Engaged in the Struggle for Liberation as They See It Indigenous Southern Women and International Women’s Year

• Published in: The Native South p. 220
• Main Author: MEG DEVLIN O’SULLIVAN
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United States UNP - Nebraska 01.07.2017; University of Nebraska Press
• Subjects: American minorities; Anthropology; Behavioral sciences; Caucuses; Ethnic groups; Ethnology; Feminism; Gender equality; Gender politics; Gender studies; Health and wellness; Health sciences; Human behavior; Human populations; Human rights; Human societies; Jurisprudence; Law; Meetings; Native Americans; Natural law; Natural rights; Persons; Philosophy of law; Political elections; Political meetings; Political processes; Political science; Politics; Population studies; Public health; Reproductive health; Social behavior; Social interaction; Social movements; Social sciences; Sociology; Violence; Violence against women; Voting; Women; Womens health; Womens rights; Womens rights movements; Working women
• ISBN: 9780803296909; 0803296908
• DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt1q1xq7h.16

On the second day of the 1977 Oklahoma Women’s Conference, during a heated plenary session, a group of Native American women “walked out of the ballroom in protest.” They objected to a conservative umbrella organization’s dissemination of leaflets that instructed participants to select specific delegates to the national conference for International Women’s Year (IWY) in Houston that fall. Ultimately, these women and others (many of whom hailed from the conference’s minority caucus) would form a dissenting group that upheld the spirit of International Women’s Year and challenged the right-wing anti-Equal Rights Amendment supporters who had overrun the Oklahoma gathering.¹ In