Because her mother hadattended a prestigious women’s school in Worcester, Mass., Carrie received afar more advanced education than most girls in those days. Her family was alsoinformed about U.S. politics and supported reform candidates such as HoraceGreeley, who ran for president in 1872. It was during that election that shediscovered women were forbidden to vote, which, in her mind, was a completelysenseless concept.
In 1877, Carrie entered Iowa State Agricultural College (which later became Iowa State University) in Ames. Beforeshe joined the college’s literary society, women weren’t allowed to makespeeches at the meetings. After she took to the podium, women became equalparticipants. Carrie also noticed that women were excluded from the regularmilitary training exercises held on campus, so she started a military drillcompany for her follow female students. She subscribed to the theory ofevolution that was discussed in her science courses, and realized her life’spurpose was to help humankind evolve in a cultural sense.
Carriewas the only woman in her 1880 graduating class, and the valedictorian at that.She took a job as a high-school teacher and only three years later, at the ageof 24, she was appointed superintendent of schools in Mason City, Iowa, one ofthe first women to hold such a title. In 1885, Carrie married Leo Chapman, thepublisher and editor of the town’s newspaper, but he died of typhoid fever thefollowing year.
Aftera brief stint in San Francisco, Carrie returned to Iowa, where she becameactive in the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association. She revealed an impressivetriumvirate of skills: She could plan an effective campaign, she had a gift fororganizing and motivating people, and she could not only write a compellingspeech, she could orate as well.
In1890, she married a wealthy engineer named George Catt, who supported hersuffrage work both personally and financially. At this point, she becameinvolved with the newly formed National American Woman Suffrage Association(NAWSA), what would become the country’s largest and most influential suffragegroup. That year Carrie was a delegate to its national convention. She becamehead of field organizing in 1895 and succeeded Susan B. Anthony as president ofthe organization from 1900-1904, and again from 1915-1920. Under herleadership, the NAWSA streamlined itself into a powerful campaigning machine.
Itwas during Carrie’s second term as NAWSA president that the women’s suffragemovement in the United States finally came to a climax. On Aug. 26, 1920, the19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving all American womenequal voting rights. With the prospect of 20 million new women voters in thepolitical system, Carrie founded the League of Women Voters to educate womenabout how the system worked and what they could do with their newfoundpolitical power. The League is still active today and continues to be thetraining ground for many women seeking office.
