The fictional star of TV’s Emmy Awarding-winning Mad Men is a stay-at-home mother, an active member of the Junior League of Tarrytown (now called the Junior League of Westchester-on-Hudson) and a key mover in the League’s local environmental efforts.
But how typical is Betty of real Junior League members (all 160,000 of them)?
While many Junior League members take time off from work to raise families, 71% of members work full or part time outside of the home. Many members do some combination of both: work, stay at home, and go back to work again. And all, like Betty, are actively involved in civic leadership in their own communities.
Here are just a few of The Junior League’s change agents.
- Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), member of the Junior League of New York and the proud sponsor of a House bill to establish a National Women’s History Museum on the Mall in Washington.
- Jan Langbein, The Senior Policy Advisor at the Office on Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice and a 27 year member of the Junior League of Dallas.
- Betty Simms, U.S. Senate, Missouri, has made significant contributions to improving the health, economic, and social well-being of women and children.
- Rose Hudson, President and CEO of the Louisiana Lottery Corporation.
- Kay Hagan, U.S. Senate, North Carolina, “one of the smartest, hardest working, most effective senators in North Carolina” according to Governor Mike Easley, credits her experience with The Junior League.
- Gena Lovett, COO Alexandra Investment Management, a New York hedge fund.
- Glenda E. Hood, former Florida Secretary of State and Mayor of Orlando.
- Pat Evans, former three-term Mayor of Plano and was Plano’s “Citizen of the Year” in 2004.
- Dee Dickinson, one of the world’s foremost experts on learning and human development.
- The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court Justice.
