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101-453: LWV may refer to: League of Women Voters Lehr und Wehr Verein , a Chicago-based socialist military organization founded in 1875 Lawrenceville–Vincennes International Airport 's IATA code Lully-Werke-Verzeichnis , the prefix for numbering compositions by Jean-Baptiste Lully Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

202-749: A Communist by Joseph McCarthy and president Percy Maxim Lee testified before Congress against Senator Joseph McCarthy's abuse of congressional investigative powers. In 1960, the League supported the Resources and Conservation Act of 1960 (S. 2549), beginning a long history of environmental engagement. The league ultimately supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but their efforts came too late to have major impact. After first refusing to oppose discrimination in housing in 1966,

303-580: A book "The untold story of women of color in the League of Women Voters" documenting the history of the League and women of color. The League fought for the 1982 Amendments to the Voting Rights Act and in the 1990s was important in the passage of National Voter Registration Act of 1993 , popularly known as the Motor Voter Act. The act requires states to offer voter registration at all driver's license agencies, at social service agencies, and through

404-639: A competing organization called the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women. Later known as the Women's Political Union, its membership was based on working women, both professional and industrial. Blatch had recently returned to the United States after several years in England, where she had worked with suffrage groups in the early phases of employing militant tactics as part of their campaign. The Equality League gained

505-506: A controversial best-seller that attacked the use of the Bible to relegate women to an inferior status. Her opponents within the NAWSA reacted strongly. They felt that the book would harm the drive for women's suffrage. Rachel Foster Avery, the organization's corresponding secretary, sharply denounced Stanton's book in her annual report to the 1896 convention. The NAWSA voted to disavow any connection with

606-501: A critical mass of voters that could push through a suffrage amendment at the national level. In 1913, the Southern States Woman Suffrage Committee was formed in an attempt to stop that process from moving past the state level. It was led by Kate Gordon, who had been the NAWSA's corresponding secretary from 1901 to 1909. Gordon, who was from the southern state of Louisiana, supported women's suffrage, but opposed

707-477: A development that drew the interest of many suffragists. Blackwell's ally in this effort was Laura Clay , who convinced the NAWSA to launch a campaign in the South based on Blackwell's strategy. Clay was one of several southern NAWSA members who objected to the proposed national women's suffrage amendment on the grounds that it would impinge on states' rights . Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt traveled through

808-425: A following by engaging in activities that many members of the NAWSA initially considered too daring, such as suffrage parades and open air rallies. Blatch said that when she joined the suffrage movement in the U.S., "The only method suggested for furthering the cause was the slow process of education. We were told to organize, organize, organize, to the end of educating, educating, educating public opinion." In 1908,

909-531: A four-room headquarters. Shaw was not entirely comfortable with the independent initiatives of the WSP, but Catt and other of its leaders remained loyal to the NAWSA, its parent organization. In 1909, Frances Squires Potter, a NAWSA member from Chicago, proposed the creation of suffrage community centers called "political settlements." Reminiscent of the social settlement houses , such as Hull House in Chicago, their purpose

1010-502: A frankly racist program, it asked for NAWSA's endorsement. Shaw refused, setting a limit on how far the organization was willing to go to accommodate southerners with overtly racist views. Shaw said the organization would not adopt policies that "advocated the exclusion of any race or class from the right of suffrage." In 1907, partly in reaction to NAWSA's "society plan", which was designed to appeal to upper-class women, Harriet Stanton Blatch , daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton , formed

1111-436: A married woman's "door of escape from bondage." Her speech had little lasting impact on the organization, however, because most of the younger suffragists did not agree with her approach. Stanton's election as president was largely symbolic. Before the convention was over, she left for another extended stay with her daughter in England, leaving Anthony in charge. Stanton retired from the presidency in 1892, after which Anthony

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1212-453: A national suffrage amendment. Anthony said she feared, accurately as it turned out, that the NAWSA would engage in suffrage work at the state level at the expense of national work. The NAWSA routinely allocated no funding at all for congressional work, which at this stage consisted only of one day of testimony before Congress each year. Stanton's radicalism did not sit well with the new organization. In 1895 she published The Woman's Bible ,

1313-485: A new league that would be the successor to the NAWSA. Even though continuing as the NCWV might have made sense because the goals were essentially those that Catt proposed for the new organization, Catt was concerned that DeVoe's alignment with the more radical Alice Paul might discourage conservative women from joining it and thus proposed the formation of a new league. In founding the League of Women Voters, Catt sought to create

