Penny Richards (talk | contribs) →Activism: more (still working) Tag: Visual edit |
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== Activism == |
== Activism == |
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In the 1950s, Sommers was a volunteer for social and civil rights causes in the South.<ref name="latimes1985" /><ref name="chicagotribune1985" /> With the help of her friend Laurie Shields, she successfully lobbied 39 states and Congress to pass displaced homemaker laws,<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCormack |first=Patricia |date=September 4, 1975 |title=Tish Sommers lobbies for Displaced Homemaker's act |pages=C-17 |work=San Bernardino Sun |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19750904.1.47&srpos=9&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Tish+Sommers------- |access-date=January 6, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> which offered a network of job training and counseling centers for career housewives who went through divorce or the death of a husband.<ref name="latimes1985" /><ref name="chicagotribune1985" /> Sommers coined the phrase "displaced homemaker."<ref name="Love2006" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=DeLuzio |first=Crista |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lBdPbif6cO0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PA196&dq=Tish%20Sommers&pg=PA196#v=onepage&q=Tish%20Sommers&f=false |title=Women's Rights: People and Perspectives: People and Perspectives |date=2009-11-12 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-59884-115-2 |pages=196 |language=en}}</ref> |
In the 1950s, Sommers was a volunteer for social and civil rights causes in the South.<ref name="latimes1985" /><ref name="chicagotribune1985" /> With the help of her friend Laurie Shields, she successfully lobbied 39 states and Congress to pass displaced homemaker laws,<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCormack |first=Patricia |date=September 4, 1975 |title=Tish Sommers lobbies for Displaced Homemaker's act |pages=C-17 |work=San Bernardino Sun |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19750904.1.47&srpos=9&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Tish+Sommers------- |access-date=January 6, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levenstein |first=L. |date=2014-03-01 |title="Don't Agonize, Organize!": The Displaced Homemakers Campaign and the Contested Goals of Postwar Feminism |url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jahist/jau007 |journal=Journal of American History |language=en |volume=100 |issue=4 |pages=1114–1138 |doi=10.1093/jahist/jau007 |issn=0021-8723}}</ref> which offered a network of job training and counseling centers for career housewives who went through divorce or the death of a husband.<ref name="latimes1985" /><ref name="chicagotribune1985" /> Sommers coined the phrase "displaced homemaker."<ref name="Love2006" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=DeLuzio |first=Crista |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lBdPbif6cO0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PA196&dq=Tish%20Sommers&pg=PA196#v=onepage&q=Tish%20Sommers&f=false |title=Women's Rights: People and Perspectives: People and Perspectives |date=2009-11-12 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-59884-115-2 |pages=196 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Shields |first=Laurie |url=http://archive.org/details/displacedhomemak00shie |title=Displaced homemakers : organizing for a new life |date=1981 |publisher=New York : McGraw-Hill |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-07-056802-0 |pages=ix}}</ref> |
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Sommers chaired the [[National Organization for Women]]'s task force on older women in the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 24, 1975 |title=Ageism, sexism; They call it double jeopardy |pages=B-2 |work=Healdsburg Tribune |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HTES19750424.2.91&srpos=4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Tish+Sommers------- |access-date=January 6, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> She was also a NOW board member and led the Jobs for Older Women Action Project.<ref name="Love2006" /><ref name="latimes1985" /><ref name="cdlib1" /> She co-founded the [[Older Women's League]] with Laurie Shields in 1980, and was its first president.<ref name="Borenstein1983" /><ref name="chicagotribune1985" /> |
Sommers chaired the [[National Organization for Women]]'s task force on older women in the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 24, 1975 |title=Ageism, sexism; They call it double jeopardy |pages=B-2 |work=Healdsburg Tribune |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HTES19750424.2.91&srpos=4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Tish+Sommers------- |access-date=January 6, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> She was also a NOW board member and led the Jobs for Older Women Action Project.<ref name="Love2006" /><ref name="latimes1985" /><ref name="cdlib1" /> She co-founded the [[Older Women's League]] with Laurie Shields in 1980, and was its first president.<ref name="Borenstein1983" /><ref name="chicagotribune1985" /> |
