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February 1952

March 1952

Proposed Platform of LWV for 1952-54
Special Reports
Coming Events
Did You Know

Did You Know

The five-year program, as described in the last issue of your bulletin, was an ideal that took many more years than five for the new League of Women Voters to accomplish. In fact, some of it is still with us. The granting of suffrage did not cause women to leap to the polls and when they did go they did not always vote in the best interests of their sex or of the nation. However, the accomplishments of those early years of the League are considerable. It played a significant role and in some cases was directly responsible for the following:

  1. Establishment of the Women's Bureau and strengthening of the Children's Bureau. .

  2. Passage of the Sheppard Towner Act for education in maternal and infant care (about 1922).

  3. Passage of a law in 1922 providing for independent citizenship for married women.

  4. Provisions for equality of women in the federal Civil Service Classification Act of 1923.

  5. Regulation of the meatpacking industry in 1923.

  6. Establishment of the Bureau of'-some Economics in 1923.

There is no time here to follow the program through its various changes in content and emphasis. There has been something like a constant core of areas of interest and activity. Once the League embarks on study and acting on any item, that effort is maintained until it can be clearly demonstrated that the need for it no longer exists. As you will note in discussion of program, the statements of purpose and content which appear there allow for considerable variety in interpretation, and in emphasis, depending on national trends and issues, and upon the ability represented in the Leagues themselves.

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