1414-413: A political process that was rational and issue-oriented, dominated by citizens, not politicians. She feared that alliance with political parties would reduce the independence of these organizations and swallow up their concerns in more partisan concerns. In addition, by endorsing one candidate the organization would inevitably lose the support of the opposing candidate. As fifteen states had already ratified

1515-597: A position. Its bylaws do not allow it to endorse candidates or political parties. In the Trump era, the strong response by the league to political polarization and core issues such as voting rights has weakened support for it on the right . VOTE411.org is a nonpartisan bilingual website in English and Spanish that allows voters to input their address and get candidate and election information tailored to their location. Candidate survey responses to three questions specific to

1616-772: A preeminent goal of the movement. Three leaders of the women's movement during this period, Lucy Stone , Elizabeth Cady Stanton , and Susan B. Anthony , played prominent roles in the creation of the NAWSA many years later. In 1866, just after the American Civil War , the Eleventh National Women's Rights Convention transformed itself into the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), which worked for equal rights for both African Americans and white women, especially suffrage. The AERA essentially collapsed in 1869, partly because of disagreement over

1717-513: A rival organization, the National Woman's Party . When Catt again became president in 1915, the NAWSA adopted her plan to centralize the organization, and work toward the suffrage amendment as its primary goal. This was done despite opposition from Southern members who believed that a federal amendment would erode states' rights . With its large membership and the increasing number of women voters in states where suffrage had already been achieved,

1818-499: A similar amendment for women. She said that even though the right to vote was more important for women than for black men, "I will be thankful in my soul if any body can get out of the terrible pit." In May 1869, two days after the acrimonious debates at what turned out to be the final AERA annual meeting, Anthony, Stanton and their allies formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). In November 1869,

1919-406: A special committee of the national League of Women Voters picked twelve women as the "greatest living American women." They were Jane Addams , Cecilia Beaux , Annie Jump Cannon , Carrie Chapman Catt , Anna Botsford Comstock , Minnie Maddern Fiske , Louise Homer , Julia Lathrop , Florence Rena Sabin , M. Carey Thomas , Martha Van Rensselaer , and Edith Wharton . At the 1926 convention of

2020-429: A union, the elders were not keen for it, on either side, but the younger women on both sides were. Nothing really stood in the way except the unpleasant feelings engendered during the long separation". Several attempts had been made to bring the two sides together, but without success. The situation changed in 1887 when Stone, who was approaching her 70th birthday and in declining health, began to seek ways of overcoming

2121-407: A voting machine at League headquarters to demonstrate how to vote. The League members explained literacy tests and requirements and hours for registration. A frequent question involved the status of an American woman married to an immigrant. The League also presented a series of pre-election talks, including a talk on "National and State Legislators," "The Judiciary," and "Machinery of Elections." At

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2222-537: Is recognized in the national body, and each auxiliary State association arranges its own affairs in accordance with its own ideas and in harmony with the customs of its own section." As NAWSA turned its attention to a Constitutional Amendment, many Southern suffragists remained opposed because a federal amendment would enfranchise Black women. In response, in 1914, Kate Gordon founded the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference , which opposed

2323-467: The 19th Amendment , the women wanted to move forward with a plan to educate women on the voting process and shepherd their participation. A motion was made at the 1919 NAWSA convention to merge the two organizations into a successor, the National League of Women Voters. Although not all members of either organization were in favor of a merger, the merger was officially completed on January 6, 1920. For

2424-632: The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was formed by Lucy Stone , her husband Henry Blackwell , Julia Ward Howe and their allies, many of whom had helped to create the New England Woman Suffrage Association a year earlier as part of the developing split. The bitter rivalry between the two organizations created a partisan atmosphere that endured for decades. Even after the Fifteenth Amendment

2525-548: The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Its membership, which was about seven thousand at the time it was formed, eventually increased to two million, making it the largest voluntary organization in the nation. It played a pivotal role in the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which in 1920 guaranteed women's right to vote. Susan B. Anthony , a long-time leader in

2626-557: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), publicly challenged NAWSA's reluctance to accept black women. The NAWSA responded in a cordial way, inviting him to speak at its next convention and publishing his speech as a pamphlet. Nonetheless the NAWSA continued to minimize the role of black suffragists. It accepted some black women as members and some black societies as auxiliaries, but its general practice

