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 I include memories Elizabeth Shepard shared with us in her bio as Feminist of the Month last November:
I never thought of myself as deprived in any way until August, 1970 when a friend called to tell me that NOW, the National Org for Women was going to have a march down 5th Avenue for equal rights. "Let's go" she said. "Oh Maggie, I said.... we've just been thru the Civil Rights and the Peace movement, and now this movement of kooky women? I'm not sure I want to go." "What else do you have to do?," she asked. But the time of the march was 5 o'clock. "That's the time I prepare dinner, I said. I'll check with John." "Oh John won't care", she replied. And of course he didn't.
A few hours later I was marching on 5th Avenue with thousands of women I had never seen before, many who were older than I, some nicely dressed, and some I would have liked to neaten up a bit. The sidewalks were filled with on - lookers. People were pouring out of offices staring at us. "Betty Shepard, what on earth are you doing here?" I thought.
As I marched so many emotions were pouring over me. I couldn't sort them out. The march ended at the Public Library Park where we heard speeches by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Flo Kennedy and many others . The word I kept hearing was equality, equality, equality...and I thought, "I don't feel unequal in any way." Then I heard that the march was on August 26, 1970 because it was the 50th anniversary of suffrage, the amendment that finally gave women the right to vote. " My goodness, I thought. In 1920 I was two years old and my mother couldn't vote!"
We were given a flyer which stated the reasons for the march. The first was educational opportunities, the second was equal pay for equal work, the third was childcare. I had trouble with this one, as I felt strongly that women should take care of their children. The fourth was reproductive rights.
As I was beginning to understand this new anger within me I was no longer the Betty my husband and friends knew. But as I liberated myself, my husband, too was liberated. Its just a happy and exciting place to be.
Veteran Feminists of America VFA PO Box 44551, Phoenix, AZ 85016
Jacqui Ceballos, President and Founder, Veteran Feminists of America
Jeanne McGill, VFA Publicist for EQUALITY, I AM WOMAN
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