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HomeAbout LWVUS
The League of Women Voters of the United States
100+ Years
Founded February 14, 1920
The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that all powers of the U.S. government should be exercised within the constitutional framework of a balance among the three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial.

History of the League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters is the direct descendant of the US women’s suffrage movement of the mid-19th to early 20th century.


At the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) National Convention in 1920 at the Congress Hotel in Chicago, NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt proposed a merger of several suffrage groups to create a new organization that would help newly enfranchised women learn how to register, how to vote, how to learn about their candidates, and how to learn about the workings of their governments.


In February 1920, six months before the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the League of Women Voters came into existence and immediately began fulfilling its mission.


In Pennsylvania, the League set out immediately to help cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia register thousands of women and teach them how to vote. Over the years, LWV has broadened its mission and reach, with hundreds of Leagues in every state of the Union, the US Virgin Islands, and Hong Kong.

 

For more information on the history of the League of Women Voters, click here.