How many states ended up ratifying it

Women had been fighting for the right to vote in South Carolina for decades. An attempt to amend the state constitution to include women as eligible voters failed in Niels Christensen, son of suffragist Abbie Christensen, introduced a suffrage bill during every session throughout his year term as a state senator with no success. It looked like a federal amendment was the only way that women in South Carolina would ever win the vote.

Nevada ratified the 19th Amendment on February 7, Like women in several other Western states, women in Nevada had won the right to vote in state and local races in Later, she became the National Woman's Party legislative chairman.

Along with other suffragists like Bird Wilson and Delphine Squires, Martin lobbied for the federal amendment so that women across the country could enjoy the same right. The Nevada legislature called a special session in February to vote on the 19th amendment. Sadie Dotson Hurst, Nevada's first female legislator, presided. The amendment passed, Next up to ratify the amendment was New Jersey on February 9, New Jersey had a long history of women's suffrage.

The state's Revolutionary War-era constitution allowed all property-owning residents to vote, including unmarried women and people of color. But in , the state passed a new law disenfranchising everyone except white men.

More than a hundred years later, New Jersey women will finally get to exercise their rights again--if ratification succeeds! Women in Idaho won the right to vote in , making Idaho the fourth state to enfranchise women on the same terms as men.

The National Woman's Party often campaigned in Idaho for a federal suffrage amendment so that women across the country could participate in the political process. On February 11, , Idaho became the 30th state to ratify the amendment.

After several failed attempts to win the vote in the territorial legislature, Arizona suffragists finally achieved victory soon after Arizona became a state on February 14, By building coalitions among different communities, women like Frances Willard Munds were able to bypass the new state government and take the issue of woman suffrage right to the voters. Arizona became the tenth state in which women could vote on the same terms as men when the woman suffrage initiative on the ballot in November passed overwhelmingly.

Support for woman suffrage grew during the seven years of Arizona's inclusion of women as fully enfranchised citizens.

The vote in the legislature was unanimous to ratify the federal amendment. Arizona became the thirty-first state to ratify it on February 12, Only five more states to go in the Race to Ratification. February 12, , brought both a win and a loss for the amendment. On the same day that Arizona ratified it, the Virginia legislature voted to reject. The vote was not a surprise. When Virginia suffragists tried to convince the state legislature to take up ratification of the suffrage amendment during a special session in August , the idea was met with scorn.

Instead, lawmakers passed a resolution declaring the amendment "unwarranted, unnecessary, undemocratic and dangerous interference with the rights reserved to the States Virginia did symbolically ratify the amendment 32 years later on February 21, When New Mexico became a state in , women won the right to vote in school elections. But the state constitution made it so difficult to expand the franchise that New Mexico suffragists concentrated on support for a federal woman suffrage amendment.

The Ratification Banner gained another star on February 21, , when New Mexico ratified the amendment. Only four more states needed until the Race to Ratification is complete.

The Race to Ratification suffered another defeat when, on February 24, , Maryland became the fifth state to reject ratification of the amendment. Maryland suffragists felt that they were "railroaded" by leadership in the legislature. They believed that they were deliberately given wrong information about when hearings on the amendment would be held.

No speakers were available to advocate for ratification, but the anti-suffragists were ready, and their argument won the day. By the time the General Assembly had voted against the amendment, Maryland suffragists had gathered at the State House and "with colors flying and playing martial airs marched two by two around the capitol. Maryland symbolically ratified the amendment on March 29, Oklahoma ratifies the 19th Amendment on February 28, !

NAWSA soon joined them. Suffrage was a large part of battles over Oklahoma statehood. Advocates lobbied hard for women's enfranchisement to be included in any new state constitution.

While this tactic had worked in other Western states like Wyoming, it failed in Oklahoma. But suffragists like Adelia C. Stephens and Kate Stafford did not give up. In the state amended its constitution to permit suffrage. Two years later it ratified the 19th Amendment--bringing it one step closer to becoming law.

A dramatic day in West Virginia wins the 34th state for suffrage! The amendment had passed the West Virginia House during its special session. But the Senate deadlocked, Both sides rushed to call in reinforcements. Anti-suffrage Senator A. Montgomery traveled from his new home in Illinois.

