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Women Political Leaders
After a successful project documenting women leaders and activists in the suffrage movement, in the 1970s the Oral History Center (then the Regional Oral History Office) began documenting the experiences of California women who became active in politics during the years between the women’s suffrage movement and the feminist movement - roughly 1920 to 1965. This endeavor was called the California Women Political Leaders Oral History Project, and represented a variety of political views from elected and appointed officials at national, state, and local government levels.
Under project director Malca Chall, The California Women Political Leaders Oral History Project was financed by both an outright and a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Matching funds were provided by the Rockefeller Foundation for the Helen Gahagan Douglas component of the project, by the Columbia and Fairtree Foundations, and by individuals who were interested in supporting memoirs of their friends and colleagues. In addition, funds from the California State Legislature -- sponsoring the Knight-Brown Era Governmental History Project -- made it possible to increase the research and broaden the scope of the interviews in which there was a meshing of the woman’s political career with the topics being studied in the Knight-Brown Project. Professors Judith Blake Davis, Albert Lepawsky, and Walton Bean served as principal investigators when the project was active from July 1975 to December 1977.
Several years after these initial interviews, a group of scholars and volunteer interviewers worked together to conduct an oral history with longtime political actor Elizabeth Paschal. The Committee for the Oral History of Elizabeth Paschal donated the resulting interview to the Oral History Center in the 1990s as part of the Women Political Leaders Oral History Project.
Interviews
- Ann Eliaser: From Grassroots Politics to the Top Dollar: Fundraising for Candidates and Non-profit Agencies
- Bernice Hubbard May: A Native Daughter's Leadership in Public Affairs Volume II
- Bernice Hubbard May: A Native Daughter's Leadership in Public Affairs, Volume I
- Carmen Warschaw: A Southern California Perspective on Democratic Party Politics
- Carolyn Wolfe: Educating for Citizenship: A Career in Community Affairs and the Democratic Party 1906-1976
- Clara Shirpser: One Woman's Role in Democratic Party Politics: National, California, and Local 1950-1973 Volume I
- Clara Shirpser: One Woman's Role in Democratic Party Politics: National, California, and Local 1950-1973 Volume II
- Eleanor Wagner: Independent Political Coalitions: Electoral, Legislative, and Community
- Elizabeth Paschal: Pioneering Career Woman:New Deal Labor Economist, Social Security Administration Program Chief, Ford Foundation Executive
- Elizabeth R. Gatov: Grassroots Party Organizer to Treasurer of the United States
- Elizabeth Snyder: California's First Woman State Party Chairman
- Emily Pike: Republican Party Campaign Organizer: From Volunteer to Professional
- Frances Mary Albrier: Determined Advocate for Racial Equality
- Helen Gahagan Douglas Volume I: The Political Campaigns
- Helen Gahagan Douglas Volume II: The Congress Years 1944-1950
- Helen Gahagan Douglas Volume III: Family, Friends, and The Theater: The Years Before and After Politics
- Helen Gahagan Douglas: Helen Gahagan Douglas Volume IV: Congresswoman, Actress, and Opera Singer
- Hope Mendoza Schechter: Activist in the Labor Movement, the Democratic Party, and the Mexican American Community
- Hulda Hoover McLean: A Conservative's Crusades for Good Government
- Jean Fuller: Organizing Women: Careers in Volunteer Politics, Law, and Policy Administration
- Julia Gorman Porter: Dedicated Democrat and City Planner 1941-1975
- Kimiko Fujii Kitayama: Nisei Leader in Democratic Politics and Civil Affairs
- LaRue McCormick: Activist in the Radical Movement, 1930-1960;The Intl. Labor Defense: The Communist Party
- Lucile Hosmer: A Conservative Republican in the Mainstream of Party Politics
- March Fong Eu: High Achieving Non-Conformist
- Marjorie Benedict: Development of a Place for Women in the Republican Party
- Mildred Younger: Inside and Outside Government and Politics, 1929-1980
- Odessa Cox: Challenging the Status Quo: The Twenty-Seven-Year Campaign for Southwest Junior College
- Patricia Hitt: From Precinct Worker to Assistant Secretary of HEW
- Pauline Davis: California Assemblywoman 1952-1976
- Rosalind Wiener Wyman: "It's a Girl": Three Terms on the Los Angeles City Council, 1953-1965;Three Decades in the Democratic Party, 1948-1978
- Vera Schultz: Ideals and Realities in State and Local Government
- Wanda Sankary: From Sod House to State House
- Women in Politics Volume I
- Women in Politics Volume II
- Women in Politics Volume III