Women's Suffrage

Prior to 1920, women did not have the legal right to vote, even though they were U.S. citizens. The Progressive movement attempted to solve this problem by creating the National American Woman Suffrage Association. This organization, supported by Jane Addams, argued that the special virtues women possessed could benefit society and politics. Suffragists also asserted that granting women the right to vote would strengthen the temperance movement and eliminate war. Furthermore, some middle-class people believed that educated women should be allowed to vote, since ignorant blacks and immigrants had suffrage. The Progressive movement succeeded, and by 1919, the majority of states had given women access to the franchise. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, which Constitutionally guaranteed women political rights.