Collection is open for research.
Gift of Jerry Lembcke, April 2022 (RL2025-090).
The Working Women's Association was organized in October 1973 in Eugene, Oregon. Its goal was to encourage, educate, and support women in order to improve their working conditions and to fight workplace discrimination against women. The association's first major project was to help organize pickets against Hirons Drug Store on Franklin Boulevard in Eugene. It also passed out leaflets on the University of Oregon campus in support of the strike against Hirons. By January 1974, the association was establishing contacts with women in Salem and Portland in hopes of establishing a statewide organization.
Sources: 1974 Women's Newsletter in collection; article in the Oregon Daily Emerald, "WWA to seek data," by Marsha Emerman, January 18, 1974, page 11.
Workers at Hirons Drug Store on Franklin Boulevard in Eugene, Oregon, began a strike on October 5, 1973, after the store's employees voted to join the Retail Clerks' Union that July. The strike did not affect the other Hirons location on 18th Avenue. The strikers, most of whom were women, cited issues with pay, health insurance, and job security, and a lack of sick leave or paid holidays. Early on the morning of March 1, 1974, a fire burned down the Franklin Boulevard store, putting the store's employees out of work.
Sources: Articles in the Oregon Daily Emerald: "Protestors picket local store; adversaries explain issues," by Jamie Hartshorn, November 2, 1973, page 3; "Hirons strikers march through fourth month," by Dennis Pfaff, January 14, 1974, page 3; "Hirons fire - cause unknown; affects jobs, business, union," by Dennis Pfaff, March 4, 1974, page 1.
Carolyn Howe (born 1949) lived in Eugene, Oregon, in the 1970s, and was a member of the Working Women's Association. She later earned a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and taught sociology at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was a founding member of the Worcester Women's Oral History Project.
Sources: Collection materials; biography page on College of the Holy Cross website (accessed February 2026),
Working Women's Association papers, Coll 1124, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The collection consists of materials of the Working Women's Association of Eugene, Oregon, that were compiled by member Carolyn Howe. Several items specifically relate to the association's support for a strike against Hirons Drug Store on Franklin Boulevard in Eugene. These include an illustrated flyer advertising picketing on November 24, 1973; a letter from Howe to the editor of the Eugene Register-Guard, criticizing the newspaper for its lack of reporting on picketing against Hirons; and three typed flyers in support of the strike. Other materials relating to the association's activities include a flyer in support of a strike at Williams Transfer in Eugene and a flyer for a statewide organizing meeting on January 13, 1974. The collection also includes a roster of members from Eugene and elsewhere in Oregon, a 1974 issue of Women's Newsletter that includes information about the association, and a list of women's groups in Eugene as of the spring of 1974. Other materials in the collection consist of a typed booklet titled, "What Are the Insurgent Workers?"; handwritten notes about babysitters' wages and other topics; correspondence to Carolyn Howe from the Woman Activist and Women's Equality Action League; a letter to Howe and notes concerning plans for a conference in May 1974 in Cheney, Washington; a flyer for the Statewide Working Women's Conference in Portland, Oregon, on July 21, 1974; and clippings.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.