Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Government

Location

Maine State House, Augusta, ME 04330, USA

Lat/Long

44.307798, -69.782044

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

In 1857, a group of Maine women and men signed their names to a petition to the state legislature asking for a state constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage. There was no action from the legislature on the petition and this marked the start of a decades-long fight for women’s right to vote by suffragists in Maine. Suffragists continued to petition and protest state and local officials for the right to vote and in 1873, the Maine Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) was formed. The MWSA continued to campaign for a state constitutional amendment that would secure women’s suffrage in the state.

Finally, in 1917, the Maine legislature passed a state constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage, but the amendment was ultimately rejected by voters of the state. Then, on June 4, 1919, the United States Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment which reads, “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.” On November 5, the Maine legislature ratified the Nineteenth Amendment and by August 1920, the necessary 36 states had ratified the amendment, securing women’s right to vote across the United States.