In July 1890, the Territory of Wyoming, which allowed women to vote, was admitted as a state.  Wyoming became the first state with women suffrage.  By 1900, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho joined Wyoming in allowing women to vote.

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive (Bull Moose) Party became the first national political party to have a plank supporting women suffrage.  The tide was beginning to turn.

In May 1919, the necessary two-thirds vote in favor of the women suffrage amendment was finally mustered in Congress, and the proposed amendment was sent to the states for ratification.  By July 1920, with a number of primarily Southern states adamantly opposed to the amendment, it all came down to Tennessee.  It appeared that the amendment might fail by one vote in the Tennessee house, but 24-year-old Harry Burns surprised observers by casting the deciding vote for ratification.