Carrie Chapman Catt

"Hey mom, why aren't you getting dressed up to go to town to vote?" That was the question that Carrie Chapman Catt asked her mother when she was 13 years old. Her mom said that voting was too important a job to leave to women. That conversation changed the way Carrie thought about voting.

Carrie Clinton Lane was the only daughter of Lucius and Maria (Clinton) Lane. She had two brothers. In 1877, Carrie graduated from high school. Her father refused to pay for her to go to college so Carrie got a job teaching school for a year and earned enough money to go to Iowa State Agricultural College. While she was in college she earned money working in the state library and the college kitchen. She was the only woman to graduate in 1880 and she graduated at the top of her class. She wanted to become a lawyer so she began reading law in an attorney's office in Charles City, Iowa. The next year, she took a job teaching high school in Mason City, Iowa. She thought she'd earning enough money to study law at the university but she soon discovered she liked teaching so much that she gave up the idea of being a lawyer. In 1883 Carrie became one of the first women in America to become principal and superintendent of schools in Mason City, Iowa.

On February 12, 1885 Carrie married Leo Chapman. He was the editor of a local newspaper. She left teaching because married women weren't allowed to teach. Carrie and Leo became business partners and Carrie began writing a column for the newspaper about women's issues including voting rights. Leo died of typhoid fever in May of 1886. In 1887 Carrie returned to her work for suffrage.

On June 10, 1890, Carrie married George Catt in Seattle, Washington. She continued to travel giving speeches about women's suffrage. She worked hard in Colorado and women finally got the right to vote there in 1893. In 1900, when Susan B. Anthony retired as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), Carrie Chapman Catt was elected president. She resigned as president in 1904 because her husband was ill. She returned as NAWSA's president in 1915. Carrie also served as president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance from 1904 to 1923. Catt continued to work for women's suffrage until the 13th Amendment was ratified on August 20, 1920. In 1920 she founded the League of Women Voters. 

She campaigned for America to participate in the League of Nations and later the United Nations and continued lecturing, speaking about peace. In 1928, Carrie moved to New Rochelle, New York where she lived until she died of a heart attack on March 9, 1947.

for more information:
http://www.catt.org    
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/cattbio.html
http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/WIReader/Galleries/Catt.html 
http://www.britannica.com/women/articles/Catt_Carrie_Clinton_Lane_Chapman.html
http://www.lwv.org/about/pastfuture/past_history.html 

Image courtesy of Carrie Chapman Catt Albums, 
Bryn Mawr College Library

by Elizabeth & Kazia, fourth grade, 2004

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