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This amendment was ratified in 1920, as advocates ("suffragettes") cited women's support of World War I to persuade President [[Woodrow Wilson]] to change his position from opposing this amendment to supporting it. [[Women]] could already vote in many areas of the country, but this amendment guaranteed the right, in violation of the principle of [[states' rights]] and in support of individual [[civil rights]] , a phenomenon further seen in civil rights legislation after the [[civil rights movement]].
Opposition to this amendment, especially in the South, was very strong. Long after the [[Civil War]], many southerners believed [[feminism]] had emerged as an offshoot of [[abolitionism]]. They also strongly believed that the suffragists challenged a precept deeply rooted in religion, law, and custom: the belief that women should be subordinate to men.<ref>http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=W081</ref>