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National Plan of Action
Included in the official conference report, the conference produced a National Plan of Action, a culminating document that comprised a series of demands for more revisions, changes in enforcement, and new policies to improve the living conditions of women in American society. The National Plan of Action included 26 planks representing issues and concerns of interest to American women. The planks were discussed at the state-level women's meetings that preceded the 1977 conference and were then open to debate on the floor at the Houston conference. Seventeen of the planks were adopted by conference delegates by wide majorities, and only 20% of delegates opposed certain planks, representing a consensus among conference delegates and attendees on "what American women need and want to achieve equal rights, equal status, and equal responsibilities with men."

Declaration of American Women
This plank declared that all women from different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs deserved the same rights and privileges as men. Equality was an important theme throughout this conference and this plank brought to light the significance of women finally being able to achieve the same privileges as men. At the time, women did not have the right to vote, own property, have more power politically, or have the same pay as men in the workplace. The conference concentrated on emphasizing the why women's rights should be implemented into society, and how close women were to achieving these rights.

Arts and Humanities
Opportunities for manager positions and employment jobs in the Arts and Humanities department were little to non-existent before this conference. This plank was introduced to point this out to society and hopefully inspire a change. Another issue in this department was that women were having a difficult time obtaining art grants, whereas their male counterparts were finding success in this area. If men were the only ones receiving funding for art projects, how would women ever be able to showcase their talent and education to be able to do the same? Being withheld from receiving art grants would be very detrimental to the progression of an artist's career. This was unfortunately the sad reality many aspiring female artists were having to face and a large reason why this plank was brought up at the conference for debate.

Battered Women
Sadly, a common theme in society was violence against women, and this fact earned its own plank at the conference for discussion because of its prevalence and importance. They voiced that the amount of violence that women were receiving should be stopped/minimized however possible. A solution that came out of the conference was to provide shelters for women who have experienced violence. It was also announced that these programs should be offered with bilingual and cultural options in order for them to be able to help and benefit a larger portion of society.

Business
At the time of this conference, "less than one percent" of businesses were owned by women. This sad statistic, among other reasons, gained this issue a spot as a plank at the conference. It was determined that female entrepreneurs in government activities were to be included as a part of government and granted the same opportunities as men to own a business. Additionally, the Executive Order 11625 of October 13, 1971, was put into place to protect minorities and women with small businesses and the benefits of this order were applauded at this conference.

Child Abuse
Another important issue in society was the problem of child abuse. There really was not any support for the victims of this, so the conference brought up the topic of Child Care to work towards a way to help the victims. The conference determined that the government should provide support, funds, and protective services to help prevent child abuse and assist those affected by it. Also, it was decided that the government should provide equal child care programs for minority women, and improve schools as well as parenthood programs. The "care must be low cost and high quality" in programs in order for Child Care programs to be efficient in assisting the public.

Credit
This plank argued that women should have equal credit and be informed of their rights pertaining to credit. In order to ensure that women had equal access to credit, regardless of gender, the conference determined that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act needed to be passed. Consequently, the credit issue was the only plank out of all 26 that "was approved unanimously". Everyone at the conference was in agreement that due to the prevalence of this important issue in society, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act needed to be passed immediately.

Disabled Women
During this time period, society did not give much credit to people that were disabled; additionally, they were not given equal opportunities. The conference discussions led to the decision that disabled women should be able to have the right to education and employment, take care of their children, and be protected from discrimination.



Education
Due to the discrimination against women's education, the conference brought up this plank to argue for law prohibiting this. Discussion on this plank brought to light the lack of women in educational textbooks and leadership positions in society. In order for young women to have more influential role models to inspire them to benefit future generations, there needed to be more female leadership in education. To ensure that these changes were placed into society, "Title IX must be enforced".



Elective and Appointive Office
There was a serious lack of women in leadership roles before this conference. Most high status and upper pay grade jobs went to males and this kept women from aspiring to achieve more in the workforce. Instead of settling for the less important jobs and positions, the conference decided that women should be allowed more positions in office and more opportunities to move up in the work force. The prejudice that women belonged at home and not in an office was old-fashioned and the discussions at this conference helped to open people's eyes to the importance of aiming higher in the job arena. This factor would also be crucial in inspiring the younger female generations into believing that they too could succeed in the world and were able to do more than past generations.



Employment
The employment plank goes along with the elective and appointive office plank; more women should be allowed into the workforce with higher paying positions. The conference decided that there should be no discrimination in employment and all employment should have equal pay, no discrimination for pregnancy, and special attention to minority women.



Equal Rights Amendment
The ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment which establishes equal rights for all people was discussed. Although this amendment was never ratified, the conference succeeded in earning a three-year extension from the Senate for further discussion on it. This fact alone shows how impactful this conference was on America and how the conversations and discussions had began to make people further consider the importance of equal rights which continues to benefit our society today.

