The National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) is a national bipartisan grassroots organization in the United States dedicated to recruiting, training, and supporting women who seek elected and appointed offices.

NWPC was founded in 1971 by Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...

, and cofounded by Bella Abzug

Bella Abzug

Bella Savitsky Abzug was an American lawyer, Congresswoman, social activist and a leader of the Women's Movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus...

, Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. She was a Congresswoman, representing New York's 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to Congress...

, Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan was an American writer, activist, and feminist.A leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the "second wave" of American feminism in the twentieth century...

, Myrlie Evers

Myrlie Evers-Williams

SynopsisEarly LifeLife with MedgarMedgar Evers MurderLife After Medgar'NAACP/ HonorsAccomplishmentsWhoopi Goldberg played her in Ghosts of Mississippi...

, several congresswomen, heads of national organizations, and others who shared the vision of gender equality including Dolores Delahanty

Dolores Delahanty

Dolores Delahanty is a social activist and political leader in Louisville, Kentucky. She was a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus during the early civil rights movement, and she was critical to the success of Kentucky's Fair Credit Law...

 of Kentucky and writer and journalist Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Letty Cottin Pogrebin is an American writer and journalist. She graduated from Brandeis University and became a writer and feminist advocate in the early 1970s. In 1971, she was one of the founding editors of Ms...

. They established three main issues: reproductive freedom, affordable childcare, and passage of the Equal Rights Amendment

Equal Rights Amendment

The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...

. Also important are addressing male–female income disparity in the United States and diversity at the decision-making levels.

The current president of the NWPC is Linda Young. Linda Young previously served as the 1st Vice President and Vice President of Development for the National Women's Political Caucus. She has served on the national board for over ten years, first as a Regional Director, and later as Vice President for Development. Young served more than 10 years on the NWPC-Texas board in various capacities, including serving twice as state president. On behalf of the Caucus, she recruited the first two co-chairs for the President's Circle, Liz Carpenter and Luci Baines Johnson, and has begun the groundwork for establishing the first endowment for the Caucus.

Young currently serves as Special Assistant to the President for External Affairs for Austin Community College District, the eighth largest community college in the country. Her professional career has included significant development work for education institutions and for public and private organizations, with more than $18 million in funds raised through Young's efforts. Young served as CEO of a small start-up state agency for five years in Texas, beginning during Governor Ann Richards’s administration. With almost four decades dedicated to working on women’s issues and equality, Young received the Medal of Honor/Veteran Feminists of America. Linda was one of the early recipients of the national leadership award for women, the Athena Award.

The National Women’s Political Caucus organizes campaign workshops across the country to teach the nuts and bolts of running a successful candidacy at all levels of government. The Caucus Political Planning Committee vets women candidates for endorsement and the political action committee

Political action committee

In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...

raises money to support endorsed candidates with campaign contributions. The Caucus also offers workshops on political appointments and collaborates with other women’s political organizations to promote good women candidates for gubernatorial and presidential appointments to key posts within the government.

NWPC has local caucuses in communities across the country to help identify candidates, needs and issues specific to their state or county.

External links

• Official NWPC site with list of state and local caucuses