By Dale Martin
NEA Board member VirginiaAnn Shadwick has been honored many times over the years for her work on behalf of her colleagues in higher education, but this summer at the NEA Representative Assembly, she was honored for furthering women's rights and equal education opportunity for women and girls as well.
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NEA Board member VirginiaAnn Shadwick won the Mary Hatwood Futrell Award for her activism in regard to equal rights for women.
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Shadwick won the Mary Hatwood Futrell Award for her activism in advocating for equal rights for women. The award is named for Futrell, a three-term president of NEA who made NEA a champion of women's rights.
Shadwick's own activism dates back to 1968 when she joined San Francisco State University as a librarian and discovered that, while female librarians had all the responsibilities of the teaching faculty, they didn't have the salary, benefits or professional privileges. She then began a 15-year crusade of organizing, writing letters and conducting advocacy campaigns for professional and fiscal parity.
In 1985, after she was elected president of the California Faculty Association, her efforts paid off with an increase of more than 18 percent for new librarians and the potential of 25 percent gains for those at the top of the scale.
"While Shadwick has always modestly said anyone could have done what she did, the reality is no one else did," says current CFA President John Travis. "Indeed, she is a legend among CSU librarians for her accomplishments on their behalf."
Shadwick, newly elected to represent California on the NEA Board of Directors, termed out this summer after nine years representing higher education on the CTA Board of Directors. While on the CTA Board, she widened her focus to include her colleagues in the Community College Association and Student CTA, as well as CFA.
She has relished the role of mentoring future teachers within the Student CTA. Last spring, Student CTA established the VirginiaAnn Shadwick Human Rights Award, a perpetual award on display at CTA headquarters in Burlingame.
"It is wonderful to receive both awards. I've known and admired Mary Hatwood Futrell for many years, and it's an honor to be receiving an award in her name," says Shadwick. "I was also delighted with the honor the students bestowed on me. It's been one of my greatest pleasures in this job to work with Student CTA, because working with students really gives me optimism about the future of teaching."
One of 13 social justice activists around the country to be honored, Shadwick received the Futrell Award during NEA's 38th Annual Human and Civil Rights Awards Dinner July 3 in Washington, D.C.
