State of California depicted in purple, white, and gold (colors of the National Woman’s Party suffrage flag) – indicating California was one of the original 36 states to ratify the 19th Amendment.

Women first organized and collectively fought for suffrage at the national level in July of 1848. Suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott convened a meeting of over 300 people in Seneca Falls, New York. In the following decades, women marched, protested, lobbied, and even went to jail. By the 1870s, women pressured Congress to vote on an amendment that would recognize their suffrage rights. This amendment was sometimes known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment and became the 19th Amendment.



The amendment reads:



"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."



While some women wanted the federal government to recognize their right to vote by passing a constitutional amendment, other suffragists felt that they should focus on getting their state or territory to recognize their right to vote. This strategy first had success in the West. Many women in California, for example, spent their energy on proposing suffrage bills to the state legislature. In 1893, the California legislature passed a bill recognizing women’s suffrage rights. But the governor vetoed the bill, and women were still without the vote. Three years later, California held a referendum on women’s suffrage. A referendum occurs when the people directly vote on an issue. Some voters were afraid that if California women voted, they would pass legislation banning the sale of alcohol. Known as temperance, this was a popular political issue of the day.