When Women Went Public Feminist Reforms in the 1970s Cheri Register ion show in downtown . fied job listings. WAMS had sought The problem was not the fashions since January to persuade the com- On September 19, 1970, a but the failure of the show’s sponsor, pany to comply with the State Act group called Women Against Male the Star and Tribune Company, to Against Discrimination and federal Supremacy (WAMS) picketed a fash- “desexegate” its newspapers’ classi- Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines set in 1968.1 Despite pickets at the papers’ headquarters, costumes made of want ads, stickers on newspaper vending boxes, and a meeting with management, the ads still read “Help Wanted–Male” and “Help Wanted–Female.”

An account of the protest in the Female Liberation Newsletter includes this “funny incident”: “A little girl wanted to know what we were doing, so we told her and then gave her a sign to carry. Her mother (laughingly) said, ‘Don’t do it! Her fa- ther will kill her! He’s [Star and Tri- bune columnist] Jim Klobuchar!’ ” 2 The author of the account, Phyllis Kahn, was elected two years later to

Publication of this article was supported, in part, by the Eugenie M. Anderson Women Minneapolis Tribune’s report on Woman Power Day, covering in Public Affairs Fund. national as well as local events, August 27, 1970

62 History When Women Went Public

the Minnesota House of Representa- theater and eating lunch “unaccom- tives, becoming one of an unprece­ panied” in men-only dining rooms, dented six female legislators. She chief among them Dayton’s Men’s serves there still, among 43 women Oak Grill. I kept my eye on the Fo- in a body of 134. In 2006 the “little shay Tower, the city’s tallest build- girl,” , became the ing, and soon a bed-sheet banner first woman elected to the U.S. Sen- unfurled from the observation deck, ate from Minnesota. Neither feat reading “WOMEN UNITE.” A self- would have been likely without the styled radical feminist of 25, I was consciousness-raising, organizing, skeptical of the program that the demonstrating, and lobbying that “nice ladies,” Republican Governor made the 1970s, in the words of Uni- Harold LeVander’s appointees to the versity of Minnesota history profes- Women’s Advisory Committee, had sor Sara M. Evans, the “golden years” designed. Indeed, the workshop on of the women’s movement.3 Changes economic power focused on invest- wrought in that decade opened virtu- ment and banking. Where, I asked, ally all arenas of civic life to women. were women to get money to invest Minnesota became a national if their jobs paid them an average of proving ground for feminist reforms. 57 cents to a man’s dollar? A panelist The first battered women’s shelter in admonished me to be patient: “You Minneapolis’s Foshay Tower, decked the country was established here, as young women are in such a hurry to out for Woman Power Day, 1970 well as the first pay equity program get that fur coat.” Yet our encounter, in public employment. Minnesota’s and others that day, helped establish high rate of volunteerism and the them the right to vote. The National a symbiosis between nice ladies and bipartisan civility of its machine-free Organization for Women (NOW) radicals. As Nina Rothchild now de- government made the passage of citi- urged women to skip work and scribes it, “There was an understand- zen initiatives into law an achievable household tasks that day: “Don’t iron ing that you need people far out, goal. Decades later, it is well worth while the strike is hot!” In response, rocking the boat, and then the nice examining how Minnesota women the Women’s Advisory Committee ladies come in, and they’re solving a affected landmark changes that we to the Minnesota Department of problem. In the meantime, you shift may today take for granted. Human Rights organized “Woman the center towards the direction you Power Day,” featuring leading local want to go.” 5 The nice ladies put on “Don’t iron while women giving speeches and work- their power pantsuits and headed shops on employment, education, for the state capitol. The boat rock- the strike is hot!” politics, youth, and economics. A sign of the times, the brochure Three weeks before the WAMS listed, for example, future judge Cheri Register is a cofounder of the protest, on August 26, 1970, women Diana Murphy, then president of the Task Force on Educa- tion and a pioneer in the field of wom- had massed in downtown Minneapo- League of Women Voters, as “Mrs. en’s studies. A writer with several books 4 lis to mark the fiftieth anniversary Joseph Murphy, Jr.” in print, she teaches creative-nonfiction of the Nineteenth Amendment to I headed downtown full of excite- writing at the Loft Literary Center. the U.S. Constitution, which granted ment. I knew of plans for guerrilla

Summer 2008 63 ers found ballast for their outrage in The caller was checking whether the pay differential was explained at a countercultural models of change: man worked full-time. “And does he faculty meeting: Men needed more women’s health clinics, rape crisis make $12,000?” “I hope to hell not,” money because they were heads of centers, feminist theaters, and more. Nelsen blurted and hung up. She told households. Nelsen, meanwhile, was her female colleague, who, like her, the primary breadwinner while her EMPLOYMENT earned $9,000, and they figured he husband looked for a job. “The nickel Vivian Jenkins Nelsen remembers had inflated his salary to get financ- dropped,” she says, and the women that August 26 commemoration ing. Weeks later when one of her filed a complaint in 1971. and wondering whether black suf- students—Syl Jones, now an editorial fragists would be duly celebrated, columnist for the Star Tribune—dis- Yet passage of a but she was too busy at her new job covered that Augsburg’s few faculty law did not guarantee to attend. As director of financial women earned less than their male assistance for the minority educa- counterparts, the phone call made enforcement. tion program at Augsburg College, sense. “We didn’t just leap off into the she was responsible for 52 students. women’s movement,” Nelsen explains. Surprise—disbelief—betrayal was Two other new hires—a man and a “I took it like, well, they’re Lutheran a common sequence of reactions for woman—joined her at the same rank and they don’t know any better. I working women who trusted in the in the same department. was raised in a Lutheran church. I 1963 Equal Pay Act, the 1964 Civil One day when her male col- knew that it had been very shielded Rights Act, and the Equal Employ- league was away, Nelsen answered from people of color and such, so ment Opportunity Commission to a phone call from a car dealership. I cut them a little slack.” Later the protect their interests. Yet passage of

The Narrators

Eleven women, all active feminists in the 1970s, were interviewed for this article. Each stands for scores more who also have much to tell.

