CANOGA PARK : First Woman Will Lead Kiwanis Chapter

The Canoga Park chapter of Kiwanis International will install its first woman president Saturday, a big change for an organization that started admitting women less than four years ago and still has only three female members.

The new president, Teri Weber, a real estate agent and mother of two, was the second woman to become a member of the service group.

Hers was a quick rise in the 66-year-old organization, which admitted its first woman over strenuous objections from some members.

Weber said she joined the club not for feminist reasons, but to become involved in the community.

“I really wasn’t breaking down the walls,” Weber said. “I don’t think I ever looked at it that way.”

Today, Weber said she feels accepted even by members who originally opposed female membership.

“She’s done a terrific job,” said Ron Harris, a member of the club for 21 years, who said he didn’t like the idea of including women when it was originally proposed.

Harris said the admission of women has not changed the club’s activities, but “it kind of changed the atmosphere a bit. It still has kind of dampened a few things.”

Patrick Murphy, outgoing Kiwanis secretary and past president who strongly supported female membership, said the issue sparked lively debates within Kiwanis back when Weber and others were considered for admission.

“Our club was a bastion of male members,” he said. “Some of our members had been in the club for over 20 years and of course resisted that sort of change. But there were several who, in their business associations, worked alongside of women on daily basis and recognized their value,” he said.

Once women were finally admitted, it was “kind of an anticlimax,” he said.

“Teri can be one of the boys. She can kid around and hold her own,” Murphy added.

Weber said gender issues still come up occasionally.

“There are people in different levels of the organization who need to realize women are here and have a right to speak and have an opinion,” she said. “You do end up having to fight those things now and then. . . . but I don’t back down real easily.”