Carrie Chapman Catt Becomes President of National American Women's Suffrage Association

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.

Carrie Chapman Catt followed Susan B. Anthony as president of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and was its leader when the women’s right to vote became the law of the land.  A determined woman and brilliant organizer, she got her start organizing women in Iowa for a state referendum on the vote, and went on to rally women in other states.

When Chapman Catt secured women’s voting rights in Colorado, Susan B. Anthony asked her to become the head organizer for the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. When Anthony retired in 1900, Chapman Catt took her place as president.

Failing to get the right to vote state by state, she decided to switch tactics and lobbied Congress for a national amendment. After more than 70 years of denying women the right to vote, Congress passed the amendment in 1919 and sent it to the states for ratification. When the battle was won in 1920, Chapman Catt organized the League of Women Voters to continue the work of engaging women in politics and using their precious new right to make the world a better place.

This message is produced­­­­ by the Kanawha Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.