Commemorating the centennial of the 19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution became law in August 1920, making it illegal to deny the vote based on a person’s sex. Iowa was the tenth state to ratify the amendment when it did so in July 1919. The University of Iowa is hosting a series of events reflecting on the centennial of women’s suffrage and the work for full representation and political rights that continues today.
Essay contest
To encourage original research on the history of political activism by Iowa women prior to and after ratification, the University of Iowa is sponsoring an essay competition for UI undergraduate and graduate students.
Resources on women’s suffrage and political participation
The Iowa Women’s Archives and the University of Iowa Libraries hold many resources that document participation in the fight for the vote and women’s political activism before and after 1920.
- Iowa’s Suffrage Scrapbook, 1854-1920 — an online exhibit that provides a chronology of the suffrage movement in Iowa
- Women’s Suffrage in Iowa Digital Collection — a collection of images and documents in the Iowa Digital Library drawn from the Iowa Women’s Archives, the State Historical Society of Iowa, and Iowa State University’s Special Collections Department
- Women, Suffrage, and Citizenship—a guide to resources
Iowa’s Suffrage Scrapbook and the Women’s Suffrage in Iowa Digital Collection were created in 2010 with funding from the State Historical Society, Inc. Christine Mastalio and Kayla Pollock, graduate students in the University of Iowa’s School of Library and Information Science, selected and digitized documents from the collections of the Iowa Women’s Archives, the State Historical Society of Iowa (Des Moines and Iowa City branches), and Iowa State University. To learn more about this project, see Women’s Suffrage in Iowa: A Sneak Peek of a New Digital Collection.