2727-612: The National College Equal Suffrage League was formed as an affiliate of the NAWSA. It had its origins in the College Equal Suffrage League, which was formed in Boston in 1900 at a time when there were relatively few college students in the NAWSA. It was established by Maud Wood Park , who later helped create similar groups in 30 states. Park later became a prominent leader of the NAWSA. By 1908, Catt

2828-588: The United States presidential debates in 1976 , 1980 and 1984 . On October 2, 1988, the LWV's 14 trustees voted unanimously to pull out of the debates, and on October 3 they issued a press release condemning the demands of the major candidates' campaigns. LWV President Nancy Neuman said that the debate format would "perpetrate a fraud on the American voter" and that the organization did not intend to "become an accessory to

2929-642: The World's Congress of Representative Women at the World's Columbian Exposition , which was also known as the Chicago World's Fair. Sewall served as chair and Avery as secretary of the organizing committee for the women's congress. In 1893, the NAWSA voted over Anthony's objection to alternate the site of its annual conventions between Washington and other parts of the country. Anthony's pre-merger NWSA had always held its conventions in Washington to help maintain focus on

3030-585: The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay reinstating the restrictive law. After the United States Capitol attack of January 6, 2021, the league's board called Trump a "tyrannical despot" and advocated his removal by legal means. This, among other positions such as around transgender rights and police accountability, have led more Republicans to criticize the league and not respond to VOTE411 candidate surveys. Some Republican-led states have been making voter registration more difficult, prompting

3131-496: The 1920s, the League of Women Voters of New York sent an annual questionnaire to candidates for local office, and published the answers in the publication "Information for Voters." In 1929, the questionnaire covered maintaining the 5 cent subway fare, creation of a permanent city planning board, immediate action on a sewage and waste disposal plant, unlimited building heights in certain districts, and reclassification of civil service employees to provide automatic salary increases. In

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3232-463: The 1929 convention of the League of Women Voters of New York, the members voted for a New York State prohibition enforcement act. They also voted to favor old age pensions and ask the Legislature to give women the right to do jury service, to permit physicians to give contraceptive information to married persons, and to extend the benefits of workmen's compensation for all occupational diseases. During

3333-673: The 1930s, the League was supportive of New Deal programs such as Social Security and the Food and Drug Acts. In 1945, the League advocated for the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund , and was recognized by the UN as a permanent observer, giving it access to most meetings and relevant documentation. In the 1950s, League member Dorothy Kenyon was attacked as

3434-572: The 1968 program included opposition to discrimination in housing and support for presidential suffrage for citizens of Washington, DC. In 1969, the League was one of the first organizations in the United States calling for normalizing relations with China. In the 1970s, after years of opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment as proposed by the National Women's Party , the League offered support to an Equal Rights Amendment. In 1974,

3535-517: The 19th Amendment. Carrie Chapman Catt joined the suffrage movement in Iowa in the mid-1880s. and soon became part of the leadership of the state suffrage association. Married to a wealthy engineer who encouraged her suffrage work, she was able to devote much of her energy to the movement. She led some smaller NAWSA committees, for example serving as Chairman of the Literature Committee in 1893 with

3636-560: The AWSA and increasingly of Anthony). The executive committee recommended that AWSA delegates vote for Anthony. At the NWSA meeting, Anthony strongly urged its members not to vote for her but for Stanton, saying that a defeat of Stanton would be viewed as a repudiation of her role in the movement. Elections were held at the convention's opening. Stanton received 131 votes for president, Anthony received 90, and 2 votes were cast for other candidates. Anthony

3737-440: The AWSA. Stanton, who was in England at the time, did not attend. The meeting explored several aspects of a possible merger, including the name of the new organization and its structure. Stone had second thoughts soon afterwards, telling a friend she wished they had never offered to unite, but the merger process slowly continued. An early public sign of improving relations between the two organizations occurred three months later at

3838-450: The League began to admit men. In 1975, a bill entitled "The Indian Law Enforcement Improvement Act" was introduced in the Senate and supported by the League of Women Voters of Nebraska, saying "We support self determination and therefore self government of all citizens, in this case Native Americans." After two days of hearings, the bill was not reported out of committee. The LWV sponsored

3939-573: The League of Women Voters of Florida partnered with VoteRiders to get word out to eligible voters about the changes made due to Floria Senate Bill 90, signed into law in May 2021. The Florida League also partnered with the Black Voters Matter Fund and the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans to file lawsuits against the changes. The trial court struck down multiple provisions of the law but

