(The president of the National Organization for Women offe...)
The president of the National Organization for Women offers a candid discussion of her own life and rise to power, her role as a crusader for women's rights, and her views on such controversial issues as abortion, affirmative action, sexual choice, domestic violence, and more. 75,000 first printing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525938575/?tag=2022091-20
1996
administrator flight attendant attorney writer
Patricia Ireland was born on October 19, 1945 in Oak Park, Illinois, the United States. She is the daughter of James Ireland and Joan Filipek. Ireland’s upbringing was traditional. When Ireland was four and a half, her seven-year-old sister Kathy was killed while horseback riding, leaving the family deeply traumatized. This perhaps played a role in turning Ireland toward a serious career where power and public service went hand in hand.
As a teen, Ireland attended Valparaiso High School in Valparaiso, Indiana. She also attended Florida State University College of Law. In 1975 she earned her Doctor of Letters degree at University of Miami Law School. She also received a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Tennessee.
Before beginning a career as an attorney, Ireland worked as a flight attendant for Pan Am. After 8 years of work, Ireland was hired by the Miami firm Arky, Freed, Stearns, Watson & Greer. During this time she also worked as a volunteer with NOW's Dade County chapter.
In 1983, Ireland was elected to chair NOW's lesbian rights task force in the Florida chapter where she added her voice to an increasingly powerful lesbian faction within the national organization. In 1985 Ireland managed Eleanor Smeal's successful campaign for the NOW presidency; two years later Ireland won the vice-presidency, running with firebrand Molly Yard. After Yard suffered a stroke in 1991, Ireland was named NOW's ninth president. She held this position for 10 years,
In 2003, Ireland served for six months as the CEO of the YWCA. In October 2003, Ireland was dismissed after refusing to step down, although YWCA spokespeople denied that conservative pressure was a factor in the decision. Following her dismissal from the YWCA, Ireland was former Senator Carol Moseley Braun's national campaign manager for her brief 2004 presidential bid.
Since then, she works as the director of the Immigration And Refugee Services Of America Inc.
NOW President Patricia Ireland led the largest, most visible and most successful feminist organization in the United States for 10 years. Her major contributions included organizing NOW activists to: defend women's access to abortion, elect a record number of women to political office, work more closely in coalitions with other social justice and civil rights groups and champion international feminist issues. Ireland developed NOW's Project Stand Up for Women, including training thousands of activists in direct clinic defense; and major lobbying and litigation successes.
In 1992, she led NOW in organizing a record-breaking crowd of 750,000 for NOW's March for Women's Lives. The NOW “Elect Women for a Change“ campaign Ireland initiated in 1992 played a pivotal role in making it “the Year of the Woman.“
As part of NOW's work with the Up and Out of Poverty Now! coalition, Ireland delivered testimony and organized lobby days, news briefings and protests on behalf of poor women. Her efforts on behalf of lesbian and gay rights have included: organizing activists to fight punitive ballot initiatives around the country; getting arrested at the White House over the continued ban on gays and lesbians in the military; and serving as a speaker and major organizer for the 1993 March on Washington for Gay, Lesbian and Bi Civil Rights.
She has also represented NOW at six international women's conferences around the world.
(The president of the National Organization for Women offe...)
1996Ireland's romantic involvement with Pat Silverthorn, a longtime activist in the Socialist Workers Party, influenced her political views including continued support for the Communist party and participation in pro-Communist rallies.
Ireland has conservative outlook. She is a radical feminist. She has advocated extensively for the rights of poor women, gays and lesbians, and African-American women. She has also advocated electing female candidates, and training people to defend clinics from pro-life protesters around the United States.
Ireland's first marriage lasted not long. After divorce, she married James Humble in 1968. On December 17, 1991 she gave an interview with The Advocate, in which she stated that she was bisexual and had a female companion while remaining married to her second husband.
