League of Women Voters
85 Years of Triumphs and Traditions
1920-2005
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On February 14, 1920, the National American Woman Suffrage Association became the League of Women Voters. In 1919 Carrie Chapman Catt first proposed founding the League to empower women voters newly enfranchised by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Seventy-five years later, the League of Women Voters continues to serve as a voice for citizens and a force for change.
Good Government
First League Action: After winning the vote, local Leagues turned their attention to local election laws. In 1929 their research was compiled into the League's first election law digest. These activities laid the foundation for the League's future election reform efforts.
Most significant contributions: In 1993 the League won passage of the National Voter Registration Act, the "motor voter" law. This law will enfranchise millions of citizens by streamlining voter registration nationwide and making it more accessible. The league is currently working to ensure implementation of motor voter in the states.
The League also played an instrumental role in reforming the federal campaign system by lobbying successfully for the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. This law reformed the presidential and congressional campaign finance systems and instituted public financing of presidential campaigns.
"The Suffragists' campaign to win ratification of the 19th Amendment offers a guidebook on how to make the system work for citizens. The keys to power are not mysteriously locked away, they are in this guidebook. Grassroots organizing. Coalition building. Activism. These lessons remain intensely relevant today."
Becky Cain, President, League of Women voters, 1994
Current and future goals: Passage of comprehensive campaign finance reform.
Social Policy
First League Action: In 1921 the League lobbied successfully for passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act to provide federal aid for maternal and infant care. Passage of this act provided a stepping stone for the Social Security Act of 1935.
Most significant contribution: Social and legal changes resulting from the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment. The campaign for passage of the ERA was itself a triumph, even though the amendment fell three states short of ratification. During this period the League mobilized tens of thousands of women in support of the amendment and significantly raised public awareness about everyday discrimination against women. During the campaign, legislative victories included banning discrimination in the workplace against pregnant women and Title IX, which prohibits discrimination against women and girls in education.
"What is [the League]? A group of enfranchised women who want not merely to vote, but to vote for something. The vote is a tool with which to work, and for years they have struggled and sacrificed to secure it. Now, they want to build a better world for their neighbors and their posterity."
-Carrie Chapman Catt, The Woman Citizen, 1919
Current and future goals: Supporting early intervention and prevention programs to protect children at risk.
Civil Rights
First League Action: In 1964 the League undertook a two-year study of the interrelationship of discrimination and poverty. In 1966 the League called for policies and programs to provide equal opportunity for all in education and employment.
Most significant contribution: In 1982 the League was a key leader in the hard-won fight to strengthen the Voting Rights Act and extend its major provisions for 25 years.
"When the state legislators tried to take over the administration of our school system, we took action . . . protesting publicly in carefully worded statements, mailing letters and telegrams, which were no doubt lost in the avalanche of racist clamor . . . [Our] Education Committee called on city officials, state legislators, presidents of civic organizations, lawyers, businessmen, school officials and almost anybody. We hoped that after talking to us, like a ripple in the water, the circle of moderate talk would widen, and it has."
New Orleans League member on the League's fight for desegregation in 1962
Current and future goals: Embracing diversity in public institutions and in the League.
Natural Resources
First League Action: In 1933 the League strongly supported the Muscle Shoals Act, which instituted government programs to protect natural resources, reclaim the land and manage water resources from major river systems in the southeast, a region that had been devastated by floods and Depression.
Most significant contribution: In 1972 the League served as the leading member of a coalition that secured passage of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, now known as the Clean Water Act. Local Leagues provided the citizen troops to build grassroots support for the act.
"We have learned how to cross government jurisdiction lines, how to get on hearing lists, and how to use the courts in order to become effective in the fight for the environment."
Ruth Clusen, President, League of Women Voters, 1974
Current and future goals: Promoting an environment beneficial to life through the protection and wise management of natural resources in the public interest.
International Relations
First League Action: In 1923 the League supported U.S. entry into the World Court. In the aftermath of World War I, the League was one of many organizations seeking a way to prevent another world war. The League strongly opposed American isolationism, arguing that the United States should share in the responsibility of maintaining peace by joining the proposed international court of justice.
Most significant contribution: In 1944 following the Dumbarton Oaks Conference that forged the agreement leading to the creation of the United Nations, the League trained more than 5,000 speakers and distributed more than a million brochures in just six months in order to educate the public on the United Nations and America's international role. President Truman invited the League to be one of the 42 non-governmental organizations to serve as consultants to the newly formed world organization.
"I can conceive of no task so suited to organized women as that of educating public opinion to demand a future in which law should supplant war. I can think of no women so well equipped to lead such a crusade as the women of America."
-Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale, The Woman citizen, 1923
Current and future goals: Fostering the development of open and responsive government in Eastern Europe's emerging democracies.
Updated: Mon, Aug 28, 2006
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