Catt, Carrie Chapman, 1859-1947, American suffragist and peace advocate, b. Carrie Lane, Ripon, Wis., grad. Iowa State College (now Iowa State Univ.), 1880. She was superintendent of schools (1883-84) in Mason City, Iowa. In 1885 she married Lee Chapman, a journalist (d. 1886), and in 1890, George Catt, an engineer (d. 1905). From 1890 to 1900 an organizer for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she became its president in 1900. She led the campaign to win suffrage through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. After the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (1920), she organized the League of Women Voters for the political education of women. At the Berlin convocation of the International Council of Women she helped organize the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, of which she was president from 1904 to 1923. After 1923 she devoted her efforts chiefly to the peace movement. With Nettie R. Shuler she wrote Woman Suffrage and Politics (1923).

orig. Carrie Lane

(born Jan. 9, 1859, Ripon, Wis., U.S.—died March 9, 1947, New Rochelle, N.Y.) U.S. advocate of woman suffrage. A graduate of Iowa State College (1880), she became a high-school principal in Mason City, Iowa, in 1881 and superintendent of schools two years later; she was one of the first U.S. women to hold such a post. She married Leo Chapman in 1884. After his untimely death in 1886 she devoted herself to organizing the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association (1887–90). Her marriage to George W. Catt, an engineer, in 1890, was unusual in its prenuptial legal contract providing her with four months of free time each year to work exclusively for woman suffrage. In 1900 she was elected to succeed Susan B. Anthony as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Between 1905 and 1915 Catt reorganized the NAWSA along political district lines. By then an accomplished public speaker, she served as the group's president from 1915 until her death. After ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted voting rights to women, she reorganized the NAWSA as the League of Women Voters to work for progressive legislation, including the cause of world peace. Seealso woman suffrage movement.

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orig. Carrie Lane

(born Jan. 9, 1859, Ripon, Wis., U.S.—died March 9, 1947, New Rochelle, N.Y.) U.S. advocate of woman suffrage. A graduate of Iowa State College (1880), she became a high-school principal in Mason City, Iowa, in 1881 and superintendent of schools two years later; she was one of the first U.S. women to hold such a post. She married Leo Chapman in 1884. After his untimely death in 1886 she devoted herself to organizing the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association (1887–90). Her marriage to George W. Catt, an engineer, in 1890, was unusual in its prenuptial legal contract providing her with four months of free time each year to work exclusively for woman suffrage. In 1900 she was elected to succeed Susan B. Anthony as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Between 1905 and 1915 Catt reorganized the NAWSA along political district lines. By then an accomplished public speaker, she served as the group's president from 1915 until her death. After ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted voting rights to women, she reorganized the NAWSA as the League of Women Voters to work for progressive legislation, including the cause of world peace. Seealso woman suffrage movement.

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Carrie Chapman Catt (January 9,1859 – March 9 1947) was a woman's suffrage leader. She was elected president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) twice; her first term was from 1900 to 1904 and her second term was from 1915 to 1920. Her second term coincided with the climax of the woman suffrage movement in the U.S., and culminated in the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. NAWSA was by far the largest organization working for woman suffrage in the U.S.

Biography

Carrie Clinton Lane was born in Ripon, Wisconsin, she spent her childhood in Charles City, Iowa and graduated from Iowa State College, later called Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. She became a teacher and then superintendent of schools in Mason City, Iowa in 1883.

In 1885 Carrie married newspaper editor Leo Chapman, but he died in California soon after. Eventually she landed on her feet but only after some harrowing experiences in the male working world. In 1890, she married George Catt, a wealthy engineer. Their marriage allowed her to spend a good part of each year on the road campaigning for woman's suffrage, a cause she had become involved with in Iowa during the late 1880s. Catt also joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Catt became a close colleague of Susan B. Anthony, who selected Catt to succeed her as head of the NAWSA. Catt led the woman suffrage movement over the next twenty years. From her first endeavors in Iowa in the 1880s to her last in Tennessee in 1920, Catt supervised dozens of campaigns, mobilized numerous volunteers (1 million by the end), and made hundreds of speeches. After the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Catt retired from NAWSA.

Catt founded the League of Women Voters in 1920 as a successor to NAWSA.

Catt was also a leader of the international woman suffrage movement. She helped to found the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) in 1902, serving as its president from 1904 until 1923. The IWSA remains in existence, now as the [International Alliance of Women http://www.womenalliance.org/].

Catt was active in anti-war causes during the 1920s and 1930s. She settled in New Rochelle, New York in 1928. During this period she was frequently recognized as one of the most prominent female leaders of her time.

Controversy

Beginning around 1913, a conflict was in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Catt supported those already in power. Her strategy was to support Woodrow Wilson as the country entered World War I. Alice Paul, who would later become the leader of the National Woman's Party (NWP) led a parade to protest Wilson's lack of support for the suffrage movement one day before his inauguration.

In light of these differences, a split developed and the NWP was started.

Notes

References

• Robert Booth Fowler, Carrie Catt: Feminist Politician (1986).
• Jacqueline Van Voris, Carrie Chapman Catt: A Public Life.
• Mary Gray Peck, Carrie Chapman Catt: A Biography.

Further reading

• Carrie Chapman Catt: A Life of Leadership by Nate Levin. (Full text available here:)

External links

• The Carrie Chapman Catt Girlhood Home and Museum online, located in Charles City, Iowa
• PBS Kids: Women and the Vote
• Information from the Library of Congress
• About.com
• Interesting Timeline showing the different tactics of the National Woman’s Party and the National American Woman Suffrage Association
• Alice Paul Institute
• Carrie Chapman Catt Girlhood Home and Museum
• Biography by Women in History (an organization in Ohio)