Hannah J. Patterson: Woman's Suffrage and World War I

Hannah J. Patterson was the very definition of the “New Woman”- the well-educated, independent woman of the early 1900s. In addition to being an outstanding student, she was actively involved in sports, music and campus clubs.

After graduating from Wilson in 1901, Hannah moved to Pittsburgh and became involved with progressive era reforms including public health, child labor laws and juvenile justice. Along with several other young, college educated women, she formed the Allegheny Equal Suffrage Association. This group founded the “Pittsburgh Plan” for organizing suffrage activism. The plan came to be used by the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association on the national level. The “Pittsburgh Plan” consisted of organizing local and regional associations at the political precinct level  as was done by the political bosses in Pittsburgh. Within a few years, Hannah became chair of the Pennsylvania Woman’s Party which involved continuous speaking engagements across the state.

In 1916, she was elected Secretary of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association under Carrie Chapman Catt. With the outbreak of the First World War, Hannah became the Resident Director of the Woman’s Committee of the Council for National Defense. She was responsible for organizing all of the women’s organizations across the country in conducting war work. She was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

After the war, Hannah was named Assistant to Newton D. Baker, the Secretary of War under Woodrow Wilson. She was the first woman to be named to a position at this level. Baker was the husband of Elizabeth Leopold Baker, who graduated from Wilson in 1894 and was a member of the faculty until their marriage.