The National Women's Conference of 1977

In her 2015 book, Gloria Steinem described the National Women’s Conference of 1977 as “the most important event nobody knows about.” The four-day event in Houston, Texas, which brought together 2,000 delegates and another 15,000-20,000 observers was the culmination of a commission appointed first by President Ford and then by President Carter, and was and funded by Congress for $5 million to investigate how federal legislation could best help women. The excited delegates believed that the conference would change history, so what happened, and why do so few people now even remember that it happened.

Joining me to help us learn more about the National Women’s Conference are Dr. Nancy Beck Young, the Moores Professor of History; and Dr. Elizabeth Rodwell, Assistant Professor of Digital Media, who are both on the leadership team for The Sharing Stories from 1977 project through the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Retro Disco Old School” by Musictown from Pixabay. The episode image is from the final mile of the Torch Relay on its arrival to Houston on November 18, 1977. From left to right: Bella Abzug, Sylvia Ortiz, Peggy Kokernot, Michele Cearcy, Betty Friedan, Billie Jean King. Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

 

Additional sources:

• Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women's Rights and Family Values That Polarized American Politics, by Marjorie J. Spruill, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017.
• “Women Unite! Lessons from 1977 for 2017,” by Marjorie Spruill, Process :A Blog for American History, from the Organization of American Historians, The Journal of American History, and The American Historian, January 20, 2017.
• “The 1977 Conference on Women’s Rights That Split America in Two,” by Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian Magazine, February 15, 2017.
• “Sisters of ‘77 [video],” Directed by Cynthia Salzman Mondell and Allen Mondell, March 1, 2005.
• “Spotlight: National Women’s Conference of 1977,” by Chucik, National Archives, November 16, 2017.
• “Women on the Move: Texas and the Fight for Women’s Rights,” Texas Archive of the Moving Image. 
• “National Women's Conference, 1977,” by Debbie Mauldin Cottrell, Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association.
• “The 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston Was Supposed to Change the World. What Went Wrong?” by Dianna Wray, Houstonia Magazine, January 20, 2018.
• “Road Warrior: After fifty years, Gloria Steinem is still at the forefront of the feminist cause,” by Jane Kramer, The New Yorker, October 12, 2015.
• “What’s left undone 45 years after the National Women’s Conference,” by Errin Haines, The 19th, March 25, 2022.

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