College Equal Suffrage League facts for kids
The College Equal Suffrage League (CESL) was a group in America that helped women get the right to vote. It started in 1900. Maud Wood Park and Inez Haynes Irwin created it. Their goal was to get younger people, especially college students, involved in the movement for women's rights. The CESL helped start many college groups across the country. It also influenced other important organizations, like the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).
History of the CESL
The idea for the CESL began at a big meeting of the NAWSA in Washington, D.C. in 1900. Maud Wood Park was 29 years old and had just finished college at Radcliffe College. She noticed she was the youngest person there. Maud was worried that not many young people were interested in women getting the right to vote. She decided to help bring a new generation into the fight.
Maud felt a strong duty to help. She believed college women owed a lot to the brave people who worked hard for their education and opportunities. She wanted them to understand that helping women get the right to vote was a way to pay back that debt.
Maud Wood Park and Inez Haynes Irwin, who also went to Radcliffe, started the Massachusetts CESL in Boston. Maud traveled to colleges all over the United States. She talked to recent graduates, hoping they would encourage younger college and high school students to join the movement. Maud's trips led to new CESL groups forming in 30 states.
In 1906, the NAWSA noticed the CESL's success. To get more public attention, NAWSA started inviting college students to special "College Evenings" at their larger events.
In 1908, all the different state CESL groups joined together. They formed the National College Equal Suffrage League. This new national group became an official part of NAWSA. M. Carey Thomas, who was the president of Bryn Mawr College, became the first president of the NCESL. Maud Wood Park was the vice president.
The NCESL kept working to get people involved in the women's right to vote movement until 1917. After that, the organization ended. Many members of the League continued to be very important. They helped push the Nineteenth Amendment through Congress. This amendment gave women the right to vote. Later, many of them joined groups like the League of Women Voters, which started in 1920.
Northern California Chapter
The CESL had a very active group in Northern California. This group helped California pass women's right to vote in 1911. Some of the women involved in this chapter were:
- Kate Brousseau
- Adelaide Brown
- Genevieve Cooke
- Lilien Jane Martin
- Belle Judith Miller
- Ethel Moore
- Anna Elizabeth Rude
- Charlotte Anita Whitney
Notable People in the CESL
- Susan B. Anthony
- Caroline Lexow Babcock
- Mary Livermore Barrows
- Louise Bryant
- Elinor Byrns
- Marion Cothren
- María de López
- Rebecca Lane Hooper Eastman
- Sara Bard Field
- Edith Jordan Gardner
- Elsie Hill
- Inez Haynes Irwin
- Harriet Burton Laidlaw
- Margaret Shove Morriss
- Maud Wood Park
- Mary Gray Peck
- M. Carey Thomas
See also
- Women's suffrage organizations
- List of California suffragists
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- Timeline of women's suffrage in California
- Timeline of women's suffrage
- Women's suffrage in California
