Rawalt, Marguerite, 1895-
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Rawalt, Marguerite, 1895-
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Rawalt, Marguerite, 1895-
Rawalt, Marguerite
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Name :
Rawalt, Marguerite
Marguerite Rawalt, 1895-
Name Components
Name :
Marguerite Rawalt, 1895-
Rawalt, Marguerite, 1895-1989.
Name Components
Name :
Rawalt, Marguerite, 1895-1989.
Rawalt, Marguerite, 191? -
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Rawalt, Marguerite, 191? -
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Biographical History
Marguerite Rawalt was born October 16, 1895, in Prairie City, Illinois. She received her AB/LLB (1933) and LLM (1936) from George Washington University. From 1933 to 1965, Rawalt worked as an attorney in the office of chief counsel, Bureau of Internal Revenue. During her tenure there, she served as president of the National Association of Women Lawyers (1942-1943) and the Federal Bar Association (1943-1944). She was the first woman president of the FBA and the first woman sent to the American Bar Association's House of Delegates (1943).
Rawalt was also active in several women's organizations, including the General Federation of Women's Clubs and Zonta International. She served as President of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women (1954-1956), and as the first president of Business and Professional Women's Foundation, an educational and research institution, which she helped found in 1956.
Rawalt was appointed to President Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women in 1961, and subsequently participated in other commissions on the status of women, including the Citizens' Advisory Council on the Status of Women and the District of Columbia Commission on the Status of Women.
Rawalt was an early member of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and chair of its legal committee (1966-1969). She was a founder of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1970 and served as its treasurer for three years. Rawalt was also an early member of and attorney for Women's Equity Action League (WEAL), which was established in 1968. She served on various WEAL committees and as the group's president (1979-1980). The Marguerite Rawalt Legal Defense Fund was established in 1977 to work on sex discrimination cases. In 1974, Rawalt returned to George Washington University and taught a course entitled "Women and the Law."
Rawalt's work towards the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment began as early as Operation Buttonhole, a 1950s project of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women, and continued throughout the 1970s. She was a founding member of Women United and the ERA Ratification Council. She also helped with the work of ERAmerica and ERA Congressional Jubilee.
Rawalt was author of three published volumes: The Equal Rights Amendment for Equal Rights Under the Law (WEAL, 1976), A History of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc. (NFBPW, 1969), and Decendants of John Rawalt (Rewalt), Revolutionary War Patriot, Serving 1775-1782 (Rawalt, 1974). Accounts of Rawalt's life and work are featured in several biographical reference works, including Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who of American Women, and Notable American Women . She is also the subject of Judith Paterson's biography, Be Somebody: A Biography of Marguerite Rawalt (Eakin Press, 1986).
Marguerite Rawalt married Army Air Corps Sargeant Jack Tindale in 1918 and divorced him in 1927. She was married to retired Air Force Major Harry Secord from 1937 until his death in 1963; they had no children. Rawalt died December 16, 1989, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
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Lawyer and feminist Rawalt has served as legal counsel for the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL), chaired the Civil and Political Rights Committee (CPR) of the President's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), and worked with the Citizens' Advisory Council on the Status of Women (CACSW).
Lawyer, interviewee married Harry Secord.
See the finding aid for the Marguerite Rawalt papers (MC 478).
Attorney and feminist Marguerite Rawalt was active in the National Organization for Women and chair of its legal committee (1966-1969), founder and treasurer of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, and an attorney for and president of the Women's Equity Action League. She was a lawyer for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (1933-1965) and during her tenure there served as president of the National Association of Women Lawyers (1942-1943) and of the Federal Bar Association (1943-1944). She as the first woman president of the FBA and the first woman sent to the ABA's House of Delegates (1943).
Rawalt was also active in many women's organizations, including the General Federation of Women's Clubs and Zonta International. She served as president of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women (1954-1956), and as the first president of Business and Professional Women's Foundation, which she helped found in 1956. In 1961 she was appointed to the President's Commission on the Status of Women and subsequently served on other commissions, such as the Citizens' Advisory Council on the Status of Women and the District of Columbia Commission on the Status of Women. She was active in the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and was a founding member of Women United and the ERA Ratification Council.
Her first marriage, to Army Air Corps Sargeant Jack Tindale, ended in divorce in 1927. She was married to Air Force Major Harry Secord from 1937 until his death in 1963. They had no children. Rawalt died in December 1989 in Corpus Christi, Texas. For further biographical information, see Be Somebody: A Biography of Marguerite Rawalt (1986) by Judith Paterson.
Born in Prairie City, Illinois in 1895, Rawalt was a graduate of George Washington University School of Law and a tax attorney for the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C.
An active supporter of women's rights, Rawalt served on President John F. Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women and President Lyndon Johnson's Citizens Advisory Council on the Status of Women. She was also involved in the organization of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and served as an officer in several national professional organizations. Rawalt was married to Major Harry Secord in 1937.
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https://viaf.org/viaf/38351297
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85146956
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n85146956
https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6760813
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Equal rights amendents
Equal rights amendments
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International Women's Year, 1975
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United States. President's Commission on the Status of Women
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Women's rights
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United States
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Washington (D.C.)
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United States
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United States
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