Inspiring League Achievers: Wilhelmine Wissman Yoakum (1891-1983)

By Deborah Shefler

Part of a series celebrating the LWVO's century of service to the Oakland community.

Wilhelmine was an early League leader. During the 1920s she was treasurer of the League of Women Voters of CA and then the Secretary of the Oakland Forum, the predecessor to the LWVO. 

In 1931 she became the first woman elected to the Oakland City Council, as a member-at-large. She suffered a narrow defeat for a second term as the only woman among 45 candidates. A profile of Mrs. Yoakum in the Oakland Tribune noted that she managed to raise her three children and serve on the City Council at the same time. 

In fact, she did far more than that. She is credited with planting the first flowering trees around Lake Merritt. She helped create the city’s Planning Commission. She had a particular perspective: “I look at government through the eyes of the small home owner whose taxes pay the bills. For that reason I have been quick to urge economies.” 

Mrs. Yoakum met her husband, Finis E. Yoakum, Jr., while they were students at Cornell University. They moved to California after graduation, in 1913. She went on to get a Masters degree in language studies from UC Berkeley. 

She served for 22 years, until 1962, as Executive Director of the local International Institute, a branch of the International Institute formed in 1914 in New York City to help immigrants. The organization was originally dedicated to the welfare and training of women and girls who were taking on employment responsibilities while their men had gone to fight in World War I. At that time over 70% of San Francisco’s population was made up of immigrants and their children.