Carrie Chapman Catt

Carrie Chapman Catt, a dynamic leader and political strategist, was a key coordinator of the woman suffrage movement in the United States. She revitalized the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and played a leading role in its campaign to win voting rights for women, writing and speaking about women’s political and labor issues. Catt co-organized the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) in 1904, promoting equal-suffrage rights worldwide as president of the organization. In 1917, as president of NAWSA, she launched a nationwide drive for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the franchise at the federal level. The campaign culminated in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. Immediately after, she reorganized NAWSA into the League of Women Voters.