4040-577: The League of Women Voters supported Native Americans in seeking to remove restrictions on ballot delivery from reservations. The Native American voting rights group Four Directions filed a suit on behalf of six voters from the Navajo Nation asking the court to extend the deadline for Arizona counties to receive the ballots of voters, because of "lack of home mail delivery, the need for language translation, lack of access to public transportation and lack of access to any vehicle." The court declined to extend

4141-675: The League pushed for the adoption of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 , which requires states to offer voter registration at all driver's license agencies, at social service agencies, and through the mail. The League works with the non-partisan VoteRiders organization to spread state-specific information on voter ID requirements. In 2002, the League endorsed passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act , which banned soft money in federal elections and made other reforms in campaign finance laws. It

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4242-530: The NAWSA began to operate more as a political pressure group than an educational group. It won additional sympathy for the suffrage cause by actively cooperating with the war effort during World War I. On February 14, 1920, several months prior to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the NAWSA transformed itself into the League of Women Voters , which is still active. The demand for women's suffrage in

4343-406: The NAWSA's direction, but her public condemnation of the proposed amendment, expressed in terms of vehement racism, deepened fissures within the organization. Despite the rapid growth in NAWSA membership, discontent with Shaw grew. Her tendency to overreact to those who differed with her had the effect of increasing organizational friction. Several members resigned from executive board in 1910, and

4444-469: The South en route to the NAWSA convention in Atlanta. Anthony asked her old friend Frederick Douglass , a former slave, not to attend the NAWSA convention in Atlanta in 1895, the first to be held in a southern city. Black NAWSA members were excluded from 1903 convention in the southern city of New Orleans. The NAWSA executive board issued a statement during the convention that said, "The doctrine of State's rights

4545-471: The United States was controversial even among women's rights activists in the early days of the movement. In 1848, a resolution in favor of women's right to vote was approved only after vigorous debate at the Seneca Falls Convention , the first women's rights convention. By the time of the National Women's Rights Conventions in the 1850s, the situation had changed, and women's suffrage had become

4646-538: The addition of women to the electorate would help the movement achieve its other goals. Catt resigned her position after four years, partly because of her husband's declining health and partly to help organize the International Woman Suffrage Alliance , which was created in Berlin in 1904 in coordination with the NAWSA and with Catt as president. In 1904, Anna Howard Shaw , another Anthony protégé,

4747-449: The attention she had attracted in her younger days as a speaker on the national lecture circuit. Anthony was increasingly recognized as a person of political importance. In 1890, prominent members of the House and Senate were among the two hundred people who attended her seventieth birthday celebration, a national event that took place in Washington three days before the convention that united

4848-532: The book despite Anthony's strong objection that such a move was unnecessary and hurtful. The negative reaction to the book contributed to a sharp decline in Stanton's influence in the suffrage movement and to her increasing alienation from it. She sent letters to each NAWSA convention, however, and Anthony insisted that they be read even when their topics were controversial. Stanton died in 1902. The South had traditionally shown little interest in women's suffrage. When

4949-513: The convention delegates. Stone, from the AWSA, was too ill to attend this convention and was not a candidate. Anthony and Stanton, both from the NWSA, each had supporters. The AWSA and NWSA executive committees met separately beforehand to discuss their choices for president of the united organization. At the AWSA meeting, Henry Blackwell , Stone's husband, said the NWSA had agreed to avoid mixing in side issues (the approach associated with Stanton) and to focus exclusively on suffrage (the approach of

5050-668: The deadline due to lack of standing of the plaintiffs. The League of Women Voters of Arizona filed an amicus curiae, saying that Most Arizonans take access to mail receipt and delivery as a given. By contrast, the District Court recognized the painful reality that "several variables make voting by mail difficult” for Native American voters. More specifically, “[m]ost Navajo Nation residents do not have access to standard mail service,” including home delivery, and must travel “lengthy distance[s]” to access postal services – a burden compounded by “socioeconomic factors.” In 2021,

5151-409: The effect of moving it into closer alignment with the AWSA. The Senate's rejection in 1887 of the proposed women's suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution also brought the two organizations closer together. The NWSA had worked for years to convince Congress to bring the proposed amendment to a vote. After it was voted on and decisively rejected, the NWSA began to put less energy into campaigning at

