Massachusetts Constitution

Article I of the original 1780 Massachusetts Declaration of Rights stated that all men are born free and equal and possess natural, essential, and unalienable rights to life, liberty, property, and happiness. This clause served as the Commonwealth’s foundational guarantee of individual liberty and equality but was later annulled by the adoption of Article CVI in 1976, which replaced gender-exclusive language with an explicit equal-rights guarantee for all people. Article CVI revises Article I of the Declaration of Rights to guarantee that all people are born free and equal and explicitly prohibits the denial or abridgment of equality under the law based on sex, race, color, creed, or national origin. This amendment modernized Massachusetts's constitutional equality clause by removing gendered language and providing a clear constitutional basis for challenging sex-based discrimination by state actors and in state-regulated contexts. Article LXVIII amended prior constitutional language governing elections by striking the word male from Article III of the Amendments, thereby granting women the right to vote in Massachusetts on equal terms with men. This change aligned the Commonwealth’s constitution with the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and ensured state-level protection for women’s suffrage. Article LXIX guarantees that no person is disqualified from holding state, county, or municipal office because of sex, eliminating formal barriers to women’s eligibility for public office. It also updates administrative procedures for women who change their names, requiring re-registration under the new name. The amendment further expanded women’s political participation and equality in public service within Massachusetts.