 This is Colleen Curran and I'm happy to be here with you today. I arrived in the Rogue Valley in 1976, having come west from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in the Bicentennial year and was just dazzled by Southern Oregon. A professor of Old English had suggested that I might like this area because of the Shakespeare Festival and as an English major and a native West Virginian, I was delighted to find the beautiful horizon, the landscape and the beauties of nature and also respect for the arts, which was a wonderful surprise. So I arrived and stood in the rain in a standing room only ticket to see measure for measure on a very rainy night in July of 1976. And I first went to the library. I visited the Medford headquarters library and some of the branch libraries and felt right at home. I found work with the school district office and cataloged professional library materials by hand in the early pre-digital days, consulted with the specialists in all the different areas of audio and special ed and each of the school district branches in Jackson County and wrote a film catalog by hand, typed it out and it was bound by a printer. And at that time I became acquainted with the personnel director and some other professional women in the area who were involved in the women's rights efforts here and invited me to attend a now meeting. I'm not really a person who joins organizations, but when I met with the local now group, I was pleased to find a group of women and their women's partners, men and women, who were working for the extension of equal rights throughout the United States and it felt important to me and it was fun, but it wasn't just filling time. Everyone was committed to the larger effort. I learned that the National Organization for Women here was connected nationally to organizations everywhere and it felt like a network, a strong and resilient network of people who cared about women being fully included in the Constitution and in our national life. The local activities here included the presence in the 4th of July parade when we won the, or didn't win but should have won the prize for our little engine that could, ERA, float. We walked every year and received resounding audience approval and it was great to feel part of the community and that we were among those who expected that women would be fully recognized for contributions to our world. Other than our involvement in the local 4th of July parades, we were a presence throughout the region with the Speakers Bureau and a resource organization in conjunction with other local women's rights groups that now brought speakers. We brought nationally known speakers, Ellie Smiel came to talk to us and Gloria Steinem was here. We had kind of a hub of women's voices, publicly known women's voices were heard here and we had speakers through the university and through the Dunhouse and Rape Crisis Center, through later, through community works when they joined forces and the work in the county, we'd worked to have the county approve a measure that would require county officials to travel only to states that had ratified the ERA and that was quite an effort to move that through the county commissioners and there were certain vested interests that came into play there, but we were a force to be reckoned with and there was a sense of working together through all the women's organizations in the area, the women's center at SOU, the women's resource center and I think I'd said the Dunhouse and Rape Crisis and there were all sorts of supportive organizations, the women against violence, we had marches to take back the night, I would need to look at the chronology to get everything in order but we had lots going on through the month, through the seasons, through the year, back the night would be in the fall when it was getting darker, we had women's history events through the county, many speakers in Ashland but there were street banners which must be stored somewhere and the women's commission was a place that could field complaints and publicize efforts for matters of importance to women and therefore to men because the emphasis was for now the national organization for women had defined its purpose as those who cared about women's rights and men were active and involved and fully participating in all our events, it was not an exclusive group that left anyone out, it was everyone. My work with the school district came to a close and I spent a while working for the 1980 census which continued well into the fall of 1980, did some freelance work through 1981 and in the fall of 1981 I was visiting the east coast and spending time with family and was able to attend the now national conference in Washington DC and there was a great surge of support for the ERA movement which was closing in on the final required states ratification and during that visit I signed a form that said sure I'd be glad to be a field organizer should you need me just call which seemed very unlikely but why not and that was in October of 1981 in January, early January of 1982 I was surprised to get a call from the national office of now saying well how about driving to Illinois and being a field organizer so it was a big step, a leap of faith for me and I think the rental house that we were staying in we found a sublet person to stay there and my partner and I drove east in midwinter and I first had to learn how to drive a stick ship of the little VW white rabbit that was our transportation. We drove through eastern Oregon hours and hours through Wyoming where we saw not one light for hours and hours although we can see stars and we arrived in Chicago in mid-January in time to support Republican candidate we were advised to bring clothes in which we could walk among Republicans so my partner then husband