G.J. Stillson MacDonnell papers
Scope and Contents
The G.J. Stillson MacDonnell papers document the Connecticut women's movement in the 1970s and 1980s. They include material on women's organizations such as the founding of the Feminist Credit Union, the Coalition of Connecticut Organizations Concerned with Women's Issues, the Connecticut Commission on the Status of Women, the first rape crisis service and the first battered women's shelter in Connecticut. Also represented are MacDonnell's legal activities in Connecticut, working with, and lobbying for, women's issues in the state legislature, including the Equal Rights Amendment, gay rights, and various civil rights campaigns. Additional research files include material on the history of married women's surname; Vivian Kellems' research on taxation of single people; and issues of women's periodicals and newspapers.
Dates of Materials
- 1970-1987
Creator
- MacDonnell, G.J. Stillson (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.
Conditions Governing Use
The Sophia Smith Collection owns copyright to the unpublished works by the creator of this collection. Copyright to materials created by others may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. Permission must be obtained to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use." It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Biographical / Historical
G.J. Stillson MacDonnell was born in Danbury, Connecticut in 1947 and graduated from New York University. She received a law degree from the University of Connecticut in 1973. In 1974 she started an independent practice in Hartford and 5 months later joined a Hartford law firm. She was founder and attorney for Hartford Rape Crisis Service; chair of Coalition of Connecticut, an organization concerned with women's issues; attorney and board member of Connecticut Feminist Federal Credit Union in New Haven. MacDonnell frequently worked as unpaid lobbyist for feminist organizations and testified before Connecticut legislator for the ERA, abortion rights, divorce, sexual assault laws, and gay rights. In 1969 she a joined larger firm working with legal issues of employee benefits.
Extent
3.25 linear feet (3 containers)
Abstract
Lawyer; Civic leader; Lobbyist. Papers document the Connecticut women's movement in the 1970s and 1980s, including women's organizations such as the Feminist Credit Union, the Coalition of Connecticut Organizations Concerned with Women's Issues, the Connecticut Commission on the Status of Women, the first rape crisis service and the first battered women's shelter in Connecticut. Topics include the Equal Rights Amendment, gay rights, married women's surname, and taxation of single people.
Other Finding Aids
A description of the collection provided by the donor is available in this downloadable document: collection description of the G.J. Stillson MacDonnell papers.
- Abortion -- Law and legislation -- Connecticut
- Anti-rape movement
- Audiotapes
- Equal rights amendments -- United States
- Feminists -- Connecticut
- Kellems, Vivien, 1896-1975
- Lawyers
- Legal files
- MacDonnell, G.J. Stillson
- Married women -- United States -- Names
- Organization files
- Research
- Women -- Legal status, laws, etc -- Connecticut -- 20th century
- Women -- Political activity -- Connecticut -- 20th century
- Women -- Services for -- Connecticut
- Women lawyers -- United States
- Women's liberation
- Writings
- clippings
- correspondence
- memorabilia
- photographs
- Title
- G.J. Stillson MacDonnell papers
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Date
- 2006
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:18-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
