HISPANIC WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN THE 1970’S

The year is 1979, I cannot help but refer to those times when I found solace in the Latina women who welcomed me in Buffalo. It was the same year that there was a ribbing, uproar reaction to a newspaper article (1979) where local writers and editors did not know anything about the Latino population and its many contributions to the city of Buffalo.  It was during that decade that Latinas in Buffalo also experienced the following but advocated and contributed for betterment. Prior to the 1980’s, this was the reality of women rights:

A woman could not get a credit card in her name and not her husband’s, 1974.

A woman could be fired for being pregnant until the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 1978.

 Women could not serve on juries in all 50 states, until 1973.

 Women were not admitted into the military, until 1973.

The military ban on women being on the front was lifted, 2013.

 Women were not accepted in Ivy league schools, 1969.

 The court did not recognize office sexual harassment as grounds for any legal action,1977.

Spousal rape was not criminalized in all 50 states, until 1993.

Women were not able to obtain health insurance at the same monetary rate as men, until 2010.The age of consent for sex for females was set at ten or twelve in most states, except for our neighboring State of Delaware – where it was 7 YEARS OLD.

The list could go on with all the disparities on how women were seen and treated, especially the Latina women. The average age of the educated, active women had already experienced these injustices and were willing to take on an extra responsibility for the advancement and betterment of our Latina women. The Hispanic Women League wanted much of this information to be filtered down to their communities, to all the women, regardless of their socio-economic position. To facilitate workshops and dissemination of information, they decided to organize a conference, and tailored directly to the Latino community, especially the Latina woman.  There was a panel of knowledgeable women who coordinated workshops and panel presentations. Human trafficking and domestic violence were not yet topics up for open discussion, even though these topics have and continue to affect our Latina women more than any other demographics. In 1986, the Hispanic Women’s League organized, sponsored, and coordinated the first Hispanic Women’s Conference in Western New York. Just to be clear, it was these Latina women pioneers who took the leadership in Western New York. All the women were not treated as leaders, but they all shared a deep-rooted passion to fight injustice against our people – and they seem to all have had enough.