Susan Catania (née Kmetty; December 10, 1941 – November 27, 2023) was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1973 to 1983.

Cumulative voting was abolished by the Cutback Amendment in 1981, and Catania lost any chance to retain her seat in the House going forward.

In 1963, she joined Walter C. McCrone Associates, a microscopy consulting firm in the South Side, as information director, technical writer, and publicist.

[12] She often defied her party's leadership, supporting gun control and abortion, but faced few repercussions as there is no Republican organization in the South Side of Chicago.

[4] Judy Koehler, a colleague in the House, regarded Catania as "very much a leader on women’s issues, on such things as domestic violence, sexual abuse and employment discrimination".

In 1975, Catania was appointed chairperson of the Illinois Commission on the Status of Women, a 16-member panel including both Democratic and Republican appointees.

She was joined as sponsors by Harold Washington (a state representative at the time) and Peggy Smith Martin, and the bill was signed in September of the same year by Governor Dan Walker.

[25] Activist Rick Garcia credited her for "open[ing] the door for other moderate Republicans to start to begin supporting basic civil rights for LGBTQ+ people".

[5] Catania and Elroy Sundquist, a fellow Republican in the House, also sponsored bills to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Chicago-based Democrats in the General Assembly often opposed freedom of information initiatives in the mid-1970s, referring the matters back to legislative committees to avoid consideration.

[13] She also encouraged constituents to protest against Edward Hanrahan, the Democratic state's attorney for Cook County, for his controversial role in the killing of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.

[12] Shortly after the 1980 presidential election, she criticized Ronald Reagan's military defense policies in an interview published by the Catholic progressive organization Call to Action.

[30] Cumulative voting was abolished by the Cutback Amendment in 1981, and Catania lost any chance to retain her seat in the House going forward.

[21] As the only candidate to openly support the ERA, Catania collected donations from feminists nationwide who were hoping to get Illinois to ratify the amendment.

[12] At the time, Illinois was the only northern industrial state that had not ratified, and national ERA leaders viewed the election as a potential referendum on the amendment.

The National Organization for Women supported Catania, while Phyllis Schlafly, an ERA opponent, recognized the importance of the race and opposed her.

[21] Governor James R. Thompson backed Ryan in the race, and mainstream Republicans in Illinois regarded Catania "as radical as Leon Trotsky".

[2] On June 7, 1984, she testified before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations during a hearing regarding the role of women in the economic development of the Third World.

[39] In 1993, Governor Jim Edgar assigned Catania to the Department of Children and Family Services, where she was responsible for establishing and licensing foster-care homes in Cook County.

[note 2] In Eagle River, Catania lived in a family cabin at Cranberry Lake that had been purchased by her parents when she was young, and where her children would spend their summers.