Bella Abzug, Betty Freidan, and Billy Jean King accompanying torch relay runners in Houston, National Archives; Series: Photographs Used to Illustrate the Report, "Spirit of Houston: The First National Women's Conference", 1977 - 1978
The Commission had planned to appoint a few hundred more delegates to make sure there was adequate ethnic diversity. Ironically, when the final count was in, it was white women who were underrepresented. In state meetings dominated by feminists, black women and other ethnic groups had 50 to 100 percent more elected delegates than their percentage of the female population. This was not true of the nine states where the "antis" elected the delegates. The elected Mississippi delegation was all white, including five men and the wife of the state's Ku Klux Klan leader. The Commission appointed as at-large delegates women well known either locally or nationally who were not elected delegates. Betty Friedan was one of those.
In its short life, the IWY Commission had three chairs. The last and best known was former Congresswoman Bella Abzug (D — NY). She was a dominant figure but the different books tell different tales of how she dominated. Spruill sees her as "battling Bella" who fought fiercely for her causes. Leader and Hyatt remember how nasty she was to her staff, constantly yelling at anyone who disagreed with her and putting people down. Frankly, I think they danced around Bella's treatment of underlings very lightly, as anyone who ever worked for Bella knows all too well. This led to a high staff turnover and a little civil disobedience.
In the weeks between the state and national conferences, Commission staff put together a National Plan of Action based on the resolutions and recommendations of the state meetings. Its 26 planks covered the gamut of women's concerns, but some were not happy with their wording. The presence of the antis forced disparate feminist groups to work together. The press was looking forward to a fight over how to include lesbianism, welfare, and some other issues in the Plan. Instead, feminists worked out their differences so they could unite.
Roughly 20,000 "observers" came to the National Conference, where they watched the delegates debate, attended workshops and visited exhibits. There were many prominent women on the stage and off, including three first ladies, Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr., tennis star Billie Jean King, actress Jean Stapleton and poet Maya Angelou. President Carter, who didn’t like Bella or IWY, did not attend. His wife and daughter-in-law did. (On January 12, 1979, he fired Bella Abzug.)
Across the city 15,000 "antis" held their own rally, full of pro-Life, anti-feminist speakers. According to Spruill, Shlafley had originally opposed such a rally, thinking it couldn’t be done and would make them look weak. Instead, it was a "stunning success," garnering a great deal of press coverage. Many felt that it launched the "pro-family" movement.
Published 40 years after these opposing events, both books devote a final chapter to consequences. Leader and Hyatt look at each of the planks in the National Plan, assessing what has changed and what hasn't. Spruill pays more attention to politics, following the ways in which feminists and anti-feminists polarized party politics and presidential elections. She finds that both the Democratic and Republican parties were substantially changed by the feminist and anti-feminist blocks within them. In the 2016 election, Phyllis Schlafly endorsed Donald Trump long before he won the primaries, while organized feminism turned out the troops for Hillary Clinton. Abortion has become a litmus test in each party, and women, both feminists and anti-feminists, write the relevant planks within each party's platform.
There may never be another national conference on women, but 1977 left its mark.
©2017 Jo Freeman for SeniorWomen.com
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