HISTORY
Since 1920 we have been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that voters should play a critical role in democracy.
The League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1920 during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The convention was held just six months before the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote after a 72-year struggle.
The League began as a "mighty political experiment" designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy. From the beginning, the League has been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then, and is now, a nonpartisan organization. League founders believed that maintaining a nonpartisan stance would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political themselves, by educating citizens about, and lobbying for, government and social reform legislation.
This holds true today. The League is proud to be nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government, but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public. The League has a long, rich history, that continues with each passing year.
KEY DATES
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February 14th |
League of Women Voters birthday—100 years in 2020 |
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March 8th |
International Women’s Day |
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August 18th |
The 19th Amendment Ratified: women achieve right to vote—100 years in 2020 |
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August 26th |
Women’s Equality Day |
BOOKS:
(list compiled by League of Women Voters)
- Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America – Sara M. Evans (1989, 1997)
- Carrie Chapman Catt: A Life of Leadership – Nate Levin (1999)
- Carrie Chapman Catt: Feminist Politician – Robert Booth Fowler (1986)
- Century of Struggle: The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States– Eleanor Flexner and Ellen Fitzpatrick (1959, 1975)
- Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women's Rights and Family Values That Polarized American Politics- Marjorie Spruill (2017)
- For the Public Record: A Documentary History of the League of Women Voters – Barbara Stuhler (2003)
- The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement 1890 - 1920 – Aileen S. Kraditor (1965, 1981)
- Idols, Victims, Pioneers: Virginia’s Women from 1607 – James Wamsley with Anne Cooper (1976)
- In League with Eleanor: Eleanor Roosevelt and the League of Women Voters 1921-1962
- – Hilda R. Watrous (1984)
- In the Public Interest: The League of Women Voters 1920 – 1970 – Louise M. Young (1989)
- One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Women’s Suffrage Movement (FILM) (1995)
- One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Women’s Suffrage Movement – Marjorie Spruill Wheeler (1995)
- The Paradox of Gender Equality: How American Women’s Groups Gained and Lost Their Public Voice – Kristin A. Goss (2013)
- Sustaining the League of Women Voters in America – Maria Hoyt Cashin (2012, 2013)
- Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks Whitehouse & Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage – Anne B. Gass (2014)
- Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement – Robert P. J. Cooney, Jr. (2005)
- Woman Suffrage and the New Democracy – Sara Hunter Graham (1996)
- New Women of the New South – Marjorie Spruill Wheeler (1993)
