In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus.
37 Facts About Bella Abzug
2.
Bella Abzug was a leading figure in what came to be known as eco-feminism.
3.
Bella Abzug was a founder of the Commission for Women's Equality of the American Jewish Congress.
4.
Bella Abzug Savitzky was born on July 24,1920, in New York City.
5.
Bella Abzug's mother, Esther, was a homemaker, and her father, Emanuel Savitzky, ran the Live and Let Live Meat Market on Ninth Avenue.
6.
Bella Abzug ran the cash register at her father's deli as a young girl.
7.
Bella Abzug's religious upbringing influenced her development into a feminist.
8.
Bella Abzug graduated from Walton High School in The Bronx, where she was class president.
9.
Bella Abzug went on to major in political science at Hunter College of the City University of New York and simultaneously attended the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
10.
Bella Abzug first met Mim Kelber, who would go on to co-found WEDO with her, at Walton High School and they went on to attend Hunter College with one another.
11.
Bella Abzug later earned a law degree from Columbia University in 1944.
12.
Bella Abzug appealed the case of Willie McGee, a black man convicted in 1945 of raping a white woman in Laurel, Mississippi, and sentenced to death by an all-white jury who deliberated for only two-and-a-half minutes.
13.
Bella Abzug was an outspoken advocate of liberal causes, including the Equal Rights Amendment, and opposition to the Vietnam War as well as the military draft.
14.
Bella Abzug worked for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Civil Rights Congress.
15.
Bella Abzug defeated Farbstein in a considerable upset and then defeated talk show host Barry Farber in the general election.
16.
However, Ryan died before the general election and Bella Abzug defeated his widow, Priscilla, at the party's convention to choose the new Democratic nominee.
17.
Bella Abzug was one of the first members of Congress to support gay rights, introducing the first federal gay rights bill, known as the Equality Act of 1974, with fellow Democratic New York City representative, Ed Koch, a future mayor of New York City.
18.
Bella Abzug chaired historic hearings on government secrecy, being the chair for the Subcommittee on Government Information and Individual Rights.
19.
In February 1975, Bella Abzug was part of a bipartisan delegation sent to Saigon by President Gerald Ford to assess the situation on the ground in South Vietnam near the end of the Vietnam War.
20.
Bella Abzug never held elected office again after leaving the House, although she remained a high-profile figure and was again a candidate on multiple occasions.
21.
Bella Abzug was unsuccessful in her bid to be mayor of New York City in 1977, as well as in attempts to return to the US House from the East Side of Manhattan in 1978 against Republican Bill Green, and from Westchester County, New York, in 1986 against Joe DioGuardi.
22.
Bella Abzug Goes to Washington and The Gender Gap, the latter co-authored with friend and colleague Mim Kelber.
23.
Bella Abzug would continue this work as one of the two co-chairpersons for the National Advisory Committee for Women until her dismissal in January 1979, which would create a flash point of tension between the Carter administration and feminist organizations in the United States.
24.
Bella Abzug founded a grassroots organization called Women USA, and continued to lead feminist advocacy events, for example serving as grand marshal of the Women's Equality Day New York March on August 26,1980.
25.
At the UN, Bella Abzug developed the Women's Caucus, which analyzed documents, proposed gender-sensitive policies and language, and lobbied to advance the Women's Agenda for the 21st Century at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, as well as women's issues at other events including the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
26.
Bella Abzug led WEDO until her death, giving her final public speech before the UN in March 1998.
27.
Bella Abzug was interred at Old Mount Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, Queens County, New York.
28.
In 1944, Bella married Martin Abzug, a novelist and stockbroker.
29.
Bella Abzug was a cousin of Arlene Stringer-Cuevas and her son Scott Stringer, who were involved in politics in New York City.
30.
Bella Abzug used to comment that if other male lawmakers were going to swim naked in the Congressional swimming pool as was the tradition, that that would be fine with her.
31.
In 1991, Bella Abzug received the "Maggie" Award, the highest honor of the Planned Parenthood Federation, in tribute to their founder, Margaret Sanger.
32.
In 1994, Bella Abzug was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls.
33.
Bella Abzug was honored on March 6,1997, at the United Nations as a leading female environmentalist.
34.
Bella Abzug appeared in the WLIW video A Laugh, A Tear, A Mitzvah, as well as in Woody Allen's Manhattan, a 1977 episode of Saturday Night Live, and the documentary New York: A Documentary Film.
35.
Bella Abzug appeared as herself in Manhattan at a real function that was shot by the film.
36.
Bella Abzug appeared in Shirley MacLaine's autobiographical book Out on a Limb.
37.
Bella Abzug was featured in a segment in the 2007 documentary NY77: The Coolest Year In Hell, which explores in depth what life was like during the year 1977 in Manhattan.