Health
All women should have equal opportunities to health benefits. Additionally, the food and drug administration should be expanded so that food overall could be safer to consume. Another aspect of this plank the conference deemed important was low cost reproductive health services as well as research into the effects of women's contraception.

Homemakers
All women should be equal to their partners when it comes to owning property. If divorced with children, then the children's needs should come first as well. These topics were reviewed by the convention and ultimately ended up deciding that homemakers should have access to social security because a difficult economic situation would arise from a divorce or death of a spouse. If their significant other passed away and the homemaker did not have social security, they would be left broke.

Insurance
There should be no discrimination between women and insurance, all insurance should be equally provided to women and men.

International Affairs
Women should be allowed to be more involved with international affairs, especially in the UN Commission and the UN Decade, Country Development, Human Rights, Peace and Disarmament, Education

Media
All jobs in the media should be able to hire women and women should be given the proper training as well. Additionally, more women should have leadership roles in the media jobs. Federal agencies should look into how mass media impacts sex discrimination.

Minority Women
Some people at the convention felt that the needs and concerns of women of color were not accurately discussed or solved. For example, attendee, Jane Hickie commented, "I don't believe that Anglo women had heard directly expressed sorts of frustrations from other women who were Mexican American or Puerto Rican Americans, Latinas, ever before". The conference discussed how all minority women should be respected and treated equally, and the government should give them equal rights to work and education, etc. Another aspect that the conference went over about minorities was how all minority cultures should be accepted into the United States.

Offenders
There should be no discrimination with women in facilities, the health services should be improved, and protection from sexual abuse should be more prominent. Also, children should have special care if their mother is in prison. The mother in prison would not be able to adequately care for her children due to her situation, so an alternate care program would need to be open to the children that this circumstance applied to.

Older Women
All health and social services should be provided to older women so that they can "live with dignity". These services would allow the older population to live comfortably after they retire and not have to worry about running out of money in their old age.

Rape
The government should revise their rape laws to have "graduated penalties depend on the amount of coercion, apply assault by or upon both sexes, include all types of sexual assault". The creation of rape centers to help victims and provide victim compensation would make it more accessible for those that have been hurt by rape to get help. In order to make it financially easier on married women that attempt to file a rape accusation against their spouse, the definition of rape should be broadened to include marital rape. Additionally, the government should provide programs to schools to help prevent rape and try to stop this issue from being as prevalent in future generations.

Reproductive Freedom
The convention argued that women should have reproductive freedom and be able to have private facilities relating to reproductive freedom. Sex-education should be in schools to educate teens to promote STD awareness and hopefully lessen teenage unplanned pregnancies. Also, the convention determined that promoting the backing of Roe v Wade, family planning, and Medicaid payment use for abortion would be in the best interests of everyone.

Rural Women
Rural women should have the same rights as rural men, as well as establish a rural education policy. The convention was centered around eliminating female discrimination in mostly all debates and planks.

Sexual Preference
The discussion on this plank was centered around how there should be no discrimination on women's sexual preference. This topic was intensely debated at the conference before it was eventually passed; never before had this topic been talked about at this big of an event

Statistics
The government should collect data on the basis of sex in the workplace, its impact on jobs, and its effect on women in the workplace so that the information acquired can be studied and improved to help future generations of women.

Welfare
"The Federal and State governments should assume a role in focusing on welfare and poverty as major women's issues" "Improve social security and retirement systems, raise minimum wage, provide child care and focus on welfare and poverty as major women's issues".

Continuing Committee of the Conference
Required an establishment of a Committee to assemble a second conference so the progression towards female equality could continue to grow.

Event
An abundance of people attended the 1977 National Women's Conference and "delegates ranged from students and homemakers attending their first women's conference to Presidents of National Women's groups." The head of the conference was Congresswoman Bella Abzug who spoke in front of over 20,000 of her fellow advocates.

Many people who were interested in feminism were at the 1977 National Women's Conference to support women's rights. The inspiring author Betty Friedan attended the conference, the feminist Gloria Steinem attended the conference along with a new feminist leader Eleanor Smeal. Celebrities in education and sports like the anthropologist Margaret Mead, the advocate for women in sports Billie Jean King, the poet Maya Angelou, Commissioner Jean Stapleton, Commissioner Coretta Scott King.Congresswomen included Bella Abzug, Republican Jill Ruckelshaus, Margaret Heckler, Mary Louise, Mary Crisp, Republican Elly Peterson, Democrat Elizabeth Holtzman, Pat Schroeder, Lindy Boggs, Martha Griffiths, and Barbra Jordan. Past, and at the time, current first ladies Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, and Lady Bird Johnson were also in attendance at this conference.

All of these women banded together in the Conference to create the 26 planks described above and discuss the rights of women as well as how women should not be discriminated against.