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Eleanor Cutri
Smeal (b. 1939) was the daughter
of Italian immigrants who settled in Erie,
PA. Her father was an insurance salesman
and her mother was a homemaker. The youngest
of four siblings and the only girl, Ms.
Smeal attended public school as a child.
She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University
in 1961 and received master's degress in
political science and public administration
from the University of Florida. She married
Charlie Smeal in 1963 and, with him and
their two children, Todd and Laurie, moved
to Ohio and then Pittsburgh in the mid 1960s.
Ms. Smeal joined the Greater
Pittsburgh Area Chapter of the National
Organization for Women (NOW) in 1970. She
promoted a multi chapter structure rather
than a single chapter in Pittsburgh and
founded South Hills NOW in 1972 to reach
out to suburban housewives like herself.
Through her lobbying for the Pennsylvania
ERA in 1972, she concluded that state chapters
would be an important vehicle to advocate
for laws to promote equal rights for women
and girls. In 1973, she co-founded and served
as president of Pennsylvania NOW, the first
state chapter, and played a major role in
the gender integration of Little League.
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Ms. Smeal was elected to the
NOW board in 1974 and served one term as
chairperson (1975-1977) and two terms as
president (1977- 1982). She is most well
known for her leadership of the fight to
pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). With
the allotted time for ratification running
out, Ms. Smeal announced an ERA "State
of Emergency," a call for NOW to devote
itself entirely to passage of the ERA. She
was recognized as a national leader when
Time Magazine chose her as "One of
50 Faces for American's Future" (August
6, 1979). Her 1984 book How
and Why Women Will Elect the Next President
accurately predicted that, because of a
"gender gap" in voting behavior,
women would ultimately determine the outcome
of the presidential election.  During
her third term as NOW president (1985-1987),
Ms. Smeal led the first national abortion
rights march which drew more than 100,000
activists to Washington, D,C.
After leaving NOW, Ms. Smeal
founded the Feminist Majority Foundation
(FMF) and has served as CEO (1987-present).
Inspiration for the organization's name
came from a Newsweek/ Gallup public opinion
poll that revealed that the majority of
women (56%) in the United States self-identify
as feminists. FMF is dedicated to women's
equality, reproductive health, and non-violence,
and uses research and action to empower
women economically, socially and politically.
For more information, visit www.feminist.org.
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