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League Of Women Offers Training For Politicians


League of Women Voters Offers Training for Women Politicians

The League of Women Voters does not view training women to be politicians as a specific part of its mission, but it often whets their appetite for politics, says Mary Wilson, currently the president of the organization.

"We basically serve as a training ground for women who are interested in things political," Wilson told USINFO in a recent interview. Members get to know their elected officials, she said, and learn how the public's business is performed.

"They [league members] gain a lot of insight, and they really sharpen their interest in the subject," she said. "Many of them, as a result of that, say, 'I could do that, too. I could make an impact as an elected official.'"

The league does not keep statistics on how many of its members go on to run for public office, but Wilson noted that Senator Dianne Feinstein of California publicly has acknowledged that she first got interested in politics via the league.

Founded in 1920, shortly after U.S. women won a 70-year battle for the right to vote, the league remains a strictly nonpartisan organization. Its basic purpose is "to make democracy work for all citizens" via voter education and to influence policy through advocacy.

The strength of the league, Wilson said, always has been its "grassroots" decentralized structure. There are some 900 leagues located across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and even Hong Kong. The League of Women Voters of the United States, of which Wilson is the president, and the League of Women Voters Education Fund operate at the national level with support from local leagues.

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To stay relevant into the 21st century, the league is making better use of the Internet, Wilson said. For example, local and state voter guides are being made available on the Internet.

"A year ago," Wilson said, "right before the November 2006 election, we launched Vote411.org, which is a kind of full-service Web site where people from all across the country can find out basic things about where they can go to vote in their home locations."

"We're hoping to get some additional foundation funding to bring it to even more people for the November 2008 presidential election," she said.

At the national level, Vote411.org will pose questions to the presidential candidates both during the primary season as well as during the general election, Wilson said. Their answers will be posted for the entire country to see.

Although the league has some paid staff members, it relies mostly on volunteers -- a resource that is becoming scarcer now that more women have entered the work force and have more opportunities to volunteer than ever before.

"But I'm happy to say," Wilson told USINFO, "that the League of Women Voters in the last year or so has been holding its own in terms of membership, and we have been undertaking a very special membership recruitment initiative ... and that is the league's role as an important training ground for people who want to participate in the civic lives of their communities and state and the nation."

Recruiting from a broader age, racial and ethnic demographic, the league is soliciting members among energetic retirees, students and, yes, even men.

"We are striving through our membership recruitment initiative to indeed attract a broader base of members and thereby continue to be as relevant as we have been for the last 87 years," Wilson said.

ENDS

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