Timeline

From the 1850s onward women and their supporters fought for the right to serve their communities as elected officials.  Along with the right to vote, the right be elected to political office is a fundamental marker of equal rights and U.S. citizenship. The timelines here mark out some of the milestones in the history in women's fight for political equality between 1850 and 1920. The timelines also include some of the individual women who led the way.  As these rights were determined by each state or territory before 1920 and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution, some of the timelines here follow the story in various states.