The date was March 24, 1919; the occasion was the 50th Anniversary Jubilee Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NWASA), in St. Louis, Missouri. Catt asked: "What could be more natural than that women who have attained their political independence should desire to give service in token of their gratitude? What could be more appropriate than that such women should do for the coming generation what those of a preceding period did for them? ... Let us then raise up a league of women voters... a league that shall be non-partisan and nonsectarian in character."

Chapman Catt formally founded the organization on February 14, 1920, during the "Victory Convention" of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Chicago, Illinois. At the time, 33 states had ratified the suffrage amendment, but would be six months before the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote after a 57-year struggle.

The League began as a "mighty political experiment" designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy. From the beginning, the League was an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then, and is now, a nonpartisan organization. However, League members were encouraged to be political by educating citizens about, and lobbying for, government and social reform legislation. "Naturally, this course has failed to please extremists of either brand," noted the League's first president, Maud Wood Park, in 1924. "The partisan radicals call the League conservative, the thorough-going reactionaries are sure that it is radical or worse."

The League has a long, rich history. Learn more at LWVUS's history.