THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Ersa H. Poston

May 3, 1921 – January 7, 2009

“It is precisely this attitude – reinforced by the TV commercial image of the woman as a mindless kitchen drudge in love with her enzyme-laden wash powder – that continues effectively to limit the role of women to ‘for-women-only’ occupations.”  – Ersa H. Poston, speaker at “Liberation – From What?” workshop, May 1970

Director of the New York State Office of Economic Opportunity, 1965 – 1967. President of the New York State Civil Service Commission, 1967 – 1975. Appointed a member of the U.S. Civil Service Commission by President Jimmy Carter, 1977.

Photo. Commissioner Ersa Poston at the First National Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas 1977 (photo: Diana Mara Henry, Ersa Poston, 1977). Diana Mara Henry Papers (PH 51). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries