Does this mean women could only vote after August 18, 1920? Nope. Some states,15 in all,had already approved women’s right to vote, primarily in western states. For example, Jeannette Rankin, a Montana Republican, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916.
Just thinking to myself here, but it really shouldn’t have been necessary for a separate amendment. The 15th Amendment gave Black Americans the right to vote, and perhaps it wasn’t the proper place to put it, but around the same time, in the 14th Amendment, the first clause begins by referring to “all citizens,” while the second clause, which has to do with voting, uses the word “male.”
Who knows, it could have been taken care of in 1868. It’s important because the 14th Amendment, including the equal protection clause, addresses aspects of citizenship and the rights of citizens. In Wyoming, the right of women to vote was approved.
But it wasn’t. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ran on a platform of voting for women, yet he had personally opposed it before. The final opposition, including from President Wilson, was overcome in 1918 when Wilson agreed to it, and New York granted the right to women that year.