Who We Are

The League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria
Serving the People of Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford Counties in Illinois

Become a Member!

Get Involved!

• Volunteer
• Attend an Event
• Sign up for newsletter
• ​Follow on Facebook
• Sign up for the LWVUS action alerts.
• Sign up for the LWVIL action alerts.  ​​

General inquiries are directed to our President, Connie Romanus at (309)264-9113 and email [email protected]

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that is membership based and a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. 

The League encourages informed and active participation in government and works to influence public policy through education and advocacy. Any person 16 or older, regardless of gender, may join. Click here to read our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policy.
​
As a nonpartisan organization, we neither support nor oppose candidates for elected office but do act on issues after member study and consensus.  Click here to read our nonpartisan policy. 
​
Our vision, beliefs, and intentions are listed below. These along with the positions we vote on and those of the Illinois and National Leagues guide our activities.

Mission and Role

The League of Women Voters has two separate and distinct roles.

Voters Service/Citizen Education
We present unbiased, nonpartisan information about elections, the voting process, and issues.

Action/Advocacy
​We are nonpartisan, but we use our positions to advocate for or against particular policies.

History of the League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters started after women got the right to vote.

In her address to the National American Woman Suffrage Association's (NAWSA) 50th convention in St. Louis, Missouri, President Carrie Chapman Catt proposed the creation of a "league of women voters to finish the fight and aid in the reconstruction of the nation." Women Voters was formed within the NAWSA, composed of the organizations in the states where suffrage had already been attained.

The next year, on February 14, 1920 — six months before the 19th amendment to the Constitution was ratified — the League was formally organized in Chicago as the national League of Women Voters. Catt described the purpose of the new organization:

 "The League of Women Voters is not to dissolve any present organization but to unite all existing organizations of women who believe in its principles. It is not to lure women from partisanship but to combine them in an effort for legislation which will protect coming movements, which we cannot even foretell, from suffering the untoward conditions which have hindered for so long the coming of equal suffrage.  Are the women of the United States big enough to see their opportunity?"

Since its inception, the League has helped millions of women and men become informed participants in government. In fact, the first League convention voted 69 separate items as statements of principle and recommendations for legislation. Among them were protection for women and children, rights of working women, food supply and demand, social hygiene, the legal status of women, and American citizenship. The League's first major national legislative success was the passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act providing federal aid for maternal and child care programs. In the 1930's, League members worked successfully for enactment of the Social Security and Food and Drug Acts. Due at least in part to League efforts, legislation passed in 1938 and 1940 removed hundreds of federal jobs from the spoils system and placed them under Civil Service.

During the postwar period, the League helped lead the effort to establish the United Nations and to ensure U.S. Participation. The League was one of the first organizations in the country officially recognized by the United Nations as a non-governmental organization; it still maintains official observer status today.

Suffragists Mrs. Stanley McCormick and Mrs. Charles Parker, April 22, 1913