THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Joanne Howes
“In some ways that was my clicking moment that the Montana State Legislature said you don’t think I’m equal.”
Organizer. Public Policy. Expert in key women’s policy issues of the 1980s and 1990s, including reproductive rights, women’s health, family and medical leave, domestic violence, and women in politics. The National Women’s Political Caucus. EMILY’s List. National Breast Cancer Coalition.
Interviewed by Judith Waxman, September 2020
Photo 1. Democratic Women’s Task Force Chair, NWPC 1979. Photo 2. Staff and consultants for EMILY’s List. Seated (left to right): Sharon Hooper, Betsy Crone, Lisa Pelofsky, Celinda Lake; standing (left to right): Joanne Howes, Marie Bass and Ellen Malcolm. Ms. Magazine, June 1988. Photo 3. Team A (the original five) and Team B, all of whom worked to get Geraldine Ferraro to break the glass ceiling, reunited in the early ’90s. Clockwise from top: Nanette Falkenberg, Joanne Howes, Joan McLean, Millie Jeffrey, Eleanor Lewis, Ranny Cooper, Joanne Symons. (Photo, Joan McLean)
More About Joanne:
- Judith Waxman has a candid conversation over Zoom with Jane Pierson, Betsy Crone and Joanne Howes about the early days of the National Women’s Political Caucus, April 2021
- Joanne Howes speaks on Investing in Patient Advocacy and Community Educators to Change Policy – National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine 2016
- We Are EMILY: Joanne Howes, EMILY’s List
- In a panel discussion titled “The Politics of Breast Cancer: Exposing the Differences Between Substances and Symbolism,” participants talked about efforts to increase awareness and fight breast cancer as a political movement. They also talked about the basics of issue advocacy and urged lawmakers to do more to fight breast cancer. Following their remarks they answered questions from the audience. APRIL 29, 2002
- The Ms. Reporter, Women Candidates, The Money Rolls In, Peggy Simpson, Ms. June 1988
- Fourth Biennial Convention National Women’s Political Caucus program, July 1979
- Battered Women: Issues of Public Policy Presentation of Joanne Howes for Representative Barbara Mikulski begins on page 197, 1978
- Joanne Howes Papers
- National Women’s Political Caucus Records, 1970-2006; Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.