retired but on the board of the Min- Linda Berglin, elected to the Min- Carol Lacey, formerly a reporter nesota Women’s Consortium. nesota House of Representatives in for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and 1972 and now serving in the state Dispatch, now teaching at Metropoli- Emily Anne Staples Tuttle, Senate. tan State University. chair of the first Minnesota Women’s Advisory Committee, elected to the Mary Ann Grossmann, former Vivian Jenkins Nelsen, once state Senate in 1976, now serving on editor of the women’s pages of state president of the Women’s nonprofit boards. the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Equity Action League, now the ex- Inter-Race Dispatch, now the Pioneer Press ecutive director of the Sharon Rice Vaughan, member book review editor. Institute. of Women’s Advocates and pioneer in securing justice for battered Paulette Joyer, former vice Gerri Perreault, cofounder of on Edu- women, now an associate professor president of Minnesota Feminists for the Emma Willard Task Force at Metropolitan State University. Life, now an attorney working with the cation, now Director of Leadership elderly. Studies at the University of Northern Nancy Register Wangen, active Iowa. in the statewide enforcement of Phyllis Kahn, cofounder of the first director equity in education, now retired from Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus, Nina Rothchild, the the Minnesota State Colleges and who has served in the state House of of the Minnesota Commission on Universities. Representatives since 1972. the Economic Status of Women, now

64 Minnesota History a law did not guarantee enforcement. receiving federal financial assis- quirement that girls take home eco- Phyllis Kahn, a researcher in genet- tance.” Even Augsburg, a private reli- nomics and boys take industrial arts, ics and cell biology at the University gious college, fell under this rule. include women in history texts and of Minnesota, had filed a complaint Nelsen moved to the University female writers in English courses, about job status and pay with the of Minnesota in 1972. The following and encourage girls’ interest in sci- university’s judiciary committee in year, researcher Shyamala Rajender ence and athletics. By February 1971 1968 that incited acts of retaliation. filed a discrimination complaint we, with three like-minded women, She appealed to the EEOC, only to against the chemistry department. formed the Emma Willard Task have the complaint sit unsettled for a WEAL offered assistance, and a law Force on Education, named for the dozen years.6 firm took the case as a class-action founder of the nation’s first second- Nelsen’s case moved along, how- suit. The Rajender Decree, issued in ary school for girls.10 ever. She got involved in the Wom- 1980, standardized hiring practices at We laid out our concerns in a en’s Equity Action League (WEAL), the university and awarded salary in- letter to Howard Casmey, the state which she calls “the legal arm of the creases to covered female employees.8 commissioner of education, and women’s movement.” Attorney Ellen The early high-profile discrimina- copied Wenda Moore, an assistant Dresselhuis, the local president, tion cases tended to be in academe to Governor Wendell Anderson.11 championed litigation. Minnesotan or at management levels of business, Moore arranged a meeting for us in Arvonne Fraser, then known as the or they secured employment for the the governor’s office with Don Had- wife of Congressman Donald Fraser “first” in a traditionally male field. field, the Equal Opportunities officer and founder of the D.C. chapter of Later in the decade, conditions faced in the Department of Education. The WEAL, worked through channels in by working-class women in “female” department had recently issued EDU Congress with her WEAL colleague jobs would come to the fore. 521, a mandate that all teachers take Bernice Sandler to get wording a course in human relations for cer- added to the Education Amend- tification or recertification. Although ments of 1972.7 Title IX, as it came it was meant to raise awareness of to be known, read, “No person in the racism, Hadfield would consider ap- United States shall, on the basis of plying it to sexism. We continued to sex, be excluded from participation meet with him in a fashion peculiar in, be denied the benefits of, or be to the time: Since “women’s libbers” subjected to discrimination under aroused snickers in the halls of gov- any education program or activity ernment, Hadfield served us dough- nuts at his home. As a result, the Emma Willard EDUCATION Task Force presented EDU 521 Woman Power Day brought focus to workshops at every opportunity. my activism. Over lunch in the men- Gerri Perreault learned to read the only section of Powers department captive participants’ moods, and she store’s basement dining room, I got preferred hostility to indifference: to know Gerri Helterline (later Per- “It meant you might reach them, reault) from NOW.9 We both found because at least they were engaged.” speaking about women’s liberation To enlarge our audience, we printed to high-school classes on the “freak- a collection of materials, Sexism in of-the-week circuit” to be redundant Education, in December 1971. Ten and ineffective. We wanted to reach years later we were still filling orders younger children not yet socialized from as far away as Australia. We into stereotypical roles and to ad- learned strategy by trial and error. Arvonne Fraser, who championed dress inequities through revamped Perreault remembers an instance pay equity and equal opportunity curricula and egalitarian classroom when bypassing an administrator to in education, about 1970 methods. We would eliminate the re- meet with more sympathetic staffers

Summer 2008 65 made the man angry. “I learned to be more thoughtful about when I would do that,” she says, “because it could burn bridges.” We formed alliances with teachers like Mary Tjosvold, founder of Twin Cities-based Teach- ers for Change, and officials like Nina Rothchild of the Mahtomedi school board, who was organizing the few women on Minnesota school boards. Perreault, Tjosvold, and Rothchild went on to serve on a state task force convened in January 1974 to “elimi- nate sex bias in education.” 12 Inspired by the Emma Willard League of Women Voters lobbyists waiting to testify, 1972 Task Force, Nancy Wangen, a for- mer Hopkins High School English pliance plans. This “suburban mom” for a job in the Nixon administration. teacher, began organizing meetings and “white-haired grandmother” The meeting concluded with plans on Title IX. Shortly, the district hired quickly discovered how to persuade to organize a bipartisan National her to develop a policy. She first met their audience—get the men to boast Women’s Political Caucus.15 with each school principal to exam- about their daughters.13 “They could ine the implications of the law. “In see these things for their daughters one of these interviews, the principal even when it scared the daylights out said to me after listening to my open- of them to think about their wives,” ing spiel, ‘Now what is this again?’ Wangen says. These were people who had some human rights training around the POLITICS issue of race, but the issue of gender Legislation, once enforced, demon- just wasn’t in the forefront. It was strably changed behavior. Some much more threatening because they women put to use lobbying skills didn’t have a lot of kids of color— learned in their work with the hardly any, in fact—but, boy, did they American Association of University have a lot of females.” Mary Peek was Women, Junior League, or Planned doing similar work in Mahtomedi, Parenthood. At a special Women’s and by 1975 the two were in demand Day at the Capitol on February 2, for contract work with districts 1971, we novices saw how frustrating around the state in danger of losing it was to plead with uncomprehend- state funds unless they drew up com- ing male legislators. Electing women Poster, about 1982: “Women hold 43% to office became paramount.14 of Minnesota out-of-the-home jobs, In July 1971 Congresswomen yet only 7% of its political jobs.” (), Shirley Ch- isholm (New York), and Phyllis Kahn and Diane Fass of () called a meeting to discuss Rochester agreed to spearhead a women’s participation in politics. Minnesota chapter and scheduled a Among the women who turned out rally over the lunch hour on August were Arvonne Fraser and Republican 26, 1971, at NSP Plaza in Minneapo- Emily Anne Staples, chair of Minne- lis. Besides Fraser and Staples, State sota’s Women’s Advisory Committee, Democratic-Farmer-Labor Chair- who was in Washington to interview woman Koryne Horbal and State

