Before the Nineteenth Amendment, only fifteen states allowed women to vote in all elections, leaving millions without a voice.
Nineteenth Amendment = constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote
•
Three states were first to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. Specifically, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin ratified it on June 10, 1919.
•
A year after the Nineteenth Amendment gave women all across the country the right to vote in 1920, Congress passed the Sheppard-Towner Act, a landmark program for public health.†
(source)
Nicholas D. Kristof, Half the Sky, 2009