Meeting of the Minds

0
329
The members of WMAC (Women Mayors Advancing Community), from left: Alicia Weintraub, mayor of Calabasas; Kelly Honig, mayor of Westlake Village; Illece Buckley-Weber, mayor of Agoura Hills; and Karen Farrer, mayor of Malibu

Inspired by early suffragists who worked to earn women the right to vote, the female mayors of four area cities—Calabasas, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills and Malibu—have founded an action group called Women Mayors Advancing Community, coinciding with the recognition of 100 years since the 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave women universal suffrage.

“Our first project this coming year will be to increase voter registration and voter turnout for both adults and teenagers in our communities and to provide voter education to residents on the new voting system put in place by the state government,” the mayors wrote. They shared a goal of 100 percent voter participation in the 2020 election.

Of note: Though most of us learned in school to call female suffragists “suffragettes,” the term was actually a derogatory name given to these courageous women by British newspaper reporters—many American suffragists resisted the nickname.