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“When my mother was born, women did not have the right to vote, so we’ve come,
in really just a few generations, having to fight for the right to vote
to finally a potential woman head of state.”
–Democratic Presidential NomineeHillary Clinton

The first efforts to achieve women’s suffrage began before the Civil War. In 1848, a group of over 300 men and women gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to hold the firstwomen’s rights convention. It took more than 70 years for American women to eventually gain that right.

Passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, the19th Amendmentguarantees all American women the right to vote. Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920. On August 26, it was formally adopted into the Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.

Though women finally achieved the right to vote, their struggle for equal representation in government has continued, and today they are still largely underrepresented in elected offices all across the nation. It took almost a full century for the first woman to be nominated for the office of president by a major political party, when Hillary Rodham Clinton secured the Democratic party’s nomination this year.

Below are a few more firsts by American women in government and politics:

1887:Susanna Medora Salterbecame the first woman elected mayor of an American town, in Argonia, Kansas.

1916:Montana RepublicanJeannette Rankincarries the distinction of being the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.

1924:Nellie Tayloe Rossof Wyoming became the Nation’s first female governor when she was elected to succeed her deceased husband, William Bradford Ross.

1932:Hattie Wyatt Carawayof Arkansas is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

1933:Frances Perkinsis appointed secretary of labor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, making her the first woman to serve as a member of a U.S. presidential cabinet.

1964:SenatorMargaret Chase Smithfrom Maine becomes the first woman formally nominated for president of the United States by a major political party, at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.

1981:Sandra Day O’Connoris appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court, making her its first woman justice.

1984:DemocratGeraldine Ferrarois the first woman nominated for vice-president on a major party ticket.

1993:Dr. Sheila E. Widnallwas the first woman to head a branch of the U.S. military as Secretary of the Air Force. The first female U.S. attorney general,Janet Renowas confirmed 98-0 by the U.S. Senate.

1997:Madeleine Albrighthttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Madeleine-Albrightis sworn in as the first female U.S. secretary of state.

2007:Nancy Pelosi(D-Calif.) is the first woman to be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives.

According to theWorld Economic Forum, 63 of 142 countries in the world have had a female leader at some point in the past 50 years, but the United States has never had one in its 240-year history. Why has it taken so long? And will 2016 finally be the year? We’ll find out on November 8!