The New York State primary is on Thursday, September 13th. And you may see candidates running for some lesser-known positions on your ballot, like Male or Female District Leader.

A quick primer: District leaders are unpaid party officials, elected by voters who are registered with their party to oversee the county committee in their assembly district. They aren't legislators, so they don't handle laws. They're mostly in place to run the party's activity in their district. 

So why the distinct Male and Female District Leader roles? The reason can be traced back to Eleanor Roosevelt and the League of Women Voters.

Sarah Steiner, an attorney who practices election law, says the two roles were created in 1920, at around the same time as women's suffrage. Eleanor Roosevelt, a vocal advocate for women's rights, had just joined the League of Women Voters. Her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was running for Vice President (this was before he served as governor of New York). Eleanor Roosevelt believed that women had a crucial role to play in understanding and leading their localities.

Steiner says it was largely thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt and the League that this District Leadership role was created for women to gain an entry-level position in political party leadership.

"It was her idea, and their idea, that politics ought to be more opened up to women, and that giving women the vote would help the reform of the entire political process," Steiner told WNYC's Shumita Basu.

What if two women want to become district leaders in the same assembly district? Well, there's only room for one. Steiner says she doesn't see that as a limitation of the rule. If anything, it's a good problem to have. 

"To have an entry level position, a position of some power in the party, of some influence in the party, is a very important thing," Steiner said. "Otherwise we might still be baking cookies instead of making policy."

WNYC's Shumita Basu spoke with Richard Hake.