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5252-535: The federal level and more at the state level, as the AWSA was already doing. Stanton continued to promote all aspects of women's rights. She advocated a coalition of radical social reform groups, including Populists and Socialists, who would support women's suffrage as part of a joint list of demands. In a letter to a friend, Stanton said the NWSA "has been growing politic and conservative for some time. Lucy [Stone] and Susan [Anthony] alike see suffrage only. They do not see woman's religious and social bondage, neither do

5353-522: The first year the league operated as a committee of the NAWSA. The formal organization of the League was drafted at the 1920 Convention held in Chicago. In her presidential address on March 24, 1919, at the above-mentioned NAWSA convention, Catt had said: Let us raise up a League of Women Voters—the name and form of organization to be determined by the voters themselves; a League that shall be non-partisan and non-sectarian in character and that shall be consecrated to three chief aims: Carrie Chapman Catt

5454-529: The founding congress of the International Council of Women , which the NWSA organized and hosted in Washington in conjunction with the fortieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention . It received favorable publicity, and its delegates, who came from fifty-three women's organizations in nine countries, were invited to a reception at the White House . Representatives from the AWSA were invited to sit on

5555-401: The help of Mary Hutcheson Page , another active NAWSA member. In 1895, she was placed in charge of NAWSA's Organizational Committee, where she raised money to put a team of fourteen organizers in the field. By 1899, suffrage organizations had been established in every state. When Anthony retired as NAWSA president in 1900, she chose Catt to succeed her. Anthony remained an influential figure in

5656-465: The homes of its officers. Maud Wood Park, who had been away in Europe for two years, received a letter that year from one of her co-workers in the College Equal Suffrage League who described the new atmosphere by saying, "the movement which when we got into it had about as much energy as a dying kitten, is now a big, virile, threatening thing" and is "actually fashionable now." The change in public sentiment

5757-517: The hoodwinking of the American public." All presidential debates from 1988 until 2020 were sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates , a bipartisan organization run by the two major parties that some argue has established rules with the intent to exclude airing candidates associated with other parties. In 1998, the League elected its first African-American president, Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins . She served two terms, until 2002, and wrote

5858-410: The idea of a federal suffrage amendment, charging that it would violate states' rights . She said that empowering federal authorities to enforce a constitutional right for women to vote in the South could lead to similar enforcement of the constitutional right of African Americans to vote there, a right that was being evaded, and, in her opinion, rightly so. Her committee was too small to seriously affect

5959-644: The increasing influence of women in politics, the league has evolved a more inclusive mission, to "protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy." The issues of primary concern to the League in the 1920s were extending the Sheppard-Towner Act first passed in 1921, a Child Labor Amendment to the Constitution, and voter education. The Sheppard-Towner Act , first passed in 1921, provided federal subsidies to those states that provided education in maternity and infant care. It

6060-458: The league to stop registering voters in Kansas, for example, for fear of its members facing prosecution. Richard Hasen argues that it would be tough to be seen as neutral when voting rights, a foundational issue for the league, have become a seemingly partisan issue. The League lobbies for legislation at the national, state, and local levels. Positions on national issues are determined by decisions at

6161-628: The mail. In 2002, the League supported the Help America Vote Act (with some reservations about the final compromise) and the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act . In 2014, the League sponsored voter guides including Smart Voter and Voter's Edge in collaboration with MapLight . In 2018, the league took an extraordinary step in opposing Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation due in part to his sexual assault allegations and fears around judicial independence. In 2020,

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6262-425: The main representative of the suffrage movement, partly because of Anthony's ability to find dramatic ways of bringing suffrage to the nation's attention. Anthony and Stanton had also published their massive History of Woman Suffrage , which placed them at the center of the movement's history and marginalized the role of Stone and the AWSA. Stone's public visibility had declined significantly, contrasting sharply with

6363-436: The meeting and was approved unanimously without debate. The situation was different within the NWSA, where there was strong opposition from Matilda Joslyn Gage , Olympia Brown and others. Ida Husted Harper , Anthony's co-worker and biographer, said the NWSA meetings that dealt with this issue "were the most stormy in the history of the association." Charging that Anthony had used underhanded tactics to thwart opposition to

6464-570: The merger, Gage formed a competing organization in 1890 called the Woman's National Liberal Union, but it did not develop a significant following. The AWSA and NWSA committees that negotiated the terms of merger signed a basis for agreement in January, 1889. In February, Stone, Stanton, Anthony and other leaders of both organizations issued an "Open Letter to the Women of America" declaring their intention to work together. When Anthony and Stone first discussed

