Early women in politics
These U.S territories allowed women to vote in general elections as early as 1870.
Wyoming and Utah
This type of barrier refers to cultural expectations and stereotypes about gender roles.
social norms
The year the Nineteenth Amendment was passed.
1920
This movement in the 1960s helped more women run for office.
The feminist movement
She became the first female Speaker of the House in 2007.
Nancy Pelosi.
This 1920 constitutional amendment granted women the right to vote in the U.S.
the 19th Amendment
Women often receive less of this essential campaign resource, limiting their ability to run.
funding
How long the suffrage movement lasted
72 years
What was the National Women’s Political Caucus created to do?
Increase women’s participation in politics
She became the first woman to win a major party’s presidential nomination
Hillary R. Clinton
Many early female Congress members entered politics through this pathway, replacing deceased husbands.
widows succession.
The UN Women article states that political parties often lack these, which support women candidates.
internal party support structures (or mentorship systems)
Two common strategies suffragists used to campaign for voting rights.
Marches, speeches, petitions, fundraising, lobbying.
This was the first woman on a major party presidential ticket
Geraldine Ferraro
The Women’s March of 2017 was a response to...
Donald Trump’s inauguration and the 2016 election results
She was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
Hattie Caraway
This “double standard” means women are judged more harshly for traits like ambition or assertiveness.
gender bias
describe Widows succession.
When a woman takes office after her husband dies. often starting their own career.
This major event in 1991 brought attention to sexual harassment in politics.
Anita Hill’s testimony during Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court hearings.
The main reason representation is still unequal even today
Women hold far fewer seats than men
This senator delivered a famous speech condemning McCarthyism—showing early female leadership in national politics.
Margaret Chase Smith.
This phrase describes how institutions like electoral systems are built in ways that structurally privilege men.
institutional barriers
This major internal divide slowed the suffrage movement after the Civil War
They split over whether to support the 15th Amendment, which gave Black men the vote but not women
The reason 1992 was called “The Year of the Woman”
A record number of women ran and won seats in Congress.
This political trend is known as the “political gender gap”
Where women are more likely to support liberal candidates and the Democratic Party, while men are more likely to support conservative candidates and the Republican Party. (based on research)