Ireland, Patricia (1945—)

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Ireland, Patricia (1945—)

American lawyer, social activist, and president of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Born in Oak Park, Illinois, on October 19, 1945; second of two daughters of James Ireland (a metallurgical engineer) and Joan (Filipak) Ireland; attended DePauw University,

Greencastle, Indiana; graduated from the University of Tennessee, 1966; attended Florida State University, 1972; received law degree from the University of Miami, in 1975; married Donald Anderson (a college student), in 1962 (divorced 1963); married James Humble (an artist and businessman), in 1968; no children.

In 1991, Patricia Ireland succeeded Molly Yard as the ninth president of the National Organization of Women (NOW), which was founded in 1966 with a mandate to support abortion rights and fight against sexual discrimination in education and employment. As the century ends, Ireland remains at the organization's helm, having been a driving force in transforming it into the largest and most prominent feminist group in the United States. Given her current status, it is difficult to believe that Ireland once envisioned a conventional future for herself. "I would go on to college. But after that, like my mother before me, I'd get a job for a while, then marry and have children. I would stay at home to raise them and live happily ever after."

The daughter of a metallurgical engineer and a stay-at-home mom, Ireland was born in 1945 in Oak Park, Illinois, and grew up on a farm in Valparaiso, Indiana. When Ireland was four, her older sister Kathy died after a fall from a horse. "I was well into my forties before I started thinking what impact my sister's death had on me," said Ireland. "My strongest defense is always denial." (Ireland's parents subsequently adopted two little girls.) An honor student throughout school, Ireland entered DePauw University at 16, with plans to become a teacher, "because you can be home with your kids after school and take summers off," she later told an interviewer. Shortly into her first semester, she became pregnant and was forced to travel to Japan for a legal abortion, the first of two. In 1962, she married Donald Anderson and transferred with him to the University of Tennessee. The marriage ended after a year, and Ireland went on to graduate with a degree in German. In 1968, she married artist James Humble, and after an unhappy term attending graduate school and teaching German to undergraduates, she and Humble moved to Florida, where she worked as a flight attendant for Pan American Airlines.

Although she had some trepidations about the airline industry—she, too, had winced at the ad, "I'm Cheryl. Fly me."—nothing prepared her for the realities of working as a stewardess. Angered by the daily humiliations she encountered from both passengers and pilots, she began to challenge some of the airline's stipulations, such as those mandating that stewardesses wear girdles, uncomfortable pumps, and makeup. Finally, when the airline's health plan refused to cover dental work for her husband, even though the wives of male employees were covered, she decided to take action. Seeking advice from the Dade County chapter of NOW, who directed her to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for further assistance, she was just about to file a legal challenge when the airline suddenly changed its policy in her favor.

Feeling somewhat empowered by that experience, Ireland enrolled in law school at Florida State (she later transferred to the University of Miami), but continued to moonlight as a stewardess to pay expenses. Her frustration resurfaced when she became aware that people treated her with more respect as a law student. "The way I was getting credibility was by moving into a man's job, which is a source of great irritation to me," she told Donna Minkowitz of the Advocate (December 17, 1991). "I think traditional women's work is undervalued—teaching, health care, social work. That was part of the experience that made me want to be an activist."

While in law school, Ireland served on the Law Review and the Lawyer of the Americas and also led a successful protest to remove the line, "Land, like a woman, is meant to be possessed," from a textbook. After graduating with high honors in 1975, she worked in corporate law for 12 years, during which time she also did pro-bono work for NOW and assisted corporate clients in establishing affirmative-action programs. As Ireland became more and more committed to women's rights, her involvement with NOW intensified. In 1977, she led her NOW chapter in the fight against entertainer Anita Bryant 's anti-gay referendum in Dade County, and in 1982 spearheaded a campaign against Florida State senator Dick Anderson who opposed the Equal Rights Amendment. The following year, she became chair of the Florida chapter of NOW's lesbian rights task force.

By the 1980s, Ireland's political and legal savvy, as well as her accessible personality, had become a great asset to NOW. In 1985, she ran Eleanor Smeal 's successful campaign for the presidency of NOW and in 1987 was elected executive vice-president of the organization on a ticket with septuagenarian Molly Yard as president. Leaving her partnership in the Miami law firm, Ireland moved to Washington, where one of her first projects was to direct NOW's Project Stand Up for Women, a campaign against anti-abortion extremist groups. She also led the organization in opposing right-wing nominations to the Supreme Court and represented NOW at important feminist conferences in the United States and Europe. Yard and Ireland were reelected for a second term in 1989, and when Yard suffered a massive stroke in May 1991, Ireland took over as acting president. In December 1991, she was officially named the organization's president, and has been reelected to the office several times since.

As Ireland accepted the presidency of NOW, a revelation about her personal life set off a flurry of media coverage. Admitting that she had both a husband in Florida and a female companion in Washington, Ireland was unapologetic, stating that both relationships were very important to her. "I'm very comfortable with all that," she told Minkowitz. "I've never hidden how I've lived my life. What I don't like is the idea—with women, I think it's particularly the case—that people try to categorize other people by their sexuality." Ireland is decidedly low-key in both her appearance and public behavior. "It's not smart to make people uncomfortable for reasons apart from the issues," she notes. She sees her husband, who lives in Homestead, Florida, twice a month and refuses to divulge the name of her female companion, for fear that the woman will lose her job if her identity is revealed.

With the controversy behind her, Ireland tackled her first public action, leading a march protesting the nomination of Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice. (In October 1991, law professor Anita Hill testified at Thomas' Senate Confirmation Hearings that he had sexually harassed her when they were colleagues at EEOC.) Although NOW was unsuccessful in its attempt to block Thomas's appointment, it did focus the national spotlight on the problem of sexual harassment and brought into focus the need for more female representatives on Capitol Hill. As a result, a record number of women were elected to Congress in 1992. The Thomas debacle also resulted in a three-fold increase in NOW's membership, which had plummeted in 1982, following the defeat of the ERA. "The irony is that the women's movement prospers in adversity," Ireland said. "When things get bad, we get more supporters, more activists, more money, more everything."

Early in her presidency, Ireland also tackled the problem of reuniting competing factions within NOW's membership, particularly the rift between lesbian and non-lesbian members that had grown out of a purge in the early 1970s, during which many lesbians were removed from power in order to eliminate the belief, among some, that all feminists are gay. Although the organization had since made strides in supporting the rights of lesbians, Ireland has stressed that NOW is "not a lesbian rights organization. We're your first full-service organization that has among it four priority issues on lesbian rights." She also took steps to define the organization's role as an advocacy group, of concern since the ouster of former NOW president Judy Goldsmith in 1985, after she convinced presidential candidate Walter Mondale to select Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. Ireland made it quite clear that she had no intention of turning NOW into just another Washington lobbying group. "Nobody is going to give us our rights because they like us or because we're ladylike," she said. "Our role is to be at the cutting edge of controversy."

In the 1990s, Ireland led NOW in a fight against budget cuts proposed by Newt Gingrich and the right-wing Congress, believing that they would jeopardize social programs for women and children. In August 1995, she announced that NOW members had voted to push for a new and expanded ERA. Her future plans include the creation of a television network devoted to feminist issues, the development of a training program for NOW activists, and even the organization of a new political party. Ireland is not one to rest on her laurels, nor does she believe that the fight for sexual equality is anywhere near over. "We must bear in mind … that the progress we seek is not inevitable. It will come because we have new energy in our movement."