66 Minnesota History Republican Chairwoman Lu Stocker the DFL endorsed her.18 She had addressed the crowd. An organiz- switched parties in 1973, one year ing meeting in November proved after serving on the platform com- somewhat contentious, especially mittee for a state GOP convention. over how broadly to define “politi- “We put forward a platform that cal.” The riot at the 1968 Democratic certainly supported the Equal Rights convention in Chicago, plus the lin- Amendment and freedom of choice gering war in Vietnam, had left many for women. There was lots of wran- feminists disenchanted with party gling on the floor and they did not politics. Party activists prevailed, pass either [one]. I think there were however, and strengthened their eight of us who at that point said, resolve. An early draft of the bylaws ‘I don’t think this is our party any- State Senator Emily Staples, cutting a shamrock says that the Minnesotan Women’s more.’” The GOP had begun a mo- cake with DFL colleagues Nicholas Coleman and Political Caucus (MWPC) will “en- mentous shift to the right. Edward J. Gearty, about 1978 courage” women to run for office.16 A statewide reapportionment that “Encourage” soon gave way to “re- created new districts with no incum- cruit, support, and endorse.” bents benefited the three DFL win- house when we talked about strat- The MWPC was by design non- ners. Linda Berglin claimed a new egy,” Wangen says, “and one of the partisan, but women also sought seat in South Minneapolis. When she men said, ‘Well, the first thing we greater influence within the par- learned that her district in Southeast need to do is a door-to-door canvass ties. Following a 1971 study, “DFL Minneapolis was open, Phyllis Kahn to find where the Democrats are.’ Women: Present but Powerless,” Ko- became, she says, “a victim of my After they left, I said to Joan, ‘Scrub ryne Horbal and others drove from own rhetoric” and contemplated run- that.’ ” The campaign would draw county to county, enrolling women in ning. Her decision was sealed when on female networks: carpools, PTA, a group known by 1973 as the DFL her dean at the university told her book clubs, coffee parties. Weekly Feminist Caucus. In June 1973 some that because of her discrimination meetings in the basement of St. 60 women, with Ann O’Loughlin’s complaint, he would not endorse her Luke’s Presbyterian Church, with leadership, formed the GOP Women full request for research funds. childcare, drew women with little for Political Effectiveness, renamed experience in politics. “We had real the GOP Feminist Caucus in 1975.17 The campaign would tasks at those meetings. It wasn’t just Organizing bore fruit in the 1972 draw on female networks: come and stuff envelopes.” The cam- election. Five women—two Repub- paign proved empowering for its core licans and three Democrats—joined carpools, PTA, book participants, several of whom went the lone female incumbent, DFLer clubs, coffee parties. on to graduate or professional school. Helen McMillan of Austin, in the Because the GOP planned a vig- state House of Representatives. Re- A campaign that continues to orous campaign to unseat Growe in publican women had gathered in draw national notice took place in the 1974 election, she filed instead Emily Anne Staples’s living room, Minnetonka, a Republican strong- for secretary of state, an office never where Mary Forsythe of Edina an- hold.19 Nancy Wangen, the DFL before held by a woman. She served nounced her intent to run. Ernee chairwoman in a district with no there for 24 years. McArthur of Center was incumbent, was asked to run, but she the other victorious Republican. had young children and a reputation Staples herself was maneuvered out as quite liberal. She suggested Joan of party endorsement at the last Growe, whom she had met in the minute. (Although the ballot did League of Women Voters. Wangen not identify legislative candidates by and Gretchen Fogo, another teacher party, endorsement brought funds taking time out to raise children, and volunteers.) When Staples was cochaired Growe’s campaign. “I re- elected to the state Senate in 1976, member the first meeting at Joan’s

Summer 2008 67 YOUTH reer. “People feel very emotional,” she “dissident overground journalists” Feminists were eager to see whether explains. “That was considered such that discussed two strategies for electing women would yield tangible a male province.” deepening the coverage: “Many of us results. Charlotte Striebel, an as- In a contest for symbols of change agreed that rather than writing about sistant professor of mathematics at in the 1970s, a gleeful young woman Women’s Liberation, we should start the , was pulling herself out of a swimming writing about the reasons why there one of the first to test the new leg- pool with strong arms, wearing an is such a movement—start writing islators’ power. Striebel had already efficient tank suit, her hair slicked about salary discrimination, limita- embarked on a crusade that would back like an otter’s, would be a strong tion of opportunities for advance- have dramatic consequences. Her contender. ment . . . and about a zillion other daughter, Kathy, a swimmer, wanted subjects.” The second strategy was the same opportunities her brother Fair media coverage “sneaking” stories into the women’s enjoyed, but her St. Paul junior high section where “no one expects any- school offered no girls’ sports. Even was as important to thing controversial.” 22 after she rounded up enough others, the women’s movement Those were precisely the strate- the school refused to organize a girls’ as political power. gies at St. Paul’s Pioneer Press and swim team. St. Paul had just passed Dispatch. Women’s section editor an ordinance prohibiting sex dis- Mary Ann Grossmann pared back the crimination in education, so Striebel MEDIA society news to make way for substan- filed a grievance in 1971, and Kathy Fair media coverage was as impor- tive articles about women’s issues. was admitted to the boys’ team. In- tant to the women’s movement as On divisive matters like abortion, she terschool competition raised new ob- political power. The mainstream took care to balance the coverage. “I stacles, some of them humiliating.20 media’s preference for sideshow often felt like I was the minefield,” she Striebel appealed to newly elected appeal—most famously, spurious says. “And this was so under the guys’ Phyllis Kahn, whom she had intro- bra-burnings—made substantive radar—the editors’—that they didn’t duced to WAMS, and together they reporting tricky to achieve. Gerri even pay any attention.” wrote a bill mandating coed sports Perreault points out that when she Grossmann assigned reporter until athletes reached the age when dropped her married name, the story Carol Lacey to a women’s movement size and strength made a difference, made page one—above the fold—in beat, which gave her both the “con- and then equal access and funding a paper that never covered the work tacts” and the “context” for quality re- for boys’ and girls’ teams. The law of the Emma Willard Task Force. porting. Lacey remembers being the that passed in 1975 eliminated the The late syndicated columnist Molly only woman on the floor of the Min- coed requirement to achieve equal Ivins worked briefly at the Minne- nesota Senate when it voted to ratify access for girls of all abilities and ex- apolis Tribune and was a familiar the in empted gate receipts from the fund- presence at feminist gatherings. 1973. “The male reporters came up to ing formula.21 Passage of the athletics In 1970 she attended a meeting of me and said, ‘What is this all about?’ bill is one of the greatest challenges How could you not know what this Kahn has faced in her legislative ca- was about? There were women in

