The
Nineteenth Amendment (
Amendment XIX) to the
United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the
right to vote on the basis of sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920. The Constitution allows the states to determine the qualifications of voters, subject to limitations imposed by later amendments. Until the 1910s, most states disenfranchised women. The amendment was the culmination of the
women's suffrage movement in the United States, which fought at both state and national levels to achieve the vote. It effectively overruled
Minor v. Happersett, in which a unanimous
Supreme Court ruled that the
Fourteenth Amendment did not give women the right to vote.