later found a three-piece suit that he wore for his walking among Republicans and we were impressed with the bipartisan cooperation on the ERA issue that leaders in both parties were committed and outspoken in support of equal rights for women and I will recite the Equal Rights Amendment in total. Equal rights shall not be denied or abridged equal rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex and that is the total wording of the Equal Rights Amendment which eventually provoked such dissension and fear and sort of standoffs polarizing standoffs among neighbors and family members who we were visiting. We were sent to Springfield where we lobbied the legislature and then we were given our most long-lasting and rewarding assignment a two-part assignment. Having just arrived from Oregon I really was asked to lead the campaign of a state representative candidate John Dunne who had managed to alienate his former supporters because as a lifelong devout Catholic his outspoken support of equal rights for women and a pro-choice stance had led to his fellow parishioners abandoning him and his longtime law partner became his opponent in this election and no one wanted to manage his campaign so we were assigned to be a campaign manager for this state representative because no one wanted to be associated with him publicly and we were also assigned to heavily lobby a state senate candidate to disavow the need for the three-fifths majority to pass the ERA in Chicago in Illinois because that had been a condition tacked on later like the time limit for the ERA passage these had not been required for any previous constitutional amendment but in an effort to slow and stop the passage of this commonsense measure opponents kept putting up roadblocks so we were working to secure the election of a pro ERA pro-choice Democrat in our area in Decatur and to pressure a kind of political animal candidate for the senate to use his way to give up the need for a three-fifths majority for passage hope that's clear so our candidate scarcely dared go to his church because the parking lot would be leafleted with papers demonizing him and him and his family and he didn't always feel safe we arrived in town full of good intentions but he didn't really want to be too closely associated with us either because we were the raving wild women feminists and their associates so so we arrived and in this time 1982 pre-computer we were handed a box of file cards just like a recipe box of index cards which um was full of names and addresses of people who might be willing to work with us so we had a box and it was a treasure chest so we were welcomed to homes of ERA supporters who might have felt embattled in their hometown but who were committed to securing equal rights for their daughters granddaughters nieces friends everyone everyone coming in the future so that all the young women and young men would be equally protected under federal law under our constitution we met so many wonderful people and we were kind of a traveling show we had a series daily weekly series of phone banks and letter writing letters to the editor letters to representatives just churning out pages and pages of persuasive prose encouraging the legislators to make good on on their pledge to support and do their duty by all their constituents and this involved being sure that all the letter writers had coffee and cookies or donuts that we could find a place with phones people would volunteer office space that wasn't being used churches were willing certain churches the unitarians were reliably supportive although sometimes schedules were mixed and we would show up when a service was in in progress and people were very generous in giving all they could give and also the other side of it is working with volunteers people might change their plans and not feel that it mattered that much so I know we'd scheduled one phone bank for an evening and the person who was going to host it fell off a step ladder and broke her shoulder which was terrible and we had to cancel it was a daily a daily improvisation of responding to the circumstances and people's changing situations it was also winters there might be snow piling up outside the doors there were icy roads and along with the letter writing we were organizing people to do regular canvassing knocking on doors in neighborhoods their own neighborhoods and other neighborhoods not knowing what response they would get and encouraging people to get out the vote and to vote for our candidate we had receptions for our candidate again finding people who would volunteer spaces volunteer refreshments gathering support from the news media letting them know when we'd have these receptions so they could come and get a statement from our candidate it was kind of a non-stop generating momentum effort from January through late March when the primary election was scheduled we did learn the circumstances of many people's lives and what had drawn them to commit themselves to equal rights for women when they might be at odds with those close to them I heard stories of women in an apartment complex near where we stayed who were locked in their rooms during the day and their husbands would make sure they weren't not coming out or husbands who would not allow their women their wives to meet with friends I mean they were very almost medieval sounding situations so we worked with professional women who were aware that their careers were not taken as seriously or didn't give them the upward mobility that they might have gained had they been male in the same career we just felt that tension in the lives of the families in this community and we really were accepted in this community for this brief time because people felt the essential significance of this measure in their lives in their