Bio of Carrie Chapman Catt--Intro and Chapter 1

Introduction

The movement to win voting rights for women began in 1848 with the Seneca Falls convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and others. For the next fifty years, Mrs. Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone and other extraordinary reformers, both women and men, fought a difficult and often lonely struggle-lecturing, writing, traveling, organizing meetings, bringing lawsuits-doing whatever they could to help their cause.

But the fight to extend equal voting rights for women, known as "the woman suffrage movement," suffered from disorganization and internal disagreement. All their talent, commitment and hard work had made women's rights a popular subject for debate. Many people supported voting rights for women, but others were still unconvinced, or were actively opposed to woman suffrage. The opponents included most men, many wealthy corporations and almost all politicians. By the mid-1890s only two lightly settled western states had granted women equal voting rights. Only a tiny percentage of women were allowed to participate in government.

The mid-1890s marked a turning point for the cause of woman suffrage. Over the next 25 years the movement was rebuilt from the ground up until it became an overwhelming political force, with more than 2 million members, and effective branches working together in every state and every important city and town, in most neighborhoods and farm communities. By 1920, the battle was won. Every adult citizen, woman as well as man, enjoyed an equal right to vote. This is the story of one great leader who changed woman suffrage from a reformer's dream and hope into a political reality: Carrie Chapman Catt.

Chapter 1

Carrie Lane was born in 1859 near Ripon, Wisconsin. Like many children of her times, Carrie grew up on a farm. Her family was better off than many farming people. Her father had made some money in the California gold rush that helped him get started as a farmer. Her mother had attended a well-known school for women in Worcester, Massachusetts and received a much better education than most women of those days.

Carrie was a bright and confident child, always looking for something to do, some way to help out her mother. Her mother helped her learn to read, and before long, she read every book in the house. When she was five years old Carrie started attending a one-room school near her home. Her independence and curiosity led her to learn quickly and well.

Carrie could take care of herself on the playground and knew how to deal with bullies. When her older brother Charles or other boys teased her or other girls in her class, she wasn't afraid to fight back.

When Carrie was seven her family moved to a farm near Charles City, Iowa. Carrie's father planned the move carefully so that the new farm would be a success and Carrie's mother could have some of the comforts of living near town.

Even though the farm was close to town, it was still in the country. There were no other children of Carrie's age nearby, but Carrie enjoyed spending time by herself. She would take a book outside to a favorite place and read for a while, then walk around talking to herself about what she had read. Sometimes she read poetry and repeated it aloud until she had learned it by heart.

Carrie attended a one-room school near her home and then went on to high school in town, a five mile ride on horseback. Carrie continued to be a good student, finishing high school in three years.

Carrie's family was interested in politics and supported reform candidates like Horace Greeley, who ran for president in 1872. At that time Carrie first became aware that women did not vote. She couldn't understand why her mother did not go into town to vote for Greeley. The explanations about why women weren't allowed to vote made no sense to her. From this time on, anyone who tried to tell Carrie that women should not have the right to vote was certain to get an argument.

Around this time Carrie became interested in medicine and decided she wanted to be a doctor. She collected reptiles and insects that she found on the farm, and learned about the theory of evolution from Darwin's Origin of Species. Darwin's writings sent Carrie's curiosity in new directions, and she started asking questions about religious beliefs. The answers didn't make much more sense to her than the reasons why women couldn't vote. Carrie was independent-minded. She did not accept ideas unless she had carefully thought them through and decided they made sense. And when she made plans, she found a way to carry them out.