A Project of
the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls,
the Women's Museum of California,
SDSU Women's Studies Department, and UCSD Women's Center.
Anne D. Ewing
2005
Activist
Anne D. Ewing worked to remove restrictions in women's private, civic, and political lives. She founded San Diego's Chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus; led a statewide reform of racist and sexist language in primary school readers; and faced Catholic excommunication for her support of women's reproductive rights. Anne joined the civil rights movement in the segregated south when she was only 20 years old. After she moved to San Diego in 1968, she plunged headlong into women's rights issues. The early 1970s found her crusading for the replacement of blatantly sexist primary school readers in which young girls were depicted as fearful and unimaginative.
Anne helped to establish the Education Task Force of NOW and became coordinator of the state-level force. She developed a slide presentation of criteria to identify sexist representation. The Education Board resisted change, but a lawsuit brought by California NOW under Anne's leadership led to successful negotiations. The resulting state mandate aI
In 1976 Anne founded the National Women's Political Caucus in San Diego and for 30 years assisted women of both parties to seek and hold political office. On another front, Anne challenged the Catholic Church's excommunication of San Diego women who defended NOW's pro-choice position in the 1970s. She led a pro-choice march and rallied public opinion behind a woman's right to choose. Because of her efforts, countless girls and women gained respect and self-determination. Anne died in 2011.