New Jersey Women's Equity Action League Records

The Women's Equity Action League (WEAL) was founded in 1968 by Elizabeth Boyer. Boyer, a native of Ohio, had been active in the National Organization for Women, but believed that a more conservative association was needed to attract women in the Midwest. Avoiding the controversial abortion issue, WEAL focused on women's education, employment, and other economic issues, although in 1972, the organization began to openly support abortion rights. WEAL did not seek a mass membership. Its members were directly involved in research, monitoring, advocacy and litigation in order to end discrimination against women.

The New Jersey Women's Equity Action League was founded in September 1971, when the Rutgers University Spanish professor Phyllis Zatlin Boring became its first president. Jane F. Robens became president of New Jersey WEAL in 1973. She had been active at the national level, and previously served as vice-president of the New Jersey division. Robens, trained as a veterinarian, worked as Technical Coordinator for Drug Regulatory Affairs at the Hoffmann-La Roche Corporation in Nutley, New Jersey. After she was succeeded as president of New Jersey WEAL by Eileen Thornton in 1974, Robens served on the national board as membership secretary. The New Jersey and other state divisions were disbanded in 1981 when national WEAL merged with the WEAL Educational and Legal Defense Fund.

During Phyllis Boring's administration, New Jersey WEAL conducted a campaign against sex-segregated classified advertisements, which were in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination on the basis of sex. During this period, Jane F. Robens was involved in efforts to increase numbers of women students in veterinary schools. She fought to have an anti-discrimination clause included in contracts between the State Department of Higher Education and out-of-state veterinary schools for the acceptance of New Jersey residents. Robens also conducted a study of the pharmaceutical industry, one of New Jersey's major employers. She investigated the record of pharmaceutical companies in employing women, as well as the portrayal of women in advertisements placed by these companies in medical journals.

Under Jane F. Robens' leadership, WEAL campaigned against credit policies which discriminated against women. The efforts of WEAL and others eventually led to the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974 which forbade banks and credit firms from using sex or marital status as a reason for denying credit. New Jersey WEAL also conducted a survey of banks which showed that very few women were employed as directors. Banks holding government money qualified as federal contractors, and were thus required to develop affirmative action plans.

New Jersey WEAL filed dozens of lawsuits against institutions of higher education, among them Montclair State College, for failing to comply with Title VII, and after 1972 with Title IX, which explicitly banned sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funds. WEAL successfully used Title IX to force public schools to allow girls to participate on boys' athletics teams if no comparable provision existed for girls. The organization also filed charges against some state and local government agencies, which they felt failed to hire sufficient numbers of women.

In addition, in 1971 New Jersey WEAL established Project Monitor, which helped place women seeking college teaching and administrative positions. Project Monitor was discontinued in 1973, and its function was taken over by the New Jersey Talent Bank, the employment resource center for women operated through the State Office on Women.