ARVONNE S. FRASER:

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The collection contains correspondence, calendars, speech files, draft and published writings, extensive background and conference materials, audio and video recordings, minutes, reports, financial information, and publications related to Arvonne Fraser's involvement with women's organizations, politics, government agencies, and educational institutions.

The major strengths of the collection lie in its documentation of women's issues in the latter part of the twentieth century. A significant portion relate to Fraser's involvement in the women's rights movement and her leadership of feminist organizations. In addition the papers document her role in shaping cooperative projects, independent research, and American policy aimed at improving the status of women and girls in the United States and developing countries.

Papers related to the Women's Equity Action League document Fraser's earliest activities as a leading women's rights advocate and represent the influences that shaped her later concentrations upon women's educational and economic opportunities. Materials from this period primarily focus upon the status of American women and include materials regarding the League's outreach activities, legislative concerns, and legal aid services.

Papers related to the United Nations Decade for Women comprise a central core of the collection and are closely related to the sections regarding her coordination of the U.S. Office of Women in Development and her direction of the Women, Public Policy and Development Project at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs of the University of Minnesota. Papers from these sections add an international dimension to the documentation of women's issues and chronicle Fraser's emerging role from volunteer activist to professional administrator and policy analyst.

Other papers document Fraser's activities in the political campaigns of national and state democratic candidates, particularly the congressional campaigns of her husband Donald M. Fraser. Her political support of her husband is further evidenced by her long role as his office manager and administrative assistant. Materials pertaining to the Women's Equity Action League, particularly those related to Social Security, indicate how Fraser's advocacy of women's issues is reflected in her husband's legislative work and how her experience with the legislative process helped shape League activities.

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These papers are arranged into the following series:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Arvonne S. Fraser Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 11,746; 11,862; 12,698; 12,828; 12,946; 13,647; 13,814; 13,902; 14,333; 14,574; 15,068; 15,285; 16,953; 17,766

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of the audiovisual material are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original audio reels, audiocassettes and videocassettes were disposed after the material was digitally reformatted into MOV and WAV files.

Processing Information:

Catalog ID number: 990017200100104294

Processed by: Lydia Lucas, December 1974; additions by Bonnie Palmquist, May 1981, February 1986, July 1987, January 1988, December 1991, May 1995; Monica Manny Ralston, May 1998, April 2000; David B. Peterson, February 2015; Leif Kopietz, December 2021.

Digital audiovisual transferred from the master audio reels, audiocassettes, oral history and videocassettes by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (July, 2019).

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The speeches include correspondence, notes, talking points, outlines, drafts, and conference programs. Many of the speeches are identified by neither title nor speaking engagement and many texts were redrafted for multiple events. Also included within this series are extensive background materials consisting of newspaper clippings, magazine articles, newsletters, legislative bills, excerpts from the Federal Register, statistical studies, reports, and publications. Fraser typically spoke about the roles and rights of women covering such issues as politics, education, economics, health care, gender discrimination, family, career and employment patterns, equal opportunity and affirmative action programs, and the Equal Rights Amendment.

The writings include a bibliography of Fraser's publications, correspondence, background material, notes, outlines, handwritten drafts, typewritten texts, and proofs of both published and unpublished works. Included are files related to two books Fraser authored for the book series Looking Forward to a Career published by Dillon Press; a file containing clippings of a nationally syndicated newspaper column she wrote on the value of women's work titled "One Woman's Voice;" files containing research material and drafts for a chapter on women legislators in the book Women of Minnesota, edited by Barbara Stuhler and Gretchen Kreuter; and correspondence and drafts of a chapter written for the book Women in Washington: Advocates for Public Policy, edited by Irene Tinker and published by the Equity Policy Center. A 1999 article published in Human Rights Quarterly presents a summary of the impact that the United Nations Decade for Women had upon the development of women's rights.

Additional writings focus on Fraser's end of career years and legacy. This includes correspondence, press clippings, and event materials for her memoir She's No Lady: Politics, Family, and International Feminism (2007-2008) and correspondence regarding her publication Developing Power: How Women Transformed International Development (2003-2005). Also included are correspondence, drafts, and reference materials regarding revisions of her 1987 publication The U.N. Decade for Women: Documents and Dialogue. Arvonne Fraser's typed personal journal (1995-2003), unpublished works, draft chapters, and miscellaneous writings are also included. Reference materials, including subject files, publications, articles, clippings, testimonies, notes, lists, and historical files, are interspersed.

