History of the League of Women Voters U.S.

The League of Women Voters was formed in 1920 in Chicago, Illinois as an outgrowth of the movement to give women the right to vote. It followed the passage of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, an amendment that was ratified in 1920 after a 57-year struggle. The League was characterized 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.

Carrie Chapman Catt is generally credited as being the founder of the League. When she first wrote of how she envisioned the League in April 1919, she wrote, "The politicians used to ask why we wanted to vote. They seemed to think we want to do something particular with it, something we were not telling about. They did not understand that women wanted to help improve the general welfare of the people."

For a full and interactive timeline of the League of Women Voters history, Click Here.

  • The woman that founded the Door County League In 1952, Sturgeon Bay resident Jay Jacquelyn (Draeb) Bass, was a woman of vision. Born in 1924, Jay was the daughter of John J Draeb, of Draeb’s Jewelry in downtown Sturgeon Bay. Once she’d earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Lawrence College, graduating Cum Laude in 1946, she attended the University of New Mexico where she met and married James Bass of Albuquerque, New Mexico. By the time she settled in Door County, she was ready to take on something truly important in her community. In a September 17, 2012, letter to the Door County League, Jay recounted:

    “It was in the late Fall, 1952, that I – with the aid of Eunice Schlintz – set about founding the Sturgeon Bay League of Women Voters Chapter.  When I got the idea of trying to do that, I obtained the address of the National Headquarters in Washington DC from the World Almanac and wrote them a letter asking how to get started.  Not long after, I received a message from the Manitowoc Chapter advising me that they would sponsor us and a member would come to Sturgeon Bay for our organizing meeting.”

    “I quickly began a membership drive, calling everyone I thought would be interested and arranged with the public library to have our meetings there.  The Door County Advocate was helpful in giving us publicity, as was the radio station (WDOR, as I recall).  In November I met the lady from Manitowoc (a Mrs. McClellan, I think) who arrived by bus – she guided us through our first meeting with a large number of women in attendance.  Many of those charter members remained active, but I moved out of state a year or two later.  (I still have the post card telling me when to expect the lady from Manitowoc.)”

    The first project she and the Door County League took on, realizing the importance of who you know when understanding local governance, was Know Your Town Government, followed County Reapportionment (working toward establishing the one-man, one-vote rule dictated by state and federal government), to Children at Risk (which focused on violence-free relationships among teens by building better communication), to Protection of Wetlands followed by a compilation of Door County’s Environmental Organizations. She also established the program in which Birthday cards are sent to all Door County teens as they turned 18 encouraging them to register to vote and in 1954 she organized and conducted the first Door County Candidate Forum, a practice that is still going strong in Door County today.