THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Eleanor Spikes

July 26, 1936 – April 3, 1982

“I’m a divorced mother who needs to work to survive and who has been working for 15 years. They can’t solve the energy crisis, so they may as well attack the women’s movement.” January 1974

A civil rights and women’s rights activist. A coordinator of NOW’s first minority women’s task force in 1973. Staff member of the original (1965) EEOC, which enforced Title VII banning employment discrimination on the basis of sex. A partner in the consulting firm, Aileen C. Hernandez Associates. In 1975, directed a project funded by the Mayor’s Criminal Justice Planning Council, which assisted the first group of women to enter and successfully complete training as full-service police officers in San Francisco. A co-founder and coordinator of Black Women Organized for Action, 1973, which, in coalition with other activist women’s organizations, established the first women’s credit union in the country. Served on boards of the local YMCA and Planned Parenthood.

Photo. NOW reception honors Aileen Hernandez, foreground; front left, Zaide Kirtley, local president; Maria Hicks, political caucus coordinator; Marilyn Patel, Ruth McGuire, and Eleanor Spikes.