The brave women and men who started the National Organization for women and it was june of 1966 that they first got together. We dont have anyone living who is at that first meeting, at the , here is someton of the history. There was a very active womens bureau in the department of labor. In 1966, the democrats were in charge. President kennedy had been elected. Were very active in the department of labor and womens bureau and was led by feminist. They persuaded the president to call a meeting of commissions on the status of women there. Were i dont know if all states had them but the commissions on the status of women were kind of an organizing that was going on in the states, without a feminist movement to kind of pull everybody together. The commission often served as a place where women met and came together. Dr. Catherine was the head of the commission in wisconsin and she was also head of the organization of the committee. She was a big deal. She along with other women came to the meeting of the commission on the status of women and the eeoc had been created, title 7 had been passed, and the women were, around the country, were getting really kind of mad that the enforcement of the law wasnt what they thought it should be. So this meeting of the commission allowed these women to come together. And dr. Pauley murray was one of the people who actually writes about the founding meeting, and katherine conroy, who was my mentor, and also from wisconsin, a book about her writes about that founding meeting. They were at the washington hilton and they were trying to figure out what to do. They met in bettys room and there was talk of founding an organization, Something Like the naacp was needed for women. At at that point, my two buddies, they werent quite ready to go over the edge that night. They wanted to try one more time and went to the government and said they want to mover this move this resolution to mandate the eeoc to actually male and female as an illegal strategy and they said, we dont do resolutions against other Government Agencies at a government meeting. That was it. At lunch, they got together, threw down their five bucks and formed the National Association organization for women. And so, then they had a founding conference which mario will pick muriel will pick up that history. So it happened. Its important i think he knows that it was a government meeting, that government money was used to get these women together and that they took advantage of that to actually form their own organization and to see what things they could do with the governments help and what things they had to do on their own. The other thing, there were a lot of women who worked for the government who werent able to be up front, but they were very instrumental. Ill just say one or two things about myself. I was fortunate to know these fabulous women back in wisconsin. I would play womens college. Sister joel reed was another founder of n. O. W. , and she was my history teacher. Pounded they called loveup and said i will this and that is how i got involved and changed my entire life. So i worked in the chicago chapter of n. O. W. National board member of n. O. W. A recycling in 1982, got elected of Vice President of action. Then i worked for free choice and people for the american way. That is me. Now, i have the pleasure of i will ask her to introduce herself. Shes with my longest colleagues in feminism. I met muriel fox in the early days. Shes not only a founder but a person whoonderful has made such an enormous contribution to the rights of women in this country and im proud to be on the same platform with you. [applause] thank you, i just want to mention, you didnt mention one thing. You really kept n. O. W. Going in our early days, running all of our mail orders, all our mailings, everything we did, and i think this is perhaps when the labor unions walked out, because the Automobile Union really served as our secretary and our treasury in the early days, but then, when we decided to report the era, they said they couldnt do it anymore because it was just against their union policy. In with herepped husband, jim collins and they really did all this for us. We would have been lost without them. [applause] we did it. I mean, its very important, and im going to say this again later, when people talk about the modern womens revolution, it begins exactly 50 years ago with the founding of n. O. W. That is what it all started. Before then, it was the dark ages. For thousands of years, women were the property of men. They were subordinate to men. It all changed because of n. O. W. We can be proud of that. I will also say it all changed very much because of one woman we must not forget her, that was Betty Friedan. [applause] here of us who knew heronally, as i said at memorial, she was not a good woman, she was a great woman. Had the honor of being the first speaker at bettys funeral. I truly believe this, that she was not just the greatest woman of the 20th century, she was the greatest woman of the second millennium because writing the feminine mystique and being the founder of n. O. W. , driving force, the strategist. Betty is the one who did it. I know there were a lot of people who resented a number of things she did and we will hear of them today but we all know that betty was that founder and we have to keep her memory. Incidentally the name came about because at that luncheon, Betty Friedan wrote on a napkin, n. O. W. , National Association for women, and she stressed it was for women, not of women, because we were going to have men active and weve had wonderful men who have been active through the years. Anyway during that summer, when , everyone went back, having put in their 5, they all organized their people, in the midwest, betty looked at her rollo decks and sent out a couple of hundred letters, and i was on her roller decks, in 1963, i had arranged for her to speak to with the to american women when her