Excerpts from: A History of the American Suffragist Movement, © The Moschovitis Group, Inc.

A History
of the
American
Suffragist
Movement

Excerpt from Chapter Six: The Century Turns; The Movement Turns

Carrie Chapman Catt in Colorado

from A History of the American Suffragist Movement

Carrie Chapman Catt

It was Colorado, however, that provided the only real ray of hope in the 1890s. In November 1893 Colorado men made their state the second in the nation in which women had full voting rights. Newcomer Carrie Chapman Catt managed the campaign. When Catt joined the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association in 1887, she had life experience far beyond her 28 years. Within three years of graduating first in her class at Iowa State Agriculture College, Carrie Lane was so recognized by her community that she was promoted to superintendent of the schools in Mason City, Iowa.

This early career success contrasted greatly with the experience of eastern suffragists, and the relative lack of discrimination against women on the frontier was a political point that Catt never forgot. She married journalist Leo Chapman in 1885 and followed him to California--only to discover that he had just died. She worked as a San Francisco journalist before returning to Iowa to marry George Catt in 1890; he signed a prenuptial agreement promising that she could travel for the women's movement four months of every year. Having grown up on virgin Iowa land, Catt understood the pioneer mentality; she related far better to western men than did the easterners who had dominated previous campaigns.

At the very next opportunity, Colorado elected three women to its House of Representatives. In November 1894, Clara Clessingham, Carrie Holly, and Frances Klock became the nation's first women in a state legislature--more than 25 years before most American women voted. The three were liberal Republicans, and both that party and the new Populist Party organized women's divisions for this election. Even the state's Democrats, although they had "no chance of electing their ticket," organized 12 women's clubs in Colorado. Once women had the vote, men took them seriously on issues and as candidates.

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