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Voting Booth: Women Haven't Always Been Equal

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Women did get elected to local offices. The town of Argonia, Kansas, elected America's first woman mayor, Susanna Salter, in 1887. Many states by this time had allowed women to vote in local and even state elections. But voting for president and Congress was another matter. It was a lot more difficult to convince an entire nation of people to do something.

In 1918, Canada and the United Kingdom granted women the right to vote. But American men held out, for the most part. Many men in American wanted women to vote. There just weren't enough of them. But the more women had parades and rallies and speeches and magazines calling for the right to vote, the more the lawmakers began to listen. Public opinion in America and worldwide was decidedly in favor of granting women the right to vote.

Finally, the Nineteenth Amendment was introduced in Congress in 1919. One year later, it was passed. Women had won the right to vote.

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