book, feminine mystique came out i asked her, dont we need an organization, she said, you mean a naacp for women . She said were not ready yet but in 1966, we were ready. I got in 1966, we were ready. Incidentally, in the letter she said well be an elite cad dre of professional women. She did not think about a Mass Movement. That just grew, that just happened. Betty organized a board of directors of n. O. W. , and we were all professionals who were successful in education and government and labor and business, and it was the typical elite cadre that founded many organizations. One person i also want to mention, in addition to Pauley Murray, it was Pauley Murray and mary eastward who kept after betty to start this organization. And also catherine, who was sort of our deep she worked for the third. Labor bureau. She kept feeding statistics on how terrible it was. She kept feeding those to betty. It was mary eastward, who is still alive. Im not the only living founder, i wish mary were well enough to be here and be honored. It was conference,ing organized for october 2930 in the basement of the Washington Post hotel and Washington Post newspaper, i guess we rented the space from the Washington Post, mary arranged for the space, during the summer, betty had asked me, would i do the publicity. I was i was in Public Relations, i was the Vice President of what was the largest Public Relations agency in the world at that time. I did the publicity and arranged for that famous picture thats in the book here of the founders. There were about 35 of in us that room. My press release which i wrote said more than 300 women and men , it was crew, we were across the country, there were about 35 of us in that room and it said we founded a militant organization, to have laws enforced on behalf of equality and the the early nothing was terminology was very much betty for dance. Friedan;s she also wrote a statement of purpose for n. O. W. You can get that on the n. O. W. Website, and just be prepared to be so inspired. I would say, next to the feminine mystique its just the greatest thing betty ever wrote. Elicit everything wrong with society, all the discrimination problems. It also lists some statistics that catherine had given her such as only 7 of lawyers were women, only 5 of doctors were women, all spelled out there, and we made a few little changes but it was bettys document, its a beautiful document. It said what was wrong with society, and what n. O. W. Is going to do to change it and now has changed it. There is no question. [applause] on the basis of that statement of purses, we formed taskforces those two days on every one of the issues that are still important today. We had a, the big task force was on unemployment. Jobs was always our number one issue. Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been passed, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex and the equal Employment Opportunity commission treated that as trivial. They didnt want to pay any attention to sex discrimination. They were much more interested in race discrimination, and we had to press them to pay attention, actually more than half the complaints they were getting were from women who were being discriminated against. So so we pressed that and we had a task force, a big task force on employment. We had one on credit. We had one on child care. That was an urgent issue for n. O. W. From the very beginning, and its probably still our most urgent unfinished business. In task force on religion. Every important issue was there. Based in many ways based on the statement of purpose. A big issue, young women today dont believe this, help wanted ad in the newspapers said help wanted, male, help wanted female. Really . They dont believe it. We had to work on that. We finally began to get some results at the end of 1968. We marched, we picketed, we had lawsuits. We pressured the government, especially the eeoc. Mary Jean Mary Jean mentioned joel reed. I have to tell a story. At our founding conference, joel reed heard there was going to be this conference on sex discrimination. She just walked in out of the cold. No one invited her. She just walked in, into our meeting, because she heard it was going to take place, and when we went around the room, when she stood up, each of us introduced ourselves, she stood up, she was still wearing her nuns habit, later she didnt, she said my name is sister joel reed, im a teacher at college, im one of 50,000 american nuns, and were working women and were oppressed. [applause] i will never forget that. And during that conference, also, in walked colleen boland, who was the president of what was then called the stewardesss union, Flight Attendants Union and she talked about the requiring airlines requiring the flight attendants to retire when they reach the age of 32 or or when they got married, and 35 this was an early case also, that n. O. W. Took on. Again, very successfully. One other thing i want to point out is that we worked on all these cases, we issued w ri ts of mandamus. We knew what we were doing. Thats one reason why n. O. W. Was so successful. We were professionals in everything we did. We immediately pressed the eeoc to work on sex discrimination, and we pressured president johnson, and i remember we met in the white house with john john macy who was his associate working on this, and he said, you really want to be included with the other kinds of discrimination. Dont you want separate attention to sex discrimination . We said, no its the same thing. I wrote a letter over Betty Friedans signature to president johnson, urging him to put sex discrimination into affirmative action. And one of the most historic events, which was mainly a result of n. O. W. , was in october 1967, when Lyndon Johnson announced executive order 11246, which added women to affirmative action, and this opened the pipeline for millions of women across the country from then on. [applause] i think ive used up