Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn
Encyclopedia
Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn
(February 2, 1878 - March 17, 1951) was an American
feminist social reformer and a leader of the suffrage movement in the United States. Hepburn served as president of the Connecticut Woman's Suffrage Association before joining the National Woman's Party
. Alongside Margaret Sanger
, Hepburn co-founded the organization that would become Planned Parenthood
. She was the mother of Academy Award winning actress Katharine Hepburn
.
on February 2, 1878 to Caroline Garlinghouse and Alfred Augustus Houghton, a member of the Houghton family
of Corning Incorporated glass works. She was named in part after her maternal grandmother, Martha Spaulding Garlinghouse. Katharine had two younger sisters, Edith (1879–1948) and Marion (1882–1968). When not in Buffalo, she and her family spent time at their property in the Athol Springs area of Hamburg, New York
and in Corning, New York
, the seat of the family business. In contrast to the conservative views of the Episcopal
Houghton family, Caroline and Alfred were progressive
freethinkers. Thus, Houghton and her sisters were raised in a household that championed women's education and the ideas of the agnostic orator Robert G. Ingersoll
.
In 1892, Alfred Houghton committed suicide
, leaving Caroline to raise their three children. Not long after, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer
. Before her death in 1894, she inculcated her daughters, especially Katharine as the eldest, with the importance of a college education.
In her will, Caroline Houghton did not name a legal guardian for her daughters, preferring that they be independent to pursue their own aspirations. After her death the girls' education remained a point of contention between the sisters and their uncle, Amory Houghton, Jr. (1837-1909), the family patriarch and president of Corning Glass. While Amory believed young women belonged in finishing school, Katharine had absorbed her mother's insistence on a college education. Despite consistent opposition from the Houghton family, she was able to realize the promise she had made to her mother; Katharine Houghton graduated from Pennsylvania's
Bryn Mawr College
in 1899, with an A.B. in history and political science. She earned her master's degree
in chemistry and physics the following year, although some biographers claim Houghton's degree was in art history, variously earned from either Bryn Mawr or Boston's
Radcliffe College
. After completing preparatory studies at Baldwin School
, her sisters, Edith and Marion, received degrees from Bryn Mawr in 1901 and 1906, respectively.
in Baltimore, Maryland, around 1903. Houghton spent that academic year teaching at the city's Calvert School
before marrying Hepburn on June 6, 1904. Katharine Houghton and Thomas Hepburn had six children over the course of the following 16 years:
Following their marriage, the Hepburns moved to Hartford, CT, where Dr. Hepburn completed his internship and residency specializing in urology
at Hartford Hospital
. He maintained a practice at the Hospital for approximately 50 years. The family took up their primary residence in West Hartford, CT about 1928. The Hepburns also owned a home in Fenwick, CT, where they summered.
During the early 1930s, Hepburn home-schooled her two younger daughters, Marion and Margaret. Marion considered her mother "a natural-born teacher" who was "never happier than when introducing us children to some new book or idea."
. As president of the CWSA, Hepburn represented the state of Connecticut as part of a 1913 deputation that met with President Woodrow Wilson
to "seek some expression of the President of his attitude on the woman suffrage question." Earlier that year, Hepburn had played host to famed British suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst
, who was visiting Hartford on a speaking tour. In 1917, Mrs. Hepburn resigned as CWSA president, declaring the Association to be "old-fashioned and supine." She instead joined Alice Paul
and the National Woman's Party
, a suffrage organization with a more aggressive reputation. She was elected to serve as legislative chairman of the organization's National Executive Committee.
After the Nineteenth Amendment
was ratified in 1920, members of the Democratic Party
asked Hepburn to run for the US Senate. Though Dr. Hepburn supported his wife's work, he did not wish that she campaign for office. She subsequently declined the offer.
Having concluded her suffrage work, Hepburn allied herself with birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, a New York native who remembered Hepburn as "the Kathy Houghton of my Corning childhood." Together they founded the American Birth Control League
. The League would eventually evolve into Planned Parenthood
. Hepburn was elected chair of Sanger's National Committee for Federal Legislation on Birth Control. In her autobiography, Sanger wrote of Hepburn:
"In her long public career she had learned great efficiency and . . . she never let our witnesses run over their time. Just as we were swinging along briskly she invariably tugged at a coat and passed over a little slip - 'time up in one minute.'"