6565-476: The most recent national convention. Members of state and local leagues determine their leagues' positions on state and local issues, consistent with the national positions. The League was founded by suffragists fighting for the right of women to vote and has always been concerned with issues around voting and representative government. Other issue areas in which the League currently advocates are international relations, natural resources, and social policy. In 1993,

6666-682: The movement was obscured by this process, as were the roles of black and working women. Anthony, who in her younger days was often treated as a dangerous fanatic, was given a grandmotherly image and honored as a "suffrage saint." The reform energy of the Progressive Era strengthened the suffrage movement during this period. Beginning around 1900, this broad movement began at the grassroots level with such goals as combating corruption in government, eliminating child labor, and protecting workers and consumers. Many of its participants saw women's suffrage as yet another progressive goal, and they believed that

6767-568: The national League, Belle Sherwin , the League president, emphasized education in politics as the right road toward true democracy. Whether it is possible to develop in this country an education which will qualify citizens to be partners in government is a question to face squarely. For many, education today is either remote and limited to a brief period or is highly specialized for vocational purposes. Education for active citizenship has hardly been tried. She went on to mention "the modest attempts of schools here and there to teach critical reading of

6868-509: The national level. The AWSA cultivated an image of respectability while the NWSA sometimes used confrontational tactics. Anthony, for example, interrupted the official ceremonies at the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to present NWSA's Declaration of Rights for Women. Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting, which was still illegal for women, and was found guilty in a highly publicized trial. Progress toward women's suffrage

6969-406: The newspapers and other means of avoiding mob-mindedness." Prohibition and birth control were hot issues that year, but were not included in the subjects for study and legislation during the ensuing year. In 1926, The New York League together with the Women's National Republican Club established information booths in seven department stores, explaining to women how to register to vote, and installed

7070-426: The office are included on the site. The League of Women Voters, including state and local leagues, runs the site which received a 2020 Webby Award . In 2012, LWV created National Voter Registration Day , a day when volunteers work to register voters and increase participation. State and local leagues host candidate debates to provide candidates' positions at all levels of government. The League of Women Voters

7171-443: The organization's membership and public approval. After the Senate decisively rejected the proposed women's suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1887, the suffrage movement had concentrated most of its efforts on state suffrage campaigns. In 1910 Alice Paul joined the NAWSA and played a major role in reviving interest in the national amendment. After continuing conflicts with the NAWSA leadership over tactics, Paul created

7272-537: The organization, however, until she died in 1906. One of Catt's first actions as president was to implement the "society plan," a campaign to recruit wealthy members of the rapidly growing women's club movement, whose time, money and experience could help build the suffrage movement. Primarily composed of middle-class women, the targeted clubs often engaged in civic improvement projects. They generally avoided controversial issues, but women's suffrage increasingly found acceptance among their membership. In 1914, suffrage

7373-420: The platform during the meetings along with representatives from the NWSA, signaling a new atmosphere of cooperation. The proposed merger did not generate significant controversy within the AWSA. The call to its annual meeting in 1887, the one that authorized Stone to explore the possibility of merger, did not even mention that this issue would be on the agenda. This proposal was treated in a routine manner during

7474-412: The possibility of merger in 1887, Stone had proposed that she, Stanton and Anthony should all decline the presidency of the united organization. Anthony initially agreed, but other NWSA members objected strongly. The basis for agreement did not include that stipulation. The AWSA initially was the larger of the two organizations, but it had declined in strength during the 1880s. The NWSA was perceived as

7575-428: The proposed Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which would enfranchise African American men. Leaders of the women's movement were dismayed that it would not also enfranchise women. Stanton and Anthony opposed its ratification unless it was accompanied by another amendment that would enfranchise women. Stone supported the amendment. She believed that its ratification would spur politicians to support

7676-689: The proposed suffrage amendment to the Constitution was rejected by the Senate in 1887, it received no votes at all from southern senators. This indicated a problem for the future because it was almost impossible for any amendment to be ratified by the required number of states without at least some support from the South. In 1867, Henry Blackwell proposed a solution: convince southern political leaders that they could ensure white supremacy in their region by enfranchising educated women, who would predominantly be white. Blackwell presented his plan to politicians from Mississippi , who gave it serious consideration,

