The plan for the League of Women Voters was launched by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1919, in anticipation of adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment granting suffrage to women. The League's purpose was to provide non-partisan political education for the new voters and to promote support for needed legislation.
The Wisconsin League of Women Voters, an affiliate of the national League of Women Voters, came into existence in February, 1920, at a mass meeting called by the Wisconsin Women's Suffrage Association in Milwaukee. Mrs. Henry M. Youmans of Waukesha, president of the latter organization, presided over the meeting and presented the proposal of Carrie Chapman Catt to have the Suffrage Association, whose mission had been fulfilled, replaced by the League of Women Voters. Mrs. Jessie Jack Hooper of Oshkosh was elected the first president of the Wisconsin League. Within a short time a number of local leagues were functioning in affiliation with the state organization.