68 Minnesota History the state House, but there were no One day a constituent notified women in the Senate at the time.” Representative Linda Berglin about Local feminists learned that the key the outcome of her rape charge. She to media attention was “call Carol felt that the rapist’s sentence was far Lacey.” Asked if they felt beleaguered too slight for the injury she had suf- by all the requests, both women say fered. “So I looked into it,” Berglin simply, “We covered it.” says, “and discovered the mess we had—archaic laws that would not VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN meet the standards of the day in Woman Power Day had neglected terms of best practices.” She took the some vital issues, including rape, issue to Phyllis Kahn and they agreed a trauma that women were finally to work on it together. “Neither one growing bold enough to reveal. Some of us had any law enforcement or had never reported rape, knowing criminal justice background.” that a trial scrutinized the victim’s a factor in the jury’s decision. It in- character and behavior and looked cludes Berglin’s second-offense provi- for complicity: whether she had sion but offers an option of treatment dressed “provocatively,” was sexually for “antisocial sexual behavior.”25 active, or ventured out alone. A secret even more suppressed After a rape in uptown Minne- than rape was gradually coming to apolis in 1971, three women started light: battering. A consciousness- a rape crisis center in the neighbor- raising group in St. Paul, eager to hood.23 Others followed. Feminist take on an action project, invited advocates accompanied victims to Delores Orey, the only female at- the hospital and to court and lob- torney at Ramsey County Legal As- bied for public responsibility. In sistance, to talk to them. Orey often February 1974 three members of the got inquiries about legal separation all-male Senate introduced a bill to from women who did not want to allocate pilot funds for counseling State Representative Linda file for divorce but were looking for and medical costs for victims, as well Berglin, about 1973 a temporary place to stay. She told as sensitivity training for police and the group that she could use help prosecutors. The bill’s composition Ann Alton from the Hennepin answering these calls and finding shows a feminist hand: It grants au- County Attorney’s office, who pros- housing—no easy task, since only thority to voluntary rape-crisis work- ecuted rape cases, drew up a gradu- one St. Paul shelter, the Grand Hotel, ers to conduct the counseling and ated schedule of degrees of sexual admitted women and children, and it training and recommends that people assault, ranging from unwanted closed in the daytime. aiding victims be of the same gender. touch to forced penetration. If a The women who called for help Despite the “sniggering” and “snide jury hesitated to convict on the full often had other needs, as well, so remarks” that Nina Rothchild recalls, charge, they might consider a lesser the volunteers held a weekend re- the bill passed both houses in just one. As a measure of the public re- treat to talk about putting together a over a month. In the House the word luctance to take sexual assault seri- package of services. As Sharon Rice “rape” was replaced with “sexual at- ously, Berglin tells how her proposal Vaughan remembers it, “a big fight tack,” to switch the onus from victim of a mandatory three-year sentence erupted there.” Some in the group to perpetrator. Some credit the late for a second offense horrified some saw themselves as “clear-thinking” Peggy Specktor with this idea, as well male colleagues who thought her advisors equipped to tell a woman in as the intense lobbying that won over “anti-libertarian.” Nevertheless, the crisis what to do. Others believed the all but two senators. Specktor became sexual assault bill passed in 1975, woman knew best what she needed Director of the Minnesota Program with a clause eliminating the com- and should guide the process. They for Victims of Sexual Assault.24 plainant’s previous sexual conduct as voted and agreed to ask callers what

