Women’s Suffrage in the U.S.: Photos - The Atlantic

Photos: The Battle for Women’s Suffrage in the U.S.

One hundred years ago this week, on June 4, 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would guarantee women the right to vote, and sent it on to the states for ratification (which took another 14 months). The battle for women’s suffrage in the United States had been taking place for years—in Congress, in the streets, and at home—with supporters organizing demonstrations, petitions, parades, and speeches, and coordinating with fellow activists in England, France, and other countries. Gathered below, images of some of the brave women who worked tirelessly for years to demand equal rights, and finally succeeded by having them written into law.

Read more
Hints: View this page full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.
  • Mrs. Herbert Carpenter, bearing an American flag, marches proudly at the head of a parade for women's suffrage on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1914.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • The suffragist Aimee Hutchinson speaks to a crowd. Hutchinson, a New York Catholic-school teacher, was dismissed from her job for attending the 1912 suffrage parade.

    Library of Congress
    Read more
  • The suffragist Alice Paul in a 1913 photograph. Paul was born in New Jersey, earned a master's and doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, then traveled to England and became friends with members of the women's-suffrage movement there. She soon became very active herself, and on returning to the United States soon after, joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Her first action as part of the NAWSA was to organize a massive parade in Washington, D.C., to promote a new constitutional amendment that would guarantee women's right to vote in the United States.

    Library of Congress
    Read more
  • Suffragists on a bus in New York City, part of the suffrage hike to Washington, D.C., which joined the March 3, 1913, National American Woman Suffrage Association parade

    Library of Congress
    Read more
  • A March 3, 1913, photo taken at the suffrage parade showing the marchers (left to right) Mrs. Russell McLennan, Mrs. Althea Taft, Mrs. Lew Bridges, Mrs. Richard Coke Burleson, Alberta Hill, and Miss F. Ragsdale

    Library of Congress
    Read more
  • The American suffragette Rosalie Gardiner Jones leads a suffragist hike to Washington, D.C., from New York City.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • Original caption: October 22, 1913—Women of Political Union starting off an Army and Navy day electioneering tour of Brooklyn. Mildred Tailor, Jane Pincus, Eliz Aldrich, Mrs. Buxton, Mrs. L. E. Carson, and Beatrice Brawn.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • The German actress Hedwig Reicher wears the costume of "Columbia," with other suffrage-pageant participants standing in background, in front of the Treasury building in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913. The performance was part of the larger suffrage parade of 1913.

    Library of Congress
    Read more
  • Rosalie Gardiner Jones leads a crowd of protesters up Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., after a march from New York on February 3, 1913.

    Topical Press Agency / Getty
    Read more
  • Crowds fill a street in Washington, D.C., during the suffrage parade of 1913.

    G.V. Buck / Library of Congress / Corbis / VCG via Getty
    Read more
  • Jeannette Rankin, a suffragist and congresswoman, addresses a mass meeting in New York's Union Square.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • A women's-suffrage parade takes place in New York City.

    Hulton-Deutsch / Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis via Getty / Hulton Deutsch
    Read more
  • More than 25,000 women marched in New York City on October 23, 1915, advocating equal suffrage. Here, representatives of California, Wyoming, and Montana—three of the U.S. states in which women had already been granted the franchise.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • Original caption: February 24, 1916—Left to right: Mrs. Charles S. Whitman, wife of the Governor of New York, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, Chairman of the New York State Suffrage Party, photographed at the Harris Theatre in New York

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • Three hundred delegates of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage gather on the steps of the Capitol in 1915. They were received by the president after presenting their petitions.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • Three women carry banners for suffrage during a picket in front of the White House in Washington, D.C.

    Library of Congress / Corbis / VCG via Getty
    Read more
  • Members of an anti-suffrage mob tear a suffragette banner to bits during protests outside the White House.

    Topical Press Agency / Getty
    Read more
  • Arrests are made during a women's-suffrage picket in Washington, D.C., in 1917.

    Library of Congress
    Read more
  • Lucy Burns, photographed in jail after a suffragette picket in Washington, D.C. Burns was imprisoned four times over the years for her activism, and is believed to have served the most time in jail of any suffragette.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • Organizers work in an office of the National Woman's Party in Washington, D.C., in 1919.

    Harris & Ewing / Library of Congress
    Read more
  • Suffrage picketers from Pennsylvania arrive in Washington, D.C., in 1917.

    Library of Congress
    Read more
  • Alice Smith, S. J. de Crasse, and G. H. Halleran sell copies of The Suffragist in Boston, Massachusetts.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • Suffragettes hold a jubilee celebrating the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Melanie Lowenthal was one of the leaders of the demonstration celebrating the dawn of political equality.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin is presented with the flag that flew at the House of Representatives during the passage of the suffrage amendment.

    Bettmann / Getty
    Read more
  • We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Most Recent

  • David Gray / AFP / Getty

    Photos of the Week: Beer Toss, Pike Battle, Sea Pods

    Warrior horse racing in Japan, a new volcanic eruption in Iceland, a Memorial Day display in Boston, an anti-drone-technology display in Ukraine, a performance by AC/DC in Italy, and much more

  • Adri Salido / Getty

    An Island Community Displaced by Climate Change

    Residents of a tiny Panamanian island threatened by rising sea levels begin to relocate to a new development.

  • Jacob King / PA Images / Getty

    The 2024 Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling Race

    Images of racers running and tumbling down a very steep hill—pursuing a large wheel of cheese

  • Anselmo Cunha / AFP / Getty

    Photos of the Week: Victorian Picnic, Flamingo Flight, Shadow Puppets

    An airline for dogs in New York, horse racing in Baltimore, the Olympic torch relay in southwestern France, a tornado’s path of destruction in Iowa, and much more