Additional and later speech and writing materials are included within the series regarding the Women's Equity Action League, the Office of Women in Development, and the Women, Public Policy and Development Project.

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This series contains material Fraser collected as she started to become involved in the American feminist movement. Included are brochures, mailings, and other promotional materials from women's rights organizations; news clippings; correspondence; statements, reports, memos, and background material on women's issues; conference materials; and feminist readings. Like her speech files, the topics cover a wide range and include information on gender discrimination in education and employment, career opportunities for women, politics, women's legal rights, marriage and divorce, and the Equal Rights Amendment.

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This series includes materials originating from Fraser's involvement with the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL), a national organization formed in 1968 to advocate women's legal and economic rights through research, education, litigation, and legislation. Since its inception Fraser has variously served as a member of the board (1970-1977 and 1981-1983), as vice president (1971-1972), as president (1972-1974), as chair of the Legislative Action Committee (1971-1972 and 1975), and as director of the Education and Legal Defense Fund's intern program (1976).

The series includes a history of the League written by Arlene Kaplan Daniels, board materials, correspondence, newsletters, legislative files, subject files, conference and speech files, and files pertaining to the League's Education and Legal Defense Fund. Materials specifically pertaining to the League's Board consist of agendas, meeting minutes, bylaws, budgets and financial reports, officer and committee reports, project reports, membership mailings, fact sheets, legislative updates, and press releases. Files related to the Education and Legal Defense Fund include documentation of legal cases assisted by the Fund and informational kits produced by the Fund, as well as board materials and correspondence.

Topics covered by the files include education, employment, estate taxes, revenue sharing, older women, reproduction, the Equal Rights Amendment, voluntarism, sports, and the military. Particularly well documented within the Legislative Files are the League's efforts to achieve gender equity in the distribution of Social Security benefits. These files include reports and working papers, surveys and statistics, League memoranda, correspondence with congressional members, congressional testimony and supporting correspondence, joint project proposals with the Center for Women Policy Studies (Washington, D.C.), and an article Fraser wrote for Ms Magazine. Many of these materials are closely related to bills introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Fraser's husband, Donald M. Fraser, as H.R. 14119 and H.R. 15710, "Equity in Social Security for Individuals and Families." These bills were later modified as H.R. 3247, the Fraser-Keys Bill.

Frequent correspondents throughout this series include other WEAL members, officers of other organizations, university professors, and researchers. Most prominent are Elizabeth Boyer, WEAL founding member and first president; Arlene Kaplan Daniels, professor in the Program on Women at Northwestern University; Laurine Fitzgerald, officer of the National Association of Women Deans, Administrators, and Counselors; Joan Gooden, member of the U.S. Department of State; Anna Rankin Harris, National Association of Women Deans, Administrators, and Counselors; Bert Hartry, research fellow with the Radcliffe Institute; Koryne Horbal, member of the Women's Caucus of the Democratic National Committee; Norma Raffel, convenor of WEAL's Pennsylvania division; Bernice Sandler, director of the Project on the Status and Education of Women for the Association of American Colleges; and Irene Tinker, member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession of the American Political Science Association.

Also included within this series are materials originating from the National Capitol Chapter, a Washington D.C. branch organized in 1971 of which Fraser was a founding member and its first president. These files include board materials, correspondence, and printed materials. Additional materials from the National Capitol Chapter are intermixed with those pertaining to the national League. Some materials from the Minnesota and New York branches are also evident.

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This series contains extensive background and conference materials related to the observance of the United Nations Decade for Women and forms a central core of Fraser's papers. The series has been further organized into seven sections: United Nations Agencies, National and International Organizations, Subject Files, Preparatory and NGO Conferences, World Conference on International Women's Year (Mexico City, June 19-July 2, 1975), World Conference of the U.N. Decade for Women (Copenhagen, July 14-30, 1980), and World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the U.N. Decade for Women (Nairobi, July 15-26, 1985). In addition to documenting the planning, proceedings, and recommendations of the world conferences, this series also contains a wealth of information about the legal rights, political standing, familial status, educational opportunities, and social and economic conditions of women throughout the world as well as the cultural differences between them.

