--- title: Women Voters Then and Now: Photos of Early Years of Suffrage description: In 2016, female voters may play a deciding role. Here, TIME looks back at some of the first American women ever to cast a vote. canonical: https://time.com/4552160/early-suffrage-photos/ author: Kim Bubello article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-03T18:00:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:22.747Z article:section: History og:title: Women Voters Then and Now: Photos of Early Years of Suffrage og:description: As Americans prepare to head to the polls, TIME takes a look back og:url: https://time.com/4552160/early-suffrage-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted7d2f005d22dfcc/6988acc1f887dc5888e980da/gettyimages-108884111.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Vote, Vote, Vote og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Women Voters Then and Now: Photos of Early Years of Suffrage twitter:description: As Americans prepare to head to the polls, TIME takes a look back twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted7d2f005d22dfcc/6988acc1f887dc5888e980da/gettyimages-108884111.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See Vintage Pictures of Female Voters in the Early Years of Suffrage  by [Kim Bubello](https://time.com/author/kim-bubello/)  ## Kim Bubello Nov 3, 2016 6:00 PM UTC  Members of the National League of Women Voters, seated around a table, holding signs that read VOTE, in Sep. 1924. Members of the National League of Women Voters, seated around a table, holding signs that read VOTE, in Sep. 1924.PhotoQuest/Getty Images  by [Kim Bubello](https://time.com/author/kim-bubello/)  ## Kim Bubello Nov 3, 2016 6:00 PM UTC As Tuesday’s election approaches, it’s clear that [women](http://time.com/4556063/2016-election-treatment-of-women/) voters will play a major role in the outcome. Both [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4247298/emilys-list-makes-a-push-with-millennial-women-for-hillary/?iid=sr-link4) and [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4495895/donald-trump-womens-issues/) have focused many aspects of their campaigns on gaining support from women, as gender issues have come [front and center](http://time.com/4523900/donald-trump-gender/) in the race. Earlier in the season, a FiveThirtyEight poll—and a map that dramatized the gender gap in the way women and men see the candidates—even prompted a [hashtag](http://motto.time.com/4529800/donald-trump-women-voters/) calling for the repeal of [the 19th Amendment](http://time.com/3986075/19th-amendment/), which upon its ratification in 1920 gave American women the right to vote. A group that less than a century ago was still fighting for the right to vote has now become one of the most [essential](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/11/01/how-women-have-defined-the-2016-election-hillary-clinton/93049292/) [factors](http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006594/en/Report-Ms.-Shows-Women-Decide-2016-Election) in this year’s election. Though some states extended the vote to women before 1920, the constitutional amendment guaranteeing suffrage was a turning point in American politics. Women have voted more than men in every presidential election since 1980, according to the [Center for American Women and Politics](http://time.com/4010645/womens-equality-day/?iid=sr-link6). And, of course, there’s another way in which women are affecting this year’s presidential race: In 2016, for the first time ever, American voters will have the option of casting a vote for a woman on a major-party ticket. Here, TIME looks back at the first decade of female voters.  Women line up to vote for the first time in New York after the passage of the 19th Amendment, in 1920. Underwood Archives/Getty Images  Mr. and Mrs. Warren G. Harding stand in line to vote in the presidential election, in 1920. Underwood Archives/Getty Images  Prominent Republican women call on the President to discuss the part women will play in the coming election, in 1924. Library of Congress  Members of the National League of Women Voters, seated around a table, holding signs that read VOTE, in Sep. 1924. PhotoQuest/Getty Images ![Governor an "early bird"--Mr. and Mrs. Smith voted at Public School No. 3, Oliver and Henry Street \[between 1919 and 1928\]](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1895ab0b781a025b/6988acc20a4a22f4639cbe59/3c17793u.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) New York Governor Al Smith and his wife voting at Public School No. 3, circa 1928. Library of Congress  Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Loesch voting at a voting poll in Chicago, in 1928. Chicago History Museum/Getty Images  Clayton F. Smith, Deputy Commissioner of City Works, and his wife, Mayme Paschen, looking toward the camera, standing next to a ballot box at a voting poll center in Chicago, in 1928. Chicago History Museum/Getty Images  Suffragist Bertha M. Furman, who worked for the League of Women Voters, teaching women how to vote, circa 1930. 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