In 1934 Hepburn, Sanger, Congressman Walter Marcus Pierce
, and others met with the House Judiciary Committee
in Washington, D.C.
to rally on behalf of a bill which would allow doctors to disseminate contraceptive information. Among those speaking against birth control was popular Catholic radio priest Charles Coughlin. Coughlin's on-air ministry coupled with the fact that Hepburn's daughter Katharine had by that time established a film career in Hollywood, led newspapers to announce the event under the headline "Radio Father v. Movie Ma." Coughlin condemned prophylactics as communistic, and the House Committee eventually rejected the bill. Despite the defeat, TIME magazine
afterward published an article noting the success of the Hepburn/Sanger birth control propoganda in yielding favorable local results for its cause.
Throughout her career, Hepburn gave numerous speeches in cities around the East Coast
, including speaking engagements at Carnegie Hall
. Her words were not always popular; editorials written against her in the Hartford Courant could be vitriolic enough to cause her friends to suggest she take the newspaper to court for calumny. At times, bricks or rocks were thrown through the windows of the Hepburn house.
sympathizer, Hepburn was a Marxist. Aside from her work and family, she enjoyed political debate, current events, Russian
history, the works of William Shakespeare
and Bernard Shaw
, and golf. She did not care for movies, preferring instead the theatre. Her daughter Katharine mused that it was "Curious that Fate gave her a movie-queen daughter."
"Don't regret your daily chores. They are what keep you from going insane" was a personal quotation. Family and friends familiarly referred to Hepburn as "Kit".
In 1988, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America established the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Fund which provides emergency funding for the cause of reproductive rights. The regional Southern New England chapter of Planned Parenthood also sponsors a fund, the Hepburn Potter Society, "named in memory of two lifelong advocates of reproductive freedom." The Society offers membership to those who make a financial contribution. Hepburn was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1994, included in the field of "Reformers." In 2006, her alma mater Bryn Mawr opened the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center in honor of Hepburn and her daughter, actress Katharine Hepburn, who graduated in 1928. The Center "inspires Bryn Mawr students and graduates to make a meaningful impact on the world."
Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn was portrayed by Frances Conroy
in the 2004 film, The Aviator.
(February 2, 1878 - March 17, 1951) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
feminist social reformer and a leader of the suffrage movement in the United States. Hepburn served as president of the Connecticut Woman's Suffrage Association before joining the National Woman's Party
National Woman's Party
The National Woman's Party , was a women's organization founded by Alice Paul in 1915 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men...
. Alongside Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood...
, Hepburn co-founded the organization that would become Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
. She was the mother of Academy Award winning actress Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
.
Early life
Katharine Martha Houghton was born in Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
on February 2, 1878 to Caroline Garlinghouse and Alfred Augustus Houghton, a member of the Houghton family
Houghton family
The Houghton Family is a prominent New England and Upstate New York business family. Members of the family are founders of Corning Glass Works.- Family members and decendents:Their family includes:...
of Corning Incorporated glass works. She was named in part after her maternal grandmother, Martha Spaulding Garlinghouse. Katharine had two younger sisters, Edith (1879–1948) and Marion (1882–1968). When not in Buffalo, she and her family spent time at their property in the Athol Springs area of Hamburg, New York
Hamburg (village), New York
Hamburg is a village in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 10,116 at the 2000 census. The village is reportedly named after Hamburg, a city in Germany...
and in Corning, New York
Corning (city), New York
Corning is a city in Steuben County, New York, United States, on the Chemung River. The population was 10,842 at the 2000 census. It is named for Erastus Corning, an Albany financier and railroad executive who was an investor in the company that developed the community.- Overview :The city of...
, the seat of the family business. In contrast to the conservative views of the Episcopal
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
Houghton family, Caroline and Alfred were progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
freethinkers. Thus, Houghton and her sisters were raised in a household that championed women's education and the ideas of the agnostic orator Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll was a Civil War veteran, American political leader, and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic."-Life and career:Robert Ingersoll was born in Dresden, New York...
.
In 1892, Alfred Houghton committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, leaving Caroline to raise their three children. Not long after, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer
Stomach cancer
Gastric cancer, commonly referred to as stomach cancer, can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs; particularly the esophagus, lungs, lymph nodes, and the liver...
. Before her death in 1894, she inculcated her daughters, especially Katharine as the eldest, with the importance of a college education.
