The story of Republican women's clubs begins many years before women even had the right to vote and were inspired by the Republican Platform of 1872, which said: "The Republican Party is mindful of its obligation to the loyal women of America for their noble devotion to the cause of Freedom ...." Republican women's clubs were off and running. In fact, the oldest such club on record was founded in Salt Lake City in the late 1800s. This year, NFRW celebrates its 81st Anniversary.
In 1938 Marion Martin, assistant chairman of the Republican National Committee, called a meeting at the Palmer House in Chicago to organize these clubs into a national organization.
NFRW is a grassroots political organization with thousands of active members in local clubs across the nation and in several U.S. territories, making it one of the largest and most influential women's political organizations in the country. We work to promote the principles, objectives and policies of the Republican Party; elect Republican candidates; inform the public through political education and activity; and, increase the effectiveness of women in the cause of good government.
“Without the National Federation of Republican
Women, there would be no Republican Party.”
~ Barry Goldwater, from an NFRW news release,
ca. 1955