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OF ILLINOIS

Carrie Chapman Catt

FOUNDER, LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS

Activist Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) was instru- Catt rose rapidly in suffrage ranks. Over time she
mental to the cause that brought equal voting rights to became a close colleague of Susan B. Anthony, who
U.S. citizens. A teacher and then superintendent of selected Catt to succeed her as head of the NAWSA.
schools in Iowa, Catt became involved in the women’s Catt led the movement over the next twenty years,
suffrage movement in the 1880s. She served as presi- struggling against great odds and many frustrating
dent of the National American Woman Suffrage Associ- setbacks. In Catt’s approach to politics, organization
ation (NAWSA) from 1900 to 1904 and again from was the watchword and she was superb at it. From her
1915 to 1920, spearheading the movement with first endeavors in Iowa in the 1880s to her last in
her ability to organize campaigns, mobilize Tennessee in 1920, Catt supervised dozens of
volunteers and deliver effective speeches. campaigns, mobilized numerous volunteers
Shortly before the suffragists celebrated (1 million by the end), and made hun-
victory with passage of the 19th dreds of speeches. She made skilled use
Amendment in 1920, Catt founded of communication and publicity,
the League of Women Voters. fashioning disciplined campaigns and
building a highly effective machine.
The triumph of woman’s suffrage in
the United States in 1920 was very Catt believed it was woman’s natu-
much the work of Carrie Catt. A ral right to participate in politics on
brilliant strategist, she was twice an equal basis with men. If women
president of the National American could vote, she argued, they would
Woman Suffrage Association become a force for world peace and
(nawsa), first from 1900 to 1904 would help improve the conditions
and then in the dramatic final years of life for themselves and their
of the struggle, from 1915 to 1920. children. Above all, she was
concerned with women’s dignity.
Catt, born Carrie Lane in Ripon, Wis- Angry that women had no control over
consin, spent most of her youth in Iowa, their lives, she felt that political participa-
where she went to college. She became a tion would give them a voice in decisions
teacher and then superintendent of schools affecting them, enhancing their dignity as
in Mason City in 1883. This was an unusual human beings.
achievement for a woman of that day,
but no great surprise to those who One of Catt’s overriding goals was that
knew her. Bright, resilient, and “Everybody counts in of world peace, a cause she pursued
self-confident, she never acceded to applying democracy. throughout her life. Another was that
conventions that made no sense to her. And there will never the political process should be rational
In 1885 Catt married newspaper editor be a true democracy and issue-oriented, dominated by
citizens, not politicians. To that end, she
Leo Chapman, but he died in California until every responsi- founded the League of Women Voters
soon after, leaving her far from home ble and law abiding in 1920. It remains something of a
with no resources. Eventually she adult in it, without monument to her ideals, devoting itself
landed on her feet but only after some to issues and placing what it considers
harrowing experiences in the male regard to race, sex, the public interest over partisan
working world. In 1890 she married color or creed has his politics. Catt was proud of her role in
George Catt, a wealthy engineer. Their or her own inalienable this organization until the end of
marriage allowed her to spend a good and unpurchasable her life.
part of each year on the road cam-
paigning for woman’s suffrage, a cause voice in government.”
she had become involved in in Iowa in (1917)
the late 1880s. HISTORY.COM EDITORS