The Woman’s Suffrage Party (WSP) was founded in 1913 by a group of moderate New Orleans suffragists splintering off from the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference (SSWSC). While the organization has not achieved the same lasting impact on Louisiana suffrage scholarship, they were nevertheless an active, National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) affiliated suffrage group that supported both state and federal action to achieve female suffrage.
The group focused explicitly on suffrage advocacy as opposed to the Era Club’s general, civic-minded work. Continued disagreements between the Era Club and Woman Suffrage Party led to the two groups working independently for the suffrage cause.
In 1917, the WSP merged with Baton Rouge’s Louisiana Equal Suffrage League. Due to their support of federal action on suffrage, the WSP stayed on much better terms with its parent organization, NAWSA.
The Woman’s Suffrage Party is formed. The organization clarifies that they are open to both federal and state action in the interest of woman’s suffrage.
The Woman’s Suffrage Party encourages all women over eighteen to sign the petition to Governor R.G. Pleasant that seeks to gain enough votes for the state amendment to grant women the right to the ballot. The party emphasizes that the suffrage movement will not interfere with the war work of Louisiana women.
Louisiana State Suffrage Association President Jean M. Gordon urges men who support the women’s suffrage movement to remember to register to vote in order to combat those “men who will vote against us.”