By: HISTORY.com Editors
Wyoming legislators write the first state constitution to grant women the vote
On September 30, 1889, the Wyoming state convention approves a constitution that includes a provision granting women the right to vote. Formally admitted into the union the following year, Wyoming thus became the first state in the history of the nation to allow its female citizens to vote.
That the isolated western state of Wyoming should be the first to accept women’s suffrage was a surprise. Leading suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were Easterners, and they assumed that their own more progressive home states would be among the first to respond to the campaign for women’s suffrage. Yet the people and politicians of the growing number of new Western states proved far more supportive than those in the East.
The Seneca Falls Convention
Learn about the movement for women's equality that precipitated the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, and what its attendees - including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott - hoped to achieve.
In 1848, the legislature in Washington Territory became the first to introduce a women’s suffrage bill. Though the Washington bill was narrowly defeated, similar legislation succeeded elsewhere, and Wyoming Territory was the first to give women the vote in 1869, quickly followed by Utah Territory (1870) and Washington Territory (1883). As with Wyoming, when these territories became states they preserved women’s suffrage.
By 1914, the contrast between East and West had become striking. All of the states west of the Rockies had women’s suffrage, while no state did east of the Rockies, except Kansas. Why the regional distinction? Some historians suggest western men may have been rewarding pioneer women for their critical role in settling the West. Others argue the West had a more egalitarian spirit, or that the scarcity of women in some western regions made men more appreciative of the women who were there while hoping the vote might attract more.
Whatever the reasons, Westerners proved far more willing than other Americans to create states where most women were welcomed as full and equal citizens.
The State Where Women Voted Long Before the 19th Amendment
For 50 years before the adoption of the 19th Amendment, women in Wyoming had full voting rights.
For 50 years before the adoption of the 19th Amendment, women in Wyoming had full voting rights.
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Citation Information
- Article Title
- Wyoming legislators write the first state constitution to grant women the vote
- Author
- HISTORY.com Editors
- Website Name
- History
- Date Accessed
- October 21, 2026
- Publisher
- A&E Television Networks
- Last Updated
- May 28, 2025
- Original Published Date
- November 16, 2009
