Apr 15, 2002 By April Straughters 4 min read

For a long time, want ads in newspapers were split in two sections, one for males and another for females. Many women were upset with the practice, maintaining it kept them out of many better paying jobs. But nothing changed until a Connellsville woman spearheded legislation in the 1970s that prohibited such discrimination.

Speaking to students at California University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Jo Ann Evansgardner, a retired experimental pyschologist, college professor and consultant, touted the late Wilma Scott Heidi for that accomplishment. She also praised Heidi for founding the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW) in 1966. At the time, it was the third NOW chapter in the country, behind only New York and Chicago.

“Connellsville can be proud that they produced someone like Wilma Scott Heidi,” said Evansgardner, who spoke along with her husband, Dr. Gerry Gardner, a retired mathematician. The speech was sponsored by the university’s Office of Woman Studies.

“I knew her, and I admired her,” Evansgardner added. ” She was a bright spirit. She had so much energy and joy in life. I think anything she decided to do would have been attractive.”

She said Heidi was born in Connellsville, where her mother worked at the local five and dime store and her father made his living on the railroad.

“She was very outspoken, and you could clearly tell she was from the working class by her speech and gestures,” Evansgardner said. “She was a general.”

According to Evansgardner, Heidi was a registered nurse and professor of sociology when she founded the NOW chapter in Pittsburgh. Evansgardner said the organization grew very rapidly, noting that she and her husband were among the first 30 members to join. At the time, Evansgardner said Pittsburgh had a high rate of sex discrimination cases, with little support from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

According to Evansgardner, it was the Pittsburgh NOW Chapter, led by Heidi, that was responsible for changing legislation that led to equality for women in newspaper want ads. She noted that Pittsburgh already had an ordinance that said it was “illegal to aid and abet discrimination on the basis of race or religion.” The Pittsburgh NOW Chapter lobbied to include the word sex among the basis of discrimination.

“(Heidi) was very clever. She read Pittsburgh’s laws and she was able to recognize that we could use it to benefit women too. She got Pittsburgh legislation to agree that you could not advertise employment on the basis of sex,” Evansgardner said.

Evansgardner said once the Pittsburgh chapter won its case in court, they took the issue to the state legislature and got a law passed to prohibit such discrimination. She said other states then passed similar legislation.

“You have to understand what an accomplishment this was for such a small chapter with no state organization. It’s more than it appears on the surface. Taking it to the Supreme Court was a major financial expense. I don’t think we even had 100 members,” she said, adding that her husband, Gerry Gardner, printed the brief for case with his own letter press.

“This lifted from women’s backs the burden of having to be embarrassed or considered a lesbian when they applied for certain jobs,” Evansgardner said, noting a humiliating incident her sister experienced while job hunting.

According to Evansgardner, her sister drove a long way for a job interview and when she got there the man doing the interview immediately said, “I’m not going to hire you. I just wanted to see what kind of woman thought she could handle a man’s job.”

Evansgardner said it was employment issues that attracted most women, including herself, to NOW and other organizations fighting for women’s rights.

She believes Heidi was attracted to the fight because of employment issues as well.

“(Heidi) was very aware of sex discrimination,’ said Evansgardner.

Heidi was an activist by nature. When she lived in Georgia with her husband who was in the service and stationed there during the late 50s and early 60s, she joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and marched in Selma with Martin Luther King Jr.

Evansgardner said it was Heidi’s experience with the NAACP that helped her coordinate NOW.

“She was already familiar with civil rights. She used her work with the NAACP as a model and she was able to draw the parallels (between race and sex discrimination),” Evansgardner said.