Fraser participated in the Decade for Women as an advisory member of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women responsible for conference planning (1974), as a U.S. delegate to the first and second conferences, and as a participant in the third conference. While director of the Office of Women in Development, Fraser also served a second term on the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (1978) and organized and chaired a group of experts for the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (1978-1980). As Director of the Women, Public Policy and Development Project at the University of Minnesota, she helped organize preparatory conferences held before the third conference and served a third term with the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women as U.S. Ambassador (1992-1994).

The first item in this series is a 1996 reprint of Fraser's analysis of the Decade for Women first published in 1987. This analysis details the history of the world conferences, examines the discussions that occurred during the conferences, and comments on their resulting recommendations. Fraser's analysis doubly serves as a synthesis of the significance of the papers included within this series.

Records pertaining to United Nations Agencies include documents, reports, and studies produced by various U.N. agencies concerning activities and programs related to the Decade for Women. In general these materials pertain to the recommendations adopted at each conference. A "World Plan of Action" formulated at the 1975 conference established minimum goals for improving the status of women and recommended steps for integrating women into world economic and social developments. Recommendations from the 1980 conference resulted in a "Programme of Action" that focused on health, education, and occupational issues. The 1985 conference resulted in "The Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the year 2000." These strategies contain 372 paragraphs advocating women's advancement through the whole strata of societal systems. Copies of the recommendations are available within the files pertaining to each world conference.

Proceedings of the Commission on the Status of Women are also included within the group of files pertaining to United Nations Agencies. Included within the proceedings are reports of the U.S. Delegation that comment on progress made toward the conference recommendations.

Materials grouped together as National and International Organizations also consist of reports and studies related to the Decade for Women; however, these were generated by government agencies, independent institutions, and voluntary associations not affiliated with the United Nations.

The Subject Files consist primarily of printed materials and represent background materials Fraser collected in advance of the 1975 conference. Included are bibliographies, working papers, statistics, published and unpublished reports, magazine excerpts, newsletters, and additional materials. Many of the items within this group were distributed by agencies of the United Nations, particularly by the Secretariat, the General Assembly, UNESCO, and UNITAR, as well as by the U.S. Department of State. One issue that was of particular interest to Fraser was the Percy Amendment to the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act of 1973 that set a new course in American policy by requiring foreign aid programs to include women. In response to this amendment the Agency for International Development created the Office of Women in Development in late 1974. Unbeknownst to her at the time the Percy Amendment was being debated, Fraser would later head the Office of Women in Development under President Carter's administration.

Materials originating from conferences associated with the Decade for Women are arranged in four groups. The first group contains materials from conferences sponsored by both independent and governmental associations in preparation of the world conferences. The other three groups contain materials pertaining to each specific world conference. These materials include correspondence, grant sponsorship proposals and reports, printed programs, agenda discussion items, participants' papers, country and committee reports, conference recommendations, audio and video recordings, convention newspapers, and Fraser's notes.

Additional materials related to the Decade for Women will be found within other series of Fraser's papers, particularly within the sections related to the Office of Women in Development and to the Women, Public Policy and Development Project.

Preparatory and NGO Conferences:

See also: Box 40, Office of Women in Development: Subject Files: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: Meetings.

Conference Report, Conference on Women in Development, Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C., October 28-31, 1975.

National Women's Conference, Houston, November 18-21, 1977. 7 folders and 1 volume.

Minnesota retreat, January 6-8, 1978.

Location

Box

146.E.11.3B

26

Conference on the U.N. Decade for Women, Department of State, Washington, D.C., September 12, 1979.

Conference on the Role of Women's Organizations in Development, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Development Assistance Committee, Washington, D.C., September 26-29, 1979. 2 folders and 1 volume.

American Women: Education Issues and Progress in the United Nations Decade for Women, New York Regional Conference for Women, New York, June 2, 1980.

Copenhagen '80: The Washington Conference for Women, U.S. Dept. of State, June 12-13, 1980.

The 21st Century: Women's Role in Society and International Development, Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government, December 2, 1980.

Wingspread retreat: Women of Influence, Women of Vision, Higher Education Research Institute of UCLA and the Johnson Foundation, Racine, Wisconsin, November 13-15, 1983.

National Women's Conference, Washington, D.C., March 25-26, 1984.

Wingspread conference: Looking to the Future: Policy and Politics in the 1985 World Conference on Women, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and the Johnson Foundation, Racine, Wisconsin, April 13-15, 1984. 5 folders.

