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August 18, 2020, marked one hundred years since the ratification of the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which declared that neither individual states nor the federal government could prohibit people from voting on the basis of their gender. Prior to the amendment's passing in the Senate, almost half the states had already lifted all (or most) of the gender-related restrictions that applied to the voting process. When Tennessee ratified the amendment, it became the 36^th state to do so, which meant that the amendment came into effect nationwide. It is important to note that, while the 19^th Amendment legally granted all eligible women the right to vote, the reality in many states was that most women belonging to ethnic minorities, or those living in poverty, continued to be disenfranchised by oppressive laws; such as citizenship and Jim Crow laws.

Pre-19^th Amendment

In the colonial and early-independence era, restrictions preventing women from voting were often unclear and varied from state to state. Towards the turn of the nineteenth century, however, most states had already put firm restrictions in place, so that only white, Protestant, property-holding males could vote. The religious and property restrictions were mostly repealed by the mid-1800s, and the first state to grant women suffrage was Wyoming in 1869 (while it was still a territory). The issue of suffrage came to the forefront of the women's civil rights movement in the 1850s, and by the end of the century, a series of high-profile protests and lawsuits had garnered nationwide support. A number of states, particularly in the west, gradually began to introduce female suffrage by the 1910s, before the 19^th Amendment was eventually passed in the Senate in 1919. 22 states ratified the amendment by the year's end, and Tennessee became the 36^th state to do so on August 18, 1920. This approval meant that the law had been ratified in two thirds of U.S. states (eight states voted against it), and therefore it took effect on a nationwide level on this day.

Post-19^th Amendment

After the amendment came into effect nationwide, ratifying the bill on a state level became an inconsequential formality; nonetheless, it would take a number of states several decades to formally pass the bill, with Mississippi becoming the last to do so in 1984. The only two states who did not ratify the amendment were Alaska and Hawaii, who were admitted to the union after the bill's passing. Most Native Americans were granted citizenship in 1924, and the oppressive laws and practices that restricted ethnic minorities (such as poll taxes and literacy tests) were legally repealed and prohibited in the 1960s or 1970s. In the past century, female voter participation has gradually increased, and it has exceeded male turnout in all presidential elections since 1980. Recent general elections have seen a surge in the number of women running for office and the 2018 midterms saw a record number of women elected to Congress.