![](https://cdn.landesa.org/wp-content/uploads/WomenEqualityDay-1-1-557x234.jpg)
Ninety-five years ago today women in the United States gained access to the ballot box, thanks to the passage of the 19th amendment. This fundamental right of any democracy was no easy fight for the suffragists of the 19th century. It took 132 years for women in the United States to access this very basic right to vote promised in the U.S. Constitution. Though the constitutional right to vote was gender neutral, conservative authorities interpreted it to mean only free (read white) male adult property owners should be entrusted with a vote.