Summer 2008 69 more they wanted. “That sounds so promote public and professional until mid-decade, when federal simple,” Vaughan reflects, “but it was awareness of the problems of bat- and state laws declared otherwise. pretty radical.” Having defined their tered women.” 27 Programs for vic- Widows who had farmed with their role as advocacy, the women named tims of sexual assault and battering husbands paid inheritance tax until their group the Women’s Advocates. were housed in the Department of a tax court exempted half the land. From then on, when a woman called, Corrections, affirming that these Insurers could refuse maternity ben- “You get your cup of coffee and you’re were crimes of violence, not relation- efits to unmarried women until the ready to listen to her. You don’t have ships gone awry. law was tweaked in 1976. Oversight to hurry and get off the phone. You of these problems and their remedies find out what it is that’s really going fell to the Council (later Commis- on with her. And that’s when women sion) on the Economic Status of started talking about being battered.” Women, created by the legislature in Learning why so many women 1976.29 Nina Rothchild became its needed emergency housing and first executive director. “There are how vulnerable they were without not many jobs to be a paid feminist,” it set the Women’s Advocates on a she laughs. Rothchild had not been campaign for resources. In the mean- employed since before marriage, but time, Vaughan took battered women she was active in community service into her home. Within 18 months and politics. She had been lobby- she housed 115 women and children. ing at the legislature since Charlotte Many appeals to local foundations Representative Phyllis Kahn Striebel asked her to testify about and a pledge drive among feminists at a meeting, about 1975 girls’ athletics. Her hiring validated finally yielded funds to buy and re- volunteerism as legitimate work. habilitate a flea-ridden former com- To be charged as a crime, batter- The council initiated legisla- mune on St. Paul’s Grand Avenue. ing had to be witnessed, and chil- tion that both Rothchild and Linda The Women’s Advocates shelter for dren could not testify. The Domestic Berglin claim as their proudest battered women opened on October Abuse Act of 1979 created a new achievement: pay equity in govern- 10, 1974, the first in the nation.26 remedy, the order for protection, ment employment. Assistant Direc- Senator Robert Lewis of St. Louis which allowed a petitioner to file an tor Bonnie Watkins, a founder of the Park offered to seek state financing affidavit alleging abuse and to ask for Minnesota group Women in State if women working on domestic vio- relief, including barring the abuser Employment, shepherded a massive lence would help draft a bill. Phyllis from the premises.28 Vaughan is study begun in 1977, using a com- Kahn would be the House sponsor. pleased to have helped secure this puter program Charlotte Striebel Passed in 1977, the law established a change as a member of the legisla- developed. It surveyed all classes of pilot program of emergency shelters tive committee of the Consortium state employees to compare job de- around the state, plus education “to on Battered Women, where the plan scriptions and pay levels with what originated. “I think the order for pro- the jobholder actually did, using tection is a jurisprudential miracle,” “skill, effort, and responsibility” as she says, “because it allowed a crime guidelines. The survey turned up sys- to be charged without having to be temic disparities. For example, super- proved. Basically it was about believ- vising 20 clerical employees—think ing women. It was about having this female—might pay half as much as institution stand up for women— supervising 20 maintenance employ- both the police and the courts.” ees. “Everything was so homemade going in front of the legislature,” Nina ECONOMICS Rothchild recalls. “I was sitting with Economic inequities abounded well my Magic Marker® and making little into the 1970s. Married women could graphs of women’s jobs and men’s not get credit in their own names jobs and passing them out.” The State

70 Minnesota History Employees Pay Equity Act of 1982 nists, although the mission statement Caucus put out a “vital alert”: “We named equitable pay “the primary called for equality and full participa- must not lose the future by default. wage-setting consideration for em- tion “in all aspects of national life.” We must all attend the meeting.” ployees of the state of Minnesota.” “It To broaden the appeal, the term Many feminists arriving in St. felt so good when I heard afterwards “women’s concerns” substituted for Cloud were nevertheless surprised to that there were now whole groups “issues.” The Minnesota meeting was see buses with the names of Catholic of state employees who qualified for to elect 26 delegates to the Houston schools pull up and unload women mortgages,” Berglin says.30 conference and contribute resolu- wearing pink buttons that read “Sup- tions toward a “National Plan of port the Human Life Amendment.” Action for Women” to be adopted Immediately questions arose: Who THE MINNESOTA WOMEN’S there. Secretary of State Joan Growe truly spoke for women? Did these MEETING, 1977 chaired the project; a paid coordina- “pink ladies” count, or were they In recognition of the United Na- tor, Donna Carlton, was housed in pawns of a male institution? Vivian tions International Women’s Year, the Commission on the Economic Jenkins Nelsen, who had attended marked by a conference in Mexico Status of Women. the Mexico City conference on behalf City in 1975, President of the American Lutheran Church, appointed a commission to plan a Growe thought as many as reflects, “The women’s movement national celebration for 1977. Con- 3,000 women might attend has given short shrift to religion gresswoman Bella Abzug already and how it impacts women, except had legislation underway to fund a the St. Cloud gathering, for saying that it’s hierarchical and grass-roots conference in every state, but 4,500 showed up. male-dominated and ain’t it awful. culminating in a national event. One But women of faith have had to find Minnesotan served on the national The national commission ap- their own way, and we’ve never really commission: Koryne Horbal, then pointed a diverse and representative figured out how to talk to them, how the U.S. representative to the United Minnesota coordinating committee, to engage them, how to respect them, Nations Commission on the Status of which undertook an impressive out- and that pushes them really hard to Women. An outstanding strategist, reach effort to involve women’s orga- the other side.” The “other side” at Horbal supplied behind-the-scenes nizations and individuals statewide. the Minnesota meeting meant anti- leadership at both the Minnesota Growe thought as many as 3,000 abortion. meeting, held in St. Cloud, June 2–5, women might attend the St. Cloud Abortion had become a defining 1977, and the national meeting in gathering, but 4,500 showed up. feminist issue. It surfaced early, as Houston, Texas, November 17–21.31 Planning proceeded, however, under women’s stories showed that outlaw- the threat of backlash. Nationwide, ing abortion only shrouded it in hy- Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum and pocrisy and danger. Women of means ultimately successful Stop the ERA could find willing doctors or travel in campaign, Anita Bryant’s antigay search of laxer laws. Those without crusade, conservative media mogul underwent “back alley” abortions at Richard Viguerie, and others with an the risk of infection, injury, or death. antifeminist agenda prepared to take Early arguments for legalization control of the state meetings. “We cited health and economic fairness. knew that there was going to be a big When the Supreme Court applied antifeminist contingent coming out a constitutional right of privacy to a The weekend in St. Cloud show- of the Catholic Church,” Nina Roth- woman’s decision to abort in Roe v. cased the wide array of issues that child remembers. Yet two members Wade in 1973, a rhetorical battle Minnesota women were addressing, of the National Council of Catholic between “pro-life” and “pro-choice” but it also put the working symbiosis Women, including its vice president, ensued.32 The force of the opposi- between “nice ladies” and “boat rock- Bette Hillemeier of Olivia, served on tion drove feminists into a defensive ers” to the test. The meetings were the coordinating committee and af- stance verging on orthodoxy: The open to all women, not just femi- firmed its mission. The DFL Feminist fetus was tissue, not human life, and

