In an op-ed for the New York Times published late last week, high-profile attorney Cleta Mitchell, who was involved with the women’s movement in the 1970’s, declared, “All that a ‘movement’ could responsibly achieve, has been achieved.”
Mitchell, a founder of the Oklahoma Women’s Political Caucus, recalled her experiences as an early feminist organizer, writing, “For over a decade, I traveled the state working for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Later, as an Oklahoma state legislator, I was a champion of women’s rights, including supporting abortion rights within the Roe v. Wade framework.”
“In the 1970s,” she continued, describing her work advocating for women’s rights, “we fought for legal equality and eradication of the laws, based on English common law, that put women in the same legal category as children and insane persons. We wanted access to the Ivy League schools, the professions, the clubs — everything. Wherever men could go and become successful, we wanted to be there, too.”
“And we got it all,” Mitchell concluded. “Big time. The antiquated statutes were repealed. Women got into the professions and the C-suites and the schools and the TV news anchor desks. We got there.”
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Mitchell served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives as a Democrat before becoming conservative in the 1990’s.
Now, Mitchell is a celebrated attorney and a partner at Foley & Lardner. She’s risen to even greater prominence in recent years for her work exposing the Obama administration’s IRS scandal targeting conservative nonprofits.
On Monday, the New York Times published a sharply divergent op-ed by Tina Brown delineating a variety of obstacles that allegedly hold women back in modern America, including few women leading Fortune 500 companies, Hillary Clinton losing the presidential election, and “pay inequity.”
For her part, Mitchell wants to remind Americans that equality under the law has been achieved. The women’s movement, she believes, has already won.
“Are there still obstacles facing women in society?” Mitchell asked in the article, “Yes, there are. But American women’s equality under the law is what I worked for and is, today, a reality. And I, for one, am not ashamed to declare victory.”
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
