Warriors for women's equality to hear from Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem, one of the icons of the women's movement of the last half of the last century, will be in Dallas on March 19 as part of the Veteran Feminists of America gathering at the Women's Museum at Fair Park.

Steinem will moderate a luncheon meeting and be the keynote speaker at the dinner meeting on the same day.

The conference will consider, among other issues, the possibility of reviving the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment, an issue that burned brightly between 1972 and 1982, then died short of its goal of ratification by three-fourths of the states.

Opposition came from some labor, business and women's groups that found fault with varying issues in the proposed amendment.

The subject may be on life support, but it is not completely dead, having been introduced in the current session of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The March 19 conference will honor two categories of Texas women: those who, through personal achievement, serve as role models for all, and women "who struggled in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, not only for themselves, but also for future generations of women [who] might know the freedom to follow their dreams," said Southern Methodist University professor Bonnie Wheeler, who founded the local chapter of Veteran Feminists of America with another activist, Virginia Whitehill.

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