When Helen Reddy sang “I am woman, hear me roar,” she could have been singing about the League of Women Voters. This 90-year-old organization has been giving women a voice in the political process of forming public policy even before women had the right to vote.

At the 50th convention of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, it was proposed to create a "league of women voters to finish the fight and aid in the reconstruction of the nation."  At that point, Kansas was the ninth state to have approved votes for women.

Present at the convention was Jane Brooks of Wichita, wife of a prominent attorney and president of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association, who was elected chairman of the national league of women voters within NAWSA, because, as a contemporary said, "She was attractive, able, and not tarred up as an old suffrage warhorse." Brooks came home to Kansas and set about dissolving the KESA and establishing the first local League of Women Voters in the country in Wichita, KS.

The first annual meeting of the Kansas League of Women Voters was held in June of 1919, at the Hotel Lassen in Wichita. In January, 1920, the Kansas League held the "First School of Citizenship and Called Convention of the Kansas League of Women Voters," again at the Hotel Lassen in Wichita. Leagues from Topeka, Enterprise, Hutchinson, Emporia, Manhattan, Wichita, Lawrence, Leavenworth, and Winfield were represented.

The next year, on February 14, 1920, six months before the 19th amendment to the Constitution was ratified, the League was formally organized in Chicago as the national League of Women Voters. At the first league convention participants voted on 69 separate items as statements of principle and recommendations for legislation. Among them were protection for women and children, right of working women, food supply and demand, social hygiene, the legal status of women, and American citizenship.

Wichita-Metro League of Women Voters member Pat MacDonald, who many may remember as the spokesperson for the Health Department, has been a member for 40 years. In 1969, she was working in New Jersey and was invited to be a speaker on the issue of water quality at a League meeting. Afterwards, she was invited to join, and for her, the rest is history.

“I like that the League is nationwide, that it involves women of all ages, and, bear in mind the decade in which I was invited to join, they didn’t ask me what my husband did,” MacDonald said.

She goes on to note that the League has been on the forefront of many positive public policy changes in the country as well as at local and state levels. In addition, it has been very active in voter rights, such as in 2006 when there was a 70% reduction of polling places in Sedgwick County. The League spearheaded the formation of what is now the Sedgwick County Voter Coalition which focuses on voter right advocacy and ensuring that Wichitans who want to vote know what their options are to cast their ballot.

League members can also be found working the polls on Election Day, providing voter education and assisting organizations in hosting candidate forums to allow voters the opportunity to ask questions and find out where each candidate stands on local and state issues.

Yet the League continues to recognize it roots in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, hosting several presentations this year for the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. This culminated in bringing Nancy Kassebaum Baker to the Wichita State Metroplex to speak about the 19th amendment and what it meant to women on Aug. 26, the date the amendment was ratified. League members dressed as Suffragettes, carried signs and even held a parade prior to the speech as a reminder that it was a 72-year fight to achieve voting rights for women.

As an organization that seeks to positively impact public policy change, the League selects issues to study, come to a consensus as a group, and put their efforts behind seeing the change come about.

“We’re a nonpartisan political organization, so we don’t endorse candidates,” explained MacDonald. “We are involved in seeking change at a public policy level in the best interest of the public good.”

The Wichita-Metro League has been involved in issues such as air quality, conservation, recycling and this fall, the issue they will be tacking is transportation, looking at the quality and availability of transportation and where it needs to go as we look toward reducing dependency on fossil fuels. There are also national and state League issues that members are active in working on if they choose. One group researches the issue and presents the findings to the membership. Pros and cons are discussed and a position statement is formed. Then the League becomes the catalyst to move public policy forward related to the specific issue.

“Especially with issues such as air quality, when I was working for the Health Department, I had to sometimes remember whether I was wearing my Health Department or my League hat,” said MacDonald.

In addition, the League started VOTE411.org in 2006 as a “one-stop-shop" for election related information. It provides nonpartisan information to the public with both general and state-specific information on the following aspects of the election process:

• Absentee ballot information
• Ballot measure information (where applicable)
• Early voting options (where applicable)
• Election dates
• Factual data on candidates in various federal, state and local races
• General information on such topics as how to watch debates with a critical eye
• ID requirements
• Polling place locations
• Registration deadlines
• Voter qualifications
• Voter registration forms
• Voting machines

An important component of the web site is the polling place locator, that enables users to type in their address and retrieve the poll location for the voting precinct in which that address is located. The League has found that this is among the most sought after information in the immediate days leading up to, and on, Election Day.

“What I’d like people to know about the League is that it’s a serious organization that’s fun to be involved with,” said MacDonald. “It’s a place where women can have a role in forming public policy and a voice in Topeka and Washington.”

She added that she has stayed in the League not only because many of the issues they’re involved in are ones in which she is interested, but because it gives women the opportunity to interact with each other, where young women can learn from the experience of women who have “been there,” and get a sense of what women have fought through to get to where they are today.

There are different ways to become involved with the League of Women Voters and become part of a force for positive change: join as a member, get on the action alert list, donate to the organization, and encourage organizations you are part of to have League speakers in or host a candidate forum. It all starts with contacting the League.