Eleanor Smeal
In a career built on advocacy, Eleanor Smeal has worked as a women's rights activist whose contributions earned her a place in both the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame — recognitions that mark the sustained scope of her public work.
Born on July 30, 1939, in Ashtabula, Ohio, Smeal pursued her education at Duke University and later at the University of Florida. Those formative years shaped the foundation from which she would go on to engage with questions of women's rights in the United States, a country whose civic life she has participated in as a citizen throughout her career.
Her induction into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame connects her specifically to the state where her life began, while her place in the National Women's Hall of Fame reflects a broader acknowledgment of her role in American women's rights activism. These two honors together offer a concrete measure of how her work has been received and recognized over time.
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Quotes by Eleanor Smeal
Eleanor Smeal's insights on:
I have been studying women’s political behavior since the early 1970s and first identified the gender gap in 1980 with the help of legendary pollster Louis Harris.
There’s no question in my mind but that rights are never won unless people are willing to fight for them.
Feminist humor raises consciousness. And the reason it’s funny is because it stands something on its head. Goodness knows you’ve got to have a sense of humor if you do feminism full-time, I tell you.
In the '60s, to say this obvious fact that women were treated unequally was to make yourself the object of scorn and ridicule.
Democrats have been saying for years to their women's rights and civil rights base: 'Vote for us, and we'll save the Supreme Court.' Now, they have stepped back from using that power.
Every inch of the way, the drug has shown its safety, and each of the groups here and certainly us have been satisfied with the safety.
We cannot have a time when those of us who are protesting current policies are going to be compared to terrorists or their values. We have to stand up now before we have a period of silencing all meaningful discussion in our country.