Honoring Alice Cohan: Beloved and Highly Effective Feminist Leader

For over 60 years, Alice Cohan devoted her life to the feminist movement, as an activist, political organizer, and long-time leader in both the Feminist Majority (FM) and the National Organization for Women (NOW). Alice was a nationally recognized expert on field organizing, mass mobilizations, and electing feminist candidates.

Her interest in politics ran deep.

She had an extraordinary lifelong commitment to equality and began her activist work in her teens. She attended her first Democratic National Convention as a teenager in 1964 and attended every one from 1976 through 2020 (and many Republican ones as well). She traveled extensively, sometimes for months at a time, organizing in most regions across the United States.

She was a force: a dedicated friend, an inspiring mentor, and a brilliant creative tactician. Her work was critical in electing feminist candidates to office and in moving the Equal Rights Amendment campaign forward.

Organizing infused every aspect of Alice’s life. She loved to gather a group together after a meeting for dinner and fervently believed that such personal connection is crucial to keeping our movement fed (literally and figuratively) and growing. She had an exquisite sense of humor and knew that sometimes a smile or a laugh could bring people together.

Alice served as the Feminist Majority’s Political Director and Chief Field Organizer for over 20 years. In this capacity, she led field operations in community organizing for the National Clinic Access Project, mobilized college students in many state-level ballot initiative and Congressional campaigns, and organized large events, including the Feminist Expos in 1996 and 2000, and the Women, Money, Power Summits in more recent years. She also the organization in a wide range of coalitions, ranging from those dealing with judicial nominations to reproductive rights and many issues in between.

Alice worked extensively with feminist Congressional Candidates, interviewing them, recommending endorsements, and chairing an informal network of Political Action Committees (PACs) that focused on female candidates.

Alice was active with NOW throughout her life and in 2019 received their lifetime achievement award. Over time, she served as chief field director, specializing in direct and mass actions; director of all women’s rights mass mobilizations and marches; and spent the last eight years of her tenure as political director.

In her capacity as the director of mass mobilizations and marches, she served as Director of the 2004 March for Women’s Lives, which brought 1.15 million supporters to Washington, DC through the work of over 1,400 co-sponsoring organizations. The march was a monumental call to action to protect abortion rights, reproductive justice, access to birth control, and women’s health. As March Director, Alice braved countless storms, juggled egos and priorities, and pulled off the event of a lifetime.

Personally, Alice was also a genuine force. She took great pride in mentoring younger generations of feminists both through her work at NOW and the Feminist Majority, but also as a member of the Advisory Council of the Women’s Information Network, which was a group of pro-choice, Democratic Women under 30.

In an interview with her alma mater Rider University’s magazine about her lifetime achievement award from NOW, Alice explained her relentless pursuit of equality this way:

“I remain enthusiastic about the work because I’m passionate about the issues and the people who come together to work on them. There is opposition everywhere we look, and its root is money. People profit from discrimination. Only if we are strong and united can we move closer to equality.”

Part 1: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any ate on account of sex.”

Part 2: Gives Congress the power to force the ERA through legislation.

Part 3: The amendment takes effect two years after it is ratified

Following Up on Equal Means Equal vs. Donald Trump

This case is a challenge to the Military Selective Service Act (MSSA), 50 U.S.C. § 3801 et seq., which requires male citizens to register for the draft but bars women from doing so.

A hearing on the motion to dismiss was scheduled for November 17, 2025.

It did not happen.

Then another hearing was scheduled for December.

It did not happen.

A new hearing is set for March 24th before Judge William G. Young (remote only). In order to gain access to the hearing, you must sign up at the following address: https://forms.mad.uscourts.gov/courtlist.html.

The ERA Coalition meets twice every month, and we are learning how to place the ERA into our “250” events. More on this topic next month.

Nancy Werner
Advocacy ERA