THIRD READING 

Bill No: SR 43

Author: Leyva (D), et al.

Introduced: 5/20/19

Vote: Majority

SUBJECT: Nineteenth Amendment

SOURCE: Author

DIGEST:

This resolution recognizes June 4, 2019, as the 100th Anniversary of Congress Passing the Nineteenth Amendment and encourages all Californians to join in this observance.

ANALYSIS: This resolution makes the following legislative findings:

1. The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that “the rights 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,” guarantees women the right to vote, a right known as women’s suffrage.
2. The Nineteenth Amendment took almost a century of activism, campaigning, and protests to be adopted.
3. The wording of the Nineteenth Amendment was first introduced in the U.S. Senate in January 1878 by Senator Aaron A. Sargent from California, who was an outspoken women’s suffrage advocate. He testified before the U.S. Senate in support of the amendment alongside female activists. However, the proposal was rejected by the U.S. Senate in 1887.
4. In 1916, Alice Paul, Chair of the Washington, D.C. Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, created the National Women’s Party (NWP), a political party advocating for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. NWP members were the first women in history to picket the White House in 1917.
5. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson recognized the increased role of women in American society, especially during the involvement of the U.S. in World War I by supporting women’s suffrage in his address to the U.S. Senate. However, despite President Wilson’s support, the U.S. Senate did not pass the amendment at that time.
6. On May 21, 1919, The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to approve the Nineteenth Amendment by a vote of 304 to 89 — a full 42 votes above the required two-thirds majority. On June 4, 1919, the U.S. Senate passed the amendment by two votes over the required two-thirds vote threshold. The amendment was then sent to the states for ratification.
7. Although some state legislatures opposed women’s suffrage, the California Legislature was not one of them. On November 1, 1919, then-Governor William D. Stephens called a special session of the Legislature to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, and the California Legislature passed the amendment on the same day.
8. On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified by 36 states, receiving ratification by three-fourths of the states necessary to make it the law of the land. Today, all 50 states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment.
9. Although the U.S. granted women the right to vote in 1920, in California, women had already won the right to vote in 1911, nearly a decade earlier, making California one of the first six states in the nation to approve women’s suffrage.

This resolution recognizes June 4, 2019, as the 100th Anniversary of Congress Passing the Nineteenth Amendment and encourages all Californians to join in this observance.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local: No

SUPPORT: (Verified 5/21/19)

None received

OPPOSITION: (Verified 5/21/19)

None received

Prepared by: Melissa Ward / SFA / (916) 651-1520

5/22/19 15:35:50

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