National Women's Conference Interviews

The National Women's Conference was held in Houston, Texas, November 18-21, 1977. The conference was federally funded and included speeches, skills clinics, ceremonies, and discussions. Over 2000 delegates assembled to make decisions, but over 20,000 women attended the conference as observers and to participate in the ceremonies and clinics. The purpose of the conference was to formulate a National Plan of Action that was submitted to President Jimmy Carter and to Congress. Notable attendees and leaders of the conference included First Ladies Rosalyn Carter, Betty Ford, and Lady Bird Johnson, as well as Coretta Scott King, Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Barbara Jordan, Liz Carpenter, Jean Stapleton, Maya Angelou and Margaret Mead.

International Women's Year was the name given to 1975 by the United Nations. This program, abbreviated IWY, became a much larger part of the organized conferences throughout the "Women's Decade." As part of the IWY's efforts to record events and developments during the 1970's, the IWY Oral History Project was developed. Constance Ashton Myers, the principal investigator in the National Endowment for the Humanities grant funded program contacted Marjorie Abrams and 28 other women and asked them to conduct interviews at the conference in Houston in 1977. At the conference, a wide range of women were recorded for their views on the conference.