100 years after 19th Amendment certified, League of Women Voters gains members, broadens goals

Allyson Haut has been associated with The League of Women Voters for practically her entire life. She was 5 when she accompanied her mother to a League meeting where Haut's mother met "the greatest friends of her life - these fabulous women who were smart, strong and oriented toward social justice."

More than five decades later, Haut, 62, of Wilmette, carries on that tradition as president of the Illinois League's board of directors.

"I found the same thing my mom found," she said: "bright, amazing people" and an opportunity "to do social justice work on a larger scale."

Founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in Chicago on Feb. 14, 1920, six months before the 19th Amendment giving women the vote was certified on Aug. 26, 1920, the League grew out of the suffrage movement. A nonpartisan, grass-roots organization, its mission is rooted in eliminating voting barriers for eligible citizens.

Progress hasn't always been smooth, but the group counts among its achievements the resumption of presidential debates in 1976 after a 16-year absence; the passage of the National Voter Registration Act, known as the "motor-voter" bill in 1993; and 2002's Help America Vote Act establishing the Election Assistance Commission and replacing punchcard and lever voting systems.

Open to individuals of any gender over age 16, the League endorses neither candidates nor political parties. But it does adopt positions after members research issues and reach an opinion.

Heidi Graham, 50, got involved when her interest in the Common Core, a set of academic standards for schoolchildren, led her to a League of Women Voters forum.

League members "laid out pros and cons of Common Core and essentially left it up to participants to determine where they stood on the issue," said Graham, president of the Arlington Heights/Mount Prospect/Buffalo Grove/Wheeling/Prospect Heights/Elk Grove Village chapter. "I wasn't told how to think. I was given the tools I needed to be able to think for myself."

Sue Swaringen knew little about the League before encountering members five years ago at a farmers market. At a meeting a few weeks later, the Glenview resident expressed interest in combating voter suppression.

She now is president of the Glenview/Glencoe chapter, which has seen an uptick in membership. Typically, the chapter welcomes 10 to 12 new members a year. Last month alone it took in 10.

"People have become very aware of how politics works, and they understand they can make a difference, one person, by getting involved," said Swaringen, 61. "People have been taking ownership and realizing the power they have."

The League's work on issues like redistricting, taxation, climate, affordable housing, campaign finance, immigration, voter registration and abolishing the electoral college inspired retired special education teacher Chaya Rubenstein to join three years ago.

"What better thing can you do but be civically involved?" said Rubenstein, 68, president of the Winnetka/Northfield/Kenilworth chapter.

"The League of Women Voters is all encompassing," she said. "You can work on so many different issues and all are related to personal freedom and constitutional rights. And voting is at the root."

That sentiment appears to be spreading. Graham, a former high school English and drama teacher and 10-year League member, says her Northwest suburban chapter had 60 to 70 members in 2016. Today membership exceeds 180.

Statewide, membership has climbed steadily, to about 3,500 members who belong to 42 chapters in Illinois, Haut said.

Graham hopes the League's yearlong centennial celebration will generate momentum.

"It's a marathon, not a sprint," she said of the work ahead, which is rooted in getting more people to the polls. To that end, the League frequently sponsors candidate forums, though it no longer has a role in presidential debates.

It partners with suburban high schools and groups like the Girl Scouts to register young voters. But registering them isn't enough, Graham said. The League has to engage young people, and that's best accomplished through issues.

"So, you don't like what's happening with climate change?" Swaringen said. "Here's how to fix it."

"These are not short-term battles," she said. "It takes a lot of commitment and dedication to keep up the fight, especially in this day and age."

The fight for the Equal Rights Amendment, one League cause, has gone on since 1972.

League members acknowledge troubled periods in the League's history, which former Executive Director Audra Wilson recalled in a 2019 Daily Herald column. Wilson noted how "until recently, the deep legacy of Black suffragists and their fight alongside their white counterparts has been minimized or completely omitted from many historical accounts."

"Our founder said and did some biased things, and we recognized her shortcomings," Graham said. "She point-blank asked Black women who had been in the fight (for women's suffrage) to march at the back of the parade."

Convincing men in state legislatures that women deserved the right to vote was an enormous battle, and some women were left behind, said Haut, referring to women of color, Indigenous women and Asian Americans. Today, the League makes diversity and inclusion a priority.

"Fighting for equity and social justice, we have to look at ourselves and say, are we equitable and inclusive?" Haut said. "That is a huge focus for us right now."

Going forward, Haut wants to make the League more nimble and able to adapt quickly to change even as its fundamental objective, the preservation of democracy, remains.

"We have to keep on keeping on. We can't rest on our laurels," Rubenstein said. "Carrie Chapman Catt and Susan B. Anthony would not want us to rest on our laurels."