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WomanFew AmbitionsBy JEANNETTE BRANINCopley News ServiceEdna Rankin McKinnon really had few ambitions: she was a delicately pretty andsomewhat frivolous young girl, who felt that with her marriage to a wealthy young Harvard man she had foundher place in life.Yet she became internationally known, 45 years ago, as the pioneer in a subject almost never memioned by ladies in those days: birth control.She was accused of being an early day feminist, although that was the label more appropriately applied to her sister. Congressman Jeannette Rankin“Humanist would be a bet-t e r description of Edna McKinnon, according to her biographer. Wilma Dykeman,who tells of her life and crusade in a book, “Too Many People, Too Little Love,’’Mrs. McKinnon at age 80 still displays the enthusiasm and sincerity that marked her career.“It was nothing I planned to do,’’ she said in an interview. “My brother. Wellington, had practically ordered me to take a degree in law after I left Wellesley and the University of Wisconsin.“Law didn’t come easy. IPi Beta Phi Beta Sigma Phi Elects OfficersMrs. Joe Woodward was recently elected president of Eta Epsilon chapter of Beta Sigma Phi.Other new officers are Mrs. Dave Bennett, vice president; Mrs Buck Thacker, recording secretary; Mrs, Chuck Cagle, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Walter Austin, treasurer, and Mrs. Tom Parker, extension officerontrol Fightnhad to study hard But I did receive my degree from the University of Montana, andbecame the first native-bornMontana woman to be admitted to the bar in that state.” “Firsts” had been racked up by that time by her sister Jeannette as well. In Congress, she had introduced thefirst Dili to grant women citizenship independent of their husbands, and the first bill recommending subsidy for health care and for teaching women hygiene during pregnancy and early maternity.It was her sister who helped Edna find a job with the Resettlement Administration in Washington at a time when it became necessary for her to s u p p o r t herself and her daugnter. Soon after that, she attended a public lecture on birth control.“1 was electrified. she said “My questions tumbledout faster than the speaker could answer them. I had never before heard the subject discussed.“And 1 thought that if my own confusion and ignorance were multiplied millions of times, then the needs of the women of the world were staggering.”She was employed by Margaret Sanger, a true pioneer in the field, \vho went to prison eighi times for attempting to open birth control clinics. Later she was employed by Dr. Clarence Gamble who organized the Maternal Health Association, and the Pathfinder Fund which supported family planning in this country and abroad.She worked for Pathfinderfor 32 years, seven of them inforeign countries. The worknow is supported by a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), but Mrs, McKinnon retired eight years ago. at the age of 72“Such tremendous changeshad taken place in the statusof women between my first visits to foreign countries, and my last, when I went around the world for the International Planned Parenthood Association, she said.“When I first visited Indonesia they were shocked that I would ride in a hired cart by myself; in Saudi Arabia, a woman never walked down the street alone without the company of a man. Even a little boy would. w i.make it proper.”It was in Saudi Arabia thatshe fell down airport stairs, dropping luggage and packages, and while the men turned to stare, not one man offered to help.“Women have always been the burden-bearers there.” said Mrs. McKinnon. “Helping a woman to her feet was just not even considered.” Mrs. McKinnon has supported equal rights for women ever since 1913, when she joined a suffrage parade down Pennsylvania Avenue when President Woodrow W’ilson was reelected. “No one booed or hissed us,” she said. “We wore cheered. It was grand.”As a young woman, competing for a job, she noticed discrimination. “A companyhired me because of my law degree, and at the same time hired a young man with a bachelor of arts degree. His starting salary was $2,000 a year higher than mine.”But bitterness has had no place in her life, and her campaigns here and abroad have been conducted with reason rather than abrasion. “It's only by correcting overpopulation that we will correct world hunger, aggression. conservation, economics,” she said.For Wan! Ads Dial—471-2470.
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