Carrie Chapman Catt’s “Winning Plan”

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947) reluctantly assumed a second term as NAWSA president in December 1915, after years of suffrage work internationally and in New York. She declared the American movement in “crisis” and at a crossroads, as suggested by this newsletter. At NAWSA’s September 1916 convention in Atlantic City, Catt unveiled her “winning plan,” whereby victory depended on avoiding “detours” into states considered hopeless, namely much of the South, while funding more promising state campaigns, lobbying for a federal amendment, and building support for future ratification efforts.