The Amendment Process: Ratifying the 19th Amendment

Suggested Teaching Instructions

This activity can be used in a Civics or U.S. Government course to understand the amendment process, or in a U.S. history course while learning about women's suffrage (or "woman suffrage") and the Nineteenth Amendment. For grades 7-12. Approximate time needed is 45 minutes. This activity can be done individually or in small groups.

Students should begin the activity by reading the introduction and directions, then clicking on "Show Hints" to reveal the steps in the amendment process.

Next they should analyze each document to determine which step of the amendment process was taking place when the document was created. Reinforce the activity's directions to click on the orange "new window" icon to see each document more closely. (The document details have been disabled for this activity so that the descriptions are hidden and don't give away the answers.)

Once students have studied the documents, they should drag each one to the appropriate box/hint to arrange them in the proper sequence of the amendment process. The steps are:

1. Desire for an amendment is voiced (writing to representatives) (The match is the letter to Edwin Webb, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which held hearings on women's suffrage prior to the creation of the Woman Suffrage Committee in 1917.)
2. Desire for an amendment is voiced (protesting) (Matching the photograph of protestors holding a banner) Note that steps 1 & 2 could be combined or reversed.
3. Bill is introduced in Congress & referred to committee; full chamber votes; it passes if 2/3 vote yes (Matching the House Joint Resolution)
4. Process is repeated in other chamber of Congress (Matching the "Let the People Vote on It" political cartoon)
5. Each chamber votes again and both chambers pass a joint resolution (Matching the Congressional Joint Resolution)
6. Once 3/4 of states vote to ratify, the amendment is added to the Constitution (Matching Tennessee's Ratification. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify, clinching the amendment's passage.)

Share with students that, in practice, the amendment process can be more complex, involving additional steps. For instance:

• If there are differences in wording between the House and Senate resolutions proposing the amendment, they would be worked out in a conference committee.
• At the end of the process, the ratification is certified. At the time of the 19th amendment, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the certificate of ratification on August 26, 1920. Today this is done by the Archivist of the United States at the National Archives.

Explain also that the Constitution says that an amendment could instead be proposed by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures. However, none of our 27 amendments have actually been proposed in this way.


After students have placed the documents in the correct order, they should click “When You're Done.” Conduct a class discussion based on the questions:

1. Explain how the amendment process demonstrates representative democracy. How are the people and their representatives involved? (The people elect their representatives in Congress, who can introduce amendments and vote on them. The people can also contact their representatives or publicly protest, pressuring them to initiate or pass/block an amendment.)
2. What is the role of the President in the amendment process? (The President does not have a constitutional role in the amendment process. However, they can influence and urge Congress to pass/block an amendment. For this reason, Americans often pressure the President to support/oppose an amendment, as was the case with women's suffrage. President Woodrow Wilson, though not initially supportive of a Federal women's suffrage amendment, ultimately urged Congress to pass an amendment in 1918.)
3. What role do the states play in the amendment process? Do all states need to be involved? (According to the Constitution, only three-fourths of state legislatures need to pass an amendment, or ratify it, to add the amendment to the Constitution. Wisconsin was the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment, on June 10, 1919. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it on August 18, 1920, the amendment reached the required three-fourths of the states. Today, this would be 38 of 50 states.)
4. Under what circumstances do you think Congress would propose a Constitutional amendment instead of passing legislation? How is an amendment different from a law? (Students could provide a variety of opinions in response to this question. For example, they might cite the more involved and challenging process of creating an amendment that not only involves Congress, but hundreds of state legislators; an amendment is thus difficult to change or repeal since it would require another amendment, as when the 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment.)
5. Since the Constitution went into effect in 1789, there have been over 11,000 attempts to amend it. But only 27 of those were eventually ratified. What makes the amendment process so difficult to complete? Why do you think the framers of the Constitution made it so difficult? (Students could provide a variety of opinions in response to this question. They might conclude that it takes a long time — for instance, the women's suffrage movement began in the mid-19th century and took several generations of woman activists, few of whom lived to see final victory in 1920 — and a high degree of societal consensus to get a ratified constitutional amendment. They might speculate, therefore, that the framers made it a difficult process to ensure that the Constitution would last, and protect it from changing popular opinion. Students should understand that the reason so few amendments have been successful is that our Constitution sets a high bar to pass amendments. Each of the 27 amendments has passed both houses of Congress by a two-thirds vote, and then they were ratified by three-quarters of the state legislatures.)