Political activism has goals - most of the time they are for new legislation or sometimes to repeal flawed or bad legislation. But the activism is futile without action by the legislature or those in charge of government.
When the women of the times were campaigning for their right to vote their goal was an amendment to the US Constitution.....
The 19th amendment was specifically intended to extend suffrage to women. It was proposed on June 4, 1919 and ratified on August 18, 1920.
The amendment was the culmination of the work of many activists in favor of women's suffrage. One such group called the Silent Sentinels protested in front of the White House for 18 months starting in 1917 to raise awareness of the issue.
On January 9, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson announced his support of the amendment. The next day, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the amendment but the Senate refused to even debate it until October. When the Senate voted on the amendment in October, it failed by three votes.
In response, the National Woman's Party urged citizens to vote against anti-suffrage senators up for election in the fall of 1918. After the 1918 election, most members of Congress were pro-suffrage. On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment by a vote of 304 to 89, and 2 weeks later on June 4, the Senate finally followed, where the amendment passed by a vote of 56 to 25.<1>
It was ratified on August 18, 1920, upon its ratification by Tennessee, the thirty-sixth state to do so. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920.
On February 27, 1922, a challenge to the 19th Amendment was rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett
Their efforts would have been for naught were it not for the President and the Congress. These facts are NOT sexist, are they? Do they diminish the efforts of those brave and courageous women - those "Iron Jawed Angels"? (Download or rent the HBO movie).
Or go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution