Virginia "Ginger" Purdy is an alum of Texas Women's University and was named Distinguished Alumni in 2005. She has served on the University’s Foundation Board. Purdy formulated her ideas of the "middle woman" in 1996 book, which has a foreward by Ann Richards, Come On In, There's Room For US All: Finding Your Place in the Women's Movement; Finally! The Middle Woman Speaks Up and Out .
Purdy has been involved in the founding and leadership of numerous women's organization in the San Antonio area. In 1980, she founded Network Power/Texas, a support group for women, whose purpose is to promote equity and self-sufficiency for women through educational programs, activities and services. In 1988, Purdy founded the San Antonio Women's Chamber of Commerce to provide leadership training for women in our community because there was no other such program in existence. She has also been involved in the Association for Women in Communications, the Women's Pavilion Board, Women's Political Caucus of Bexar County, Women's Legislative Days and Ann's Fans, a support group for Ann Richards.
Listed in Who’s Who of American Women, Purdy is a member of the International Women’s Forum and in 1992 received the “Women Who Make A Difference Award.” She was one of the first inductees in San Antonio's Women’s Hall of Fame, has received a lifetime achievement award from the YWCA and was named State Woman of the Year by the Business and Professional Women. In 2004, the Women’s Studies Institute at the University of Texas at San Antonio presented Ginger Purdy with its first annual Women’s Advocate of the Year Award.
Sources: StoryCorps blog, "Women Leading Texas," 3/26/2008, http://www.storycorps.net/blog/west-mobilebooth/san-antonio-texas/women-leading-texas/; "A Place where women were acknowledged," San Antonio Current, 4/2/2008, http://www.sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=68503; The Fire Lighter: Ginger's Story, http://www.thefirelighter.net/story.htm
From the guide to the Virginia "Ginger" Purdy papers MS 201., 1979-2010, (University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections)
