The woman suffrage movement actually began in 1848, when a women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. For the next 50 years, woman suffrage supporters worked to educate the public about the validity of woman suffrage. In the 20th century leadership of the suffrage movement passed to two organizations.
The first, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt, was a moderate organization. The NAWSA undertook campaigns to enfranchise women in individual states and simultaneously lobbied President Wilson and Congress to pass a woman suffrage Constitutional Amendment. In the 1910s, NAWSA’s membership numbered in the millions.
The second group, the National Woman’s Party (NWP), under the leadership of Alice Paul, was a more militant organization. The NWP undertook radical actions, including picketing the White House, in order to convince Wilson and Congress to pass a woman suffrage amendment.
In this reading, you should focus on the different reform movements and their middle-class supporters. First, think about the underlying assumptions of the Progressive Movement. How did reformers justify expanding the role of the national government to solve social problems? Pay particular attention to the role of female reformers and how their increased public role was explained as an extension of their domestic role.
