Create professional development programs that help REALTORS® strengthen their businesses.
Protect private property rights and promote the value of REALTORS®.
Advance ethics enforcement programs that increase REALTOR® professionalism.
Protect REALTORS® by providing legal guidance and education.
Stay current on industry issues with daily news from Illinois REALTORS®, network with other professionals, attend a seminar, and keep up with industry trends through events throughout the year.
In celebration of Women’s History Month during March, Illinois REALTORS® honors the presidents of the 2023 state and local networks of the Women’s Council of REALTORS®.
- Illinois President: Jaci Peters
- Chicago Network President: Natasha Murphy
- Elgin Area/McHenry County Network President: Joanne Levicki
- Fox Valley Network President: Carmen S. Urban
- North Shore Network President: Vanessa Johnson-McCoy
- Northwest Network President: Joanna Grabowski
- Rockford Network President: Marcia Williams
- West Suburban Network President: Sarah Ruzick
- Three Rivers Network President: June Allen-Smith
- South Suburban Network President: Kristen Roussev
Today’s female leaders owe a debt to their predecessors
About 80 years ago, the Women’s Council began offering opportunities for women. But did you know that changing public perceptions of women in the workplace started almost 100 years before that?
In the decades prior to the Civil War, groups advocated for women’s rights, including the right to vote. In 1848, abolitionist activists, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, met in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss women’s rights and developed the Declaration of Sentiments: “We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Although the Civil War delayed the momentum of the movement, once the war ended, the United States passed several amendments to the U.S. Constitution that revolved around citizenship and human rights. The 13th Amendment (ratified in 1865) outlawed slavery, the 14th Amendment (1868) gave citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., and the 15th Amendment (1870) protected the voting rights of Americans regardless of “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” The women’s movement eventually regained its momentum, and in 1911, International Women’s Day was recognized in the United States. Within the next decade, women gained the right to vote with the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920).
(Editor’s Note: This is the fifth and final blog post about women in real estate. Read the previous blog posts honoring women leaders in 2023.)
