A short history of the National League of Women Voters

The national movement for women's suffrage began in the mid 1800's. The movement was making little progress because of opposition from the liquor industry. The liquor industry saw the linkages between the right to vote and abolition. Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader in the suffrage movement, returned from Europe early in 1900. She reorganized the national suffrage movement which was then able to pass suffrage in 1920. As the success of the suffrage movement was immanent, Carrie Chapman Catt suggested the organization of the League of Women Voters to carry on the work of the suffrage movement by informing the 20 million new voters created by women's suffrage.

From the beginning, the League was an activist, grassroots organization that believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then and is now a nonpartisan organization. League officials felt that maintaining a nonpartisan status would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political by educating citizens about government and lobbying for social reform legislation.

"Naturally, this course has failed to please extremists of either brand," noted the Leagues's first president, Maud Wood Park, in 1924. "The partisan radicals call the league conservative as thorough-going reactionaries are sure that it is radical or worse." This holds true even today, although to a lesser extent. But we are proud that the League is nonpartisan. Because of our status, we are trusted as an unbiased authentic representation of citizens' views and concerns.