Women of the American Suffrage Movement

NOTE: This list includes biographical sketches on the women that most frequently appeared in my research, but it is in no way an exhaustive list of all of the women who worked towards enfranchising women.

JANE ADDAMS: (b. Sept. 6, 1860 - d. May 21, 1935) Born in Cedarville, IL, this progressive social reformer founded the famous Chicago settlement Hull House. With her "vein of iron," she aimed to help "over-privileged young people" connect with real life (Notable American Women). She has been called "the most influential woman in Chicago history," and is an internationally respected social reformer, author, peace and suffrage leader. She served as first vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Susan Brownell Anthony

SUSAN BROWNELL ANTHONY: (b. Feb. 15, 1820 - d. March13, 1906) Born in Adams, MA, this Quaker woman was a teacher, a temperance and abolition organizer, and an outstanding women's rights leader. She published The Revolution, lectured for 6 years to pay off its $10,000 debt, advocated equal pay for equal work and encouraged women to form unions. More than any other suffragist, she ridicule by satirical cartoons and newspaper attacks. She was the driving force behind the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) from 1869 to 1890, NAWSA from 1892-1900, and the single-minded champion of a federal amendment. She was called "The Invincible" and "The Napoleon of the woman's rights movement," was active in state campaigns, and spoke across they country for over thirty years. She voted in the 1872 election, was arrested and convicted, but won popular support. She led the Centennial protest in 1876 and became an internationally respected symbol of the woman's movement.

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL: (b. Sept. 14, 1857 - d. March 15, 1950) Born in Orange, NJ, Alice was the only daughter of Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell. Called the "child of the regiment," she was a leading suffrage writer and journalist, editing the The Woman's Journal for thirty-five years. She was fundamental in merging the two rival suffrage groups into the NAWSA in 1890. After the merge, she became the recording secretary for the organization. She lectured, compiled her mother's biography, and translated Russian, Armenian, Yiddish and other oppressed peoples' poetry. She died at the age of 98, but "urged women to remain an autonomous moral force in politics."

HARRIOT STANTON BLATCH: (b. Jan. 20, 1856 - d. Nov. 20, 1940) Born in Seneca Falls, NY, Harriot is the daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She lost her American citizenship when she married an Englishman (in 1882) and lived in England for twenty years. After she returned in 1902, Blatch was one of the major leaders in the woman suffrage movement, especially in the New York state movement. She was a militant leader, speaker, lobbyist and New York organizer, who brought new life to the suffrage movement. She founded the Equality League of SelfSupporting Women in 1907, as well as the Women's Political Union, which brought a sense of militancy to the American campaign. She was instrumental in recruiting working women to suffrage, organized first large U.S. suffrage parades, and marched on Albany.

AMELIA BLOOMER: (b. May 27, 1818 - d. Dec. 30, 1894) Born in Homer, NY, Amelia edited the early Seneca Falls women's rights and temperance newspaper The Lily. She married a lawyer and adopted two children. She was a propagandist, who worked for suffrage legislation in Nebraska and Iowa. She introduced Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Susan B. Anthony in 1850 and was a dress reform pioneer. Several feminists, including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone, wore what became known as the "bloomer" until ridicule forced them to return to more traditional garb.

LUCY BURNS: (b. July 28, 1879 - d. Dec. 22, 1966) Born in Brooklyn, NY, this Vassar and Yale Grad. School graduate was an organizer in England. She was a militant suffrage organizer and widely respected leader, lobbyist, speaker, teacher, editor and hunger striker. She co-founded the Congressional Union with Alice Paul. Burns had spent more time in jail during her six sentences than any other American suffragist.

