CLEP American Government Exam Prep

Answer: B - While some states, especially in the West, allowed women to vote before this time, women’s right to vote nationally was not cemented until the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The reason most often given for denying women suffrage (the right to vote) before this involved arguments claiming that women were too sheltered by family life to make wise political decisions or that women were too emotional to express good judgment in voting. It was also argued that women already had political representation, because men voted on behalf of their families. These biases were eventually overcome and women were given the franchise (yet another term meaning “the right to vote”) in 1920.