''Sisters of '77'' is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

that chronicles the 1977 National Women's Conference in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, which took place November 18–21, 1977. The goal of the National Women's Conference was to end discrimination against women and promote their equal rights. The conference was sponsored by President Gerald Ford's Executive Order 11832 and federally funded through HR 9924. It brought together over 20,000 women and men from around the United States. ''Sisters of '77'' provides a look at a pivotal weekend that changed the course of history and the lives of the women who attended. The film incorporates rare archival footage and interviews of leaders relating this history to the present. Former

first ladies First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is also used to describe a woman seen to be at the t ...

Lady Bird Johnson Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (''née'' Taylor; December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. She previously served as Second Lady from 1961 to 1963 whe ...

Betty Ford Elizabeth Anne Ford (; formerly Warren; April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011) was the first lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977, as the wife of President Gerald Ford. As first lady, she was active in social policy and set a precedent as a p ...

, and

Rosalynn Carter Eleanor Rosalynn Carter ( ; née Smith; born August 18, 1927) is an American writer and activist who served as First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981 as the wife of President Jimmy Carter. For decades, she has been a leading advocate ...

were notable conference participants, and many influential women leaders attended, including

Bella Abzug Bella Savitzky Abzug (July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998), nicknamed "Battling Bella", was an American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steine ...

Betty Friedan Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book ''The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a c ...

Eleanor Smeal Eleanor Marie Smeal ( Cutri; born July 30, 1939) is a modern-day American feminist leader. She is the president and a cofounder of the Feminist Majority Foundation (founded in 1987) and has served as president of the National Organization for Wom ...

Ann Richards Dorothy Ann Richards (née Willis; September 1, 1933 – September 13, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. A Democrat, she first came to national attention as the Texas State Treasurer, w ...

Coretta Scott King Coretta Scott King ( Scott; April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader who was married to Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his death. As an advocate for African-American equality, she ...

, Billie Jean King, and

Barbara Jordan Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) was an American lawyer, educator, and politician. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-A ...

. The attendees included a wide range of women, such as Republicans, Democrats, African Americans, Asian Americans,

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, Native American,

pro-choice Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pr ...

pro-life Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respon ...

, straight, gay,

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and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

women.

Production

''Sisters of '77'' was created by filmmakers Cynthia Salzman Mondell and Allen Mondell and executive produced by Ed Delaney and Circle R Media, in association with Media Projects Inc. Salzman Mondell participated in the 1977 conference as a relay runner helping to carry a torch from Seneca Falls, New York, the site of the first women's rights convention in the United States, to Houston for the 1977 National Women's Conference. The film incorporates actual footage of the conference and modern-day interviews with movement leaders and women who attended.

Education and Outreach

ITVS ITVS (Independent Television Service) is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries on public television through distribution by PBS and American Public Television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly seri ...

chose the documentary ''Sisters of '77'' for their Community Connections Project (CCP), a community engagement and educational outreach campaign which reaches out to organizations that invest in building young women leaders; university and high school students who participate in

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and social studies; organizations that promote women's equal rights, reproductive freedom, lesbian and

minority rights Minority rights are the normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, and also the collective rights accorded to any minority group. Civil-rights movements ...

; and Internet groups that focus on democracy in action, social change and

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

References

* website for ''

Independent Lens ''Independent Lens'' is a weekly television series airing on PBS featuring documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of ''Independent Lens'' were hosted by Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence H ...

'' on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

Projects and Resources webpage * * * Includes guide rating and review.

External links

* * {{Amg movie, 322182, Sisters of '77 Documentary films about historical events PBS original programming 2000s feminist films Films set in 1977 Films set in Houston 2005 films 2005 documentary films 2000s English-language films English-language documentary films