Politics/Community Involvement

In addition to a traditional focus on the public realm of governance and power structures, this theme should also reflect a feminist understanding of “the personal as political.” We are interested in women’s opinions, values, and activities as they relate to a broad sphere of social relations.

Melanie Demarais

College Development Officer;President, Worcester League of Women Voters

You really have to give yourself a balanced view of the political situation and figure out which one works for you. We are a democracy, we have more than one newspaper, we have more than one opinion. So you need to read all of it to form your own opinion.

Melanie Demarais is a 50-year old woman who lived her childhood years in New Hampshire. After college she moved to Worcester for her job at Assumption College in Student Affairs and later in Development. Melanie has volunteered in organizations such as Girl Scouts, Chamber of Commerce, Worcester Women's HIstory Project, and the League of Women Voters. She feels very strongly about women taking advantage of the fact that we now have the right to vote. She believes that everyone should become educated in politics so that we can all make a difference. She graduated from St.

Interviewer:

Danielle DeFase

Maggie Dion

Interview Date:

Wed, 04/02/2008

Interview Focus:

Health

Politics/Community Involvement

Name Sort:

Demarais

Carolyn Dik

Former President of League of Women Voters; Member of U.S. Judicial Nominating Committee under President Jimmy Carter

Well in the mid-fifties -- I have two children, and they were born one in 55 and one in 58 -- and so I was wanting to get away from diapers and not talk about babies and I joined the League of Women Voters at the invitation of a couple of friends and that was a life changing experience for me, really. I went to a meeting first on foreign policy and you know I’d never been to a meeting on foreign policy, but I’d read stuff in the paper from Worcester at that time. So I joined them and by 1968 I was president of the Worcester League. We had 444 members which was a big organization and we had two meetings a month, it was a great big job, a full time job, more than I expected really.

Interviewer:

Caitlyn Sullivan

Interview Date:

Tue, 10/23/2007

Interview Focus:

Politics/Community Involvement

Name Sort:

Dik