League founder Carrie Chapman Catt

The League of Women Voters started after women got the right to vote.

In her address to the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s (NAWSA) 50th convention in St. Louis, Missouri, President Carrie Chapman Catt proposed the creation of a “league of women voters to finish the fight and aid in the reconstruction of the nation.”  Women Voters was formed within the NAWSA, composed of the organizations in the states where suffrage had already been attained.

The next year, on February 14, 1920 – six months before the 19th amendment to the Constitution was ratified – the League was formally organized in Chicago as the national League of Women Voters.

Nine years later, in 1929, the League of Women Voters of the Elgin Area was established.

Since that time, the local League has been very active in the community.

See also League History from the League of Women Voters of the US.