History
The League has been a powerful, nonpartisan grassroots organization that educates voters and makes our government more accountable to the people for over 100 years.
Fargo was the first city in North Dakota to organize a Votes for Women League in 1912. That early grassroots effort helped build the movement that later became the North Dakota League of Women Voters.
The Fight for the Vote
In 1912, Sylvia Pankhurst visited Fargo and shared stories of British suffragists who were disrupting meetings, getting arrested, and going on hunger strikes to demand the right to vote. Her visit inspired local women to organize, and Clara Darrow helped lead Fargo as the first city in North Dakota to form a Votes for Women League. That work helped launch the movement that would later become the North Dakota League of Women Voters.
From Winning the Vote to Using It
Nationally, the League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago in 1920, six months before the 19th Amendment was ratified. Created by leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, including Carrie Chapman Catt, the League was a “mighty political experiment” designed to help newly enfranchised women use their new rights and responsibilities as voters.
In North Dakota, women such as Kate Selby Wilder helped carry that work forward as the North Dakota Votes for Women League became the North Dakota League of Women Voters at a convention in Fargo in April 1920. In 1919, Wilder became the first woman elected to the Fargo City Commission, showing how North Dakota women were already beginning to turn voting rights into civic leadership.
Building the League in North Dakota
In the early 1950s, the League expanded in North Dakota through the work of organizers such as Katherine Rogne of Kindred, who traveled around the state helping build local chapters. That work laid the foundation for continued growth in the 1960s, when local Leagues became active in communities across the state. In the 1970s, many North Dakota members became involved in the effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, bringing new energy and leadership to the League.
The League's Work Today
Today, the League continues its work across North Dakota by helping voters get clear information, observing elections, and advocating for voting rights. Programs like the statewide voter guide on VOTE411.org help voters understand candidates, ballot measures, and how to take part in elections.
Join the League
For more than 100 years, the League helped voters make their voices heard. Join the League of Women Voters of North Dakota and be part of that work.