Did you know?

Wyoming was not only the first state to grant women the right to vote, but it also was the first state to elect a female governor, electing Nellie Tayloe Ross to that post in 1924. Ross was elected after being nominated for governor in a special election following the sudden death of her husband, William Ross, who died from complications of an appendectomy less than two years into his term. Wyoming granted full voting rights to women in 1869, 21 years before it was even granted statehood. The year 1869 proved to be a groundbreaking year with regard to voting rights, as it was in February of 1869 that Congress proposed an amendment that would ban voting restrictions on the basis of race, color or previous servitude. That amendment would not be ratified for nearly 12 months, but it would still precede the 19th Amendment, which granted American women the right to vote, by half a century. Among those credited with fighting hard for women’s suffrage in the United States are Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony, none of whom would ultimately live long enough to see the 19th Amendment passed.