The Nineteenth Amendment

The Text

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.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

What It Says

Neither the federal government nor any state may deny or restrict the vote on the basis of sex.

What It Protects Against

Exclusion from the franchise by sex. The text is deliberately identical in structure to the Fifteenth Amendment, substituting one ground for another.

Protocol Media reading. Not sourced to a ratification-era document.

Problem Addressed

The amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1878 and reintroduced in every session for over forty years before ratification.