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt

CARRIE LANE CHAPMAN CATT: (b. Jan. 9, 1859 - d. March 9, 1947) Born in Ripon, WI, Carrie was a teacher, school superintendent, journalist, and lecturer. At the age of twenty-six, after one year of marriage, she was widowed and then re-married to civil engineer George Catt in 1890. When he died in 1905, she was left financially independent. She helped reorganize the NAWSA to be more political, and was a fundraiser, planner, administrator and New York campaign leader who held positions in both national and international organizations. Catt founded the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) in 1902 and was its first president, retiring in 1923. She visited every continent and brought women of all races into the movement. (NAWSA 146b) She was imultaneously president of the IWSA and the NAWSA (Kerber and deHart 340). Her "Winning Plan" combined state and federal work and unified the movement in1916. She was a pacifist who opposed militancy. She organized a successful 14-month campaign for ratification and founded the League of Women Voters.

PAULINA KELLOGG WRIGHT DAVIS: (Aug. 7,1813 - Aug. 24, 1876) Born in Bloomfield, NY, her house was attacked by a mob after an anti-slavery convention that she and her husband organized. She was widowed after twelve years, and then marred Thomas Davis with whom she adopted two children. She was first roused about women's rights when she heard a church discussion upon the impropriety of women speaking in church. She helped recruit the first woman doctors and petitioned the New York state legislature for a married women's property act in the 1830s. In 1850, she was the main organizer for the first National Woman's Convention in Worcester, MA. From 1853-55, she published The Una, one of the first woman's rights periodicals, at her
own expense.

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE: (b. March 25, 1826 - d. March18, 1989) Born in Cicero, NY, she married at the age of eighteen and had five children. She was a leader of state and national suffrage associations, lobbied Congress and political parties, and co-authored the "Women's Declaration of Rights" for the Centennial celebration. She edited the monthly suffrage newspaper, National Citizen and Ballot Box and Volumes 1-3 of The History of Woman Suffrage. She opposed the church for its "belief in woman's inferiority," and had her lifelong motto carved on her gravestone: "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home, or Heaven; that word is Liberty."

SARAH J. SMITH THOMPSON GARNET: (b. July 31,1831 - d. Sept. 17, 1911) Born in Long Island, NY, Garnet was married twice, widowed twice, and had two children who died young. She led Public School 80 for thirty-seven years, was the first black principal in NYC in 1863, founded the Equal Suffrage Club for Black Women in Brooklyn, and was the superintendent of suffrage for the National Association of Colored Woman.

KATE M. GORDON: (b. July 14 1861 - d. Aug. 24,1932) Born in New Orleans, LA, founded the Equal Rights Association in1896. She headed the Women's League for Sewage and Drainage in 1899 and led the fight against tuberculosis. She was a state and national suffrage leader, advocated for a states' right to maintain segregation, and worked with Anti's to defeat ratification of a federal amendment. She organized the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference, which planned to lobby state legislatures for laws that would enfranchise white women only. (Weatherford 249)

ANGELINA EMILY GRIMKÉ: (b. Feb. 20, 1805 - d. Oct. 26, 1879) Born in Charleston, SC, Angelina was one of fourteen children of a slave-owning father who fought in the American Revolution. She left the Episcopal church to become a Quaker, married abolitionist Theodore Weld and had three children. She was a teacher, a woman's rights pioneer, and led anti-slavery meetings in NYC.

SARAH MOORE GRIMKÉ: (b. Nov. 26 1792 - d. Dec 23, 1873) Born in Charleston, SC, she was a lecturer, writer, outspoken advocate of abolition, and early champion of women's rights. She was rebuked and silenced at a Quaker meeting for her views against slavery in 1836. She moved to NYC with her sister, led anti-slavery meetings in New England in the late 1830s, and defended women's right to speak when it was challenged.

FRANCIS ELLEN WATKINS HARPER: (b. Sept. 24,1825 - d. Feb. 22, 1911) Born in Baltimore, MD, Francis was orphaned at three, widowed after four years, and had daughter who died young. She was a poet and well-known black author. She spoke out for abolition and women's rights, aided fugitive slaves, lectured for the Maine Anti-Slavery Society, lectured in the South on temperance, black morality and against white racial violence.

ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER: (b. Feb. 22, 1822 - d. Jan. 25, 1907) Born in Litchfield, CT, Isabella married a lawyer, and had four children. She was a founder of the New England Woman Suffrage Association in 1869, sponsored the 1871 suffrage convention in Washington DC, and testified with Susan B. Anthony before a Senate committee and at other Congressional hearings. She was a socially prominent early supporter of a federal amendment.

