Suffragists had fought for women’s right to vote since the middle of the nineteenth century. When the fifteenth amendment guaranteed blacks the right to vote, many women believed that their turn would come soon. But another fifty years would pass before Congress approved the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing equal voting rights for women. In this chapter, you’ll explore the political battles over women’s suffrage, the work of North Carolina activist Gertrude Weil, and the reasons for North Carolina’s refusal to ratify the amendment.

Section Contents

• Timeline of Women's Suffrage
• The Long Struggle for Women's Suffrage
• Equal Pay for Equal Work
• Gertrude Weil
• The North Carolina Equal Suffrage League
• Why We Oppose Votes for Men
• Our Idea of Nothing at All
• Votes for Women
• Gertrude Weil Urges Suffragists to Action
• North Carolina and the Women's Suffrage Amendment
• Gertrude Weil Congratulates — and Consoles — Suffragists
• Lillian Exum Clement