Catt, Carrie Chapman (1859-1947), was an American leader in the campaign for woman suffrage . She served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) from 1900 to 1904 and from 1915 to 1920, when the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote.
Catt began her suffrage work in 1887 with the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association. She was one of the suffrage movement’s most effective lobbyists and organizers. As president of NAWSA, she developed her “Winning Plan” for campaigning at the state and national levels. From 1904 to 1923, she served as president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (now the International Alliance of Women). Catt helped found the National League of Women Voters (now the League of Women Voters ) in 1920, and she founded the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War in 1925. She also supported the League of Nations and, later, the United Nations (UN) .
Carrie Clinton Lane was born on Jan. 9, 1859, in Ripon, Wisconsin. She attended Iowa State College. She taught school and became the first woman superintendent of schools in Mason City, Iowa. In 1885, she married Leo Chapman, the editor and publisher of the Mason City Republican. Leo Chapman died in 1886. In 1890, she married George Catt, a prosperous engineer and strong supporter of woman suffrage. George Catt died in 1905. Carrie Chapman Catt died on March 9, 1947.
