Seneca Falls Convention: The Suffrage Movement Begins | Carrie Chapman Catt

In 1848, about 10 years before Carrie Chapman Catt was born, the movement for women’s rights launched on a national scale with the Seneca Falls Convention in upstate New York. Considered to be the first of its kind, it was organized by abolitionist reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. More than 300 people attended, including around 40 men.

Carrie Chapman Catt devoted most of her life to the expansion of women’s rights nationwide and around the world, and is recognized as one of the key leaders of the American women’s suffrage movement. Her political strategies and organizational skills contributed to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on August 18, 1920. 

This segment is from Iowa PBS’s documentary Carrie Chapman Catt: Warrior for Women which tells the compelling story of the Iowa suffragist and her role in the women’s suffrage movement.