National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was founded in 1890 through the merger of two prominent women’s suffrage organizations aimed at advocating for women’s voting rights in the United States. The organization emerged from a historical context marked by divisions over the suffrage movement, particularly following the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, which granted voting rights to African American males but excluded women. NAWSA utilized various strategies to maintain public awareness and support for women's suffrage, including organizing parades, conventions, and publishing materials centered on human rights rhetoric.
The pivotal moment for women’s suffrage came with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, which granted women the right to vote. In the years following its founding, NAWSA shifted its focus to broader social issues, including improving working conditions for women and ending child labor. The organization was led by notable figures like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Carrie Chapman Catt, who played crucial roles in mobilizing support. However, it has faced criticism for being predominantly a movement of white, middle- and upper-class women, often sidelining African American women and their contributions. NAWSA's legacy continues as it evolved into the League of Women Voters, emphasizing civic engagement and advocacy for women’s rights.
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was established in 1890 when the two leading women’s suffrage groups merged into one. The movement had split into opposing groups in 1869 during the debate over passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted suffrage to African American males but not to women. In order to keep woman suffrage in the public consciousness, NAWSA led parades, held regular conventions, and sponsored newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, and books that used the rhetoric of basic human rights to garner support for the cause. Women finally won the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which became known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. At NAWSA’s 1920 convention, Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters, and the group began concentrating on issues such as improving working conditions for women, ending child labor, modernizing the penal system, and helping the urban poor.
Brief History
From its founding in the mid-nineteenth century, the early women’s movement had been closely allied with the abolitionist movement, but the breaking point came in 1869 amid controversy over dropping the issue of women’s voting rights in a push to grant African American male suffrage with the Fifteenth Amendment. The amendment was ratified the following year. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) and Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) chose to concentrate on fighting for women’s rights, particularly the right to vote. They broke with other suffragists to establish the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 in New York City. Since the goal was to promote women’s rights, NWSA worked on the premise that it was necessary to pursue all possibilities of achieving their goals, and it formed alliances with groups such as the Women’s Christian Temperance League.
More conservative suffragists under the leadership of Lucy Stone (1818–1893), Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910), and African American journalist Josephine Ruffin (1842–1924), felt that granting the right to vote to former male slaves was of more immediate concern. This group rallied together as the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), which continued to fight for woman suffrage in the various states. NWSA members believed the victory would be won with a national amendment, while AWSA members focused on winning suffrage in particular states.
In 1890, members of NWSA and AWSA realized that the movement was stronger when all suffragists worked together, and the two groups reunited as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and set up headquarters in New York City. In addition to acting as national leaders of the movement, NAWSA encouraged members to set up their own groups at the local and state level in order to promote suffrage on all fronts simultaneously. Throughout its history, NAWSA was led by only five presidents: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1890–1892), Susan B. Anthony (1892–1900), Carrie Chapman Catt (1900–1904), Anna Howard Shaw (1904–1915), Carrie Chapman Catt (1915–1947), and Caroline McCormick Slade (1947–1951). After that time, the group reorganized as the League of Women Voters.
The early women’s movement has been harshly criticized for being largely a movement of white middle- and upper-class women. As a rule, African American women formed their own groups in cities such as Tuskegee, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Memphis, Boston, Charleston, and New Orleans.
Impact
With suffragists reunited under NAWSA and determined to win the vote for women, the focus shifted to developing effective strategies. One argument that won considerable support was that women provided the moral fiber for the nation and would be able to bring an end to political corruption and social evils such as drunkenness and child labor. A new generation of women entered the movement in the early twentieth century that were more likely than earlier suffragists to be college educated and working at white-collar jobs. Many of these new members were more radical in their approach to demanding suffrage. Under the leadership of Alice Paul (1885–1997) and Lucy Burns (1879–1966), who had been trained in the more militant tactics of British suffragists, radical members broke off in 1913 to form the Congressional Union, which became the National Women’s Party in 1914. These radical suffragists drew attention to the cause by such tactics as hunger strikes and picketing the White House.
By 1915, NAWSA was concentrating on winning female suffrage through state-by-state campaigns. As president, Carrie Chapman Catt introduced what she called the Winning Plan, which was based on the premise that states were more likely to support a national amendment once they had granted female suffrage in their own constitutions. Catt believed the key was winning the support of at least one southern and one eastern state since western states had already proved their willingness to grant woman suffrage. The plan also called for targeting key legislators coming up for reelection if they did not support voting rights for women. The presidential election of 1916 provided suffragists with opportunities for placing pressure on both political parties. In June, a group of 10,000 women marched in the rain in Chicago during the Republican National Convention. In response to pressure on Democrats, President Woodrow Wilson appeared at the NAWSA convention in September.
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, NAWSA members threw their support into the war effort under the leadership of Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919), who chaired the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense. The war gave women opportunities to prove that they could successfully accomplish roles traditionally assigned to men. President Woodrow Wilson did not wait until the end of the war. On January 9, 1918, he formally announced his support for woman suffrage.
Proving the adage that one vote is all it takes to win, both approval and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment owe passage to the switching of single votes. When the House of Representatives was deadlocked on the issue on January 10, 1918, Representative Frederick C. Hicks of New York decided to change his vote in support of his late wife, a suffragist, leading to congressional approval of the Twentieth Amendment. By August 1920, only one more state was needed to ensure ratification. In what was popularly known as the War of the Roses because of the yellow roses worn by supporters and red roses sported by opponents, the vote in the Tennessee legislature was tied 48 to 48. Wearing a red rose but carrying a telegram from his mother advising him to vote for passage, Harry Burns, the youngest legislator, switched his vote, giving women of the United States the right to vote.
Bibliography
Baker, Jean H, ed. Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited. New York: Oxford UP, 2002. Print.
Chapman, Mary, and Angela Mills, eds. Treacherous Texts: US Suffrage Literature, 1846–1946. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2011. Print.
Dudden, Faye E. Fighting Chance: The Struggle over Woman Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
Egge, Sara. "‘Strewn Knee Deep in Literature’: A Material Analysis of Print Propaganda and Woman Suffrage." Agricultural History 88 (Fall 2014): 591–605. Print.
Gordon, Ann, ed. The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: An Awful Hush, 1895 to 1906. Vol 6. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2013. Print.
Goss, Kristin A. The Paradox of Gender Equality: How American Women’s Groups Gained and Lost Their Public Voice. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2013. Print.
Harris, Sharon M., and Linda K. Hughes, eds. A Feminist Reader: Feminist Thought from Sappho to Satrapi. New York: Cambridge UP, 2013. Print.
"Making Democracy Work." League of Women Voters, 2015. Web. 5 June 2015.
McConnaughy, Corrine M. The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment. New York: Cambridge UP, 2013. Print.
Paxton, Pamela and Melanie M. Hughes. Women, Politics and Power: A Global Perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2007.
"The International history of the US Suffrage Movement." National Park Service, 9 Mar. 2022, www.nps.gov/articles/the-internationalist-history-of-the-us-suffrage-movement.htm. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.