JULIA WARD HOWE: (b. May 27, 1819 - d. Oct. 17,1910) Born in New York City, in 1861, Julia authored "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." She married and had six children. She was a founder and leader of the AWSA, and edited and contributed to The Woman's Journal for over twenty years. She was a popular lecturer, poet, playwright and leader in the woman's club movement. She became "The Dearest Old Lady in America," and was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

DAISY ADAMS LAMPKIN: (b. Aug. 9, 1833? - d. March10, 1965) Born in Washington DC, this civil rights reformer and community leader created an interest in suffrage among black women in Pittsburgh. She was the president of the Negro Women's Franchise League in 1915, and was an active organizer with the NAACP and National Association of Colored Women.

MIRIAM FLORENCE FOLLINE [SQUIER] LESLIE, MRS. FRANK LESLIE: (b. June 3, 1836 - d. Sept. 18, 1914) Born in New Orleans, LA, Miriam was a magazine editor and publisher. She married British-born publisher Frank Leslie in 1874 and upon his death, had her name legally changed to Frank Leslie. She restored life to his nearly bankrupt publishing empire, led it for fifteen years and became "the Empress of Journalism." She left Carrie Catt nearly $1 million for "the furtherance of the cause of woman suffrage."

BENNETT McNALL LOCKWOOD: (b. Oct. 24,1830 - d. May 19, 1917) Born in Royalton, NY, Bennet was forced to leave school at fifteen, married at eighteen, and widowed at twenty-three with one daughter. After earning a law degree from National U. in 1873, she successfully (and most would say single-handedly) lobbied Congress to allow women lawyers to practice before the US Supreme Court. She sponsored the first Southern black admitted to practice before the Supreme Court, founded Washington DC's first suffrage group in 1867, and ran for President in 1884 and 1888 on the National Equal Rights Party ticket. She circulated petitions, drew up bills, addressed Congressional committees, and was a leader of the Universal Peace Union.

MAUD MALONE: She organized the first open-air meeting for suffrage in the United States holding it in 1907 in Madison Square in NYC. The following year, on Feb. 16, 1908, she lead the first American suffrage parade from Union Square in NYC. She was arrested for heckling presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson and served sixty days for picketing the White House.

ESTHER HOBART McQUIGG SLACK MORRIS: (b. Aug. 8,1814 - d. April 2, 1902) Born in New York, Esther was orphaned at eleven, married, had one son, and was widowed after three years. She remarried, had three children and moved to Wyoming, where she encouraged the new territory's leaders to pass woman suffrage and property rights legislation. She was elected as the first female Justice of the Peace (where none of her decisions were ever appealed) and was celebrated as "The Mother of Woman Suffrage."

Lucretia Coffin Mott

LUCRETIA COFFIN MOTT: (b. Jan. 3, 1793 - d. Nov.11, 1880) Born in Nantucket, MA, this Quaker minister was a leading women's rights pioneer. She married James Mott and had six children. She boycotted products of slave labor, was consequently accosted by mobs, and worked for the rights of freed blacks after the Civil War. Mott, Stanton, and Martha Coffin Wright, Mott's sister, organized the Seneca Falls Convention. She served as President of the American Equal Rights Association in1866.

MAUD WOOD PARK: (b. Jan 25, 1871 - d. May 8, 1955) Born in Boston, this organizer, civic leader and speaker organized the College Equal Suffrage League. At twenty-six, she married, was widowed, and married again. She was an effective lobbyist for the NAWSA and was widely respected for her tact and honesty. She was also the first president of the League of Women Voters.

