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A National Plan of Action was produced as a result of the National Women's Conference of 1977. The National Action Plan was a culminating document that comprised a series of demand for more revisions, changes in enforcement and new policies that worked to improve the living conditions of women in American society. Although the Equal Rights Amendment was a significant stride towards demanding the reforms, it failed to be ratified by the states and therefore did not pass into law. Even still, the momentum it created significant ripple effects on the many facets of society the National Action Plan sought to change. One such facet is education. Mostly attributed to the outspoken efforts of Betty Friedan, reforms in education policy and enforcement became notably prominent.Plank 8 in the petition of the National Women’s Conference concentrated on education. In this plank the women asserted their support for the revision of the government allocation of funds in the institution of education. (cite the book) The demands set forth were as follows.

Patricia Alberjerg Graham who was a representative of the National Institute of Education, advocated for holding the federal government accountable to efforts that reduce inequality in educational opportunities.

Eileen Shanahan was the assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the Health, Education and Welfare Department during the Carter administration and was present at the conference. She advocated for an emphasis on the ways in which funds are allocated for government programs in education.

Beth Abramowitz, Assistant Director of the Domestic Council Policy Staff during the Carter administration proposed for an increase in funds for women involved in academia particularly in the facet of higher education.

Mary F. Berry who was Assistant Secretary of Education emphasized the potential of the recent Title IX efforts to increase educational opportunities and its potential to assist women in academics to pursue higher education.

All of the demands from Plank 8 can be analyzed through a liberal feminist approach. The concerns in education focused on reallocation of government funds. The delegates of the conference decided that the ways in which money was being dispensed into education opportunities for women in academia was not enough. This sentiment is echoed in Adrienne Rich’s, Claiming an Education as she writes,

“One of the devastating weaknesses of university learning, of the store of knowledge and opinion that has been handed down through academic training, has been its almost total erasure of women's experience and thought from the curriculum, and its exclusion of women as members of the academic community.” Adrienne Rich, Claiming and Education

Liberal feminist theory grounds itself on the firm belief in education. Education is an imperative tool that must be available to women so that they can impact society, without access to it, the patriarchy continues to makes women “civilly dead”. Educational opportunity was guaranteed to white men from the beginning development of Western society. In their asking for education opportunities to be expanded to women, the women of the 1977 conference were in agreement with Wollfstonecraft’s thought. Wollfstonecraft asserted that only through proper education would women be able to free themselves from patriarchal oppression. The delegates of 1977 were asserting the rights they felt were guaranteed to them as citizens of the United States. (from decleration of sentiments)