Summer 2008 71 women’s choices. “In a world that everyone’s overriding memory. Nancy was really pro-woman, we would be Wangen recalls, “I was so into the putting our focus on other alterna- notion of how many people showed tives for women—more acceptance up, and what diversity there was that you could have children and still among them, and being so excited by work, you could have children and go the events that I don’t remember the to school.” She envisioned a society specifics. I worked so much alone, or “more accepting of pregnancy, and in groups that didn’t agree with me, especially unmarried pregnancy.” and here were people who wanted The pro-choice rhetoric troubled her. the same things I did.” “People weren’t ‘with child,’ they had Minneapolis Tribune reporter ‘products of conception.’ The language Lori Sturdevant distinguished just seemed so evil to me—sort of like between the lively, crowded work- abortion, a surgical procedure with the military industrial complex.” shops—“a positive but diverse no emotional overtones. Deviating As a lesbian still in the closet, educational experience”—and the from those premises seemed like ced- Joyer felt doubly silenced. “I was plenary sessions, which drew fewer ing ground and putting the legality of afraid that if my parents found out, registrants and resembled a political abortion in jeopardy. they would die,” she explains. She at- convention.33 The 210 workshops, The Minnesota meeting planners tended the Houston conference on organized by Julie Andrzejewski of struggled with how to balance pro-life an “official observer” pass from Con- St. Cloud, offered discussion and a and pro-choice workshops and keep gressman Jim Oberstar and enjoyed chance to propose resolutions for the controversy from derailing the the greater diversity there. “I wanted the Houston meeting. The schoolbus conference. Joan Growe announced there to be a position that incorpo- women spoke in opposition at work- the final decision: There would be no rated what I believed a real feminism shops on sexuality, contraception, workshops on the subject. “The ques- would be. I wanted to be pro-life and lesbian concerns, but otherwise tion of abortion, right or wrong, is not and I wanted to be feminist and I seemed to go with the flow. Sharon going to be discussed.” wanted to be lesbian.” In retrospect, Rice Vaughan remembers that many Paulette Joyer, a 25-year-old the common ground between Joyer’s attended the workshops on battered member of Feminists for Life, felt concerns and my vision of what women and helped turn out unani- silenced. She did not oppose abor- else “reproductive choice” might mous resolutions of support. “No- tion, as some might assume, because encompass becomes apparent. But body had told them how to vote on her priest told her to or because she distrust—even demonization—made that,” she says. “It was amazing. I was wanted to entrap women in domestic- conversation in St. Cloud impossible. so impressed by the enormity of the ity or punish them for their sexuality. The abortion controversy became problem and the power of women’s Her pro-life stance grew out of a “con- the elephant in the living room and voices together in these votes.” sistent life ethic” that included op- dominated media reports, except for In the plenary sessions, resolutions posing capital punishment. “I viewed Carol Lacey’s coverage. Yet this is not were formally adopted and delegates abortion as an assault on women,” she to Houston elected. Here the Catho- explains, in that it treated pregnancy lic women were told how to vote, by as a disease. She was surprised, in spotters in the balcony who held up the debate after Roe v. Wade, to be green and red cards. Feminists were branded as antifeminist. Raised in a instructed behind the scenes.34 DFL union family, she thought herself A culture clash broke out at the liberal and an independent thinker. plenaries on Saturday night and Joyer believed that staking reproduc- Sunday morning. A bipartisan team tive freedom on abortion narrowed of cochairs and a parliamentarian

The internet holds many documents of women’s history. For an overview and Minnesota-specific resources from both sides of the abortion debate, see www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/96choicelife.html.

72 Minnesota History kept a tight rein on procedure, often being dominated by white females One glorious moment in St. declaring speakers unfamiliar with and all of the motion that has taken Cloud has become a unifying mem- the rules out of order. The airing of place this morning regarding rules ory. Governor Rudy Perpich had resolutions had barely begun when a and regulations, etc., is just a waste promised to name a woman to the trio of DFL activists moved, in suc- of time.” Nina Rothchild was disap- Minnesota Supreme Court, and in cession, to accept “items 12–43” as a pointed: “My experience of the wom- a speech at his son’s Hibbing High bloc, to close debate, and to adjourn en’s movement is that everybody was School graduation on Friday, he an- the session. The items in question leaning over backwards to try to be nounced the appointment of Rosalie were resolutions prepared in advance inclusive. I’ve never known just what E. Wahl. She was at the women’s by the national commission and the issue was. All I’ve ever heard was, meeting. Cheers rang out as she Minnesota “topic coordinators.” Item ‘You don’t deal with our issues.’ Don’t walked to the podium to speak. “Her 23 began, “Moral decisions related tell me that poverty and welfare and speech was incredible,” Gerri Per- to reproduction are rightfully the re- childcare and healthcare are not is- reault recalls. “It warmed your heart sponsibility of individual women.” sues for women of color.” 36 to sit there and hear it.” Emily Anne Vivian Jenkins Nelsen was not Staples Tuttle calls the moment “a The idea that feminists present at the time of the walkout, euphoric high.” Paulette Joyer, now would conduct a win-lose but she remembers “doing a lot of an attorney, remembers “taking great talk and strategizing in hallways and pride” in Wahl’s appointment. “That contest alienated women rooms, trying to head off the inevi- was huge,” she says. used to talking their table.” She attributes the walkout to way to consensus. “a lack of relationship and a lack of understanding about what women Abortion was supposed to be off the of color had to go through to even table, but the vote put the Minnesota be there, and the price that we pay meeting on record as pro-choice. to be a part of that.” As an example Paulette Joyer, for one, would like to of the difficulty balancing loyalties have registered a dissent on that item to race and gender, Nelsen cites the and voted in favor of others. Women awkward moment when, as president accustomed to party conventions of WEAL, she presented discrimina- thought the move efficient, but oth- tion complaints to Harry Davis, the ers objected. Cochair Kay Taylor ex- first black chair of the Minneapolis plained, “Whenever there is any kind school board. The black community of a contest, there are winners and was celebrating his achievement, and Rosalie Wahl, associate justice of the there are losers.” The idea that femi- her sour note was not appreciated. Minnesota Supreme Court, 1978 nists would conduct a win-lose con- “What kind of value did we add to test alienated women used to talking the women’s movement? That was their way to consensus, even though the question that we were having to EMPLOYMENT AGAIN many of us voted “yes” for fear of answer to our constituencies, back in One more drama had yet to play out. backlash. Jackie Joday of Willmar, our communities. I’m a part of this Before Jackie Joday left for Houston, elected a delegate to Houston, re- because? White women tolerate me? she packed a five-page paper headed members feeling exhausted by all the That didn’t play. I think the fact that “WBEA FACT SHEET: WILL SEX- politicking. She didn’t think women white women and women of color ISM IN BANKING TRIUMPH?” 37 would behave so much like men.35 didn’t know each other’s stories was She was to hand it to , Sunday morning, about 40 of the a large part of it.” Women of color editor of Ms. It told about nine “minority women” stated their griev- certainly did add value in Houston, female employees of the Citizen’s ance with the process and walked by composing a Minority Women’s National Bank of Willmar who had out. Karen Sterner spoke for the Plank of resolutions. Its unanimous filed charges with the EEOC on No- Minnesota Indian Women’s Cau- acceptance signaled a shift from vember 10, 1976. The bank had hired cus: “We feel this entire meeting is token inclusion to vital influence. a man with no experience to work

