NAWSA Failure

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In 1890, the National Woman Suffrage Association and American Woman Suffrage Association merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association, or NAWSA. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony both served as President, followed by Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw. During Shaw’s Presidency, in December 1912, Alice Paul was appointed Chairman and Lucy Burns Vice Chairman, of the Congressional Committee, a branch of NAWSA focused on passing the Women's Suffrage Amendment through Congress. Up until this point, the Congressional Committee had been relatively inactive and obscure. During her time as Chairman, in 1913, Paul also formed her own Congressional Union, separate from NAWSA, made up of the same members as the Congressional …show more content…

This caused conflict, because members of NAWSA funded the Congressional Committee, not the Congressional Union, which, again, was unassociated with NAWSA. Once a financial report was produced, it was not complete or satisfactory. On top of that, the Congressional Committee gave notice to the Democratic party that, because President Woodrow Wilson was Democratic, the committee would hold them accountable for congressional inaction on suffrage, which displeased NAWSA; because it opposed the party’s peaceful values. Due to these issues, NAWSA’s leaders, including Shaw, confronted Paul and Burns, suggesting that they separate from the Congressional Union and abandon threats to the Democratic Party, in exchange for remaining a part of NAWSA. In response, the Congressional Union rejected this attempt at compromise, and remained a part of the Union as their own party. The leaders of the Congressional Union refusing to compromise with NAWSA’s leaders, due to conflict surrounding finances and each party’s values, was largely beneficial for the Women's Suffrage Movement because it prevented further conflict about different values and each party successfully appealed to different parts of the …show more content…

Firstly, after California granted women’s suffrage in 1911, NAWSA distributed a bulletin about the success of the change in California. To convince the public, and especially state government officials, that women’s suffrage would have a positive impact, NAWSA used California as an example, saying “Women Vote More Rapidly and With Fewer Mistakes than men” and “As a Rule Women Do Not Vote Unless They Understand a Question.” As the US joined the war in 1917, NAWSA took part in the war effort. Catt created three sub-branches of NAWSA- Food Conservation, Protection of Women in Industry, and Overseas Hospitals, that worked at infirmaries, rolled bandages, sold savings bonds, and opened a military hospital in France. NAWSA’s actions also included taking over jobs left by men drafted into war, which helped prove to many that women were as a capable as men. Years later, in November 1917, Catt delivered a speech to Congress, about why “Woman suffrage [was] inevitable.” Catt states three reasons why she believed so- “the history of [the] country,” “the suffrage for women already established in the United States,” and lastly, “the leadership of the United States in world democracy [compelled] the enfranchisement of its own women.” The mere existence of this speech shows that NAWSA prefered peaceful methods used to obtain equal voting rights

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