Women who sustained the movement

The Makers was a wonderful documentary of the contemporary women's movement. I wish someone would go down a layer and write a book about not just the queen bees of that movement, but the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of the women drones who have sustained the movement in many, many ways. 

I use drone in a most positive sense. If the Newsweek, LHJ strikes and other high profile events had been the only ones that happened in the country, they would have been a small triumph for the movement. Those examples can be expanded to untold numbers of examples of women and men who expanded the movement into all corners of the country by becoming community activists for women's equality and other concerns of women and girls.

There are the women who have spent their whole lives in vocations  or avocations working for the progress of women in all areas of society. There are the women's groups throughout the country who sued their employers for equal pay and equal opportunity.  There are the women who started NOW chapters in their communities and have kept them operating for five or six decades or who started consciousness-raising groups to give women a sense of I-am-not-alone-in-my-thinking, or it's-not-just-me.

There are women and men who were attorneys and judges and police officers who made the justice systems more supportive of women, especially abused women, and there were the people in communities who started women's shelters to give women and children a safe place to escape to. 

There are women who started women's studies and women's history courses so there were forums for discussion once consciousness-raising groups became passe and so we wouldn't forget our past. There were organizations of volunteers who preserved women's history artifacts and birthplaces and important sites in women's history.  

There are traditional organizations like the YWCA and LWV and AAUW and the Girl Scouts who have had women's and girl's concerns at the top of their agendas for decades.

There are all the local women and organizations who lobbied and petitioned and spoke and marched for the ERA and continue to do so today and the men and women who literally put their bodies between the clients of reproductive health clinics and the anti-abortion demonstrators who are there to harass them, to say nothing of the people who work at the clinics.

There are the women whose jobs are to ensure that women get equity in the workforce like the hundred's  of Federal Women's Program Manger's in the federal government. Their jobs  also include training the total work force in prevention of sexual harassment and assisting women who have been the victims of sexual harassment, who train supervisor's in opening their minds to placing women in non-traditional jobs and assist women with the difficulties that come with being the women in those jobs. There are the Directors of Divsions on Women, or whatever the local and state agencies are called, who lobbied and educated to make sure that government funds and grants were available for programs assisting women and girls. There are the women elected officials who are also supportive in that legislation.

There are the individuals and organizations that enlighten girls and young women in assertive communications and leadership skills and public speaking skills and self-empowerment skills. There are thousands of women and men who act as mentors to young women in corporations and in small businesses so breaking the glass ceiling becomes more likely for them.

This is only a short list, I'm  sure you can add a myriad of other examples to the list. You may question "Where would one start to do research on these 'drones'?" I have in my circle of friends and acquaintances someone that fits into each of the examples I have given, and I'm sure I am not unique, they are everywhere throughout the country. Please won't someone write that book?