AP® United States History · Unit 7 · Topic 7.4
Four Amendments and the Vote for Women
Between 1913 and 1920, four amendments reshaped American government: income tax, direct election of senators, Prohibition, and women's suffrage, all products of Progressive-era pressure for a stronger, more democratic federal government.
The 16th (1913, income tax), 17th (1913, direct election of senators), 18th (1919, Prohibition), and 19th (1920, women's suffrage) Amendments all came out of the same Progressive-era push: use the federal government, not just the states, to fix national problems. Reformers had tried state-by-state solutions for decades and kept hitting the same wall. States could pass income taxes, let voters pick senators, ban alcohol, or grant women the vote, but results were patchy and uneven across the country. A constitutional amendment locked the change in everywhere at once.
Suffrage shows this shift clearly. Starting with Wyoming Territory in 1869 and statehood in 1890, western states granted women full voting rights one by one: Colorado, Utah, Idaho, then more through the 1910s, filling in the map west to east. But by the 1910s most of the East and South still refused. Leaders like Alice Paul pushed the movement to stop waiting state by state and demand a single federal amendment, which passed in 1920.
The 16th Amendment mattered beyond fairness in taxation. Before it, Washington leaned on tariffs for revenue, a source that didn't grow much with the economy. An income tax could expand as incomes rose, giving the federal government money to eventually fund a much bigger role, from regulation to New Deal programs a decade later. Prohibition connects backward too: the 18th Amendment was the constitutional payoff of the temperance crusade that began in the 1830s, now joined to Progressive faith in federal fixes.
Key terms
- 16th Amendment
- 1913 amendment letting Congress tax income directly without dividing the tax among states by population.
- 17th Amendment
- 1913 amendment requiring senators to be elected directly by voters instead of by state legislatures.
- 18th Amendment
- 1919 amendment banning the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol, known as Prohibition.
- 19th Amendment
- 1920 amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote nationwide.
- temperance movement
- a social reform campaign starting in the 1830s that urged limiting or banning alcohol consumption.
Watch it explained
- How it worksWalk me through the suffrage movement's shift from state campaigns to a federal amendment.
- Worked exampleShow me the suffrage map filling in state by state from Wyoming in 1890 to 1920.
- How it worksHow does an income tax amendment change what the federal government can afford to do?
- Ties togetherHow does Prohibition connect the temperance crusade of the 1830s to the 18th Amendment?
Check yourself
End of topic.