7777-584: The split to the Woman's Journal , a weekly newspaper she launched in 1870 to serve as voice of the AWSA. By the 1880s, the Woman's Journal had broadened its coverage and was seen by many as the newspaper of the entire movement. The suffrage movement was attracting younger members who were impatient with the continuing division, seeing the obstacle more as a matter of personalities than principles. Alice Stone Blackwell , daughter of Lucy Stone, said, "When I began to work for

7878-400: The split. In a letter to suffragist Antoinette Brown Blackwell , she suggested the creation of an umbrella organization of which the AWSA and the NWSA would become auxiliaries, but that idea did not gain supporters. In November 1887, the AWSA annual meeting passed a resolution authorizing Stone to confer with Anthony about the possibility of a merger. The resolution said the differences between

7979-401: The suffrage movement, was the dominant figure in the newly formed NAWSA. Carrie Chapman Catt , who became president after Anthony retired in 1900, implemented a strategy of recruiting wealthy members of the rapidly growing women's club movement, whose time, money and experience could help build the suffrage movement. Anna Howard Shaw 's term in office, which began in 1904, saw strong growth in

8080-503: The title LWV . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=LWV&oldid=973479076 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Articles containing German-language text Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages League of Women Voters The League

8181-454: The two associations had "been largely removed by the adoption of common principles and methods." Stone forwarded the resolution to Anthony along with an invitation to meet with her. Anthony and Rachel Foster , a young leader of the NWSA, traveled to Boston in December 1887, to meet with Stone. Accompanying Stone at this meeting was her daughter Alice Stone Blackwell , who also was an officer of

8282-412: The two suffrage organizations. Anthony and Stanton pointedly reaffirmed their friendship at this event, frustrating opponents of merger who had hoped to set them against one another. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was created on February 18, 1890, in Washington by a convention that merged the NWSA and the AWSA. The question of who would lead the new organization had been left to

8383-435: The young women in either association, hence they may as well combine". Stanton, however, had largely withdrawn from the day-to-day activity of the suffrage movement. She spent much of her time with her daughter in England during this period. Despite their different approaches, Stanton and Anthony remained friends and co-workers, continuing a collaboration that had begun in the early 1850s. Stone devoted most of her life after

8484-506: Was a dramatic growth in all-female social reform organizations, such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the largest women's organization in the country. In a major boost for the suffrage movement, the WCTU endorsed women's suffrage in the late 1870s on the grounds that women needed the vote to protect their families from alcohol and other vices. Anthony increasingly began to emphasize suffrage over other women's rights issues. Her aim

8585-404: Was also a major proponent of the Help America Vote Act . National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association ( NAWSA ) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States . It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and

8686-543: Was created in 1920 as the merger of two existing organizations, the long-established National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the National Council of Women Voters (NCWV). The founding goals of the National League of Women Voters were to educate women on election processes and lobby for favorable legislation on women's issues. These were the same as the goals of the NCWV, which had been founded by Emma Smith DeVoe after her proposal for such an organization

8787-539: Was elected president of the NAWSA, serving more years in that office than any other person. Shaw was an energetic worker and a talented orator. Her administrative and interpersonal skills did not match those that Catt would display during her second term in office, but the organization made striking gains under Shaw's leadership. In 1906, southern NAWSA members formed the Southern Woman Suffrage Conference with Blackwell's encouragement. Although it had

8888-635: Was elected to the position that she had in practice been occupying all along. Stone, who died in 1893, did not play a major role in the NAWSA. The movement's vigor declined in the years immediately after the merger. The new organization was small, having only about 7000 dues-paying members in 1893. It also suffered from organizational problems, not having a clear idea of, for example, how many local suffrage clubs there were or who their officers were. In 1893, NAWSA members May Wright Sewall , former chair of NWSA's executive committee, and Rachel Foster Avery , NAWSA's corresponding secretary, played key roles in

8989-665: Was elected vice president at large with 213 votes, with 9 votes for other candidates. Stone was unanimously elected chair of the executive committee. As president, Stanton delivered the convention's opening address. She urged the new organization to concern itself with a broad range of reforms, saying, "When any principle or question is up for discussion, let us seize on it and show its connection, whether nearly or remotely, with woman's disfranchisement." She introduced controversial resolutions, including one that called for women to be included at all levels of leadership within religious organizations and one that described liberal divorce laws as

