Recorded in Houston, Texas during the National Women’s Conference November 18-21, 1977, these interviews reflect perspectives from across the country, including some of the 1,440 delegates elected at the state conferences. The collection includes approximately 550 participants’ views on issues important to women and reactions to the conference itself. The voices document the diversity sought at the conference and include interviews across the social and political spectrum.
Click on any name to read or listen to their interview. As digital preservation work continues, more interviews will be added.
Lois Aarons |
From Brooklyn, NY Lived in Austin, TX 30 Lesbian Director of Staff for the Center for Battered Women in Austin |
L. Abernathy |
Houston, TX City government employee Pro-ERA |
Maria Ackerman |
Haines, Alaska Tlingit woman Attended conference to demonstrate Chilkat blanket weaving |
John P. Adams |
Washington, DC Staff member of United Methodist Church Board of Church and Society Security consultant for IWY |
Mike Alewitz |
Resident of New Orleans 26 Socialist muralist Member of Socialist Worker’s Party Pro-Women’s Movement |
Ruth Ann Alexander |
Brookings, South Dakota Delegate from SD Professor of English at South Dakota State University Discusses stereotypes of rural women |
Ernie Attwell |
Houston, Texas African-American business owner |
Marya Attwood |
Arkansas 26 Lesbian Hotel housekeeper Discusses harassment and violence against lesbians |
Taunya Lovell Banks |
Houston, TX Official observer Lawyer Member of Black Women for Social Change Vice-president of the Black Women Lawyer’s Association of Houston |
Cathy Banner |
Organizer for the ERA America Benefit Supporter of women’s rights |
Dorothy Barker |
Texas Christian Democrat Anti-ERA Views on same-sex lifestyles |
Lois Black |
Syracuse, New York Psychologist and Director of Affirmative Action, Syracuse University |
Barbara Bornstein |
Social worker from New Jersey Married with two young sons Reproductive health issues |
Margaritte Boye |
Washington state Pharmacist |
Mavis Brady |
US Virgin Islands Educator |
Wilma Brady |
Educator Representing the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’is |
Shirley Bronson |
Delegate from California Civil Servant Pro-ERA Discusses women in the workplace |
Michelle Brown |
Houston, TX Steelworker African-American |
Teresa Tellez Brown |
Hawaii Mexican-American Active in NOW and the Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL) Former aid worker and science/technology program adviser in South American countries |
Keller Bumgardner (Barron) |
Columbia, SC Delegate from SC Board member of League of Women Voters Active in the Equal Rights Ratification Coalition of South Carolina |
Madeline Burke |
Baton Rouge, LA 43 Employed in real estate |
Patricia Hill Burnett |
Michigan Artist Served as President, Michigan chapter of NOW and served on national board of NOW |
Maria Canfield |
From Laredo, TX Living in Houston 41 Mexican-American community activist Member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) |
Sue C. Pungen Carberry |
San Diego, CA Media Task Force Chair of San Diego NOW Member of IWY press staff PhD Candidate in Human Behavior |
Gwendolyn Carey |
Social worker from Houston 29 years old Pro-ERA |
Mary Margaret Carney |
Indiana Involved in the Indiana women’s movement Women’s equity education in education and honor societies for educators |
Irene Carr |
Union/labor issues |
Stanley Cassar |
Ridgefield, CT Worked in Long Island African-American Deputy EEOC Officer for Naval facility |
Janice Cate |
Bellevue, WA Peace activist Official observer Member of Church Women United and WILPF |
Joleen Cate |
Washington, delegate’s assistant Native American, age 28 Evergreen State College student |
Alicia M. Payan Cedillos |
Chicana caucus member |
S.M. (Solita) Chase |
Houston, TX 29 African-American Social work student at Texas Southern University Case manager for Aid for Dependent Children program |
Naomi Christensen |
Hastings, Iowa Delegate-at-large Worked on rural women’s issues United Methodist Women member |
Judy Christianson |
California Substance abuse educator |
Eldridge Cleaver |
From Arkansas Living in Stanford, California 42 Writer, lecturer, and political activist Early leader of the Black Panther Party |
Claudia Cole |
Roselle Park, NJ Worked at Kean College President of Union County NOW chapter Feminist organizer since late 1960s |
Roxanne Conlin |
Des Moines, Iowa Delegate Workshop leader on marriage, divorce, and separation Discusses ERA |
Becky Copple |
Lincoln, NE 19 University of Nebraska student NOW member |
Jean Marshall Crawford Clarke |
Virginia Delegate Lawyer |
Ellen Coppedge |
Fort Valley, GA 30 Concerned about ERA Against same-sex marriage |
Wilma Crumley |
Lincoln, NE Professor of Journalism, University of Nebraska Pro-ERA |
Lydia Cruz |
New Jersey Delegate Puerto Rican |
Anne Culhane |
New Jersey Delegate Puerto Rican |
Melerson Guy Dunham |
Tylertown, MI 73 Retired professor from Alcorn A&M College Alternate delegate from Mississippi Active in civil rights and women’s organizing |
Paula Dyan |
Atlanta, GA 27 Master’s student in Psychology at West Georgia College Sex worker Organizer for sex worker union PASSION (Professional Association Seeking Sexual Identification Observant to Nature) |
Alice Eckelhawk |
Native American Minority activist |
Zenobia Ellis |
