History of LWV

Since 1920, the League of Women Voters has been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed voters should play a critical role in democracy.

Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters in 1920 during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The convention was held just six months before women suffragists would achieve victory: the ratification of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving most women the right to vote after a 72-year struggle.

The League began as a “mighty political experiment” designed to help women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy.

From the beginning, the League has been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then and is now a nonpartisan organization. League founders believed that maintaining a nonpartisan stance would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political themselves, by educating citizens about, and lobbying for, government and social reform legislation.

This holds true today. The League is proud to be nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government, but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public.

The League has a long, rich history, that continues with each passing year.