The 50th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage has been covered extensively, but the story of what women did with that vote has been little noted nor long remembered (Lincoln) The League of Women Voters is rarely mentioned anymore but they were of major influence on public policy and legislation in the decades after WWII. The League also served as a rational way to divert our minds to a larger world.
Organized in 1951 in Casper, the League’s mission was to promote active and informed participation in government by providing researched information to the public through brochures, the media and candidate forums.
In a poll of the Wyoming Legislature in 1965, the League was voted the most trusted lobbying group in the state because their information was based on facts rather than partisanship or emotion.
Many of the policies and services that contributed to Casper and Wyoming’s development were initiated by the League of Women Voters. Their membership in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s read like a who’s who of Casper though you would find them listed, not under their first names but under their husband’s name: : Mssrs. Wampler, Jenkins, Barlow, Womack, Bodemann, Jones, Porter, Hales, Jones, Cotherman, Wold, Wilkerson, Kistler, Ayes, a, Phibbs, Leik, Muller. Often educated but not employed, the cultural emphasis was on family building and employing return servicemen, they found the League the perfect outlet for study, discussion and a way to influence husbands, officials and their neighbors.
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Among the local issues during the first twenty plus years were public health nursing, council-management form of government, county and city planning, the water supply and health standards.
Action was precluded by a year or more of study and the involvement of other organizations such as the American Association of University Women and civic groups such as the Jaycees.
By 1953, the League set up a speaker’s bureau to help keep people informed about local, state and national issues. The telephone and utilities companies contributed by sending fact sheets on water system improvements bonds, hospital bonds, fire and, airport bonds and the city/county health unit prepared by the Casper League with bills.
In addition, the first booklets explaining the structure of city and county government were printed and made available county-wide..
Candidate forums were held for both local candidates (city, county, school board) as well as state-wide candidates (Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor, Treasurers and Superintendent of Public Instruction), the House of Representatives and Senate.
At one point the League publicly listed violation of election procedures such as leaving the ballots unattended in polling places and the existence of a few improperly cast ballots. The objective was to improve state law and regulations rather than criticize clerks and judges.
Voter registration drives in cooperation with the Jaycees, increased registration from 54% to 85% in 1956. These efforts coincided with the publication of Voter’s Guides during election years.
Over the years, the local and state organizations supported the purchase of voting machines, home rule for local governments, the concept of city and county planning, the water supply and health, air quality, the ERA, no sales tax on groceries, severance taxes for a Permanent Trust Fund, credit for women, public transportation, the ridding of hazardous waste and the expansion (or stabilizing) of the economic base in Wyoming.
By the mid-70’s, women began being identified by their given first names and their activities were reported, not solely on the Women’s page, but on the front page.
With so much of public action in the year 2020 based not on facts but mis-information, there is a new motivation for a group that examines the issues, comes to conclusions, convinces others of an informed decision and then acts. That requires critical thinking and a philosophy that focuses on the common good rather than self-centered individualism.
Women are grateful for the individuals who led the way to get the vote; it then took women working together (contrary to an outdated notion that women competed for men) who made the vote count. In 1983, there were three state female Senators, one of which was a LWV member; there were nineteen state female House members, and ¼ of them were LWV members. Today, there are six female Senators and eight House members. Two of the three national Wyoming representatives are female but all belong to a one-party system with little or no non-partisanship applied to issues. In a new atmosphere that demands party loyalty rather than independent critical thinking, women may be squandering the influence they had outside the party system.
Women are 48% of the Wyoming population they constitute only 5.6% of the Wyoming legislature. Surely there is the rest of the story to unfold.
Audrey Cotherman was the first executive director of the Wyoming Humanities Council. She is 90 years old and lives in Casper. She can be reached at amcotherman@bresnan.net.