Eleanor Smeal - Political Activism

Political Activism

Eleanor Smeal joined the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1970 and served as president from 1977 to 1982 and again from 1985 to 1987. During this time, Smeal led the first national abortion rights march which drew over 100,000 activists to Washington, DC.

After leaving NOW in 1987, Smeal saw a need for a new feminist organization that combined research, educational outreach, and political action. A 1986 Newsweek/Gallup poll reported that 56% of women in the US self-identify as feminists. Smeal reconciled her vision of a new feminist organization and the task of empowering women and men who support equity in the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Several legislative measures bear Smeal’s imprint including the Free Access to Clinic Entrances legislation (influenced by Madsen v. Women’s Health Center) that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994, the unsuccessful attempt to defeat Proposition 209 in California, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Equal Credit Act, the Civil Rights Restoration Act, the Violence Against Women Act, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

Smeal also played a major role in the gender integration of Little League, eliminating gender-segregated help wanted ads, the fights to make Social Security and pensions more equitable to women via a feminist budget, close the wage gap, achieve pay equity, and to legally enshrine a right of abortion on demand.

Smeal was strongly critical of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which places limits on taxpayer-funded abortions in the context of the November 2009 Affordable Health Care for America Act.