The National Women's Convention in Houston was the most exciting event that has taken place for women this century. Women from every state and territory from all races and income levels came together to assess the barriers to full equality and vote on a national Plan of Action designed to eliminate these barriers.

The Pro-Plan Caucus, a coalition of individuals and organizations committed to the concepts presented in the plan, emerged as the key to passage of the plan. People were willing to suspend individual agendas, not spend energy on who will get credit, and join together so that every issue could be heard and acted upon. Ann Saunier from Ohio chaired the Sunday session, at which twenty of the twenty-six resolutions were passed. Her fairness and her ability to manage the body brought her two standing ovations and the appreciation of both delegates and observers.

The resolutions adopted included upgrading the

WOMEN SPEAK OUT

THE IWY CONVENTI

status of women and assuring equality in the areas of: arts and humanities; battered women; business; child abuse; child care; credit; disabled women; education; elective and appointive office; employment; passage of the Equal Rights Amendment; health; homemakers; insurance; international affairs; media; minority women; offenders; older women; rape; reproductive freedom; rural women; sexual preference; statistics; welfare.

Some of the most dramatic moments of the convention came when special caucuses introduced substitute motions. The disabled women introduced their own motion and the Ohio delegation had the pleasure of watching the New York delegation hold up their disabled delegate so that she could partici. pate in the standing ovation. At midnight on Saturday night, the entire convention center resounded with excitement at the overwhelming support expressed for the Equal Rights Amendment, On Sunday, all of the minority caucuses joined together

to introduce a substitute motion that had special components addressing the needs of AsianAmerican Women, Hispanic Women, Alaskan and Native After American Women, and Black Women. Coretta Scott King read the final section on Black Women, almost the entire body rose to applaud. Following passage of the motion, the body stood up and sang, "We Shall Overcome.

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At the end of the convention, all of the remaining delegates (the right wing "pro-family", anti-ERA delegates had walked out) stood together and sang, "We Shall Go Forth'. Even the pro-life delegates and the Ohio Eleven (all pro-choice delegates) joined hands to celebrate a job well done. The true test of the significance of the convention comes now that we have gone forth to our own communities to try to implement the recommendations in the plan. Jane Campbell will tell us in person about the conference on December 20 at the WomenSpace Holiday Celebration at WomenSpace.

~from the WomenSpace Newsletter

EFITS WOMEN

Photo courtesy of Aardvark

There were 1,797 delegates and 20,000 observers. We had come to Houston from 50 states and several territories to participate in the first governmentsponsored women's conference. We were going to be focusing in on "the barriers to women's full participation in this society". We were women who represented the whole spectrum of political opinion. Would we be able to do it?

There were those who were of the opinion that it could not be done. After all, these are women. Women don't know know to organize, how to strategize, how to prioritize. Secondly, these women don't all agree unanimously on all of the issues. Look at abortion, look at sexual preference, look at ERA. They'll be pulling each other's hair out instead of doing more effective things. In fact, the Ohio delegation of 56 women had 11 feminist delegates and 46 anti-feminist delegates, for lack of more concise terms. It was one of the largest delegations at the conference and also one of the most obviously split ones. The overall conference representation, however, was 80% feminist and 20% anti-feminist (mostly Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, which were entirely anti). Thirdly, how would they ever get through those twenty-six resolutions in three days? With those issues like women in the arts, education, media, employment, welfare, child care, homemakers, abuse of women, etc...which so many felt so strongly about...how would anything ever pass

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rooms.

Indeed, at the beginning it looked hard. Not for the reasons listed above. Upon arrival in Houston those delegates staying at the Hyatt-Regency, Houston's pride and joy, discovered that they had a six-hour wait before they could register for their Through some incredible gap in proper hotel management, the Hyatt had allowed a previous convention to stay an extra night, meaning the rooms were not cleared in time for the in-coming Women's Conference. Delegates stood in line for hours, slept in lobbies, drove in cars around the city, located friends in town, but on Saturday morning they all arrived ready to work.

The conference floor looked much like a political convention floor. Delegates were grouped according to their states, with poles on the aisles to mark their delegations. Microphones were positioned around the floor. Television platforms obstructed views. Huge, fixed cameras were on the stage. The lighting was extremely bright. And delegates wore all types of conference paraphernalia to indicate their stands and where they were from. California wore yellow bandanas. New York wore embroidered red apples on their badges and at one point all stood up and flashed their fresh, red apples. Wisconsin also wore kerchiefs with the logo "The ERA is as Américan as apple pie." Hawaii brought exotic fresh flowers and wore the colorful dress of their state. And there were buttons: pro-ERA, pro-Plan (the Plan of action for the conference that the delegates were to be

voting on), pro-Choice, IWY buttons, NOW buttons, WPCC buttons, pro-union buttons. Delegates had much to read above and beyond the materials in conference packets: there was the daily newspaper put out just for and about the conference, there were pamphlets distributed hourly on a variety of issues by those who took the opportunity to have access to such a collection of people, there were the Houston newspapers who gave the conference a great deal of coverage.

The conference started off with a big dose of legiti macy: there on the stage on Saturday morning was First Lady Carter, ex-First Ladies Johnson and Ford, and Linda Robb Johnson. There was Bella in her over-size hat. Lady Bird Johnson is saying that "I thought the women's movement was for my daughters, but now I realize that it is for me, too." Betty Ford is getting thunderous applause for her personal and political courage.

But the work of the convention was not in listening to speeches but in passing resolutions. These had been discussed in state conferences and then passed on to Houston. They were general in nature, for this was not legislation we were discussing but a set of general concerns that had to be communicated to the nation, the Congress, and the President in the form of resolutions. All but one passed. Since the great majority of the delegates were feminist, there was little doubt that the body was supportive of the prin-