Alice Stokes Paul

ALICE STOKES PAUL: (b. Jan. 11, 1885 - d. July 9, 1977) Born in Moorestown, NJ, this Quaker held two degrees from Swarthmore, a PhD from U. of Penn., an L.L.B from Washington College of Law and an L.L.M. and D.C.L. from American University. She founded the Congressional Union and the National Woman's Party. She was a strategist for militant suffrage and was jailed three times in England and three times in the US. While imprisoned she waged a hungerstrike, was hospitalized and force-fed. She wrote the Equal Rights Amendment and under her leadership the National Woman's Party had it introduced in Congress in 1923 and for forty-nine years thereafter. Because of her, the equality of women and men was included in the preamble to the charter of the United Nations.

Jeannette Pickering Rankin

JEANNETTE PICKERING RANKIN: (b. June 11, 1880 - d. May 18, 1973) Born in Missoula MT, Jeannette was a suffrage organizer who was influential in winning Montana in 1914. She was the field secretary for the National American Woman Suffrage Association where she lobbied 15 states from 1913-15. In 1917, she was elected as the first US Congresswoman. She was a strong pacifist who voted against both world wars, and was known for her strong lobbying for peace.

ERNESTINE LOUISE SIISMONDI POTOWSKI ROSE: (b. Jan. 13, 1810 - d. Aug. 4, 1892) Born in Poland, this rabbi's daughter secured her inheritance at sixteen. After living in England, she moved to New York where she founded the Association of All Classes of All Nations. She supported the 1840 married women's property bill and called for "political, legal, and social equality with man."

ANNA HOWARD SHAW: (b. Feb. 14,1847 - d. July 2, 1919) Born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, she sailed to America in 1851. In 1880, she was ordained by the Methodist Protestant Chuch and became that denomination's first woman minister. In 1886, she became the first American woman to hold both medical and divinity degrees simultaneously. Shaw soon came to believe, however, that neither religion nor medicine could solve basic social problems, particularly those of women. Ms. Shaw spoke in every state in the union, lived with Susan B. Anthony's niece for over 30 years. She was an organizer and speaker for the WCTU, president of the NAWSA from 1904-1915, and chaired the Woman's Committee of the US Council of National Defense during WWI. In return, a battleship was named in her honor.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON: (b. Nov. 12, 1815 - d. Oct. 26, 1902) Born in Johnstown, NY, this daughter of a conservative judge was a woman's rights leader who omitted the word "obey" from her marriage ceremony. She did not want to submerge her identity in marriage. She was the mother of seven children. She studied Greek and mathematics and learned horseback riding, all of which were generally barred to girls. At age sixteen, Elizabeth was the only girl in her high school graduating class. She wrote the "Declaration of Sentiments." She was an intellectual, free thinker who used the pseudonym "Sun Flower." She was a popular speaker and a forceful writer. She wrote speeches, ran for Congress in 1866, edited TheRevolution and was president of NWSA for twenty-one years. She was the author of The Woman's Bible and was honored by 6,000 at the Metropolitan Opera House on her 80th birthday. In 1870, her brother Daniel wrote her: "Although you are now over fifty years old and have worked like a slave all your life, you have not a dollar to show for it. This is not right. Do make a change" (Library of Congress 43). Nonetheless, "The Grand Old Woman of America" worked for women's rights until the day she died.

Lucy Stone

LUCY STONE: (b. Aug. 13, 1818 - d. Oct. 18, 1893) Born in Massachusetts, she was the first Massachusetts woman to earn a college degree. She married Henry Blackwell and was well-known for protesting restrictive marriage laws by keeping her own name. She spoke for abolition and women's rights, was a lecturer and called the first national woman's rights convention at Worcester, Massachusetts in 1850. She refused to pay taxes in protest of her lack of representation. She founded the AWSA in 1869 and was later the chairman of the executive committee of the NAWSA. For forty-seven years, she published and edited The Woman's Journal with her husband and later with her daughter. She was the first person to be cremated in New England and her dying words to her daughter were "Make the world better."

Mary Eliza Church Terrell

MARY ELIZA CHURCH TERRELL: (b. Sept. 23, 1863 - d. July 24, 1954) Born in Memphis, TN, this mother and former slave called Mollie was daughter to the first black millionaire in the South. She married, lost three children which she blamed on segregated hospitals and later had two more. She was a community leader, social reformer and lecturer in Washington DC. She headed the National Association of Colored Women and picketed the White House with the National Woman's Party. She was fluent in French, German, and Italian.

