POLITICAL COMMUNITIES:
THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS
Vickie Sandell Stangl (Overland Park, Kansas): People ask me a lot, why
were so many people against women having the vote? The only answer I can
give is part of it is cultural, you truly believe there's another class
below you, and that they just shouldn't have it. There was even
literature saying that a woman's brain would explode if she even got near
a polling booth, we just couldn't handle that. But if you go outside of
that, it's a real power issue to be involved politically in this
government is to have power. And the people in power did not want to
share it, they did not want to give it up.
Narrator: ALTHOUGH THE FIGHT FOR FEMALE SUFFRAGE IN THE UNITED STATES
BEGAN IN THE 1800S, IT WASN'T UNTIL 1920 THAT THE 19TH AMENDMENT GRANTED
WOMEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE. AT THAT POINT, SUFFRAGE LEADER CARRIE CHAPMAN
CATT PROPOSED THE FORMATION OF AN ORGANIZATION TO HELP WOMEN EXERCISE
THEIR NEWLY-WON CIVIC RIGHTS.
Sandell Stangl: She felt that we needed a League of Women Voters, women
who would become educated within the political process, understand who the
candidates are, the issues involved, and then feel very confident to go
forward to vote. And if they didn't feel all those things, she knew they
would not show up at the polling places. And what an irony that would be
after 72 years of fighting for the suffrage amendment, for women not to
vote.
Mary Ann Bradford (Topeka, Kansas): We claim in Kansas that the Wichita
metro league was the first local league in the country. There are others
who claim the same.
Narrator: A MEMBER OF THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS FOR 27 YEARS, MARY ANN
BRADFORD CURRENTLY SERVES ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE KANSAS LEAGUE .
Bradford: Primarily it was to educate women, because they had never had
an opportunity to vote before. Now nobody had said that men didn't know
what they were voting for, it was assumed that men were wonderful,
informed voters. Kinda laugh about that when we think about the focus on
women at that time.
Sandell Stangl: Nothing like that had ever been done where you actually
have an organization dedicated to learning the issues, learning the
candidates, and learning, civicly, how our country operates. And staying
very non-partisan, not taking sides with candidates or politicians.
Narrator: RETIRED HISTORY TEACHER VICKIE SANDELL STANGL IS A MEMBER OF
THE JOHNSON COUNTY LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS.
Sandell Stangl: Traditionally, our roots were in making lives better for
our children and looking at children's and women's issues. But we've gone
far and over those boundaries that we first began with. The league
branches out everywhere. We study anything from international relations
to environmental issues, health care issues, it just runs the whole gamut.
We've done agricultural studies, we did a state finance study here, we
have studied SRS in the state. Right now children at risk is a big study
we're doing campaign finance reform.
Narrator: ALTHOUGH THE NAME OF THE ORGANIZATION HASN'T CHANGED OVER THE
YEARS, THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS HAS WELCOMED MEN TO THE GROUP SINCE THE
1970s.
Bradford: We had 2 or 3 conventions where we battled among ourselves as
to whether or not we wanted men in the organization. We were afraid they
would want to come in and change the name, first of all. Which has never
happened. And then as we were working very hard for the Equal Rights
Amendment, we had to say to ourselves, wait a minute, gals, here we are
saying and questioning having men as members of our organization when
we're saying that everybody's equal and we should have the same rights as
men. So it was in '74 then that we passed amendments to our by-laws.
Milton Scott (Lawrence, Kansas): They invited me to a meeting, and it
went from there and I really enjoyed what I saw and saw that they really
were concerned about the issues and so I got involved in it.
Narrator: MILTON SCOTT IS A RECENT MEMBER WHO IS CURRENTLY SERVING AS
PRESIDENT OF THE LAWRENCE/DOUGLAS COUNTY LEAGUE.
Scott: The league is generally one of the groups that has always expanded
and opened its doors to individuals. And I think that goes back when
women -- black women -- had a voice in the league and also looked at
issues. So before they had an opportunity to have a voice as a whole in
the United States, the leagues were always open to women who needed an
avenue to get their voice heard. And I think that opened up the
opportunity for men to get involved in the league as well.
Sandell Stangl: In fact we argued over calling it The League of Women and
Men Voters and it was decided at a convention that historically our roots
were in all the suffrage fights and we should stick with our roots and
remain as this name.
Scott: I look at it as a historical perspective that the time that the
league was founded and it had a particular focus at that time, something
that we can never take away from that because that started the ball
rolling. It's almost similar to the NAACP, which now we don't call
ourselves "colored" -- African-American or Black -- but that significance
of that, that history, that groundwork that individuals put into it. We
have to look back at the historical perspective and the women did do a lot
to bring about change for women in America, but then they also did much to
bring about change for all individuals. And I think we should never look
at trying to change what that historical perspective brought about.
Bradford: Now we look at our purpose I guess two-fold, you could say.
One, we want to have informed and active citizens in government. That's
one of our goals. The other goal, then, is to be able to see that good
public policy is established by the advocacy of the citizens. In other
words, they will be active in the political process.
Narrator: TO FACILITATE CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS, THE
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS PUBLISHES A VARIETY OF INFORMATIONAL BOOKLETS,
OFFERS VOTER SERVICES, AND HOSTS CANDIDATE DEBATES.
Bradford: We're political, but we don't support candidates and we don't
support political parties. And so that has always been a drawing card for
the league for men and women both. That they can learn the issues, they
can learn the pros and cons about a particular issue. There's no pressure
what political party you belong to. But we do take positions and we do
lobby.
Scott: It's important that we're looking at the issues--not the political
aspect--but what the impact that it has on that community. So nonpartisan
is a very important aspect of it and also provides that credibility in the
sense that we're studying something without any preconceived notion of
what the outcome would be.
Sandell Stangl: You know, it's probably one of the few organizations that
began with this very simple premise of we want to educate ourselves and
then take it out to the community and help educate the community about the
issues and candidates and help educate ourselves and then take it out to
the community and help educate the community about the issues and
candidates and help them become informed voters. That has never changed.
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(Copyright 1997 KTWU/Channel 11, Topeka, KS.)