November 27, 2019 - SACRAMENTO, CA – The California State Archives has released its latest digital exhibit, “On the Road to Ratification: California and the Struggle for Women’s Suffrage,” to 
commemorate the 100th Anniversary of California’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote nationwide. This is the State Archive’s twentieth online exhibit to be hosted by Google Arts & Culture.
You can view “On the Road to Ratification: California and the Struggle for Women’s Suffrage” here.
“This November marks 100 years since California ratified the 19th Amendment, capping a nearly century long struggle for women’s voting rights,” Secretary of State Alex Padilla said. “This decades long fight may have culminated with the 19th Amendment, but along the way California women organized and mobilized for the right to vote. Using archival records and images, we can tell the story of suffragette’s court room battles, constitutional petitions, civil disobedience, and statewide political campaigns. We honor the courageous fight for equality that moved our state and country towards a more representative democracy.”
This exhibit features photos, news articles, original documents, trademarks, and campaign literature from the State Archives—as well as partner institutions including the California State Library and Library of Congress—to tell the story of the women’s suffrage movement.
“On the Road to Ratification” chronicles the almost century long fight for women’s suffrage, not only in California, but throughout the entire United States. Gaining traction in the mid-1800s, a national campaign for women’s voting rights in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York. From the late 1860s, the fight for women’s rights took on many forms, from waging court battles and founding women’s organizations and clubs to lecturing, publishing, and running for office. Many women attempted to vote, hoping to use any ensuing arrests and court battles to gain voting rights.
While many attempts to gain women’s suffrage rights in California failed, in 1911, the voters of California approved Proposition 4, a constitutional amendment that guaranteed a woman’s right to vote equally with men. Following California’s suffrage movement, the fight for women’s voting rights continued nationwide. In 1919, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and was then sent to the states for ratification. California became the 18th state to ratify the 19th Amendment on November 1, 1919.
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Source: CA. SOS
