This year is
the twentieth anniversary of the Older Women's League (OWL), a national
organization founded by the late Tish Sommers and Laurie Shields
of Oakland California, and dedicated to the political and economic
concerns of women over fifty while also providing an introduction
for younger women interested in what lies ahead.
In the Seventies, when Sommers and Shields came on
the scene, the value of women was still tied like a tin can to
their age. If women dared to grow old in spite of society's disapproval,
their concerns more or less vanished from the national radar screen.
Tired of this insult and of being marginalized, the founders,
both middle-aged, reacted like latter day suffragettes and rallied
older women on their own behalf into a precursor of OWL, the Displaced
Homemaker's Network. A network offering support, skills and direction
to women widowed or divorced after years as homemakers and often
discarded like obsolete washing machines.
Less than a decade later, these two indomitable women
did it again. This time by organizing the Older
Women's League as a forum for the relatively unheard voices
of women over fifty. This forum has become a political force with
national headquarters in Washington and chapters all over the
country addressing issues such as Medicare, Social Security and
affordable housing. In 1999, due largely to ongoing efforts
by OWL members, legislation benefiting older women was passed
into law. Aside from OWL's political and economic focus, the social
aspect of membership is worth considering. Friendships develop,
laughs are shared and there is usually a party or two. Today,
OWL has sixty one chapters and, as of March '99, six thousand
members including myself and Betty Soldz, a regular contributor
to this website and a board member of the Ohlone east bay chapter
in Oakland, CA.
Where we women well beyond youth are concerned,
Hillel, a famous Jewish scholar certainly got it right when he said, "If
I am not for myself who will be for me?"
