United State women won the vote in 1920 after decades of campaigning. Yet, the impact on women's status was more limited than women's rights activists had anticipated. Women were granted suffrage at a historical point when voting was no longer a significant political activity for many Americans. In the mid-nineteenth century, when women first sought suffrage rights, voter turnout rates were unprecedentedly high, elections in much of the country very competitive, and political parties important. But when women finally received the vote in 1920, electoral politics was largely noncompetitive, with virtual one-party rule in many areas, and voter turnout had slipped to its all-time low. Nonetheless, the vote still mattered enough for women to seek it and for conservatives to try to restrict its availability.