In 1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed a new organisation, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The organisation condemned the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments as blatant injustices to women. As well as advocating votes for women, the NWSA also advocated easier divorce and an end to discrimination in employment and pay.

Some suffragists thought it was a mistake to become involved in other controversial issues. Later that year Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howeand Josephine Ruffin formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in Boston. Less militant that the National Woman Suffrage Association, the AWSA was only concerned with obtaining the vote and did not campaign on other issues.

In 1870 the AWSA founded its own magazine, the Women's Journal. Edited by Lucy Stone, it featured articles by members of the organisations and cartoons by Blanche Ames, Lou Rogers, Mary Sigsbee, Fredrikke Palmer and Rollin Kirby. Some of the regional groups also produced journals, most notably, the Women Voter (New York City) Maryland Suffrage News (Baltimore) and the Western Woman Voter (Seattle).

In the 1880s it became clear that it was not a good idea to have two rival groups campaigning for votes for women. After several years of negotiations, the AWSA and the NWSA merged in 1890 to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The leaders of this new organisation include Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Frances Willard, Mary Church Terrell, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Anna Howard Shaw.