Sojourner Truth

SOJOURNER TRUTH: (b. around 1797 - d. Nov. 26, 1883) In 1843 the former slave named Isabella changed her name after a mystic chose a new one for her. She bore at least five children, had two girls sold from her and won her son back from an Alabama slaveholder. She worked as a cook, maid and laundress in New York City. Even though she was illiterate, she preached against prostitution and encouraged brotherly love. Remembered for her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, she wrote her Narrative in 1850 and sold her story and her photos to raise money. During the Civil War, she solicited food and clothing for black volunteers and after the war she worked to find homes and employment for recently freed slaves.

HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON: (b. Dec. 17, 1853 - d. Nov. 2, 1945) Born in Ohio, this local secretary of the Women's Christian Temperance Union converted to suffrage while researching an anti-suffrage article. She served as treasurer for the NAWSA. From 1902 to 1910 she edited The Progress, demonstrating her skills as a press agent and fundraiser. She married a DC lawyer, traveled, testified, organized, and wrote articles emphasizing the role women played in developing the nation. In 1920, she was appointed as vice-chair of Republican National Executive Committee and helped women win government appointments.

BETTINA BORMANN WELLS: Bettina organized the first open-air meeting for suffrage in the United States holding it in 1907 in Madison Square in NYC. The following year, on Feb. 16, 1908, she led the first American suffrage parade from Union Square in NYC.

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett

IDA BELL WELLS-BARNETT: (b. July16, 1862 - d. March 25, 1931) Born in Holy Springs, Mississippi, she was the daughter of slave parents. At age fourteen she lost her parents and three siblings to yellow fever. She refused to give up her seat for the colored section and sued the railroad in the1880s. She wrote articles under the pen name "Iola," and led a national campaign against lynching. Her Memphis newspaper office was mobbed and destroyed in 1892. She lectured, organized clubs and protested the exclusion of blacks from the World's Columbian Exposition in 1894. She married a lawyer and had four children. She founded the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago, marched in Washington DC in 1913 and Chicago in1916. She was a Chicago probation officer from 1913 to 1916, an ally of W.E.B. DuBois, and felt that the NAACP was not outspoken enough.

VICTORIA CLAFLIN WOODHULL: (b. Sept. 23, 1838 - d. June10, 1927) Born in Ohio, she participated in a traveling medicine show when she was young. She married at the age of fifteen and had two children. She worked as a financial broker and declared herself a candidate for US President in 1870. A year later, she became the first woman to address a Congressional committee urging woman suffrage. She was called "The Terrible Siren" and "Mrs. Satan" for advocating free love, and was publisher of Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly . This paper printed the first copy of the Communist Manifesto in America. She was jailed for obscenity, and then later aquitted. In the end, she married a wealthy British banker and died in England.

MARTHA COFFIN PELHAM WRIGHT: (b. Dec. 25, 1806 - d. Jan.4, 1875) Born in Boston, this Quaker-born sister of Lucretia Mott, married an army captain. She had one daughter with him and was widowed after two years. She then remarried and had six children with her new husband. She helped plan the Seneca Falls Convention, helped found the Equal Rights Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association and was elected president of women's rights conventions in Cincinnati, Saratoga and Albany. She felt that it was strategically better to work for marriage and property rights at a state level and suffrage on a national level.

MAUD YOUNGER: (b. Jan. 10, 1870 - d. June 25,1936) Born in San Francisco, CA, Maud inherited a fortune but lived in a NYC College Settlement for five years. While there she took a job as a waitress in order to understand the lives of working women. She helped form and lead a union called "the millionaire waitress." She continued to lobby and organize to help win eight-hour day labor laws for women in California. She organized a Wage Earners Equal Suffrage League and headed the National Woman's Party Congressional Committee. Through this she emphasized pressuring local Congressmen and continued on to fight for the Equal Rights Association.