Eleanor “Ellie” Smeal, the president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and publisher of Ms., was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal—the nation’s second highest civilian honors—on Jan. 2 by President Joe Biden for “defining the movement for women’s rights.”
“From leading massive protests and galvanizing women’s votes in the 1970s to steering progress for equal pay and helping the Violence Against Women Act become law, Ellie Smeal forced the nation to not only include women in political discourse but to value them as power brokers and equals,” the White House said in a statement.
This recognition is long overdue, according to other women’s rights activists.
“As far back as my memory goes, which is about 50 years, to 1974, Ellie has been the leading strategist for the entire women’s movement, all the organizations,” said Kim Gandy, a past president of the National Organization for Women and former CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
“One of the things that has frustrated all of us over the years is that Ellie didn’t care who got the credit for her brilliant ideas,” Gandy continued. “It happened over and over that she would come up with some wonderful idea, and some other organization would take it and run with it. And we’re like, ‘Ellie, aren’t you mad?’ … [And she would respond,] ‘No, this is great. Now I can work on something else.’ … I wish I could say that I had the same generosity of spirit that she has, of not caring who gets the credit as long as … the campaign happens, as long as the bill gets passed, as long as the rally makes a difference.”
Peggy Simpson, a former reporter for the Associated Press and Washington bureau chief for Ms., added, “There are a lot of people who are doing the Lord’s work and [are] really famous within a circle of people, but the larger group of Americans don’t know [them]. They don’t know much about what happens with feminism … or the women’s movement. And so I think this is a fantastic award that will elevate what [Ellie has] done. It’ll elevate that in the public sphere.”
According to Kathy Bonk, a feminist activist and communications advisor, Smeal’s contributions to the movement are wide-ranging.
“There were so many things from the minute she got involved with NOW,” Bonk said. “I met her in 1970 and that was when our local NOW chapter brought the Pittsburgh Press case that went up to the Supreme Court. [There were advertisements for] ‘help wanted men’ and ‘help wanted women’ at the time, and Ellie worked feverishly with the man [who] brought … the case, and then we had employment cases against U.S. Steel [and] the University of Pittsburgh. … And childcare was impossible for women, and so they set up the first childcare center in the Pittsburgh area, thinking it could be almost like a model. Unfortunately, soon after that, [President Richard] Nixon vetoed the childcare bill. And she was with Alice Paul on the Equal Rights Amendment. I mean, I can keep going on all the different issues that she’s worked on.”
Afghan women’s rights activists point to Smeal’s leadership opposing gender apartheid.
“Afghan women’s rights have been a really critical issue for Ellie,” said Zahra Wakilzada, soon to be a diplomat in the U.S. State Department. “She has been one of the very first American feminists and women’s rights activists at the forefront of bringing attention to the struggle of Afghan women and the way Afghan women have systematically been oppressed throughout years.”
Makhfi Azizi, an Afghan human rights advocate, added, “Ellie advocated for Afghan women and girls at a time [when] people didn’t even know what was happening there. And she did it not because she knew a lot of Afghan women or had been to the country, but … she really took on that challenge and put every bit of her soul and time to advocate for Afghan women and girls and not allow the Taliban to be recognized when they were … in power in Afghanistan during the ’90s. … And because of her efforts, the State Department and the U.N. stopped recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate authority in Afghanistan, which means it stopped … the normalization of the treatment of Afghan women and girls by the Taliban.”
Terri McCullough, chief of staff to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said she attended the celebration of Smeal’s award at the speaker emeritus’ request to add her congratulations because “we have been in so many fights with Ellie … for women’s rights, domestically, internationally, and Ellie’s indomitable spirit is what has helped continue to move us through all of these fights.
“She has been a hero to all of us.”
The other 19 recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal on Thursday were: Mary L. Bonauto, attorney and same-sex marriage activist; Bill Bradley, record-breaking basketball player and former senator; Frank K. Butler, Jr., war veteran and medical pioneer; Elizabeth L. Cheney, former representative and democracy defender; Christopher J. Dodd, former senator and diplomat and adviser to Biden; Diane Carlson Evans, nurse and activist; Joseph L. Galloway (posthumous), war correspondent; Nancy Landon Kassebaum, former senator and the first woman to represent Kansas; Ted Kaufman, former senator, advocate of court reform and adviser to Biden; Carolyn McCarthy, nurse, former senator and gun safety activist; Louis Lorenzo Redding (posthumous), civil rights advocate and the first Black attorney admitted to the bar in Delaware; Bobby Sager, photographer and philanthropist; Collins J. Seitz (posthumous), former Delaware state judge and the first in America to integrate a white public school; Bennie G. Thompson, former representative and chair of the Jan. 6 committee; Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi (posthumous), who fought for Japanese Americans all the way to the Supreme Court; Thomas J. Vallely, a veteran and advocate for world peace; Frances M. Visco, cancer survivor and president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition; Paula S. Wallace, educator, artist and founder of Savannah College of Art and Design; and Evan Wolfson, lawyer and leader in the marriage equality movement.
