Our History
since 1939
The formation of early Iowa Republican Women’s Clubs began in 1928 by Ella C. Taylor, one of Iowa’s first female newspaper columnists. She lived in Tama County at the time, which makes Tama County the home of the first Republican Women’s Club in Iowa. Ella Taylor was an Iowa delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1924.
Republican National Committeewoman Martha McClure, of Mt. Pleasant, in Henry County, Iowa, was instrumental in organizing Iowa Republican women into a state wide club. She was an Iowa delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1924 and a member of the Republican National Committee from Iowa from 1937-1940. The Iowa Federation of Republican Women (IowaFRW) became a part of National Federation of Republican Women in 1939.
In 1938, during Marion Martin’s tenure as assistant chairman of the Republican National Committee and national committeewoman for Maine, she founded the NFRW in an effort to unify and give a national voice to the many Republican women’s organizations already in existence throughout the nation and to attract new women into Republican politics.