Eight ‘Women of Vision’ Saluted

The Ms. Foundation for Women saluted eight “women of vision” at its first Gloria Steinem Awards on Monday at a black-tie benefit gala.

The first Pathfinder Award honored the late Laurie Shields of Oakland, Calif., founder in 1974 of the Displaced Homemaker’s Network and in 1980 co-founder and executive director of the Older Women’s League (OWL). The Philanthropic Vision Award was presented to Alida Rockefeller Messinger, whose contributions to the Ms. Foundation for Women include a $1 million gift to the foundation’s endowment campaign.

The other honorees were: Gloria Steinem, writer, editor and a founder and president of the board of the Ms. Foundation for Women; Janet Benshoof, director of the Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union; Rose Sanders, a lawyer and advocate for minority youth and founder of Mothers of Many (MOMS) in Selma, Ala., a program to improve the lives of rural minority youth; Sima Wali, an Afghan refugee who directs the Refugee Women in Development, a national organization concerned with prevention of domestic violence in refugee communities; Carolyn McKecuen, director of the Watermark Assn. of Artisans, a North Carolina craft cooperative that provides women with marketable skills; and Rosita Worl, founder of the Southeast Alaska Native Women’s Conference.