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
- University of Tennessee
- Select Interviews
- Tish Sommers – Wikipedia
- Cited in Barbara Love’s book, Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975, pages 434, 435