A group of women gathered in Seneca Falls in 1848 to begin the long march toward entitling women to their right to vote, which was implied but not spelled out in the constitution. It took 72 long years to pass and ratify the 20th amendment acknowledging (not “giving”) women’s right to the vote (And those women were suffragists NOT suffragettes!). Susan B. Anthony, was one of the leaders in that movement, although she didn’t live long enough to see their work come to fruition. Her birthday was February 15th. It is also the birthday of the organization that was the culmination of the suffrage movement.
By early 1920, the momentum for ratification was there. Congress had passed the proposed 20th amendment, and it had been ratified by a number of states, edging closer to 36 (3/4 of the then 48 states). . Jeanette Rankin was already serving in Congress, casting the lone vote to oppose entry into the Great War. Even before the amendment was ratified the following August, many states had already assented to the right of women to vote. In those states, women were eager to learn about how and where and when to vote and how to use their votes to bring about positive change
Women in states where they could vote began to organize themselves into groups to educate women about voting, and advocating, and understanding the issues that entered into their decisions about who deserved their vote. The League of Women Voters began with four interconnected goals. First, it wanted to see the ratification process to its finale. Second, they wanted to protect and extend the vote, to get people registered and figure out how to vote. Third, they wanted people, not just women, to be informed voters who knew what those elected people were doing in city councils and state capitals and Washington DC and how those actions would affect their lives and the lives of their fellow Americans. Finally, they wanted them to be engaged between elections, contacting their legislators and telling them how they wanted their elected representatives to vote, and why they should vote that way.
Their role, as facilitators of the election process, getting people registered and to the polls, helping them find out who was running as they decided to how to vote, was half the mission the first two goals. That role required that the be neutral arbiters of the process, which meant nonpartisanship. The other half, which is the part that gets the League caught in the political crossfire, is advocacy. Advocacy meant picking issues, studying them, decided where they as individuals and as the League stand on issues ranging from balanced budgets to ranked choice voting to reproductive choice to clean air and water. League advocates try very hard to be informed and articulate about the issues they care about.
I have an understandably personal interest in this organization. My great-grandmother marched for women’s suffrage. My mother was a political junkie to her dying day. I am a life member and “founding mother” of my local League which I served numerous times as president as well as four years as o-president of my state League.
For the first hundred years, League managed to keep those two roles balanced and was a trusted source of information to both the public and elected officials. But partisanship is more intense in the 21st century, and the League’s positions are more often close to that of one party than the other.
Increasingly, some elected officials and candidates try to dismiss or ignore this faithful custodian of democratic process (with a small d) by boycotting candidate events, refusing to supply information about themselves as candidates and ignoring the League’s input on pending legislation or other actions. . Both political parties refused to continue the longtime practice of League-sponsored presidential debates, although candidate forums continue to be a popular service at the state and local levelsThere is clearly a tension between those two roles, the neutral guardian of process and the advocacy for particular outcomes.
Both the safeguarding of elections and the encouragement and practice of informed advocacy are essential to restoring our democracy. As we look beyond 2026 and 2028, the League will be ready to play a leading role in making that happen.
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PurpleSage41 