Maud Wood Park

In 1917, despite the tremendous progress the women’s suffrage movement had made in gaining the right to vote for women in several states, too many states had yet to consider women’s suffrage legislation. Even though a large proportion of women still did not have the right to vote, Maud Wood Park believed that the state-level elements of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) could still exert considerable influence on members of Congress before these legislators came to Washington to decide on the issue. However, such a strategy demanded a meticulous attention to details. Maud Wood Park, as the chair of the Congressional Committee of NAWSA, saw the coordination of these direct lobbying efforts as her primary job. Taken from her 1960 memoir, Park’s letter to state-level suffragists could serve as useful advice for any interest group...