Location

Internet

Wingspread conference proceedings, April 13-15, 1984.

Condition note: master audio reels in poor condition. Audio intermittently drops out and is distorted.

Wingspread Conference: Looking to the Future: Policy and Politics in the 1985 World conference on women, April 13, 1984. 1 master audio file (1 hour, 19 minutes): WAV (402 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (52.1 MB).

Digital audio

Wingspread Conference: Looking to the Future: Policy and Politics in the 1985 World conference on women, April 14, 1984. 1 master audio file (5 hours, 13 minutes): WAV (1.5 GB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (207 MB).

Digital audio

Wingspread Conference: Looking to the Future: Policy and Politics in the 1985 World conference on women, April 15, 1984. 1 master audio file (2 hours, 47 minutes): WAV (845 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (207 MB).

Digital audio

Wingspread Conference: Looking to the Future: Policy and Politics in the 1985 World conference on women, April 1984. 1 master video file (2 hours, 41 minutes): MOV (71.4 GB) and 1 user video file: MP4 (1.6 GB).

Digital video

Interview of Dame Ruth Nita Barrow and Karin Himmelstrand at the Wingspread conference by Peggy Simpson, April 14, 1984. 1 master audio file (29 minutes, 42 seconds): WAV (149 MB).

Content note: Peggy Simpson, economic corespondent for Hearst newspaper interviews Dame Ruth Nita Barrow of Barbados and Karin Himmelstrand of Sweden at the Wingspread conference regarding women and development.

Location

Box

146.E.11.3B

26

International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women (2nd), Groningen, The Netherlands, April 17-21, 1984.

Eddah Gachukia open meeting, University of Minnesota, June 19, 1984. 2 folders.

Gachukia was chair of the Kenya Planning Committee for the U.N. Decade for Women.

Location

Box

146.E.11.5B

28

Eddah Gachukia's remarks, June 18-19, 1984

Coverage of speech by Dr. Eddah Gachukia, June 19, 1984. 1 master audio file (4 minutes, 45 seconds): WAV (3.5 MB).

Location

Internet

Dr. Eddah Gachukia, June 19, 1984. 1 master video file (40 minutes, 39 seconds): MOV (18 GB) and 1 user video file: MP4 (403.6 MB).

Digital video

Location

Box

146.E.11.3B

26

National Women's Leaders Workshop, Kenya NGO Organizing Committee, Njoro, Kenya, August 26-29, 1984. 4 folders.

The International Women's Decade and Beyond, AAUW Educational Fund, New York, October 12-13, 1984.

Location

Box

146.E.11.4F

27

Pre-Conference Consultation on the 1985 World Conference on the UN Decade for Women, Vienna, October 22-25, 1984.

Looking to the Future: Women's Organizations and Changes in Public Policy, Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy, December 10-14, 1984:

Preparation and correspondence, 1983-1984.

Invitees, 1984.

Arvonne's notes, 1984.

Participants' papers (Asia, Caribbean, Europe, North America). 4 folders.

Reports, 1984.

Results: Post Bellagio correspondence, 1984-1985. 2 folders.

Working paper: Looking to the Future: Equal Partnership Between Women and Men in the 21st Century.

Pre-Nairobi strategy conference, National Forum for Women, Woodstock, Illinois, June 9-11, 1985. 2 folders.

Women in the Third World: Issues for the U.N. Conference: A Seminar for Journalists, Earthscan and the National Council for Research on Women, New York, June 26, 1985.

Nairobi/2000 donor group, London, September 4, 1985.

Post-Nairobi donors meeting on women and development, Bellagio, December 9, 1985. 3 folders.

National Women's Conference: National Plan of Action: Update, September 1986.

Equity by 2000: Meeting the Nairobi Challenge, AAUW Educational Foundation, Washington, D.C., October 17-18, 1986.

National Women's Conference: Decade of Achievement, 1977-1987: A Report Based on a Survey of the National Plan of Action for Women, May 1988.

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In April 1977 after serving as a counselor in the transitional personnel office, Fraser was appointed by President Carter to coordinate the Office of Women in Development (WID) under the Department of State's Agency for International Development. This office was created in October 1974 after Congress passed the Percy Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1973. The Office was responsible for implementing policy aimed at integrating women into national economies by supporting the planning, development, and analysis of the Agency's foreign aid programs.

