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Elizabeth “Betty” Boynton Millard [10/10/1991 3/6/2010] was a writer, artist, political activist, philanthropist, and a feminist. She is known for her feminist publication, Woman against Myth, as well as her involvement within the United States Communist Party in the 1940s and 1950s.

Early Life:

Born in Highland Park, Illinois, on October 10, 1911 to a wealthy, conservative family, Millard studied at Barnard College in New York, NY in 1932. At Barnard, Betty discovered political activism, when she marched against the United States’ support of France during the Spanish Civil War.

Feminism & Political Activism:

Alongside Nora Stanton Barney, Haley Douglass, and Susan B. Anthony, Millard was a member of the Congress of American Woman (CAW) (Weigand), an affiliated group of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) (Gordon). Millard worked to tie the CAW’s women’s rights agenda to the history of the women’s suffrage movement as well as the women’s labor movement through her organizing efforts, writing, and educating (Weigand). Millard was responsible for founding of the Los Angeles chapter of the CAW. In Los Angeles, Millard began organizing and teaching “classes on American women’s history and status” (Weigand). While working with the WIDF, Millard spent two years promoting feminism as well as women’s rights in Paris, France following the Allied victory of World War II. In addition to spending time advocating for women in France, Millard promoted women’s rights for women in Italy (Gordon). In 1948, Betty Millard produced the influential twenty-four page feminist pamphlet, Woman against Myth, which analyses the “inequality between the sexes” (Gordon). Published by International Publishers and first appearing in her own New Masses magazine (Weigand), the work examines and explains “the history of the women’s movement in the United States, in the socialist movement, and in the USSR” (Gordon). Along with editing New Masses for four years, Millard edited Latin America Today for five years during the mid-1950s. Latin America Today was a monthly magazine in which social and political developments of Latin America were reported monthly. She was a strong supporter of Cheddi Jagan’s campaign for prime minister of colonial British Guiana, who was said to have ties to the Soviet Union (Gordon). At the same time of the Cold War’s McCarthyism that terrorized many Communists and Communist affiliates in the United States, Millard left the party towards the end of the 1950s. Despite her departure from the party, Millard continued to be politically active through her efforts to free David Siqueiros, Mexican Communist Party member and social realist painter, from prison. She also made political efforts to end the Vietnam War (Gordon).

Later Years:

In the 1990s, towards the end of her life, Millard became an advocate for gay and lesbian rights. It was during this time that Millard “was able to openly affirm her own lesbianism” (Gordon). Around this same time, Millard was drawn towards environmental issues. She would go on to become a philanthropist through her wealthy family inheritance and would donate to “progressive, LGBT, and environmental organizations.” Betty Millard died on March 6th, 2010 at her home in New York City. (Gordon).

Citations:

Gordon, Eric A. People's World, "Feminist pioneer Betty Millard dies at 98." Last modified March 25, 2010. (accessed September27, 2011). http://peoplesworld.org/feminist-pioneer-betty-millard-dies-at-9/.

Hill, Rebecca. 2004. "Essay review." American Communist History 3, no. 1: 145-151. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed September 27, 2011).

Keetley, Dawn, and John Pettegrew. Public Women, Public Words: A Documentary History of American Feminism Volume II: 1900 to 1960. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

North Star Fund, "Honoring Inspiration: Two New Memorial Grants Created in Memory of Inspiring Supporters of North Star Fund." Accessed September 28, 2011. http://northstarfund.org/news/2011/09/honoring-inspiration.php.

Weigand, Kate. Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation. Batlimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.