Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, from Tennesse, was one of the first women to lead the fight for America's approval to grant women their voting right. Meriwether struggled to persuade men as well as women to amend the constitution. Yet, she left Tennessee in 1883. Elizabeth Meriwether's sister-in-law Lide Meriwether founded, and was the President of Tennessee's first women's suffrage organization in 1889. She resigned in 1900. A disappointing break in the continuous fight occurred for many years following Lide Meriwether's resignation. .
After 1906 many organizations were developed for suffragists. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were two of the most important leaders in the fight for equal rights for women in the United States. This movement split into two factions, with Stanton and Anthony leading a more radical movement in New York and Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe leading the more conservation actions in Boston. Many women throughout the fight for women's rights played influential roles in the struggle for women's suffrage. Additional famous women who promoted the movement were Abigail Adams, Emma Hart Willard, Jane Adams, Ellen Gates Starr, Frances Willard, Harriet Tubman, Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns. There were also anti-suffragist organizations. The National Association Opposed to Women Suffrage was organized in 1911. The leader was Mrs. Arthur Dodge and the membership was mainly compromised of wealthy women and Catholic priests. .
In 1917 suffragists joined together to fight a battle to pass the bill that stated "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex" "The bill was denied.
The struggles of the women's suffrage organizations had many obstacles to overcome before their efforts began to have a positive impact on the fight for women's rights. From 1917 to 1918, women supported the United States WWI efforts, enhancing the patriotic image of their cause, and winning the support of the then President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.
