(FORTUNE Magazine) – Ellen Malcolm, 45, once said her family inherited ''millions upon millions upon millions'' in dollars of IBM stock. The shares came from her paternal great-grandfather A. Ward Ford, a partner in Bundy Manufacturing Co., one of IBM's corporate antecedents. Malcolm, the sole heir to her father's estate, won't say how much of the fortune she got. She prefers to be known as the person who in 1985 started Emily's (as in Early Money Is Like Yeast) List, a political action committee that raises campaign funds for women running as Democrats. Last year's televised testimony by Anita Hill before an all-male Senate committee during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court hearings boosted membership 80% to 6,000, 10% of them men. People pay $100 to join and agree to give $100 or more to at least two candidates the group endorses. Malcolm hopes to have $2 million to spread among some 20 candidates this year. The beneficiaries will include U.S. Senate candidate Geraldine Ferraro of New York, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984. In December, ex-Emily member Glenda Greenwald, 53, founded the Wish (Women in the Senate and House) List, which backs pro-choice GOP candidates. Her husband, Gerald Greenwald, 56, quit Chrysler to lead a failed union bid for United Airlines and now is a Dillon Read managing director. But few would be too surprised if he returned to Chrysler.