Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association

In 1870, within a year of forming the American Woman Suffrage Association, Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, and others founded the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. MWSA was affiliated with AWSA and shared both its goals and activities. The merger, in 1890, of AWSA with the National Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), prompted Alice Stone Blackwell and Ellen Batelle Dietrick to write a new constitution in April 1892. The constitution was designed to enable MWSA to become a truly state-wide organization, and to increase its membership and voice in NAWSA. MWSA was incorporated in December 1892. In 1901, Massachusetts healed its own National/American split as MWSA merged with the smaller National Suffrage Association of Massachusetts. MWSA became the Massachusetts League of Women Voters in 1920.

In 1870, within a year of forming the American Woman Suffrage Association, Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, and others founded the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. MWSA was affiliated with AWSA and shared both its goals and activities. It lobbied legislatures, educated people about the benefits of woman suffrage, promoted school and later municipal woman suffrage, founded local leagues, sought male support, and worked with associations in other states.

The merger, in 1890, of AWSA with the National Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), along with other changes in the suffrage movement and a need for financial stability, prompted Alice Stone Blackwell and Ellen Batelle Dietrick to write a new constitution in April 1892. The constitution was designed to enable MWSA to become a truly state-wide organization, to become less reliant on the work and support of a few leaders by developing grass-roots work and donations, and to increase its membership and voice in NAWSA. To gain the benefits of a legal existence, such as receiving bequests, MWSA incorporated in December 1892. In 1901, Massachusetts healed its own National/American split as MWSA merged with the smaller National Suffrage Association of Massachusetts. MWSA became the Massachusetts League of Women Voters in 1920. For further historical information, see Lois Bannister Merk, Massachusetts and the Woman Suffrage Movement (Ph.D. thesis, 1961), Schlesinger Library microfilm (M-19), or Sharon Strom, "Leadership and Tactics in the American Woman Suffrage Movement: A New Perspective from Massachusetts," Journal of American History 62 (September 1975): 296-315.