United States House Committee on Woman Suffrage

[1] The committee was influential in shepherding through the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution giving women the right to vote.

[3] Suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt petitioned Speaker of the House Champ Clark on behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association on April 10, 1917, urging the House to create a Committee on Woman Suffrage.

[4] She argued that the Judiciary Committee, which had jurisdiction over the issue, was too busy with other matters to address suffrage for women.

[8] At least one newspaper reported that Rankin had been passed over to chair the Committee after the Republican caucus failed to endorse her.

[9] The Committee held its first session on January 3, 1918, and heard testimony from Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Howard Shaw, and others in favor of the constitutional amendment for woman suffrage.