THE STORIES

1950-2015
From the Beginning:
A Continuing Commitment to
Equality and Inclusiveness
In keeping with its founding principles, SWE members and leaders have worked to
make the Society more inclusive since its earliest days. Taking a stand in the 1950s on
civil rights was one example. In a similar vein, addressing social change and national
politics in the 1970s led the Society to consider how male membership and political
engagement, particularly in regard to the Equal Rights Amendment, might affect the
mission and character of SWE. Naomi McAfee, president from 1972 to 1974, recalled
this contentious period in SWE oral history interviews conducted between 2003 and
2010. Excerpts from those interviews appear below.
“One of the big national issues [in the 1970s] was
the Equal Rights Amendment, which congress
passed out in 1972 to the states to ratify. And there
was a big division within SWE as to whether we
should endorse or stay away from it. And in fact,
that division was almost big enough it almost split
the Society, because of the differing viewpoints…
And in 1973, I think it was, that we actually passed
a proclamation, a motion, endorsing it…
And there was a group that was very vocal...‘We
can’t do this, because if we do that, then we have
violated all of our tenets. We’re no longer staying
true to what our charter was and what our initial
goals were.’ And there was another group that was
saying, ‘Well, gee, our initial goal is to advocate the
position of women in the profession. How do you
do that without advocating the position of women
in society?’ And so it was a—you know, night and
day. And there was this huge gulf in between. And
there were people who were ambivalent…
We had another controversial issue, and that was
male membership in SWE. Now, it always struck
me as very strange that you had a group of people
who were working and screaming about being
equal that refused equal treatment to somebody
else…And yet we excluded males from our own
organization. And there was a tremendous debate
about allowing men to join SWE…
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TOP LEFT: Despite prior assurances
otherwise, the hotel for the 1957
national convention in Houston would
not honor SWE member Yvonne Young
Clark’s reservation when she arrived
because she was African-American.
SWE leadership threatened to cancel the
convention immediately; however, Clark
insisted that she stay with a local relative
instead. In a 2001 SWE oral history
interview Clark recalled, “The convention
and the hotel compromised. I was met
at the front door every day to go to the
convention…Anytime somebody wanted
some cigarettes, they came and found
me and we walked. Because as long
as I had a white person with me I could
move around the hotel…And the SWE
executive council made a statement…
they wouldn’t go South anymore until the
Civil Rights Bill was passed.”
BOTTOM LEFT: SWE members
attending the 1957 national convention
in Houston posed before the sign
welcoming them, although the welcome
turned out to be incomplete.
BACKGROUND PHOTO: SWE sent
a letter to state governors in 1977
explaining that SWE’s Council of Section
Representatives voted to boycott states
that had not ratified the Equal Rights
Amendment. While some members
approved of the boycott, others believed
SWE would have greater influence on the
status of women by making professional
women even more visible in those states.
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continued
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