Kate Matthews didn’t grow up in a conventional postwar household. Her parents were divorced, her mother worked full time at the University of California, Berkeley, and she “grew up in a situation where I could do what I wanted.”  This was, she says, very rare even in a place as progressive as Berkeley, California. She grew up wanting to live a life ensconced in academia and recalls telling her friends that she wanted to marry a professor, which she did. But she also pursued her own work in academia. She recognizes that her life was mostly in a “man’s world” and that before she retired there was a noticeable shift in the gender demographics in academia.

Matthews first found out about the League of Women Voters from her mother. She joined when she was young but did not actively participate until she retired.  She loved running the candidates forums and considers voting the most important thing we can do for our country.