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== Publications == |
== Publications == |
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* ''The not-so-helpless female: |
* ''The not-so-helpless female: How to change the world even if you never thought you could; A step-by-step guide to social action'' (1973) |
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* ''Women Take Care: The Consequences of Caregiving in Today's Society'' (1987, with Laurie Shields |
* ''Women Take Care: The Consequences of Caregiving in Today's Society'' (1987, with Laurie Shields)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sommers |first=Tish |url=http://archive.org/details/womentakecarecon0000somm |title=Women take care : the consequences of caregiving in today's society |date=1987 |publisher=Gainesville, Fla. : Triad Pub. Co. |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-937404-28-7}}</ref> |
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== Personal life and legacy == |
== Personal life and legacy == |
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Innes married Sidney Arnold Burke in 1938; they later divorced. She married Joseph Sommers in 1949; they divorced in 1972. Sommers died from cancer in 1985 at the age of 71, in [[Oakland, California|Oakland]].<ref name="latimes1985" /> Some of her papers are held in the [[San Diego State University]] Libraries.<ref name="cdlib1" /> The Institute for Health and Aging at the [[University of California, San Francisco]] established the Tish Sommers Senior Scholars program to honor her; it supports the work of older graduate and postdoctoral students working to improve the lives of older women.<ref>{{Cite book |last=University of California, San Francisco |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hvM2AQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=RA26-PA9&dq=Tish%20Sommers&pg=RA26-PA9#v=onepage&q=Tish%20Sommers&f=false |title=UCSF News |date=June 10, 1993 |publisher= |language=en}}</ref> In 1991, a biography of her was published, titled ''Tish Sommers, Activist: and the Founding of the Older Women's League''. |
Innes married Sidney Arnold Burke in 1938; they later divorced. She married Joseph Sommers in 1949; they divorced in 1972. Sommers died from cancer in 1985 at the age of 71, in [[Oakland, California|Oakland]].<ref name="latimes1985" /> Some of her papers are held in the [[San Diego State University]] Libraries.<ref name="cdlib1" /> The Institute for Health and Aging at the [[University of California, San Francisco]] established the Tish Sommers Senior Scholars program to honor her; it supports the work of older graduate and postdoctoral students working to improve the lives of older women.<ref>{{Cite book |last=University of California, San Francisco |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hvM2AQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=RA26-PA9&dq=Tish%20Sommers&pg=RA26-PA9#v=onepage&q=Tish%20Sommers&f=false |title=UCSF News |date=June 10, 1993 |publisher= |language=en}}</ref> In 1991, a biography of her was published, titled ''Tish Sommers, Activist: and the Founding of the Older Women's League''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Huckle |first=Patricia |url=http://archive.org/details/tishsommersactiv0000huck |title=Tish Sommers, activist, and the founding of the Older Women's League |date=1991 |publisher=Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-87049-691-2}}</ref> |
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== References == |
== References == |
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== External links == |
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* [[iarchive:cus_000044|A 1982 video interview with Tish Sommers]] from [[KPBS (TV)|KPBS]] television, on Internet Archive |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommers, Tish}} |
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[[Category:American feminist writers]] |
[[Category:American feminist writers]] |
Revision as of 03:52, 7 January 2023
Tish Sommers | |
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Born | Letitia Gale Innes September 8, 1914 Cambria, California |
Died | October 18, 1985 Oakland, California |
Other names | Letitia Burke, Letitia Sommers |
Occupation(s) | Activist, writer |
Letitia "Tish" Innes Sommers (September 8, 1914 – October 18, 1985) was an American author, a women's rights activist, and the co-founder and first president of the Older Women's League (OWL).[1][2][3]
Early life and education
Letitia Gale Innes was born in Cambria, California and raised in San Francisco, the daughter of Murray Innes and Katherine Dorsch Innes.[3] Her father was a mining engineer, and her mother was a teacher.[4] She studied dance in Germany in 1933.