He prepared to take his seat and vote "no. Bloch, who was vacationing in California. They begged him to rush home as soon as possible. Bloch, who had been taking a leisurely swim when he received the message, didn't even change out of his bathing suit. He packed his golf clubs, hopped an express train , and began a "sensational cross-country flying trip" to Charleston.

The Republican National Committee offered to pay for a plane to take him part of the way, but his wife--though a loyal suffragist--objected to the "perils" of air travel. They argued that, since anti-suffrage Senator Montgomery had moved out of state, he was no longer eligible to hold his seat and should not be allowed to vote.

Amid an uproar, their maneuver succeeded. The House adjourned until the following day. Around in the morning, Bloch's train pulled into the station. He entered the Senate chamber a few hours later. Supporters greeted him with cheers and applause. Bloch fastened a yellow rose--the symbol of suffrage --into his buttonhole. After the final roll call for ratification, suffragists erupted into celebration. They filled the hallways, cheering and blowing on the tin horns that they had kept hidden during the session.

With only two more states to go, it seemed like ratification would be complete by the end of March Washington becomes the 35th state to ratify the 19th Amendment on March 22, Washington women had long been politically active. Advocates like Emma Smith DeVoe had worked to win statewide suffrage ten years before. Meanwhile, Washington suffragists focused on winning the 19th Amendment.

Ratification there set off a final sprint to find the 36th state. Mississippi gets all tangled up near the finish line in the Race To Ratification. While it briefly looked like the Magnolia State had a chance to become the 36th and final state to ratify the 19th Amendment, the effort ultimately went down in defeat on March 31, The Mississippi legislature originally rejected ratification of the woman suffrage amendment in February However, fears arose that Delaware, a "Republican state" would get the credit for a Votes for Women victory.

That could hurt the Democratic party in the upcoming presidential election. In an attempt to thwart the narrative of Republicans as champions of democracy, the Mississippi senate reversed course and reconsidered the amendment.

The vote was a tie. The state Lieutenant Governor broke the tie in favor of ratification on March 30, The state house of representatives, unconvinced by the senate strategy, voted against ratification again the next day. The hunt for the 36th state continued! Mississippi would not officially ratify the 19th Amendment until It was a shocking defeat out of the Mid-Atlantic as Delaware rejected the suffrage amendment, keeping it one state away from ratification.

No state had ratified since Washington on March Though the state had long been divided on the suffrage question, suffragists like Fannie Hopkins Hamilton and Mabel Vernon had been working for years to win women in the vote. Anti-suffragist leaders mounted a strong lobbying campaign to stop them. New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.

By , defects in the post- Revolutionary War Articles of Confederation were apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce. Congress endorsed a plan to draft a new constitution, and on May 25, , the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

On September 17, , after three months of debate moderated by convention president George Washington , the new U. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. Beginning on December 7, five states— Delaware , Pennsylvania , New Jersey , Georgia , and Connecticut—ratified it in quick succession.

However, other states, especially Massachusetts , opposed the document, as it failed to reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. In February , a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed.

The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, , New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U. Constitution would begin on March 4, Constitution—the Bill of Rights—and sent them to the states for ratification.

Therefore, out of 50 states, 38 states or more are required. All the rules, regulations, and the process followed when making any alteration to the constitution is highlighted in Article Five of the United States Constitution.

For any amendment to be done to the constitution, all the laid down procedures have to be followed without overlooking any. The constitutional amendment process involves two major steps. The first step to a constitutional amendment is the proposing of the amendment. The second phase in the constitutional amendment process is the ratification of the proposal. The proposal of amendments is usually done by the Congress and requires a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The voting in the Congress can only be carried out if the quorum has been attained. Although it was passed 45 years ago today, the Equal Rights Amendment ERA has still not been ratified, enjoyed a turbulent and troubled history. However, the list of states that ratified the Equal Rights Amendment is, thankfully, getting bigger and in today's political climate that really is something to celebrate. A landmark piece of legislation in the history of feminism, the Equal Rights Amendment was designed to guarantee equal rights for women.

The heart of it boils down to this line in the amendment: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Here's a little about the history of this important amendment: it was introduced to Congress for the first time in and was eventually passed in