The National Women's Conference, and the Schlafly Backlash (1977)

This Day

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

**It's the Radiotopia fundraiser! We can only make this show with your support. Give now and help support This Day and all the independent shows at Radiotopia. Thank you! https://www.radiotopia.fm/donate**

It's November 21st. This day in 1977, the National Women's Conference in Houston is coming to a close after a joyous but tense event. It would be the first and last conference of its kind.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the conference came together, how it tried to bring together the many different strands of feminism -- and how the backlash, led by Phyllis Schlafly, ended up overtaking the headlines.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.
0:12.3	This day, November 21, 1977, it is the fourth and final day of the National Women's Conference.
0:19.4	The National Women's Conference was the conclusion of a years-long government-backed effort
0:23.5	to support women's issues.
0:25.5	The Gerald Ford administration had allocated some $5 million to set up a series of regional
0:30.9	conferences and events culminating in this multi-day gathering in Houston, Texas.
0:36.4	Gloria Steinem was there, Coretta Scott King, Maya Angelou, First Lady's Rosalind Carter, and Lady Bird
0:41.0	Johnson.
0:42.1	Lawmakers like Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm were there, along with 2,000 women
0:47.0	delegates from states and territories across the country.
0:50.6	So picture it.
0:51.4	It's very similar in many ways to a political convention.
0:53.7	There were speeches and
0:55.2	breakout sessions and a formal platform, which we will discuss at the end of it. And remember
1:00.4	what I said that this was the fourth and final day of the National Women's Conference? Well,
1:04.3	when I say final, I mean final because the 1977 conference was the only one. That's it. They did it
1:10.3	once and they haven't done it since.
1:11.6	So let's look back at this remarkable event, try and place it in some of that context about
1:16.4	women's rights of the era and the women's rights movement of the era and talk about why it never
1:21.5	happened again. Here, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:26.6	Hello there. Hello, Jody. Hey there there have either of you ever attended like an academic conference that
1:31.8	did it once and then bailed I mean there are one-off conferences I don't think I've been to one
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.