Address to the Congress on Women’s Suffrage Carrie Chapman Catt

Carrie Chapman Catt Carrie Chapman Catt was born on January 9, 1859. She served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900-1904 and from 1915-1920. She was also the founder of the League of Women Voters and the International Alliance of Women.  

Carrie Chapman Catt In 1919, she led an army of women to pressure Congress to pass the 19th amendment. In 1920, she convinced state legislatures to ratify the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. Carrie Chapman Catt was one of the best-known women in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. She died on March 9, 1947.

Historical Perspective of Speech: Date/Purpose Carrie Chapman Catt gave her speech in November of 1917. The purpose of her speech was to express her feelings toward the right of women being able to vote. She gave her speech in Washington D.C. to U.S. Senators and to U.S. House of Representatives. She tried to persuade them to take action towards women being able to vote.

Historical Perspective of Speech: Impact Carrie Chapman Catt’s speech triggered much support towards the right of women being able to vote. Her speech was an essential action to get women their right to vote by making the issue widely known to the public. Only two years after her speech in 1919, she led an army of women to pressure Congress to pass the 19th amendment. In 1920, she convinced state legislatures to ratify the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote.

Theme The theme of Carrie Chapman Catt’s speech is that woman suffrage is inevitable. This message means that the right of women to vote is certainly going to happen.

1st Main Point “Do you realize that women in increasing numbers indignantly resent the long delay in their enfranchisement?” *Carrie proposes this rhetorical question to Congress to state that many women are getting very frustrated at the delay of women getting their right to vote. She is stating this to Congress to address that many women really want their right to vote.

2nd Main Point “Your party platforms have pledged women suffrage. Then why not be honest, frank friends of our cause, adopt it in reality as your own, make it a party program, and fight with us?”

2nd Main Point Cont. *A party platform is a list of the actions which a political party, individual candidate, or other organization supports to appeal to the general public. She is stating that party platforms have supported the right of women to vote. She is also stating that since party platforms have supported woman suffrage, then Congress should give women the right to vote.

3rd Main Point “The time for woman suffrage has come. The woman's hour has struck. If parties prefer to postpone action longer and thus do battle with this idea, they challenge the inevitable. The idea will not perish; the party which opposes it may. Every delay, every trick, every political dishonesty from now on will antagonize the women of the land more and more, and when the party or parties which have so delayed woman suffrage finally let it come, their sincerity will be doubted and their appeal to the new voters will be met with suspicion.”

3rd Main Point Cont. *Carrie Chapman Catt is stating that the time for women to be able to vote has come. She is also stating that if political parties want to wait and put the idea of women being able to vote aside, it is just going to make the women of the country frustrated. Carrie also expressed that once women do get the right to vote, many women will not have trust towards the political parties that have delayed woman suffrage.

4th Main Point “Some of you have been too indifferent to give more than casual attention to this question. It is worthy of your immediate consideration. A question big enough to engage the attention of our allies in wartime is too big a question for you to neglect.” *Carrie is stating that some members of Congress are not concerned with the idea of woman suffrage. Carrie is also stating that woman suffrage is a huge issue. She believes that woman suffrage is valuable of urgent debate.

5th Main Point “Woman suffrage is coming -- you know it. Will you, Honorable Senators and Members of the House of Representatives, help or hinder it?” *This was the last thing Carrie Chapman Catt stated in her speech. She boldly told many U.S. Senators and U.S. House of Representatives that the right of women to vote is coming. She ended her speech with this to make them think and focus strongly on the idea of woman suffrage. Carrie tried to persuade the U.S. Senators and U.S. House of Representatives to take action towards woman suffrage.

Oral Presentation “Do you realize that in no other country in the world with democratic tendencies is suffrage so completely denied as in a considerable number of our own states? There are thirteen black states where no suffrage for women exists, and fourteen others where suffrage for women is more limited than in many foreign countries.” “Do you realize that when you ask women to take their cause to state referendum you compel them to do this: that you drive women of education, refinement, achievement, to beg men who cannot read for their political freedom?”

Oral Presentation “Do you realize that such anomalies as a college president asking her janitor to give her a vote are overstraining the patience and driving women to desperation?” “Do you realize that women in increasing numbers indignantly resent the long delay in their enfranchisement?”

