Wilson personally favored women's suffrage, but early in his presidency he held that it was a state matter, partly because of strong opposition in the South to any constitutional amendment. The increasingly prominent role women took in the war effort in factories and at home convinced Wilson and many others to fully support women's suffrage. In a 1918 speech before Congress, Wilson for the first time backed a national right to vote: "We have made partners of the women in this war...Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right?" That same year, the House passed a constitutional amendment providing for women's suffrage nationwide, but this stalled in the Senate. Wilson continually pressured the Senate to vote for the amendment, telling senators that its ratification was vital to winning the war. The Senate finally approved it in June 1919, and the requisite number of states ratified the Nineteenth Amendment in August 1920.