The Nation - News from April 14, 1986

Feminist and civil rights activist Shirley Chisholm urged women to stop being “complacent, passive armchair recipients” and start planning for their senior years. Chisholm told an audience in Manchester, N.H., at the first New England Women’s Conference on Aging, that elderly women are becoming “a new minority group with very special needs.” “Many are widowed. They are living alone,” said the former New York congresswoman. “Who is going to give them a job at age 60?”