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From Women’s Suffrage to the ERA | The Vote | Retro Report | American Experience | PBS

Virginia recently became the latest state to ratify a constitutional amendment that the country has been fighting about for nearly 100 years since it was first proposed by Alice Paul and other women’s suffragists. Has the United States reached a tipping point in the fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment?

Learn more about THE VOTE, including where to watch the documentary: http://pbs.org/thevote

One hundred years after the passage of the 19th Amendment, The Vote tells the dramatic culmination story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote — a transformative cultural and political movement that resulted in the largest expansion of voting rights in U.S. history.

In its final decade, from 1909 to 1920, movement leaders wrestled with contentious questions about the most effective methods for affecting social change. They debated the use of militant, even violent tactics, as well as hunger strikes and relentless public protests. The battle for the vote also upended previously accepted ideas about the proper role of women in American society and challenged the definitions of citizenship and democracy.

Exploring how and why millions of 20th-century Americans mobilized for — and against — women’s suffrage, The Vote brings to life the unsung leaders of the movement and the deep controversies over gender roles and race that divided Americans then — and continue to dominate political discourse today.