Nearly 100 years after earning the right to vote in New York state, women around the city cast their ballots in a historic election to vote Hillary Clinton as the first female president of the United States.
The roots of women's suffrage run deep here in New York City, stretching back to the nineteenth century. Organizations like the National Women's Suffrage Association, founded in Brooklyn in 1869 by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, became powerful advocates for political change, and Victoria Woodhull, the first woman ever to run for president, launched her campaign in New York City.
Several generations of women march in a suffrage parade in New York City while wearing banners reading "Votes for Women." (American Press Association/Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
The movement reached its height in the early 20th century thanks to large-scale suffragist marches through Manhattan. During the 1910s, thousands of women and men dressed in white and marched in orderly rows down Fifth Avenue as part of the annual parades. They wore banners and carried signs that read "Votes for Women," even as "Antis" who opposed the fight for suffrage characterized it "as a movement...on the wane," according to contemporary reports.
Ultimately, women won the right to cast their ballots in New York in 1917 when male voters elected to change the New York State constitution to enfranchise women. Three years later, the 19th amendment was ratified, enabling women across the country to vote in their first presidential election.
Here's a look back at the turning points in New York City's battle for suffrage and the words of the women who led the cause:
