What a wonderful, energetic difference that extra X chromosome makes in our world of fundraising.

As our final post for March and as National Women’s History Month nears its end in the US, Tom and I want to pay tribute to the role women play in fundraising today. And, the role fundraising has played in advancing the empowerment of women.

It was 50 years ago that Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique.  Historian Martin Seymour-Smith places that book firmly on a list of the 100 most influential books ever written. Futurist Alvin Toffler says the book “pulled the trigger on history.”

Like many great works this one almost didn’t get written. The genesis came from this survey Friedan did of her Smith College classmates 52 years ago. Take a few moments to review the survey and you’ll quickly see how circumscribed the lives of American women were back then.

The survey’s results helped explode the myth that women were happy housewives cleaning ovens and mopping floors, desiring little in the way of professions.

The Feminine Mystique was turned down by three women’s magazines because it contradicted the image of the fulfilled suburban women the magazines sought to sell. A book publisher picked it up and the book went on to sell more than three million copies, translated into at least a dozen languages. Most importantly it helped trigger the modern feminist movement.

At the time Betty Friedan’s book was published, most women could not get their own credit cards when they graduated from college unless their husband or father were willing to sign for it … women could not get health insurance for pregnancy … women’s enrollment in law and med schools was generally under 2% and abortion was illegal throughout the US.

Also at that time virtually all progressive social change movements had to rely on wealthy individuals, labor unions or political parties. Too much agenda-setting control in too few hands. But that didn’t last.

The rise of mass direct response fundraising in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s solved that problem. By the time the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in 1974 millions of donors were giving $10, $15 or $20 a year to fuel the engine of the new environmental (it was called ‘ecology’ in those days), anti-war and women’s rights movements.

By the late ‘70s the  donorbases of The National Organization for Women, The National Women’s Political Caucus, NARAL, The Feminist Majority and Planned Parenthood  — to name a few — were fueling the financial engine of change, free of dependence on Big Money.

Importantly, out of those formative years emerged a cadre of motivated, dedicated and skilled female fundraisers whose legacy is felt to this day.

Take just one example. EMILY’S List (acronym for “Early Money Is Like Yeast”), an innovative funding mechanism founded in 1985. It began when 25 women, rolodexes in hand, gathered in founder Ellen Malcolm’s basement to send letters to their friends about a network they were forming to raise money for pro-choice Democratic women candidates.

Last year, EMILY’s LIST raised $51 million from 2 million members.

In the tradition of Betty Friedan, and to paraphrase Alvin Toffler, millions of donors to the women’s movement and the fundraisers of that movement continue to pull the trigger on history.

Roger and Tom

P.S. Betty Friedan’s publisher reportedly paid her $1000 for The Feminine Mystique, which topped The New York Times Best Seller list. Sadly, far too many women in our trade continue to be paid less than their male colleagues.

Clearly, still more agitating is required.