The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified and went into effect on August 18, 1920. It was a victory after many years of defeats and disappointments for women.

The amendment was originally drafted in 1872 by Susan B. Anthony assisted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It was first introduced into the Senate by Senator Aaron A. Sargent of California, a friend of Stanton’s in 1878. The bill sat in committee until it was finally voted down by the Senate in 1887, by a vote of 16 to 34. And you think it takes Congress a long time to do things today!!

Ms Anthony even got arrested during those years for trying to vote. She cast a ballot in the 1872 presidential election and two later was arrested and fined $100, which she refused to pay. The government never tried to collect.

But the women kept trying.

Another bill was not brought up until January 12, 1915, when the House voted it down 204 to 174. In the intervening years, however, many states, mostly in the west had been granting voting rights to women. Wyoming was first in 1869. Utah followed the next year.
By the time the 19th amendment was ratified the entire west didn’t need it. It was sort of an afterthought.

Why the West? Probably because our west men and women worked equally hard. It was a tough life and the job had to be shared equally. The feeling was that if women were contributing so much, they should vote. Or as someone said. “The West. Where men are men... and so are the women!”