Woman Suffrage Sample Ballot, 1912

The league circulated suffrage literature and petitions on the ward and precinct levels in the city and lobbied the state legislature to grant women the right to vote. In 1912, it formed alliances with the Chicago Women's Trade Union League and middle-class and settlement-house women's clubs to put a municipal suffrage advisory ballot before Chicago male voters. This referendum failed, but the state legislature granted Illinois women partial suffrage the following year. The league then campaigned for women's voter registration and for women poll judges in Chicago, marched in national suffrage parades, and worked with the national suffrage movement for full suffrage. It also held study classes and public meetings that debated every aspect of women's political, legal, and economic status. Its members worked for municipal housing reform and social welfare for children. They joined picket lines in support of striking women workers. The league disbanded in 1920 after the national suffrage amendment was ratified.

Maureen A. Flanagan