League of Women Voters
At a meeting in 1920 of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, barely six months before the nineteenth amendment was ratified, the League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt. This group was originally more of a political experiment at first that was put together to help women understand what having the right to vote was going to mean to them. From the beginning they were an unbiased group which was there to educate women and promote the understanding of what have the vote would mean to them and how they could work to influence the way things worked in their government. They worked hard on a nonbiased forum so that they would be able to avoid getting caught in party politics when what they wanted to do was help women and have their issues get heard.
Due to the fact that this organization was formed by women to assist women in their new function as voters originally only women were permitted to be members. This changed in 1973 when men were permitted to join. They will only have to follow the same rules as women and be of voting age to join. The League of Women Voters has a chapter in each state as all as one in Puerto Rico, the Distinct of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands with a total membership of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand divided amongst nine hundred chapter offices.
The League of Women Voters of today continues its unbiased approach to the issues that surround it. They still do not support individual candidates or parties while working hard to promote the issues they feel are of concern to their members. Recently they have begun a new website, www.Vote411.org that is designed to help keep the American people informed on elections issues and the place were candidates stand on the various issues. They hope to be able to post questions to the candidates as part of the primaries and then when the general election occurs. The answers to the questions will be posted on the website and allow every American to read what the candidates are saying. This will help people become informed and assist them with their election choices.
There are several issues that the League of Women Voters is dealing with. Since 1990 they have come out and taken a stand on gun control by urging the government to the control the increasing number of handguns and semi-automatics. The organization supports banning semi-automatic weapons of all kinds. Further they work hard to promote the protection of civil rights and equal rights. Their stand on health care is a strong one. They believe, and endorse, affordable health care for all people. The League stresses that what is important in health care is to prevent disease, promote health education, learn about reproductive health, and no longer have to worry about long term acute care or mental health care. These issues and others, including election campaign reforms and global climate concerns are some of the concerns that the League of Women Voters works on to improve the lives of Americans.
