The LWVMC Annual Gala will take place:

Thursday September 10, 2020
6pm-9pm
The Spinnaker Restaurant, Sausalito
The theme for the evening is “A Legacy in the Balance: The Unfinished Fight”.
Official invitations and registration information will be posted here.

The Gala Committee is pleased to announce this year’s speaker, Carolyn Jefferson Jenkins.

Carolyn served two terms as the 15th president of the League of Women Voters of the United States and was chair of the League of Women Voters Education Fund from 1998-2002.  She is the only women of color to have served as national League president in the organization’s 100-year history and today continues to work to increase participation in the electoral process while encouraging women and ethnic minorities to run for public office. Carolyn is the author of “The Untold Story of Women of Color in the League of Women Voters”, a recipient of numerous awards for volunteerism and civic engagement and has worked with NGOs worldwide to support democracy building efforts.

Carrie Chapman Catt proposed the organization of the League of Women Voters to “finish the fight”. Catt, and others, realized that the winning of suffrage would not be an ending, but rather a beginning- the beginning of new struggles for full citizenship for women. As the nation celebrates the legacy of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and the founding of the League of Women Voters, we recognize that after 100 years, the “fight” is still not finished, particularly for the marginalized and underrepresented segments of the society.   The significance of the events of 2020 place us at a crossroads. The basic tenets of our democratic nation are being challenged.  By celebrating the unabridged version of the past, and acknowledging lessons learned, we have this opportunity in the present, to define the future- to “finish the fight”. This is our call to action for the next 100 years!