Summer 2008 73 in the loan department for $700 per The strike continued for 18 son on the cover. Minnesota worked month. The position was neither months. Although some of the strik- for women in part because feminist posted nor offered to any qualified fe- ers were initially wary of feminists, reforms fit liberal concepts of the male employees, who were paid less they became darlings of the women’s role of government in social change. yet required to train the new man. movement. Director Lee Grant From 1973 to 1978, the DFL held The bank refused to comply with the filmed a documentary, The Willmar wide margins in both houses of the remedies the EEOC prescribed and Eight, that is still shown in women’s legislature, plus the governorship.39 instead found ways to retaliate. So studies classes. Yet in the end they Republican legislators were moder- the women formed a “mini-union” lost their NLRB appeal and their ate on many issues. Despite some ini- and took their case to the National jobs. Only Boshart was hired back, tial awkwardness—whenever anyone Labor Relations Board. with a demotion. addressed the House as “gentlemen,” “This is a battle the women’s the women took turns calling a point movement cannot afford to lose,” the From the late 1960s of order—the female legislators gen- paper maintains. “Unless the sala- onward, feminists around erally felt welcomed. Phyllis Kahn ries of women having the brains and the country looked to remembers Republican Bob Bell skills necessary to handle enormous saying, “I can’t believe these awful sums of money are properly compen- Minnesota as a model things I’m voting for, but you’re all so sated, the pattern of employment— of progress. earnest and you’re trying so hard.” women in poor positions or grossly The conservative turn the country underpaid in responsible ones—will “The thing that I wish we had took with Ronald Reagan’s election continue, for banks set the standards been able to cover more is that this in 1980 dampened feminists’ heady for all others.” was as much a class struggle as a sense of possibility. But significant On December 16, 1977, eight women’s struggle,” Grossmann says. change had been accomplished—and women—Doris Boshart, Irene Wal- “We obviously had to focus on the valuable lessons learned, as Gerri Per- lin, Sylvia Erickson Koll, Jane Har- women part of it because they were reault realized years later. “I learned guth Groothuis, Sandi Treml, Teren women and this was a first, but look- how to organize, how to anticipate dif- Novotny, Shirley Solyntjes, and ing back on it now, I can tell there’s a ferences no matter what the group is Glennis Ter Wisscha—went out on real sociological issue, because these and work with differences, how to be strike. “We had just come back from were the town women up against prepared and cautious with the media, Houston,” Mary Ann Grossmann the banker and the country club set.” and how arbitrary the justice system recalls, “and this woman called me at Class remained, for Minnesota femi- could be.” She discovered that prec- some ungodly hour of the morning nists, an unexplored frontier. A new edents don’t always hold, although and said, ‘Some women in Willmar term, “the feminization of poverty,” change is generally cumulative. are going on strike,’ and I thought, had just entered the American vo- We have all learned, too, how What? Nobody on the city desk cabulary.38 quickly a time of such fervor and ac- would have possibly cared then about complishment slips into the deep re- women going on strike. So the pho- cesses of history if we do not work to tographer and I went up there on one From the late 1960s onward, keep it in view. “The bad news in the of the coldest days of the year. We feminists around the country looked younger generation,” says Nina Roth- left at 5:30 in the morning. It was to Minnesota as a model of progress. child, “is that they don’t see the rele- pitch dark.” National coverage soon We who attended national confer- vance of the women’s movement, but followed. “The press loved it because ences seeking better ideas were the good news is that they take it for it was so cold,” Grossmann says. “It surprised to hear our efforts—both granted that they can have an equal was one of the coldest winters, and legislative and countercultural— opportunity, and they’re probably the women had their big mufflers, lauded as exemplary. Outside observ- going to make a fuss if they don’t.” and they had children with them ers knew Minnesota as “a state that Nancy Wangen adds, “Sometimes sometimes. For people from Cali- works,” the headline article in the it’s important to remember how bad fornia and Florida to see these huge August 13, 1973, issue of Time, which it was as we think about how much mounds . . .” featured Governor Wendell Ander- better it still needs to be.” a

