IWA. League of Women Voters of Johnson County records.
Even as they celebrated, the members of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association (IESA) began planning for a new nonpartisan organization dedicated to political and civic education: the League of Women Voters of Iowa (LWV).
At the final convention of the IESA in 1919 President Pauline Devitt spoke of the new role they would play, educating women voters and encouraging them to exercise their newly-won right: “We are here, women of this convention, to cast off the grave clothes and try our unaccustomed wings over new fields of action.”
In the 1920s, the Iowa LWV sent state organizers to various communities to educate women about the political process and current issues.
Local LWV organizations began to spring up across the state; more than 100 women attended an organizing meeting in Osage, Iowa in 1924.
IWA. League of Women Voters of Iowa records.
IWA. League of Women Voters of Iowa records.
Iowa women continued to be active on the national stage and to have close ties with women’s organizations elsewhere.
In 1923, the National League of Women Voters held its convention in Des Moines, bringing national attention and business to the area.