A struggle still unwon

By Danielle Camilli, Burlington County Times, March 6, 2005

Judy Buckman was expecting her first child and wanted to remain in her classroom teaching throughout her pregnancy.

However, to do so would have made her a trailblazer.


	Alice Paul was an early leader of the women's right to vote movement.

It was 1973 and expectant mothers were required to turn in their lesson plans at the end of their first trimesters, go home and wait for baby.

Continuing in the classroom was not an option.

"They wanted me to leave and I didn't want to leave," said Buckman, now 58. "I got an attorney and filed a sexual discrimination suit against the district."

Thanks to the suit, the first of its kind filed against the Cherry Hill public schools, Buckman was able to teach until six weeks before she delivered her baby.

A year later, in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court used a similar case to extend to all women the right to stay in the workplace while pregnant.

Buckman's experience challenging a longstanding policy that allowed discrimination echoed the experiences of women across the nation through the late 1960s and 1970s as the pioneers of the modern feminist movement battled on several fronts to gain equality.

"I realized that my situation was not unique," said Buckman of Mount Laurel. "The system was broken. That was 32 years ago and we are still trying to fix it."

Since its inception three decades ago, the modern women's rights movement has grown, evolved and redefined itself to stay relevant and address the issues of women today.

The movement is alive and strong both nationally and locally, many activists say, in large part driven by the current political climate.

In examining the history and the current state of feminism, the Burlington County Times found a consensus among many women interviewed:

Women have made major strides in the pursuit of equality, but they are still fighting for equal footing everywhere from the home to the workplace.

Women have not achieved pay equity for doing the same jobs as their male counterparts, and earn only 76 cents to each dollar that men make.

Women are not equally represented in positions of power and leadership in the political arena and corporate world.

"It could take another 100 years to get full equality," said Rhonda Carboni, president of the Alice Paul Institute, a nonprofit organization in Mount Laurel devoted to women's and girls' leadership and to women's history.

Rutgers University Professor Mary Hartman, the director of Rutgers Institute for Women's Leadership, said the battle for equality has raged for more than a century.

"Feminism never died in the 20th century. There was always a movement," she said. "There have certainly been times when there were more dramatic events, but women have always been active."

The activism of the 1960s and 1970s is often considered the "second wave" of feminism. The first wave refers to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and the suffrage movement of the early 19th (sic) century.

The third wave describes the young women, typically from 18 to 40, in the current movement.

The modern feminist movement gained momentum, and national attention, in 1968 with a major protest at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.

This time of 1960s and 1970s activism was also marked by large rallies and marches in major cities and small towns across the country as women won hard-fought battles to outlaw sexism.

During this time, U.S. Congress approved the federal Equal Pay Act, making it illegal for employers to pay a woman less than a man for the same job.

The National Organization for Women was founded and affirmative- action policies were expanded to ensure women and minorities had the same educational and employment opportunities as men.

Abortions were legalized as a result of the landmark ruling in Roe vs. Wade in 1973.

"I am always so appreciative of the bra burners, because they did the angry piece, and I didn't have to do the angry piece," said Mary Wells, who 31 years ago became the first woman to serve on the Moorestown Township Council.

In those years three decades ago, women's battles focused on eliminating laws and deeply entrenched policies that led to discrimination, said Terry O'Neill, the vice president of membership for national NOW.

"We were challenging and trying to strike down the laws that required discrimination against women," O'Neill said. "We needed to get those laws off the books and show they were bad and wrong, and we were pretty successful."

But there is more to be done to ensure the equality gained three decades ago and to advance the status of women, many activists say.

"Many of the important issues, quite frankly, have been won," Hartman said, crediting the second-wave feminists for breaking down barriers for themselves and generations that followed.

"That's not to say the entire structure has been overturned. The challenges now are more subtle, but they are there. The playing field is still not level."

NOW is still in the forefront of the battle.

National NOW Director of Communications Lisa Bennett said the organization has 500,000 members, some of whom are not current dues-payers, and 500 chapters nationwide. One source, the World Book Encyclopedia, puts the membership figure at 250,000.

NOW's core issues include working for women's reproductive rights and lesbian rights, ending racism and violence against women, achieving economic justice and lobbying for the Equal Rights Amendment.

Congress passed the ERA and sent it to the individual states for approval in 1972, but the amendment has not been ratified by enough states to become law.

If ratified, the ERA would affirm that women and men hold the same rights under the U.S. Constitution.

O'Neill said membership, activism and fund raising have increased at the national level.

However, NOW does not release past membership figures that would support that contention.

President George W. Bush and his conservative agenda are major contributing factors to the increase in activism, O'Neill said.

Women's rights organizations fear the president will appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who support his anti-abortion agenda if aging and ill members of the court, including Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, retire from the bench.

With a new makeup of the highest court, the Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion could be overturned, activist say.

"We (women) are embattled," O'Neill said. "These boys are relentless. They are beating us up like never before. We are basically endangered."

As proof of the health of the movement, O'Neill and others point to last spring's March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C., when a crowd of 1.15 million people, including women of all ages, converged on the nation's capital.

The crowd marched in favor of continued legal abortion, family planning and better access to health care for women.

Reaching today's women and addressing their issues is key to continuing the movement, proponents said.

Locally, South Jersey NOW, Alice Paul Chapter, which serves Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties, has been able to attract women throughout its three-decade history. It is one of the most active chapters in the state and has met continuously since it was founded in 1971 in Moorestown.

In addition to a state chapter, there are 15 local NOW chapters in New Jersey.

The Alice Paul Chapter has 400 members, said Buckman, a former chapter president and now vice president of administration.

"It's a struggle to stay relevant," said Buckman. "The only way to do it is to listen to women and not to tell them this should be your issue."

Tomorrow: Just how far have women come in their fight for equality?

Email: dcamilli@phillyBurbs.com