Second Wave Feminists

Veteran Michigan feminists share stories to document history

   Not so long ago, the front door of the Detroit Athletic Club opened only to men.
   Gerry Barrons remembers those days. She's worried younger women don't know enough about them. That's why she got involved in a project that will record the stories tied to feminism's early days, to preserve them for future generations.
    "I think the younger generation doesn't think we could lose the rights we have, and that's just not true," said Barron, who has shared her story with the Veteran Feminists of America.
    VFA is collecting biographical information from "Second Wave" feminists (1963-1975) all across the U.S., which will be compiled in an archive housed at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College in Northampton, Mass. A book documenting this era is also planned.
    A group of Michigan women got into the business of recording Second Wave stories here after meeting with National VFA President Jacqui Ceballos, to see how they could be involved.
    "We were not interested in taking on issues, because others were already doing that," Barrons recalled. "We thought the only thing we really had to offer was our history."
    Barrons had already been on that track. When she retired from the Women's Economic Club at age 60, she wanted to spent the next decade of her life documenting what she could remember from her involvement in feminism.
    "That's what this time in life is about," she said, "documenting your history for others."
    With help from grant dollars mined by University of Michigan nursing professor Nancy Reame and assistance from ArtServe, the project moved forward; now, interviews with 20 feminists rest in the Bentley Library at the U of M in Ann Arbor. Barron hopes they do far more than collect dust; she hopes a students of history will use them to gain a greater knowledge of the feminist movement - and a deeper understanding of today's challenges to women's rights.
    While we're a long way from the days when a woman who was invited to the DAC was told she had to enter through a side door, Barrons and others who worked hard in the Second Wave fear feminism has lost momentum. Women suffer less workplace discrimination now than in the 1960s, but according to a recent study released by the Institute for Women's Research and Policy, Michigan women still lack earning power, taking home 67 cents for every dollar men do.
    The Second Wave project, Barrons hopes, will inspire young women to action.
    "I would hope there is an awareness and a fresh understanding among this generation of 14 to 25 year olds about how to collectively and individually take charge of their destinies," she said.
    "That's not too lofty a goal, is it?"