Temperance and club work attracted many women, and suffrage issues benefited from riding the coattails of other issues that were important to these women. Suffragists also gained recognition and respect when well-known female reformers provided their support. .
Overlapping affiliation among prominent leaders of various women's associations had always been an integral part in the suffrage movement's success. Frances Willard was able to convince her members of the quite conservative Women's Christian Temperance Union to support the suffrage movement, swinging a large amount of support to the cause. However, in the 1890's, there was more conflict between suffragists and other distinct women reformers arising. Some suffrage leaders began focusing more on other female issues and put the fight for suffrage on hold. Suffragists and other reformers had a large amount of trouble agreeing on what the main priorities were. The women's movement had grown to be quite large, and suffragists hardly held the majority. Not a lot of activist women were willing to commit themselves to the suffrage movement. .
In the progressive era, NAWSA began to gain the support of leaders in the National Consumer's League and the Women's Trade Union League, another display of the network of overlapping leadership. By the turn of the twentieth century, the suffrage movement attracted a substantial constituency. NAWSA grew from about 13,000 members in 1893 to about 75,000 in 1910. A significant reason for such growing support stemmed from the fact that woman suffrage integrated itself perfectly into the progressive plan and it promised strategic benefits of enfranchising women. Granting women the vote would double the educated, middle-class body of voters who would support progressive changes. Women reformers told the progressive leaders just what they wanted to hear, agreeing with nearly every stance that they held.
