THE GUARDIANFeminist group appeals to second-wave activists to rejoin cause: 'You're not done'
June 26th, 2016
Feminist leaders tell their sisters not to retire, to guide new generation of activists still in search of equality.
In 1950, Muriel Fox applied for a job with the world’s largest public relations firm, in New York.
“We don’t hire women writers,” she was told.
Months later, she got her foot in the door. In 1956, she became the youngest vice-president of Carl Byoir and Associates. Then she was told she couldn’t progress further, because corporate chief executives “can’t relate to women”.
Fox joined the vanguard of the modern feminist movement, helping millions of women. Famously, she composed a letter that Betty Friedan, first president of the National Organization for Women (Now) and author of The Feminine Mystique, sent to President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, helping persuade him to extend his federal affirmative action order mandating equal opportunities in employment to cover gender as well as race and religion.
