Analyzing texts: carrie chapman catt
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Carrie Chapman Catt
(1859-1947)
Who Was Carrie Chapman Catt?
Carrie Chapman Catt worked as a teacher to pay her own way through Iowa State College. She worked in the school system and for newspapers before joining suffrage movement in 1887. She took over the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1900 and came up with the “Winning Plan” that helped pass the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Early Life and Career
Carrie Chapman Catt was born Carrie Lane on January 9, 1859, near Ripon, Wisconsin. Catt was a key figure in the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote. She also founded the League of Women Voters. When her father refused to pay for college, Catt worked as a teacher to raise the money to attend Iowa State College. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1880. The next year, she became a high school principal in Iowa. Moving quickly up the career ladder, she served as the superintendent of schools in Mason City, Iowa, only two years later.
In 1885, Catt married Leo Chapman, a newspaper editor. She went to work wit
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Carrie Chapman Catt was born on January 9, 1859 in Ripon, Wisconsin, the daughter of Lucius and Maria Clinton Lane. In 1866 the Lane family moved to a modest Victorian house on a farm near Charles City, Iowa.[1] Carrie Lane graduated from the Charles City High School in 1877 and immediately enrolled in the Iowa State College in Ames.[2] Her father, who was reluctant to have his daughter attend college, contributed only part of her expenses. To cover the rest of her expenses, Catt worked as a dishwasher, in the school library, and as a rural school teacher. Catt's activist personality was evident in college. While there, she started an all girls' debate club and advocated for women's participation in military drills. She graduated on November 10, 1880 with a Bachelor of Science degree -- the only woman in her graduating class.
Early Career and Activism
After graduation, Catt worked as a law clerk and a teacher. In 1885, she was hired as superintendent of schools in Mason City, Iowa, the first woman to hold that position in the district. That year, she married Leo Chapman, a newsp
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Women Vote After 19th Amendment Passed
Early Life, Education and Activism
Catt was born the middle child of three on January 9, 1859, in Ripon, Wisconsin, and grew up on a farm. She was taught to read by her educated mother and attended a one-room schoolhouse after her family moved to a new farm near Charles City, Iowa, following the Civil War, when Catt was 7.
Her parents, Maria Clinton and Lucius Lane, supported reform candidate Horace Greeley in the 1872 presidential election, and Catt’s interest in the women’s rights cause was sparked when she questioned why her mother was unable to cast her own vote.
“It was fate, not a career that took me in charge,” Catt reportedly said. “I could never forget that rank injustice to my mother. I verily believe I was born a suffragist.”
Catt attended the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm (now Iowa State University), graduating in 1880 with a Bachelor of Science degree in general science—the sole woman in her class. While there, she honed her public speaking skills by participating in debate and literary clubs. &
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