Activism
In the 1950s, Sommers was a volunteer for social and civil rights causes in the South.[3][5] With the help of her friend Laurie Shields, she successfully lobbied 39 states and Congress to pass displaced homemaker laws,[6][7] which offered a network of job training and counseling centers for career housewives who went through divorce or the death of a husband.[3][5] Sommers coined the phrase "displaced homemaker."[2][8][9]
Sommers chaired the National Organization for Women's task force on older women in the 1970s.[10] She was also a NOW board member and led the Jobs for Older Women Action Project.[2][3][11] She co-founded the Older Women's League with Laurie Shields in 1980, and was its first president.[1][5]
Sommers was named one of the "Bay Area's Ten Most Distinguished Persons" by the San Francisco Chronicle in 1974. She testified before a Senate committee on aging and Social Security in 1975.[12] She won the Western Gerontological Society Award in 1979, and the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation's Ministry to Women Award in 1981. In 1982, already facing a cancer diagnosis, she was keynote speaker at a conference on employment at Sonoma State University.[13] In 1983, she testified before a Congressional hearing on Medicare and aging.[14] In 1984, she once again spoke before a Congressional committee on aging and healthcare.[15]
Publications
- The not-so-helpless female: How to change the world even if you never thought you could; A step-by-step guide to social action (1973)
- Women Take Care: The Consequences of Caregiving in Today's Society (1987, with Laurie Shields)[16]
Personal life and legacy
Innes married Sidney Arnold Burke in 1938; they later divorced. She married Joseph Sommers in 1949; they divorced in 1972. Sommers died from cancer in 1985 at the age of 71, in Oakland.[3] Some of her papers are held in the San Diego State University Libraries.[11] The Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco established the Tish Sommers Senior Scholars program to honor her; it supports the work of older graduate and postdoctoral students working to improve the lives of older women.[17] In 1991, a biography of her was published, titled Tish Sommers, Activist: and the Founding of the Older Women's League.[18]
References
- ^ a b Borenstein, Audrey (1983). Chimes of change and hours: views of older women in twentieth-century America. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. pp. 41–42. ISBN 978-0-8386-3170-6.
- ^ a b c Love, Barbara J. (2006). Feminists who changed America, 1963-1975. University of Illinois Press. pp. 434–435. ISBN 978-0-252-03189-2. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ a b c d e f "Tish Sommers | Older Women's Advocate Dies at 71: Tish Sommers Was Co-Founder of 15,000-Member Group". Los Angeles Times. 1985-10-19. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
- ^ "Formal Normal Student Married". Chico Record. May 3, 1904. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
- ^ a b c "Tish Sommers, 71, Women's Activist". Chicago Tribune. 1985-10-19. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
- ^ McCormack, Patricia (September 4, 1975). "Tish Sommers lobbies for Displaced Homemaker's act". San Bernardino Sun. pp. C-17. Retrieved January 6, 2023 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ Levenstein, L. (2014-03-01). ""Don't Agonize, Organize!": The Displaced Homemakers Campaign and the Contested Goals of Postwar Feminism". Journal of American History. 100 (4): 1114–1138. doi:10.1093/jahist/jau007. ISSN 0021-8723.
- ^ DeLuzio, Crista (2009-11-12). Women's Rights: People and Perspectives: People and Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 196. ISBN 978-1-59884-115-2.
- ^ Shields, Laurie (1981). Displaced homemakers : organizing for a new life. Internet Archive. New York : McGraw-Hill. pp. ix. ISBN 978-0-07-056802-0.
- ^ "Ageism, sexism; They call it double jeopardy". Healdsburg Tribune. April 24, 1975. pp. B-2. Retrieved January 6, 2023 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ a b "Tish Sommers Papers". Online Archive of California. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
- ^ United States Congress Senate Special Committee on Aging (1973). Future directions in social security: hearing before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, first session ... U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 1679–1682.
- ^ "Conference to Explore American Workplace". Healdsburg Tribune. March 3, 1982. p. 7. Retrieved January 6, 2023 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ United States Congress House Select Committee on Aging (1984). Medicare and Acupuncture: Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session, November 30, 1983, San Francisco, Calif. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 46–51.
- ^ United States Congress House Select Committee on Aging (1984). Health Care for Elders: Alternative Futures : Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, Second Session, March 18, 1984, Anaheim, Calif. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 17–22.
- ^ Sommers, Tish (1987). Women take care : the consequences of caregiving in today's society. Internet Archive. Gainesville, Fla. : Triad Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-937404-28-7.
- ^ University of California, San Francisco (June 10, 1993). UCSF News.
- ^ Huckle, Patricia (1991). Tish Sommers, activist, and the founding of the Older Women's League. Internet Archive. Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-0-87049-691-2.
External links
- A 1982 video interview with Tish Sommers from KPBS television, on Internet Archive