Carrie Chapman Catt Quotes

More powerful than kings and armies is an idea whose time has come to move.

There are whole precincts of voters in this country whose united intelligence does not equal that of one representative American woman.” —Carrie Chapman Catt

[Upon the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Carrie Chapman] Catt wrote ... to the women voters of the nation: The vote is the emblem of your equality, women of America, the guaranty of your liberty. That vote of yours has cost millions of dollars and the lives of thousands of women. Women have suffered agony of soul which you can never comprehend, that you and your daughters might inherit political freedom. That vote has been costly. Prize it! The vote is a power, a weapon of offense and defense, a prayer. Use it intelligently, conscientiously, prayerfully. Progress is calling to you to make no pause. Act!

In the adjustment of the new order of things, we women demand an equal voice; we shall accept nothing less.” —Carrie Chapman Catt

In the early days of the nation, a heroic female called Columbia symbolized our country. A bronze statue of Columbia crowned with feathers and stars stands atop the Capitol dome in Washington, D.C. She represents Freedom. A majestic woman made of copper, the Statue of Liberty, holds an illuminated torch and greets voyagers to America at New York City. Newcomers might think that the United States is a nation that highly esteems her mothers, sisters, and daughters. Well, yes and no. Men might have worshipped the ideal of woman as though she were a goddess, but, as Carrie Chapman Catt said early in the twentieth century, they "governed her as though she were an idiot.