While Fraser headed this office she raised the annual budget from $300,000 to $3 million, participated as a representative to the 1980 World Conference of the U.N. Decade for Women, organized a group of experts to advise the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and focused attention on agricultural and rural assistance programs to benefit women in developing countries. Specific projects undertaken by the Office during her tenure included the creation of a resource center that commissioned and distributed research studies, the compilation of data to assist in Agency planning, the award of agricultural study funds to a consortia of Title XII universities, the granting of development funds to international women's organizations, and the coordination of numerous conferences and workshops.

The series contains materials documenting Fraser's activities while directing this Office as well as information concerning Agency aid projects. Included are annual reports submitted to Congress, administrative files, financial information detailing Office budgets and program funds, subject files containing meeting and trip files as well as reports and studies, and conference materials. Correspondence, internal memoranda, and sample resource mailings are also included. Materials included within this series are closely related to Fraser's files pertaining to the United Nations Decade for Women.

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After leaving the Office of Women in Development in 1981, Fraser joined the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota as a Senior Fellow where she proposed, initiated, and directed the Women, Public Policy and Development Project. As described in the program's approximately 1983 mission statement, the purpose of this project was "to add a women's dimension" to the Institute's research and policy analysis activities by concentrating "on issues revolving around women's economic status, on the role of women's organizations and leaders in addressing these issues, and on women's participation in economic development."

Many of the activities associated with this program parallel those in which Fraser engaged while coordinating the Office of Women in Development. These included the publication and dissemination of resource materials, the coordination of many workshops and conferences, and participation in the plans, goals, and programs of the U.N. Decade for Women.

Activities that were closely related to the U.N. Decade for Women included a worldwide survey of women's organizations and the publication of condensed and foreign language editions of "The Forward Looking Strategies" recommended by the third world conference. Additional activities were directed toward implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women which was drafted by the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 18, 1979, and entered into force on September 3, 1981. On August 2, 1990 Fraser testified at a hearing regarding U.S. ratification of their 1980 signing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Ten years after these hearings, the Senate still had not ratified this treaty. In collaboration with Stephen Isaacs of the Center for Population and Family Health at Columbia University Fraser also established the International Women's Rights Action Watch under a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. This project monitors and analyzes violations of the Convention and promotes the status of women through an international coalition that concentrates on research, publication, and seminar activities.

In addition to these endeavors, Fraser developed a women's leadership seminar series, taught courses for the University's public affairs program, and attended the third conference of the U.N. Decade for Women in Nairobi. She also helped organize and served on the boards of the Women's Economic Alliance and the Women's Economic Development Corporation. These organizations were established to provide management consultation, network services, and financial loans for start-up businesses.

Papers within this series are organized into groups of administrative files, correspondence, subject files, project files, seminar series, conferences, speeches, and historical files. The administrative files contain financial information, internal memoranda, mission statements, strategic plans, trip reports, and activity reports regarding the direction of the Project. The subject files contain numerous independent research studies as well as proposals for study grants from the Humphrey Institute. Project files are further divided into two subsets. The first set contains materials associated with the project's economic aspects. A great many of these activities focused on Minnesota, specifically on changes in family structures and on methods for strengthening women's economic independence. The second set of project files contains materials associated with international aspects, particularly the U.N. Decade for Women and the International Women's Rights Action Watch. These include correspondence, project proposals, publications, grant reports, independent research papers, and raw survey data.

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This series of files contains materials related to the many voluntary associations of which Fraser was a member. Included are materials regarding organizations based in both Minnesota and Washington, D.C. that reflect Fraser's interests in women's, political, and global issues. Many of the files pertain to organizations that Fraser helped found such as Nameless Sisterhood, a Washington club for the wives of congressmen; Washington Opportunities for Women, a networking group for business women; Feminist Caucus of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party; and Minnesota Women's Economic Roundtable. A large portion of the papers document her role as director of the Minnesota committee of the Mandate for Peace project. This project was coordinated by the Albert Einstein Peace Prize Foundation and consisted of a petition drive aimed at reducing nuclear armaments.

Other organizations of which Fraser was a member but that are not represented by this series have included the Minneapolis Board of Public Welfare, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the Women's Economic Development Corporation, and the National Leadership Council on Civil Rights.