‘Feminism does not negate your role as a mother and wife.’

Jean Stern was in her early 50s when she moved to San Diego from Cincinnati in the late 1960s with her husband and teen-age daughter. She had planned to work part-time and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. But the Ohio native encountered neighbors who were questioning their lives and joined them in the women’s liberation movement in 1968. While her husband went back to school, she took a full-time position at the San Diego State University Library and also researched and distributed information for the National Organization for Women. She came back from a 1980 White House Mini-Conference on Older Women--held in conjunction with a conference on aging--to found the local chapter of the newly formed Older Women’s League. The local OWL now has 250 members--there are 14,000 nationwide, but none in Ohio. Stern, now 68, wonders about that. She was interviewed by Times staff writer Nancy Reed and photographed by Barbara Martin.

It was my neighbor, Grace, who took me to the first meeting. I went to hear the president of the National Organization for Women when she came here to speak, and I joined a rap group--that was women talking together about their individual problems and realizing those were problems of women in our society.

I think it was kind of a shock to my husband, but over the years he has realized and has become a strong advocate of women’s rights.

My argument is that women are facing a lot of problems--if we don’t do something about it ourselves, we can’t wait until men realize and do something about it. It’s not the way of the world.

Personally, I have gained a lot of self-confidence, I have status in the community and I have made a lot of friends.

Since our inception, access to health insurance has been one of our goals and a law was passed and became effective in July, 1986; it’s called group health insurance continuation.

I was in Walker Scott and they were having one of their big sales. And I said to a saleswoman that there was some talk about closing up Walker Scott. She said, well, they don’t really tell us anything. I asked, if it should happen, what would happen to her pension. “I don’t have any, we never did get it,” she said. The main thing she was worried about was medical benefits continuing until she was able to get on Medicare. So I told her about this bill, brought her a copy, and had her write away for more copies for her co-workers. So this was very good that she knew she would not be without medical benefits.

Similarly, we have helped a lot of people with Social Security. We have worked for a lot of those changes. We have been able to give that information to people and some of them were not aware that they were eligible. For instance, before 1977, you had to be married 20 continuous years in order to get half of your husband’s Social Security--now it is 10.

Recently, my son had been married for seven years and was separated. I think I have convinced him that his wife should be entitled to half of his Social Security. So unless there is some compelling reason why either one of them would really want a divorce, it would be best if they were to stay together for 10 years. She has done free-lance work and has paid into Social Security, but not what half of his would be.

People have asked me if it was wise. And I said I really feel she deserves it. So far, he has accepted it, it will be 9 years in August--I am hoping that they will make it to the 10.

I wish I had gotten involved when I was younger--it came a little late for me. I think my life would have been quite different. I think I would have felt a lot better about myself much earlier.

It was very slow for me when I started out, and I dreaded speaking in front of a group. I would really have to practice and prepare and really get up the confidence.

I think I tended to be rather invisible. I was shy and not confident of myself. And it might have been better for the children, too; I probably would have given them more freedom, because I would have had it.

I think some people don’t understand feminism--it does not negate your role as a mother and wife; in fact, I think it enhances it.