Copy of 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, National Archives

The 19th Amendment, which Congress passed on June 4, 1919 and ratified on August 18, 1920--guarantees that all women in America have the right to vote. This was a major milestone in liberty and equal rights. The Suggrage movement, which began in the later decades of the nineteenth century, led to lectures, marches, protests, agitation, and more. Sadly, few of the early supporters of the movement were alive in 1920 when their dream became reality. Not surprisingly, Gilman was a major proponent of women's rights, and her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction treatises helped to advance this cause.