Tish Sommers
Encyclopedia
Letitia "Tish" Sommers was an author, a women's rights activist, and the co-founder and first President of the Older Women's League
. Sommers was raised in Los Angeles (although born in Cambria
) and was originally a dancer. After she visited Nazi Germany in 1933 to study dance and saw the suffering of the Jewish people, she became an activist; in the 1950s she was a volunteer for social and civil rights causes in the South. With the help of her friend Laurie Shields, she successfully lobbied 39 states and Congress to pass displaced-homemaker laws, which offered a network of job training and counseling centers for career housewives who went through divorce or the death of a husband. Sommers coined the phrase "displaced homemaker." She chaired the National Organization for Women
's Task Force on older women in the 1970s (it was formed in 1973); she was also a NOW Board member and led the Jobs for Older Women Action Project. She cofounded the Older Women's League
with Laurie Shields in 1980. She died of cancer in 1985 at age 71. Some of her papers are held as "The Tish Sommers Papers", at the Special Collections Library in San Diego State University. The Institute for Health and Aging established the Tish Sommers Senior Scholars program to honor her; it supports the work of older graduate and postdoctoral students working to improve the lives of older women. In 1991 a biography of her was published titled Tish Sommers, Activist: and the Founding of the Older Women's League, by Patricia Huckle, Univ. of Tenn. Press.
Women Take Care: The Consequences of Caregiving in Today's Society, by Tish Sommers, Laurie Shields, and the Older Women's League (Nov 1987)
Older Women's League
' was founded in 1980 after a White House mini-conference on aging in Des Moines, Iowa. It was founded by Tish Sommers and Laurie Shields.-Founding:...
. Sommers was raised in Los Angeles (although born in Cambria
Cambria
Cambria is the classical name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name Cymru . The etymology of Cymry "the Welsh", Cimbri, and Cwmry "Cumbria", improbably connected to the Biblical Gomer and the "Cimmerians" by 17th-century celticists, is now known to come from Old Welsh combrog...
) and was originally a dancer. After she visited Nazi Germany in 1933 to study dance and saw the suffering of the Jewish people, she became an activist; in the 1950s she was a volunteer for social and civil rights causes in the South. With the help of her friend Laurie Shields, she successfully lobbied 39 states and Congress to pass displaced-homemaker laws, which offered a network of job training and counseling centers for career housewives who went through divorce or the death of a husband. Sommers coined the phrase "displaced homemaker." She chaired the National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
's Task Force on older women in the 1970s (it was formed in 1973); she was also a NOW Board member and led the Jobs for Older Women Action Project. She cofounded the Older Women's League
Older Women's League
' was founded in 1980 after a White House mini-conference on aging in Des Moines, Iowa. It was founded by Tish Sommers and Laurie Shields.-Founding:...
with Laurie Shields in 1980. She died of cancer in 1985 at age 71. Some of her papers are held as "The Tish Sommers Papers", at the Special Collections Library in San Diego State University. The Institute for Health and Aging established the Tish Sommers Senior Scholars program to honor her; it supports the work of older graduate and postdoctoral students working to improve the lives of older women. In 1991 a biography of her was published titled Tish Sommers, Activist: and the Founding of the Older Women's League, by Patricia Huckle, Univ. of Tenn. Press.
Books
The not-so-helpless female: how to change the world even if you never thought you could; A step-by-step guide to social action, by Tish Sommers (1973)Women Take Care: The Consequences of Caregiving in Today's Society, by Tish Sommers, Laurie Shields, and the Older Women's League (Nov 1987)