As the 2016 election draws closer and Hillary Clinton gets her chance to become America’s first female president, it’s easy to — as Michelle Obama recently noted — “take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.”
But there was a time, not even 100 years ago, that a woman simply voting for president seemed like a pipe dream. It wasn’t until 1920 that women in the United States were given the right to vote — and even that came only after decades of agitation and activism.
Those activists, suffragettes, were not simply up against a prejudiced legal system, but — as the following vintage posters show — a culture unready to grant women greater rights.
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Suffragette2USE.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/P10100108.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/P10100137.jpg)
![11107599884_7ecd5cb4f7_z](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/11107599884_7ecd5cb4f7_z.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/P10100177.jpg)
![Babycdohssm](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/babycdohssm.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Suffragette3USE.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/P10100184.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Suffragette1.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/P10100124.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/P10100064.jpg)
![412px I_did_not_raise_my_girl_to_be_a_voter3](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/412px-I_did_not_raise_my_girl_to_be_a_voter3.jpg)
Next, see some of the most arresting photos of the women's suffrage movement.