USATODAY.com - YWCA votes to allow male leaders

USATODAY.com - YWCA votes to allow male leaders: "YWCA votes to allow male leaders
Updated 4/29/2006 8:48 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
WASHINGTON (AP) — The YWCA voted overwhelmingly Saturday to allow men to help direct its operations for the first time in its 148-year history, creating exceptions to a policy that allowed only women to serve as leaders of its nearly 300 local affiliates.

Passed by 70% of its voting members, the decision marks a big change for the organization but comes as a compromise just five years after an unofficial vote to keep men out of leadership roles.

The new measure, passed at the organization's annual meeting, allows each chapter to decide whether to accept men through a proposal to the national board, which will develop a new policy later this year. Local chapters will petition the board to allow men to serve, and the board will decide each case.

Men had previously been allowed as volunteers or staff or associate members but could not serve as voting members or directors."