In her will, Caroline Houghton did not name a legal guardian for her daughters, preferring that they be independent to pursue their own aspirations. After her death the girls' education remained a point of contention between the sisters and their uncle, Amory Houghton, Jr. (1837-1909), the family patriarch and president of Corning Glass. While Amory believed young women belonged in finishing school, Katharine had absorbed her mother's insistence on a college education. Despite consistent opposition from the Houghton family, she was able to realize the promise she had made to her mother; Katharine Houghton graduated from Pennsylvania's
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
in 1899, with an A.B. in history and political science. She earned her master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in chemistry and physics the following year, although some biographers claim Houghton's degree was in art history, variously earned from either Bryn Mawr or Boston's
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
. After completing preparatory studies at Baldwin School
Baldwin School
The Baldwin School is an all-girls private day school located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The school, founded in 1888 by Florence Baldwin, consists of a Lower, Middle, and Upper School totaling approximately 600 in enrollment...
, her sisters, Edith and Marion, received degrees from Bryn Mawr in 1901 and 1906, respectively.
Marriage and family
Houghton met Thomas N. Hepburn (1879–1962), a medical student at Johns Hopkins School of MedicineJohns Hopkins School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine , located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., is the academic medical teaching and research arm of Johns Hopkins University. Hopkins has consistently been the nation's number one medical school in the amount of competitive research grants awarded by the National...
in Baltimore, Maryland, around 1903. Houghton spent that academic year teaching at the city's Calvert School
Calvert School
Calvert School is a kindergarten through 8th grade co-educational private school with a day school operation in Baltimore, Maryland and an associated homeschooling division that administers a curriculum shipped to families around the United States and the world...
before marrying Hepburn on June 6, 1904. Katharine Houghton and Thomas Hepburn had six children over the course of the following 16 years:
- Thomas Houghton "Tom" Hepburn (1905–1921)
- Katharine Houghton HepburnKatharine HepburnKatharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
(1907–2003), actress - Richard Houghton "Dick" Hepburn (1911–2000), playwright
- Dr. Robert Houghton "Bob" Hepburn (1913–2007), urologist
- Marion Houghton Hepburn Grant (1918–1986), historian, author, and social activist
- Margaret Houghton "Peg" Hepburn Perry (1920–2006), librarian and farmer
Following their marriage, the Hepburns moved to Hartford, CT, where Dr. Hepburn completed his internship and residency specializing in urology
Urology
Urology is the medical and surgical specialty that focuses on the urinary tracts of males and females, and on the reproductive system of males. Medical professionals specializing in the field of urology are called urologists and are trained to diagnose, treat, and manage patients with urological...
at Hartford Hospital
Hartford Hospital
Hartford Hospital is an acute care hospital located in the South End of Hartford, Connecticut. The hospital was formed in 1854 after the State of Connecticut granted a charter for the Formation of Hartford Hospital following a boiler explosion and resulting fire at the Fales and Grey Car Works...
. He maintained a practice at the Hospital for approximately 50 years. The family took up their primary residence in West Hartford, CT about 1928. The Hepburns also owned a home in Fenwick, CT, where they summered.
During the early 1930s, Hepburn home-schooled her two younger daughters, Marion and Margaret. Marion considered her mother "a natural-born teacher" who was "never happier than when introducing us children to some new book or idea."
Social and reform work
Hepburn became interested in the suffrage movement and consequently co-founded the Hartford Equal Franchise League in 1909. The following year, this organization was absorbed into the Connecticut Woman's Suffrage Association and became a branch of the National American Woman Suffrage AssociationNational American Woman Suffrage Association
The National American Woman Suffrage Association was an American women's rights organization formed in May 1890 as a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association...
. As president of the CWSA, Hepburn represented the state of Connecticut as part of a 1913 deputation that met with President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
to "seek some expression of the President of his attitude on the woman suffrage question." Earlier that year, Hepburn had played host to famed British suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote...
, who was visiting Hartford on a speaking tour. In 1917, Mrs. Hepburn resigned as CWSA president, declaring the Association to be "old-fashioned and supine." She instead joined Alice Paul
Alice Paul
Alice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist and activist. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.-Activism: Alice Paul received her undergraduate education from...
and the National Woman's Party
National Woman's Party
The National Woman's Party , was a women's organization founded by Alice Paul in 1915 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men...
, a suffrage organization with a more aggressive reputation. She was elected to serve as legislative chairman of the organization's National Executive Committee.
After the Nineteenth Amendment
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920....
was ratified in 1920, members of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
asked Hepburn to run for the US Senate. Though Dr. Hepburn supported his wife's work, he did not wish that she campaign for office. She subsequently declined the offer.
