Ripon, WI
1859-1947
“To the wrongs that need resistance, To the right that needs assistance, To the future in the distance, Give yourselves.”
“Women expect an equal voice; we shall accept nothing less”
Carrie was a teacher, principal and super intendent of Mason City Schools but she soon became a significant leader for the woman’s suffrage movement. Carrie led the final campaign for the 19th Amendment. She was the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) from 1915-1920 following the legendary Susan B. Anthony. She developed what became known as “The Winning Plan." She believed the best way for women to get the vote was through a State-by-State tactic. Her efforts, along with Alice Paul’s push to change the Constitutional wording, brought their final success. After women won the vote, Catt founded the League of Women Voters in order to educate women on political issues and served as the organization’s honorary president until her death in 1947.
In the final days of the push to ratify the 19th Amendment in Tennessee the two factions, pro or con indicated their intention to vote with roses. This was called the War of the Roses. If you were pro you wore a yellow rose if you were cons you wore a red rose.
An interesting fact that I just discovered is that Catt was very involved in Colorado giving women the right to vote. She led the effort and toured Colorado even visiting mines to meet with voting men.
In this encaustic piece I wanted to document the War of the Roses. This was the final push to ratify the 19th Amendment. I included yellow roses in this piece as well as incorporated the official colors for the women’s movement, yellow and purple.
Carrie Chapman Catt reminds me that we need to be educated voters. She realized that, when she started the League of Women Voters
I admire Carrie Chapman Catt, in part, because she worked over 40 years of her life for the cause. So many women, during the seventy-seven-year struggle for the vote, spent their entire lives working on it. Do people still do that? In my more optimistic times, I recognize that there are people doing such work today.