Oral Presentation “Your party platforms have pledged women suffrage. Then why not be honest, frank friends of our cause, adopt it in reality as your own, make it a party program, and "fight with us"? As a party measure -- a measure of all parties -- why not put the amendment through Congress and the legislatures? We shall all be better friends, we shall have a happier nation, we women will be free to support loyally the party of our choice, and we shall be far prouder of our history.”

Oral Presentation "There is one thing mightier than kings and armies" -- aye, than Congresses and political parties -- "the power of an idea when its time has come to move." The time for woman suffrage has come. The woman's hour has struck. If parties prefer to postpone action longer and thus do battle with this idea, they challenge the inevitable. The idea will not perish; the party which opposes it may.”

Oral Presentation “Every delay, every trick, every political dishonesty from now on will antagonize the women of the land more and more, and when the party or parties which have so delayed woman suffrage finally let it come, their sincerity will be doubted and their appeal to the new voters will be met with suspicion. This is the psychology of the situation. Can you afford the risk? Think it over.”

Women should have the right to vote! Carrie Chapman Catt “Gentlemen, we hereby petition you, our only designated representatives, to redress our grievances by the immediate passage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment and to use your influence to secure its ratification in your own state, in order that the women of our nation may be endowed with political freedom before the next presidential election, and that our nation may resume its world leadership in democracy.” Women should have the right to vote!

Bonus: Persuasive Appeals to Emotion 1.) First, the history of our country. Ours is a nation born of revolution, of rebellion against a system of government so securely entrenched in the customs and traditions of human society that in 1776 it seemed impregnable. 2.) All the way between these immortal aphorisms political leaders have declared unabated faith in their truth. Not one American has arisen to question their logic in the 141 years of our national existence. However stupidly our country may have evaded the logical application at times, it has never swerved from its devotion to the theory of democracy as expressed by those two axioms...

Bonus: Persuasive Appeals to Reason 1.) Some of you hold to the doctrine of states' rights as applying to woman suffrage. Adherence to that theory will keep the United States far behind all other democratic nations upon this question. A theory which prevents a nation from keeping up with the trend of world progress cannot be justified. 2.) We ask you to make a last, hard fight for the amendment during the present session. Since last we asked a vote on this amendment, your position has been fortified by the addition to suffrage territory of Great Britain, Canada, and New York.

Bonus: Rhetorical Devices 1.) Parallelism- First, the history of our country. Second, the suffrage for women already established in the United States makes women suffrage for the nation inevitable. Third, the leadership of the United States in world democracy compels the enfranchisement of its own women. 2.) Rhetorical Question- With such a history behind it, how can our nation escape the logic it has never failed to follow, when its last un-enfranchised class calls for the vote?

Bonus: Rhetorical Devices 3.) Rhetorical Question- Then why not be honest, frank friends of our cause, adopt it in reality as your own, make it a party program, and “fight with us?” 4.) Repetition- Do you realize that in no other country in the world with democratic tendencies is suffrage so completely denied as in a considerable number of our own states? There are thirteen black states where no suffrage for women exists, and fourteen others where suffrage for women is more limited than in many foreign countries. (Go to next slide: continued)

Bonus: Rhetorical Devices 4.) Continued— Do you realize that when you ask women to take their cause to state referendum you compel them to do this: that you drive women of education, refinement, achievement, to beg men who cannot read for their political freedom? Do you realize that such anomalies as a college president asking her janitor to give her a vote are overstraining the patience and driving women to desperation? Do you realize that women in increasing numbers indignantly resent the long delay in their enfranchisement?

Bonus: Rhetorical Devices 5.) Restatement- Every delay, every trick, every political dishonesty from now on will antagonize the women of the land more and more, and when the party or parties which have so delayed women suffrage finally let it come, their sincerity will be doubted and their appeal to the new voters will be met with suspicion. 6.) Repetition- Some of you have been too indifferent to give more than casual attention to this question. Some of you have grown old in the party service.

Bonus: Rhetorical Devices 7.) Rhetorical Question- Are you willing that those who take your places by and by shall blame you for having failed to keep pace with the world and thus having lost for them a party advantage?