American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)
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Formed in 1890, NAWSA was the result of a merger between two rival factions--the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), led by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe. These opposing groups were organized in the late 1860s, partly as the result of a disagreement over strategy. NWSA favored women's enfranchisement through a federal constitutional amendment, while AWSA believed success could be more easily achieved through state-by-state campaigns. NAWSA combined both of these techniques, securing the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 through a series of well-orchestrated state campaigns under the dynamic direction of Carrie Chapman Catt. With NAWSA's primary goal of women's enfranchisement now a reality, the organization was transformed into the League of Women Voters.
[edit] How it all Started
In 1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed a new organization, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The organization condemned the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments as blatant injustices to women. As well as advocating votes for women, the NWSA also advocated easier divorce and an end to discrimination in employment and pay.
Some suffragists thought it was a mistake to become involved in other controversial issues. Later that year Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and Josephine Ruffin formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in Boston. Less militant than the National Woman Suffrage Association, the AWSA was only concerned with obtaining the vote and did not campaign on other issues.
In 1870 the AWSA founded its own magazine, the Women's Journal. Edited by Lucy Stone, it featured articles by members of the organizations and cartoons by Blanche Ames, Lou Rogers, Mary Sigsbee, Fredrikke Palmer and Rollin Kirby. Some of the regional groups also produced journals, most notably, the Women Voter (New York City), Maryland Suffrage News (Baltimore) and the Western Woman Voter (Seattle).
In the 1880s it became clear that it was not a good idea to have two rival groups campaigning for votes for women. After several years of negotiations, the AWSA and the NWSA merged in 1890 to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The leaders of this new organization include Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Frances Willard, Mary Church Terrell, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Anna Howard Shaw.
