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.
Evelyn Clarke
2005
Historian
Evelyn L. Clarke spent her childhood in orphanages and foster homes--an upbringing that led her to find solace in libraries and books. The inspiration she gleaned from libraries sturred a curiosity in and determination for women's and human rights, healthcare, local and national politics, and youth and multicultural issues and concerns.
During the many days spent in the library, Evelyn learned about the women's movement. Her early knowledge of the movement led her to join and attend the first local meeting of the National Women's Political Caucus. She participated in parades and demonstrations and took photographs of each experience--an interest she had acquired at Girl Scout camp. In 1975 she attended the first International Women's Conference in Mexico City where her Press Pass from a local paper gained her an interview with Margaret Mead. She also participated as a YWCA delegate to Washington where then President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton attended her session.
Evelyn's role models, she says, are school teachers and all the women who were involved in the movement. She is proud of the women of San Diego and reminds them that defeat, in the words of Susan B. Anthony, "is not an option."