19th Amendment
Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize that it was on this day, as pointed out earlier by my freshman colleague, Bruce Bailey from Iowa, January 10, 1918, that the House of Representatives first voted to give women the right to vote by approving the 19th amendment to the Constitution of these United States.
The State of Wisconsin became the first State to ratify the amendment. And following Wisconsin’s lead, two-thirds of the States approved the amendment which became the law of the land. The 19th amendment gave women their full rights as citizens.
It says, simply, citizens of the United States shall not be denied the right to vote on account of sex. The 19th amendment brought this Nation one step closer to fulfilling the promises enunciated by our Founders.
As the first Chamber of Congress to approve the amendment, we showed the way, and the Senate followed. This Chamber took another historic step recently in fulfilling the promise of America’s freedoms by electing Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the first woman to hold the position of Speaker of the House.