from the Pasadena League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters Pasadena Area is sponsoring a public forum Nov. 1 about women in elected office and why, if women hold up half the sky, only 25 percent hold elected offices nationwide. The forum will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Women’s City Club, 160 N. Oakland Ave., Pasadena.
Marguerite Cooper of National Women’s Political Caucus will moderate a panel that includes L.A. County’s only elected female mayor, Mary Ann Lutz of Monrovia; Renatta Cooper, president of the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education; and Miranda Alvarado, a college student who is considering a career in politics. (Due to the nonpartisan policy of the League, the two women from the wider Pasadena area currently campaigning for election to Congress will not be participating.)
Panelists will discuss their own career trajectories, challenges in running for office, and their views on the role of women in politics. An open discussion will follow about how to encourage greater representation of women at all levels of government. This part of the program addresses the League’s advocacy for equality, in part based on the following data.
Nationally, there are only 89 women in the U.S. Congress, or 17 percent of representatives. (Interestingly, the representatives of Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Washington, D.C., are all women.)
Six women are governors of states (12 percent) and 24 percent of state legislators in the U.S. are women.
Among the 100 largest cities in the U.S., just seven have female mayors.
Here in California, women make up 27 percent of the state legislature, 24 percent of county Boards of
Supervisors, and 38 percent of the California congressional delegation.
Among the 10 cities in the local League’s service area, all but one – San Marino -- have at least one, and usually only one, woman on the city council. Monrovia and Alhambra have women mayors. (In Alhambra, the council chooses the mayor.)
Lunch is available for $20, including tax, tip and parking. The forum is free. For lunch reservations and
information, call 626-798-0965.