families lives it was mostly sort of prosaic juggling names and addresses lists and lists of names and places and phone numbers and receptions and scripts and just I found these pages that I hadn't hadn't really looked at in years and the candidate's wife let us know how how wearing the campaign was for her and her family because they were walking a fine line in the community but she also very kindly said that we must be tired too people brought us meals and soothed our ruffled feathers and tired spirits and people had come from all over the country to work on this campaign people had taken a break from their ordinary lives it was a chance to affect history and we did succeed in our campaign our candidate won his primary bid and later won the seat in the general election and I I just had this clipping because the local press said he rides crossover votes to win maybe it's the equal rights amendment supporters who crossed over he said so he he was happy to claim our support on election day when his candidacy was um um was supported and it was a great a great day for us and for the people we'd become close to working around the clock day after day week after week and we felt reassured that victory was was within sight maybe within reach I might have mentioned that we were in the sort of backyard of phyllis schlafly who had spearheaded the resistance to the equal rights amendment she stirred up opposition saying what would happen to families if women weren't at home when the children came home from school I mean the obvious irony is that she was never home when her children came home from school because she was out working to defeat the ERA um and the insurance companies which had funded a lot of the resistance to equal rights amendment because they could see clearly that they would have a financial loss where women treated equally to men under health insurance guidelines so we were faced with sort of daily repeated questions which do sound a little um outdated now what would happen if women and men were forced to use the same bathrooms what if women and men both had to fight alongside each other in the military what if women and men served in fire departments and as first responders together wouldn't that be awkward would men be able to control themselves were they you know changing into firefighter uniforms with women firefighters all of these issues have kind of been resolved in practice that unisex restrooms are prevalent everywhere and no one has has yet been i think contaminated or you know twisted beyond recognition by using those as people have done in families for years and women have served with honor in the military and are able to benefit from the um benefits of military service seeing the world and developing skills and it's a matter of individual choice whether to participate or not in military activity so the the fear tactics that were you know generated and um stirred up in resistance to era passage have have kind of subsided there are no terrible terrible outcomes but because the 38 states required to pass era and ratify it as part of the constitution were not reached before june 30th 1982 an arbitrary deadline that was passed by those obstructing passage in congress because that deadline passed without passage of era it was considered null and void and has just sat um for these 38 years um until in recent years three states have passed the era have brought their their state's inclusion to um just this past week in virginia reached the 38 required and there will be quibbles and there will be some determination as to the standing of that um passage the ratification numbers but it is a noteworthy we've reached a noteworthy objective and I think um those who've worked on it during the years in the past and continuing now I know that young women are are um noticing that it might be important to be included in the constitution when the era did not pass and the deadline passed with with um marches in many of the states marking that that date with morning and renewed determination to continue the battle there were also I think it's referred to as era casualties the people who had invested so much of their personal commitment and energy in this struggle and who'd given their all at the expense of of all the other aspects of their lives there were instances of um people who just were not able to continue and um struggled with I was going I don't know if this is good I was going to say there was depression and that is so associated with how women um manage difficulties that it's almost um a trope but there were people who were severely dispirited and disheartened and were not immediately engaged in struggles for equal rights and fairness under the law so there was suffering and I think the recent passage of the required number of states for ratification may revitalize the spirits of those who care and who can see the possibility of equal rights under the law being protected in our constitution and I think the sense of being part of a national effort was no longer part of how we saw ourselves that we were very focused on what we could do locally I am speaking just for myself now because I I would be happy to have a conversation with others about how this seems to them others impressions of that time because we remained part an active part of the national organization and the state organization state and regional now had been very um dynamic also but people I'll just say simply did go back to their lives in some way I mean the things that had been put aside with that urgency yes exactly of um this must be done this must be accomplished this is our time this is our moment and we are the people so we we pushed we surpassed ourselves and then when it um had not passed we just needed to take care of ourselves and needed to restore replenish