74 Minnesota History Notes 1. Minnesota Statute 363, was amended 10. Ann Saxenmeyer, Mary Sornsin, and in 1969 to prohibit sex discrimination in em- Audrey Van Deren were the cofounders. Sev- ployment; www.humanrights.mn.us/ eral more women joined the effort later. sonline11/legalhistory.html (accessed Mar. 11. Reprinted in Emma Willard Task 24, 2008). Force on Education, Sexism in Education 2. Phyllis Kahn, “More Important than (Minneapolis, 1971), copy in the Emma the Midi: Star and Trib Fashion Show Ac- Willard Task Force on Education Records, tion,” Female Liberation Newsletter 18 (Oct. MHS. 1970), n.p. The article incorrectly dates the 12. Sex Bias Task Force file, Women’s Af- 28. Laws of Minnesota, 1979, Ch. 214, protest as December 19; a prior issue an- fairs records. p. 414–17. nounced it for September. The newsletter 13. Laws of Minnesota, 1975, Ch. 173, p. 29. The federal Equal Credit Opportunity was mimeographed and stapled monthly or 502–03. For characterizations, see Barbara Act passed in 1974, and Minnesota added biweekly from November 1969 through No- J. Love, ed. Feminists Who Changed Amer- “marital status” to its Human Rights Act in vember 1971 by the Twin Cities Female Lib- ica, 1963–1975 (Champaign: University of Il- 1975; Laws of Minnesota, 1975, Ch. 206, eration Group, a loosely structured gathering linois Press, 2006), 477. Subd. 8, p. 611; Council on the Economic of women, many with ties to the antiwar 14. Women’s Day was organized by the Status of Women, A Woman’s Place: A Guide movement. Issues cited are in the author’s Women’s Advisory Committee and an- to Women’s Legal and Economic Rights in collection; an incomplete set is in the Min- nounced in the Female Liberation Newslet- Minnesota (St. Paul, 1978), copy in MHS; nesota Historical Society (MHS), St. Paul. ter, no. 21, undated. Laws of Minnesota, 1976, Ch. 121, p. 275–79, 3. Sara M. Evans, Tidal Wave: How 15. Fraser, She’s No Lady, 157. and Ch. 337, p. 1343–44. Women Changed America at Century’s End 16. Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus 30. Sara M. Evans and Barbara J. Nelson, (New York: Free Press, 2003), 61–97. Sena- Records, MHS; Linda Wiehoff and Jane Wage Justice: Comparable Worth and the tor Muriel Humphrey was appointed to Stedman, “Minnesota Feminist Caucus Sets Paradox of Technocratic Reform (Chicago: serve out the remaining months of her hus- Up Steering Committee,” Goldflower 1 (Dec. University of Chicago Press, 1989), 3. Gov. band’s term following his death. 1971/Jan. 1972): 5, 11, author’s collection. Rudy Perpich appointed Rothchild to head 4. Minnesota Department of Human 17. DFL Feminist Caucus Records; Ann the Department of Employee Relations in Rights, Division of Women’s Affairs Records, O’Loughlin Papers—both MHS. 1983, and Bonnie Watkins joined that de- Minnesota State Archives, MHS (hereinafter 18. Staples was the second woman in the partment as pay equity coordinator. Most of Women’s Affairs records). Senate. Republican Nancy Brataas had won the work of implementing pay equity, in local 5. Nina Rothchild, interview with author, a special election in 1975. governments as well, was done in the 1980s. Oct. 2, 2007. All interviews for this article 19. Tom Brokaw, Boom! Voices of the Six- 31. Evans, Tidal Wave, 111–12; Minnesota were completed between September 5, 2007, ties (New York: Random House, 2007), Women’s Meeting Records, MHS. For docu- and January 25, 2008, and all transcripts are 210–14. ments pertaining to the 1977 state and na- at MHS. Unless noted otherwise, quotes 20. Bonnie Watkins and Nina Rothchild, tional meetings, see http://womhist. from and references to these women come In the Company of Women: Voices from the alexanderstreet.com/dp59/doclist.htm (ac- from these interviews. Women’s Movement (St. Paul: Minnesota cessed Mar. 25, 2008). 6. Kahn says that the EEOC phoned her Historical Society Press, 1996), 122–23. 32. Minnesota repealed its prohibition in yearly to discuss her complaint then refiled 21. Laws of Minnesota, 1975, Ch. 338, March 1974 and specified that abortion be it. In 1982, after she had left the university p. 985–86. done by a physician in a hospital or abortion and the Rajender case (below) had brought 22. Molly Ivins, “Reporting on the Wom- facility during the first trimester of pregnancy; academic discrimination into the spotlight, en’s Caucus at the National Meeting of Dissi- Laws of Minnesota, 1974, Ch. 177, p. 265. she won a lesser financial settlement than dent Overground Journalists, April 18–19,” 33. Minneapolis Tribune, June 6, 1977, 1B. she had sought. Female Liberation Newsletter 15 (Aug. 12, 34. Minneapolis Star, June 4, 1977, 1A. 7. Arvonne Fraser, She’s No Lady: Politics, 1970), n.p. 35. Author’s conversation with Jackie Joday Family, and International Feminism (Min- 23. Cheryl Ann Champion, “The Evolu- at “Women’s Dreams, 1977–2007 and Beyond: neapolis: Nodin Press, 2007), 150–54. tion of Organizational Structure in the Rape A Minnesota Women’s Consortium Confer- 8. See Office for University Women web- Crisis Movement in Minnesota from ence,” University of Minnesota Continuing Ed- site: www1.umn.edu/women/history.htm 1970–1990,” (Master’s thesis, Augsburg Col- ucation Center, St. Paul, Nov. 15, 2007. (accessed Mar. 25, 2008). lege, 1994), 38, copy in MHS. 36. Transcript of plenary session, Minne- 9. Perreault went to court in 1971 to take 24. Minnesota, Journal of the Senate, sota Women’s Meeting Records. Minnesota’s back her maiden name while still married. 1974, vol. 3, p. 4323, and Journal of the female population in 1970 was 98.2% white; The first judge she queried told her, “It’s just House, 1974, vol. 4, p. 6737–38; Laws of Min- in 1980, 96.6% white, possibly including not sound social policy.” Judge Douglas Am- nesota, 1974, Ch. 578, p. 1439; Love, Femi- some “Spanish language persons.” U.S., Cen- dahl granted the change, explaining, “If nists, 436. The three senators were Allan sus, General Population Characteristics, Part movie stars can do it, I don’t see why you Spear, William Kirchner, and Sam Solon. 25: Minnesota, 1980, p. 25, (1900–80 totals). can’t.” In April 1975 the legislature passed a 25. Laws of Minnesota, 1975, Ch. 374, 37. Here and below, typescript, in au- bill decreeing that “no application [for a p. 1243–51. See also Linda Lee Berglin, Leg- thor’s possession, supplied by Jackie Joday. name change] shall be denied on the basis of islative Files 1972–78, MHS. 38. The term was coined by Diana Pearce the marital status of the applicant,” Laws of 26. Evans, Tidal Wave, 49; Rothchild in her 1978 social-work scholarship. Minnesota, 1975, Ch. 52, p. 266–68. Since and Watkins, Company of Women, 67–72. 39. On DFL majorities, see “Party con- 1975, all marriage-license applicants in Min- 27. Laws of Minnesota, 1977, Ch. 428, trol,” www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/histleg/ nesota must declare a “name after marriage.” p. 1096–1100. histdat.asp (accessed Mar. 25, 2008).

All illustrations are in MHS collections. The photo on p. 63 is by Powell Krueger/Minneapolis Tribune; p. 66, top, Eugene D. Becker; and p. 73, Kathy Drozen. All object photographs are by Eric Mortenson/MHS.

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