Kansas City, MO 50 Supervisor for the Department of Agriculture Delegate from Missouri |
Rene Epstein |
Daughter inspired activism |
Hedy Ferreria |
Massachusetts Alternate delegate Union organizer |
Mary Finnerty |
Springfield, VA Attended Pro-Family Rally Secretary of March for Life Discusses Human Life Amendment |
Nancy Cusick Fox |
Washington, DC Artist and instructor |
Franciscan Priest |
New Jersey Worked to help prostitutes in New York City Pro-women’s rights and reproductive freedom, with the exception of abortion |
Dorothy Franklin |
South Carolina Delegate NAACP |
Jacqueline Frost |
Charlotte, NC 30 Director of Purchasing and Import for Carolina Color & Chemical Company Served as Southern Regional Director of NOW for 3 years |
Ranelle Funk |
Louisville, KY President of Concerned Citizens of Louisville Active in conservative women’s movement Anti-ERA |
Carol Gaddy |
Little Rock, Arkansas Feminist Official observer with the Arkansas delegation Worked in employment agencies |
Dottie Geare |
Virginia Community college counselor Rural women issues |
Ruth Bader Ginsburg |
Supreme Court Justice |
Lucy Gonzalez |
California Military wife Filipino activist |
Carol Greenspan |
Missouri Professor of Chemistry and Medicine Conservatism in the South |
Eleanor Haney |
Delaware & Minnesota Feminist theologian and activist PhD from Yale |
Larry Hatteberg |
Kansas Reporter Male observor |
Helen Havens |
Houston, TX 42 Episcopal Priest Helped organize interfaith worship for IWY participants |
Betty Hickey |
Nebraska Psychologist Mental health care |
Dianne Jackson |
Brooklyn, NY & Sumter, SC 28 African-American Domestic violence survivor Vice chair of the board of directors of Center for the Elimination of Violence in the Family |
Gloria Julagay |
From Brooklyn, NY Lived in Buena Park, California Delegate from California Filipino American woman Founded an Asian American center in Orange County |
Gretchen Kafoway |
Ardmore, Oklahoma 55 Conservative activist Secretary of the Church of the United President of the Latin Council of Catholic Women |
Eva Lee |
Nuclear physicist Volunteer at conference |
Jean Maack |
Illinois Biochemist |
Elise MacBride |
Nebraska Engineer Emigrated to U.S. from Ireland at age 2 |
Rose Marie McDuff |
California Delegate African-American minister |
Olive Merlin |
Jackson, Michigan Director of Vocational Education VP of the Michigan Federation of Business & Professional Women’s Clubs Pro-ERA |
Kate Millett |
Saint Paul, MN 43 Feminist writer, artist, educator, and activist Author of Sexual Politics (1970) |
Sherrie L. Moran |
Chesapeake, OH 32 Public information specialist with the Army Corps of Engineers NOW organizer |
Sandra Murphy |
Fort Wayne, Indiana A feminist and member of the organization Fort Wayne Feminists Co-director, Women’s Studies Program at Purdue University |
Kathy Parker |
Phoenix, Arizona Previously opened a women’s center in the Australian Outback Long-term feminist activist |
Viola Peterson |
Michigan Supporter of Native American rights Commissioner of Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs Partly pro-plan |
Theola Petteway |
Texas Social worker Women’s and African-American organizations |
Christine Nestrase (with Laura Polla Scanlon) |
New York Activist for working class women |
Joan Neuwirth |
New Jersey delegate 47 years old Civil Servant Feminist |
Otoria O’Rear |
Lexington, Kentucky African-American Civil rights and women’s rights activist |
Linda Ragsdale |
Illinois Pro-ERA Social worker |
Amy Raskin |
Houston, Texas High school student Volunteer at the Conference |
Bea Rodriguez |
Kansas Mother of eight Chicana activist |
Nancy Sablan |
Guam Delegate Pro-women’s rights/anti-feminist label |
Keith Sanborn |
Wichita, Kansas Husband of Kansas delegate Helped organize Kansas state level conference |
Ann Savage |
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma A feminist delegate who opposes the conservative attitude of the overall delegation Homemaker and President of the Oklahoma League of Women Voters |
Laura Polla Scanlon (with Christine Nestrase) |
New York President of the National Congress of Neighborhood Women Representing working class women’s issues |
Betty Bone Schiess |
New York Chaplain at Syracuse University Episcopal priest, one of the first to be ordained in US |
Paula Seddon |
Illinois (Chicago) Amtrak driver, age 32 Union member |
Belen Serra |
From Ponce, Puerto Rico Social Worker Dean of Studies at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras |
Meri M. Smith |
Business and Professional Women’s Club Activist |
Jean Stapleton |
California Commissioner, International Women’s Year Actress, most notably as Edith Bunker on “All in the Family” |
Laurie Steiner |
Alabama Doctoral student in Houston |
Nancy Sterling |
Houston, Texas Moderate feminist Discusses the exhibits and attitudes of Houstonians towards the conference |
Judy Stietly |
Pennsylvania Physical therapist Enlisted in the Army |
Joanne B. Thomas |
From Salt Lake City, Utah Mormon Radio Show Host |
Irene Tinker |
Professor Women and Gender Studies |
Mollie Tremain |
Therapist Mother of 6 Earning PhD |
Grace Ware |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania African-American social worker and consultant and PhD student Education, health, and the unequal treatment of white and black communities |
Edna Williamson |
Tillatopa, Mississippi 43 Delegate at Large Retirement home nurse |