my time. No, you havent. Well, there is just so much that happened and selling people who worked. Everyone there worked on what made her angry, and thats why we were all successful. Everybody was passionate, and then i remember it was in february, 1967, Betty Friedand said i think we need chapters. So we started a new york chapter. I sent out the postcards from those who had signed up in the new york area and the new york chapter was the first chapter of n. O. W. And all the chapters really became the bedrock, grassroots of what was happening, and they made action happened very quickly. Amazingly quickly. Betty friedan and i used to say we never dreamed it would happen so fast. In the 1970s, we got the fair credit act, which meant women could have credit cards in their online. Until then a woman lost her credit card if she were divorced or her husband died the fair housing act, a landlord could say, i dont rent to women. That that became illegal. Title ix which finally prohibited sex discrimination in education. Its a lot more than sports. Its women promotion. Women advancement. And in schools as well as colleges, all of these things happened, actually, in the early 1970s, and every one was mainly the result of n. O. W. Activists. So there is a lot we can be proud of. Ill answer questions, i dont know how much time ive used up. We can all be very proud of what n. O. W. Did. [applause] thank you. Were going to take questions at the end, because otherwise, well never get past muriel. Next, i want to introduce eleanor pam. Shes the president of veteran feminists of america which is actually presenting this panel today along with the good graces of the National Association for women. Its an organization founded by second wave feminists to keep the history alive and propagated of the achievements of the second wave of women and the women that followed. We are open to membership for everybody. We would love to happen. Let me go back to introducing eleanor, the president of our organization now and she is a pioneer feminist and Professor Emeritus of City University of new york. She cofounded new york citys First Education committee, along with kate. Good company. Shes focused on education issues and women in prison issues through her life, and she gives us excellent leadership and were proud to be part of being here with her today. Eleanor . [applause] i want to talk about a second hero of the feminist movement. Some people are technical and some people are black and white. Betty friedan was definitely technical. Who has been a friend of mine for 60 years, also in her own ways made Great Strides in progress for women. She wrote the other book, sexual politics, which is known as as the bible of the feminist movement. So you have the feminist mystique and you have sexual politics. Kate was also called the majors. Titian of the feminist movement. She was also called by the New York Times the nazi talk of the feminist movement. Is also called one of the 10 most important people in the 20 century. I knew her in a very different way. And by the way, the world was asleep but kate millett woke it up. I met kate when i was just out of college, with a degree in philosophy at brandeis university. I didnt want to go home after i graduated and live with my parents. My mother sort of thought i was a bit of a failure because i didnt have an mris degree. Mrs degree. I only had a degree with honors in philosophy and that wasnt quite what she wanted for me. So what she wanted for me. So i did so i did this very unthinkable thing. I moved to Greenwich Village and that was really wicked because my mother assumed i was up to no good. Which ultimately, i was. I found a friend who was an artist and a dancer, and she was chinese, and she had a very strange circle of friends. In the middle of the night, 3 00 in the morning, the phone would not the phone but the bell would ring, and i remember this distinctly, i dont think i had lived with her for more than a week, i opened the door and there were these three grimy men standing there, filthy, they had beards, they had obviously a not washed. They were in racks. And they pushed their way were Jack Carol Locke and the next. The next. Beat necks. We were bohemians, they were beat necks. They made themselves at home and they stayed for three weeks, and slept in the bathtub and on the floor, and finally, we kicked them out. But another friend, another friend of my chinese roommate was this other strange woman. This was a female. Her name is kate miller. And kate was very strange. She came from a middle class family in minnesota. But she wanted to live in what i considered you know, unbelievably squalid quarters. Derelicts sleeping on her front porch. I came to her house, i remember when i first met her, and what startled me, aside from the ram shack way she lived, she didnt even have heat. She had a potbelly stove. She was walltowall books, floor to ceiling, she didnt have even a door on her bathroom. And she had just come from oxford, where she had received first honors in english. And thats an amazing feet and she was a female and that was even more amazing. And kate and i became intellectual sparring partners. She was brilliant, obviously, eccentric, obviously, i worried about her all the time. She was she was very pale, poor, didnt have any money at all. I would take her out and feed her and take her to the beach to kind of give her a little color. [laughter] i didnt understand her. Like i was from the slums myself, working class family. I wanted upward mobility. She was embracing downward mobility. [laughter] it was very strange to me. Kate identified herself as an artist, not a writer. She was actually a far better writer than she was an artist. And she took me around to all these groups. She loved groups and organizations, ultimately, by the way, she said that if there were a thousand feminists organizations she would join every one of them and i believed her, because i was in th