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In 1980 the first White House Mini-Conference on older women was held in Des Moines, Iowa. Tish Sommers and Laurie Shields, encouraged by the 300
women attending, chartered the Older Women's League. Sommers selected OWL's first three national agenda issues:
Access to Health Care Insurance
Social Security
Pension Rights
These issues brought into focus our need to recognize the value of women's work (paid or unpaid), the economic plight of women in later years, and the
inequities of public policy.
In 1981 Laurie Shields crisscrossed the country setting up OWL chapters and launching the OWL Observer, our official national publication. At OWL's
first national convention held in 1982, three additional agenda issues were announced:
Support for caregivers and reinforcement of independent living
Working to end discrimination in employment and job training
Mitigating the effects on older women of federal budget cuts
OWL formed the Citizens Council on Earnings Sharing in 1983 to promote equity in Social Security. Ads were published declaring, "For men, they created retirement plans, medical benefits, profit sharing, and gold watches. For women, they created Mother's Day!" Local chapters lobbied in state legislatures for continuation of health insurance after job loss.National OWL representatives testified at Congressional hearings on Social Security, pension equity, the Equal Rights Amendment, regulations of the Legal Service Corporation, and long-term care.
Sponsoring a "Dialogue with Public Policymakers" in 1984, OWL met with policymakers and regulatory agencies to discuss participation of older women in the workforce and in job training. Using OWL's model legislation, The Health Insurance Rights Act, Louisiana was the first state to pass health insurance continuation. Other versions of the bill also passed that year in Oregon, Maryland, and Kansas. Seven other states, prodded by local OWL chapters, began considering the issue.
In 1985 we published "Women and Pensions" as part of the Women's Pension Literacy Campaign. This engendered articles in magazines and newspapers with up to 1.5 million subscribers, about the gender disparity of pensions. We published a primer on job discrimination. We instigated a Congressional Forum on Living Wills, which then published its proceedings in book form to educate the Congress on directives for health care decisions at the end of life.
In 1986 OWL added a seventh issue to its National Agenda "Staying in control to the end of one's life". We lobbied for improvements in private
pensions in the Federal Tax Reform Package; this succeeded in reducing vesting time from 10 to 5 years, curbed pension legislation, and covered a
greater number of workers. OWL's COBRA, the federal health insurance continuation bill, was signed into law; and we won passage of the National Caregivers Resolution.
Owl History, Page 2
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