9090-516: Was endorsed by the General Federation of Women's Clubs , the national body for the club movement. To make the suffrage movement more attractive to middle- and upper-class women, the NAWSA began to popularize a version of the movement's history that downplayed the earlier involvement of many of its members with such controversial issues as racial equality, divorce reform, working women's rights and critiques of organized religion. Stanton's role in

9191-718: Was founded as the successor to the National American Woman Suffrage Association , which had led the nationwide fight for women's suffrage . The initial goals of the League were to educate women to take part in the political process and to push forward legislation of interest to women. As a nonpartisan organization, an important part of its role in American politics has been to register and inform voters, but it also lobbies for issues of importance to its members, which are selected at its biennial conventions. Its effectiveness has been attributed to its policy of careful study and documentation of an issue before taking

9292-553: Was initially slated for five years, and was twice extended in the 1920s, but finally failed to pass in 1929. On October 17, 1929, Belle Sherwin, the president of the League of Women Voters, and Ruth Morgan of New York City headed a delegation to ask President Herbert Hoover to support the renewal of Federal aid to the States in maternity and infancy work. It Was later revived as part of the Social Security Act of 1935. In 1923,

9393-572: Was named honorary chairman of the League instead of president because she insisted that it was for younger and fresher women to lead the new work. As time passed, women's political organizations did find that political parties redefined issues of concern to them as "women's issues" and pushed them aside. Throughout the first part of its history, the League of Women Voters was not welcoming to women of color and its predecessor NAWSA ignored issues involving race due to fears that it would reduce support for equal suffrage. In subsequent years, due to

9494-537: Was once again at the forefront of activity. She and her co-workers developed a detailed plan to unite the various suffrage associations in New York City (and later in the entire state) in an organization modeled on political machines like Tammany Hall . In 1909, they founded the Woman Suffrage Party (WSP) at a convention attended by over a thousand delegates and alternates. By 1910, the WSP had 20,000 members and

9595-417: Was ratified in 1870, differences between the two organizations remained. The AWSA worked almost exclusively for women's suffrage while the NWSA initially worked on a wide range of issues, including divorce reform and equal pay for women . The AWSA included both men and women among its leadership while the NWSA was led by women. The AWSA worked for suffrage mostly at the state level while the NWSA worked more at

9696-590: Was rebuffed at the 1909 National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) convention in Seattle . When her proposal was ignored, DeVoe founded the National Council of Women Voters in 1911. She recruited western suffragists and organizations to join the NCWV. Ten years later, prior to the 1919 Convention of the NAWSA (in St. Louis, Missouri ), Carrie Chapman Catt began negotiating with DeVoe to merge her organization with

9797-484: Was reflected in efforts to win suffrage at the state level. In 1896, only four states, all of them in the West, allowed women to vote. From 1896 to 1910, there were six state campaigns for suffrage, and they all failed. The tide began to turn in 1910 when suffrage was won in the state of Washington, followed by California in 1911, Oregon, Kansas and Arizona in 1912, and others afterwards. In 1912, W. E. B. Du Bois , president of

9898-506: Was slow in the period after the split, but advancement in other areas strengthened the underpinnings of the movement. By 1890, tens of thousands of women were attending colleges and universities, up from zero a few decades earlier. There was a decline in public support for the idea of "woman's sphere", the belief that a woman's place was in the home and that she should not be involved in politics. Laws that had allowed husbands to control their wives' activities had been significantly revised. There

9999-601: Was to educate the public about suffrage and the practical details of political activity at the local level. The political settlements established by the WSP included suffrage schools that provided training in public speaking to suffrage organizers. Public sentiment toward the suffrage movement improved dramatically during this period. Working for suffrage came to be seen as a respectable activity for middle-class women. By 1910, NAWSA membership had jumped to 117,000. The NAWSA established its first permanent headquarters that year in New York City, previously having operated mainly out of

10100-434: Was to turn such requests politely away. This was partly because attitudes of racial superiority were the norm among white Americans of that era, and partly because the NAWSA believed it had little hope of achieving a national amendment without at least some support from southern states that practiced racial segregation . NAWSA's strategy at that point was to gain suffrage for women on a state-by-state basis until it achieved

10201-424: Was to unite the growing number of women's organizations in the demand for suffrage even if they did not support other women's rights issues. She and the NWSA also began placing less emphasis on confrontational actions and more on respectability. The NWSA was no longer seen as an organization that challenged traditional family arrangements by supporting, for example, what its opponents called "easy divorce". All this had

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