District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands

Politician Tulsi Gabbard, ‘West Side
Story’ star Rita Moreno among
influential women from U.S.
territories

Coral Murphy-Marcos and Lindsay Schnell, USA TODAY
Updated 9:28 a.m. PNGT Aug. 21, 2020

While women in the United States celebrated obtaining the right to vote in 1920, women in the country’s territories stood on the sidelines – and to this day, many are still waiting there.

People in the U.S. territories can’t practice all the rights granted by the law. For example, residents in U.S. territories can’t vote for the U.S. president, and they don’t have representation in Congress.

But thanks in part to the efforts of women who fought to expand voting rights, today people on these islands can at least practice their right to vote for governors, senators, representatives and local officials.

Women in Puerto Rico obtained the legal right to vote in 1935, while women in the Northern Mariana Islands had to wait until 1978. In 1950, President Truman signed the Guam Organic Act, which established a government in Guam and declared those born there to be United States citizens; the act also granted women the right to vote. Women in the U.S. Virgin Islands – composed of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas – were granted the right to vote in 1936 after the ratification of the Organic Act established the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. Virgin Islands government and prohibited "any discrimination in qualification [for voting rights] ... based upon difference in race, color, sex, or religious belief."

In August, the United States will mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, when women were granted the right to vote. Although territories did not ratify women’s suffrage until several years later, to commemorate the anniversary the USA TODAY Network is naming 19 women from the U.S. territories who’ve made significant contributions to their communities as Women of the Century.

This list features women from the five permanently inhabited territories – Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The women highlighted range from prominent politicians to groundbreaking music artists.

These are women whose work and contributions were felt directly by their territory community. The reality of colonization is that many people born in the territories have to leave their homes and immigrate to the mainland U.S. for a better life. While that paves a way for many young people, leaving home is often a profound rupture for them. There are larger consequences, too: As a result of emigration, many of the territories are bereft of talent. With this list, we made a point to mostly highlight women who stayed in their territory, working to better the life of generations to come.

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