Having concluded her suffrage work, Hepburn allied herself with birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, a New York native who remembered Hepburn as "the Kathy Houghton of my Corning childhood." Together they founded the American Birth Control League
American Birth Control League
The American Birth Control League was founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921 at the First American Birth Control Conference in New York City. The League was incorporated under the laws of New York State on April 5, 1922. Its headquarters were located at 104 Fifth Avenue, New York City from 1921–30 and...
. The League would eventually evolve into Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
. Hepburn was elected chair of Sanger's National Committee for Federal Legislation on Birth Control. In her autobiography, Sanger wrote of Hepburn:
"In her long public career she had learned great efficiency and . . . she never let our witnesses run over their time. Just as we were swinging along briskly she invariably tugged at a coat and passed over a little slip - 'time up in one minute.'"
In 1934 Hepburn, Sanger, Congressman Walter Marcus Pierce
Walter M. Pierce
Walter Marcus Pierce was an American politician, a Democrat, who served as the 17th Governor of Oregon and a member of the United States House of Representatives from . A native of Illinois, he served in the Oregon State Senate before the governorship, and again after leaving the U.S. House...
, and others met with the House Judiciary Committee
United States House Committee on the Judiciary
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, administrative agencies and Federal law enforcement...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to rally on behalf of a bill which would allow doctors to disseminate contraceptive information. Among those speaking against birth control was popular Catholic radio priest Charles Coughlin. Coughlin's on-air ministry coupled with the fact that Hepburn's daughter Katharine had by that time established a film career in Hollywood, led newspapers to announce the event under the headline "Radio Father v. Movie Ma." Coughlin condemned prophylactics as communistic, and the House Committee eventually rejected the bill. Despite the defeat, TIME magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
afterward published an article noting the success of the Hepburn/Sanger birth control propoganda in yielding favorable local results for its cause.
Throughout her career, Hepburn gave numerous speeches in cities around the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
, including speaking engagements at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. Her words were not always popular; editorials written against her in the Hartford Courant could be vitriolic enough to cause her friends to suggest she take the newspaper to court for calumny. At times, bricks or rocks were thrown through the windows of the Hepburn house.
Personal interests
A socialistSocialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
sympathizer, Hepburn was a Marxist. Aside from her work and family, she enjoyed political debate, current events, Russian
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
history, the works of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, and golf. She did not care for movies, preferring instead the theatre. Her daughter Katharine mused that it was "Curious that Fate gave her a movie-queen daughter."
"Don't regret your daily chores. They are what keep you from going insane" was a personal quotation. Family and friends familiarly referred to Hepburn as "Kit".
Later years and legacy
Hepburn remained active in reform movements for the rest of her life, especially in the branches of women's health and birth control. She died unexpectedly on St. Patrick's Day, 1951, of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 73. Her ashes are buried in the Hepburn family plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford.In 1988, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America established the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Fund which provides emergency funding for the cause of reproductive rights. The regional Southern New England chapter of Planned Parenthood also sponsors a fund, the Hepburn Potter Society, "named in memory of two lifelong advocates of reproductive freedom." The Society offers membership to those who make a financial contribution. Hepburn was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1994, included in the field of "Reformers." In 2006, her alma mater Bryn Mawr opened the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center in honor of Hepburn and her daughter, actress Katharine Hepburn, who graduated in 1928. The Center "inspires Bryn Mawr students and graduates to make a meaningful impact on the world."
Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn was portrayed by Frances Conroy
Frances Conroy
Frances Conroy is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth, the matriarch of the Fisher family, on Six Feet Under, which earned her a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.-Early life:...
in the 2004 film, The Aviator.
See also
- Carrie Chapman CattCarrie Chapman CattCarrie Chapman Catt was a women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920...
- Comstock Laws
- EugenicsEugenicsEugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
- First-wave feminismFirst-wave feminismFirst-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the 19th and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. It focused on de jure inequalities, primarily on gaining women's suffrage .The term first-wave was coined retroactively in the 1970s...
- League of Women VotersLeague of Women VotersThe League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- M. Carey ThomasM. Carey ThomasMartha Carey Thomas was an American educator, suffragist, and second President of Bryn Mawr College.-Early life:...
- National American Woman Suffrage AssociationNational American Woman Suffrage AssociationThe National American Woman Suffrage Association was an American women's rights organization formed in May 1890 as a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association...
- Progressive EraProgressive EraThe Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...
- Silent SentinelsSilent SentinelsThe Silent Sentinels were a group of women in favor of women's suffrage organized by Alice Paul to protest in front of the White House during Woodrow Wilson's presidency. The protests started January 10, 1917 and lasted until June 1919 when the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution...