This day in history: Newspaper examined the state of women’s rights

From 1975: The Spokesman-Review asked Spokane women this question: “How liberated is today’s woman?”

“It became quickly apparent that local feminists are ‘up tight’ over many ‘crucial questions’ in this community,” wrote reporter Alden B. Cross.

On one hand, one of the prominent members of Spokane’s National Organization for Women (NOW) finished first on the civil service exam and was named head of the city’s Affirmative Action program.

On the other hand, NOW members considered this only “tokenism.”

Equal employment opportunities were a major concern. Yet so were child care, women’s health and sexual violence.

Cross noted that many of the women interviewed for the article asked that their names not be used “because of the threat of pressure in their jobs or at home – or put on their husbands by other men.”

From 1925: The subject of a lecture at the Central Christian Church was “Women of the Harem,” and the women of Spokane “turned out en masse.”

The crowd packed the main floor, the balconies and even the choir loft.

The lecturer, identified as “Mrs. James Kellems, wife of the evangelist,” stepped up to the lectern “in the garb of a Turkish aristocrat.” She wore a flowing tunic and and turban, and noted that this was the garb of a man, because if she were a “Mohammedan woman,” chances are you would never see her, except heavily veiled.

She said that “only the wealthy Turk can afford a harem with three or four or more wives.”

She also said that “the wife is a plaything to be beaten or caressed at will of her lord.”