new voting population brought new issues to the forefront, new voices being heard, and a new political landscape. But the fight didn’t end there. For the next few months, Smithsonian Magazine will cover the fight for representation, complications including privilege and ongoing inequality, struggles, political trailblazers, and ongoing work—and the women behind it all. Read below and click through to read more and follow their coverage.
On August 18, 1920—a full century ago—the 19th Amendment was ratified by Tennessee’s legislature. But that date marks neither the beginning nor the end of the struggle for suffrage. The movement to secure the vote for women took a long, thorny path that extends until today; it’s a trail dotted with factional disagreements, prioritization of the needs of the white and wealthy, disappointments and hard-won victories, occasional scandal, unexpected alliances and perseverance. In this collection of stories, you can learn about this complex history and the women who propelled it.
In the coming months, Smithsonian magazine will tell the stories of the people who pushed to fully realize the dream of suffrage for all women, like civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who faced down the KKK to secure the right to vote for herself and others; the Hawaiian suffragists whose path to political participation was complicated by colonialism; and the glass-ceiling-cracking campaigns of Shirley Chisholm and Geraldine Ferraro.
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