Women's Suffrage Timeline State by State

Middle Eastern woman voting.
Hill Street Studios / Getty Images
History and Culture
History & Culture View More
By
Jone Johnson Lewis
Jone Johnson Lewis
Women's History Writer
  • B.A., Mundelein College
  • M.Div., Meadville/Lombard Theological School
Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late 1960s. She is a former faculty member of the Humanist Institute.
Learn about our Editorial Process
Updated on February 20, 2020

Women won the vote in the U.S. through a constitutional amendment finally ratified in 1920. But along the road to winning the vote nationally, states and localities granted suffrage to women within their jurisdictions. This list documents many of those milestones in winning the vote for American women.

1776 New Jersey gives the vote to women owning more than $250. Later, the state reconsidered and women were no longer allowed to vote.
1837 Kentucky gives some women suffrage in school elections. First, voting was granted to propertied widows with school-age children. In 1838, all propertied widows and unmarried women got the right to vote.
1848 Women meeting in Seneca Falls, New York adopt a resolution calling for the right to vote for women.
1861 Kansas enters the Union. The new state gives its women the right to vote in local school elections. Clarina Nichols, a former Vermont resident who had moved to Kansas, advocated for women's equal political rights at the 1859 constitutional convention. A ballot measure for equal suffrage without regard to sex or color failed in 1867.
1869 The Wyoming Territory Constitution grants women the right to vote and to hold public office. Some supporters argued on the basis of equal rights. Others argued that women should not be denied a right given to African-American men. Others thought it would bring more women to Wyoming. At the time, there were 6,000 men and only 1,000 women.
1870 Utah Territory gives full suffrage to women. This followed pressure from Mormon women who also advocated for freedom of religion in opposition to proposed antipolygamy legislation, and also support from outside Utah from those who believed Utah women would vote to revoke polygamy if they had the right to vote.
1887 The United States Congress revoked Utah Territory's approval of women's right to vote with the Edmunds-Tucker antipolygamy legislation. Some non-Mormon Utah suffragists did not support the right of women to vote within Utah as long as polygamy was legal, believing it would mainly benefit the Mormon Church.
1893 The male electorate in Colorado votes "yes" on woman suffrage, with 55 percent support. A ballot measure to grant women the vote failed in 1877. The state constitution of 1876 permitted suffrage to be enacted with a simple majority vote of both legislature and electorate, bypassing the need for a supermajority of two-thirds for a constitutional amendment to pass.
1894 Some cities in Kentucky and Ohio give women the vote in school board elections.
1895 Utah, after ending legal polygamy and becoming a state, amends its constitution to grant women suffrage.
1896 Idaho adopts a constitutional amendment granting suffrage to women.
1902 Kentucky repeals limited school board election voting rights for women.
1910 Washington state votes for suffrage.
1911 California gives women the vote.
1912 Male electorates in Kansas, Oregon, and Arizona approve state constitutional amendments for woman suffrage. Wisconsin and Michigan defeat proposed suffrage amendments.
1912 Kentucky restores limited voting rights for women in school board elections.
1913 Illinois grants the right to vote to women, the first state east of the Mississippi to do so.
1920 On August 26, a constitutional amendment is adopted when Tennessee ratifies it, granting full suffrage in all states.
1929 Puerto Rico's legislature grants women the right to vote, pushed by the U.S. Congress to do so.
1971 The U.S. lowers the voting age for both men and women to 18.
Format
mla apa chicago
Your Citation
Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Women's Suffrage Timeline State by State." ThoughtCo, Jun. 25, 2024, thoughtco.com/womens-suffrage-timeline-by-state-3530520. Lewis, Jone Johnson. (2024, June 25). Women's Suffrage Timeline State by State. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/womens-suffrage-timeline-by-state-3530520 Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Women's Suffrage Timeline State by State." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/womens-suffrage-timeline-by-state-3530520 (accessed March 28, 2025).