In her address to the National American Woman Suffrage Association's
(NAWSA) 50th convention in St. Louis, Missouri, President Carrie
Chapman Catt proposed the creation of a "league of women voters to
finish the fight and aid in the reconstruction of the nation." Women
Voters was formed within the NAWSA, composed of the organizations in
the states where suffrage had already been attained.
The next year, on February 14, 1920 - six months before the 19th
amendment to the Constitution was ratified - the League was formally
organized in Chicago as the national League of Women Voters. Catt
described the purpose of the new organization:
"The League of Women Voters is not to dissolve any
present organization but to unite all existing organizations of women
who believe in its principles. It is not to lure women from
partisanship but to combine them in an effort for legislation which
will protect coming movements, which we cannot even foretell, from
suffering the untoward conditions which have hindered for so long the
coming of equal suffrage. Are the women of the United States big
enough to see their opportunity?"
Maud Wood Park became the first national president of the League and
thus the first League leader to rise to the challenge. She had steered
the women's suffrage amendment through Congress in the last two years
before ratification and liked nothing better than legislative work.
From the very beginning, however, it was apparent that the legislative
goals of the League were not exclusively focused on women's issues and
that citizen education aimed at all of the electorate was in order.
Since its inception, the League has helped millions of women
and men become informed participants in government. In fact, the first
league convention voted 69 separate items as statements of principle
and recommendations for legislation. Among them were protection for
women and children, right of working women, food supply and demand,
social hygiene, the legal status of women, and American citizenship.The
League's first major national legislative success was the passage of
the Sheppard-Towner Act providing federal aid for maternal and child
care programs. In the 1930's, League members worked successfully for
enactment of the Social Security and Food and Drug Acts. Due at least
in part to League efforts, legislation passed in 1938 and 1940 removed
hundreds of federal jobs from the spoils system and placed them under
Civil Service.
During the postwar period, the League helped lead the effort to establish the United Nations
and to ensure U.S. Participation. The League was one of the first
organizations in the country officially recognized by the United
Nations as a non-governmental organization; it still maintains official
observer status today.
See also League History from the League of Women Voters of the US.