Secretary of StateVermont State Archives
Secretary of StateThis series consists of the Staff's Daily Logs, Staff and Chair monthly reports, monthly and annual reports to the governor, correspondence on Commission and Advisory Council membership and lists of members, as well as material concerning plans and goals of the Commission, budgets, bylaws, executive orders and proposed executive orders. There is also considerable correspondence and memos between the Commission and the Office of Manpower Services/Comprehensive Employment and Training Office (CETO). There are contracts between the Commission and CETO, CETO reports, quarterly "manpower reports" which detailed Commission work on women and employment, and documents concerning whether the staff's lobbying activity violated CETA regulations.
These records concern various committees and task forces established by the Commission. The committees examine Commission priorities, focus on women and employment, education, the law, health care and child care. Also included is material on the Governor's Task Force on Women in Government, on which the chair of the GCSW served. Commission minutes also contain some committee reports.
Much of the correspondence concerns legislation supported by the Commission. There is also correspondence on commission resignations and vacancies, the establishment of committees and task forces, and the perpetual struggle for adequate funding. Other topics include the federal and state ERAs, the need for continuing education programs for women, conferences on child care and employment, affirmative action, sex stereotyping at schools, the distribution of spouse abuse grant funds and the appointment of women to boards and commissions. There is a 1978 survey of legislators on women's issues and a 1980 essay on battered women in Vermont.
Included are correspondence, memos, news and magazine clippings, pamphlets, minutes, laws, dockets and testimony concerning the federal Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in Vermont. There is a detailed description on the process of Vermont's ratification of the ERA as well as material on the Commission's statehouse lobbying strategy. There is quite a bit of material on the effect the ERA would have on Vermont laws and how the laws could be changed to conform to the ERA.
These records document Vermont's observance of International Women's Year. Some of the material concerns Vermont Women's Agenda Day, celebrated on Dec. 2, 1975. The bulk of the records, however, document Vermont Women's Town Meeting Day, the various regional meetings around the state, the National Conference in Houston, and all the preparations for these events. Vermont Women's Town Meeting day material includes a schedule of events, lists of films, detailed notes on each workshop, newsclippings, meeting minutes, press releases, meeting evaluations, results of a survey of participants, observations on the strengths and problems of the meeting, tape recorded interviews of participants, and the Final Report.
The National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year was created in 1975 by Executive Order #11832 "to examine and identify the barriers to women's equality." A 1976 federal law extended the life of the commission to 1978 and mandated it to sponsor state conferences and a National Conference in 1977.
Included are minutes of the first two meetings of the Commission on December 8, 1964 and February 11, 1965, and minutes from September 1969 to June, 1985. There are also scattered Executive Committee minutes for 1975, 1978-1979, and fairly complete Executive Committee minutes for 1980-1982. Other material, such as agenda, staff and chair reports, memos, chair and staff reports, resolutions, and committee reports, are mixed in with the minutes.
This series documents the Commission's work against domestic violence from 1981-1985. Included are reports of the Project Against Domestic Violence and a summary of the Commission's work against domestic violence from 1976-1982. The bulk of the records, however, concern the Spouse Abuse Grants Program. Related material: the Minutes and Correspondence series reveal some of the Commission's earlier work on family violence.
Within this series are newspaper clippings, Commission newsletters, press releases, and the witty and informative newspaper column "Equal Time" by executive director Constance Kite. There is also testimony (attached to a May 1976 press release) to the Vt. Senate Commerce Committee on sex discrimination in insurance policies.
These files concern various conferences and workshops sponsored by the Commission or in which the Commission participated, as well as miscellaneous Commission projects, studies and surveys, publications, legislation on women's issues, and so forth. Included is a Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) Sex Discrimination Study and significant material on women and employment.