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VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT: LETITIA SOMMERSveteranfeminists2023-02-28T15:15:10-05:00

THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Letitia “Tish” Sommers

September 8, 1914 – October 18, 1985

“Homemakers are workers like anyone else and deserve the same things other workers get.” – Tish Sommers, 1983

Author, women’s rights activist. Coined the phrase “displaced homemaker.” Lobbied 39 states and Congress to pass displaced homemaker laws. Founded the Alliance of Displaced Homemakers, 1975. Chair, National Organization for Women’s task force on older women, 1970s. NOW board member, led Jobs for Older Women Action Project. Along with Laurie Shields, co-founded Older Women’s League (OWL), 1980. The Institute for Health and Aging established the Tish Sommers Senior Scholars program in her honor.

Photo. Laurie Shields (left) and Tish Sommers.

More About Tish:

  • Obituary, Los Angeles Times
  • Displaced Homemakers: Then and Now, Michele Sharpe
  • NOW and the Displaced Homemaker – JSTOR Daily
  • Overcoming inequities for older women – CSMonitor.com
  • Women Work! Hall of Fame – Women Work
  • Tish Sommers statement, United States Congress Senate Special Committee on Aging, 1973
  • Papers
    • San Diego State University
      • Collection: Tish Sommers Papers, Special Collections & University Archives 
      • “On Growing Older Female: An Interview with Tish Sommers,”  Aging, November/December, 1975, Special Collections & University Archives Finding Aid Database (sdsu.edu)
    • University of Tennessee
      • Tish Sommers, Activist, and the Founding of the Older Women’s League, by Patricia Huckle  and Tish Sommers. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1991.
  • Select Interviews
    • “Viewpoints: An Interview with Tish Sommers,” by Helen Hawkins, 1982
    • “The OWL’s Nest,” Tish Sommers interviewed by Grace Jacobs, February 1982
  • Tish Sommers – Wikipedia
  • Cited in Barbara Love’s book, Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975, pages 434, 435

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