How Colorado Women Won the Right to Vote

One hundred years ago this month, women across America gained the right to vote—something Colorado women had already been doing for 27 years.

By Jessica LaRusso, Natasha Gardner, Patricia Kaowthumrong

Source images courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University (sash); Courtesy of Flickr Commons/The London School of Economics and Political Science (button); H.L. Standley, Colo., Pageant celebrating the 75th anniversary of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Sept. 23, 1923, Records of the National Woman’s Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Garden of the Gods); Denver Public Library, Western History Photographic collections (newspaper clipping); Getty Images (lily)

August 2020 marks 100 years since the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women across America the right to vote. In Colorado, we’re celebrating nearly 130 years since our state’s voters extended franchise to women. The fight for equal access to the voting booth, however, particularly for women of color, wasn’t over then. Here’s what it took to get us there more than a century ago, what challenges Colorado—and America—still faces, and how we honor the suffrage movement’s legacy today.

To register to vote or check your registration status, visit govotecolorado.gov.