Background
Faye Wattleton (born Alyce Faye Wattleton) was born on July 8, 1943, in St. Louis, Missouri, the only child of George Wattleton and Ozie Garret Wattleton.
Faye Wattleton (born Alyce Faye Wattleton) was born on July 8, 1943, in St. Louis, Missouri, the only child of George Wattleton and Ozie Garret Wattleton.
A very intelligent child, Wattleton started school at the age of four and graduated from high school at the age of 16. In 1959 she enrolled in Ohio State University. After graduating from Ohio State University in 1964 with a nursing degree, Wattleton taught at Miami Valley Hospital School, in Dayton. She left that position in 1966 to begin work on a master's degree in maternal and infant health care, at New York's Columbia University.
After earning her master's degree in 1967, Wattleton became assistant director of the Montgomery County Combined Public Health District, in Dayton. The same year, she also joined the board of the local Planned Parenthood and shortly after, Wattleton became the president of the Planned Parenthood of Dayton. In 1970, she became the executive director for Planned Parenthood of Miami Valley. An activist for reproductive rights, Wattleton supported legalizing abortion. Then, in 1973, the famous Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade made abortions legal.
Following her resignation in 1992, Wattleton turned her attention to creating a new organization: She helped found the Center for the Advancement of Women (CFAW), an independent research, education and public policy advocacy institute, in 1996.
In 1996, Wattleton published Life on the Line, a memoir about her early life and her experiences at Planned Parenthood.
A skilled manager and administrator, Wattleton has also served on the boards and advisory councils of many nonprofit, corporate and educational organizations over the years, including Savient Pharmaceuticals, Estee Lauder Companies, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Columbia University, the New York Blood Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 2010, she joined Alvarez & Marsal, a global services firm, as a managing director.
At present, she continues to speak to various groups about women's health, reproductive rights, and feminist issues.
Quotations:
"The only safe ship in a storm is leadership. "
"I do not make any apologies for my manner or personality. I come from a long line of very strong, black African-American women who neither bend nor bow. I haven't had very good modeling in submission. "
"One of the sad commentaries on the way women are viewed in our society is that we have to fit one category. I have never felt that I had to be in one category. "
In 1971 Faye Wattleton married Franklin Gordon and had a daughter in 1976. Wattleton and Gordon were divorced in 1981.