European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 8, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Ind revisited feminism in the heartland by Judy new York times Ediht years hardly any of the women in a Central Indiana farming town of had heard of Betty Friedan or Gloria Stei nem or the National organization for they were Strong supporters of president interviews and they were foes of legalized Abor and they thought that the very Best life a woman would Lead was to stay Home and be a traditional wife and feminist leaders and organizations still do not mean much to the women of Ronald Reagan has Long replaced Richard Nixon As their political and they Are still against a return visit to Hope showed that there have been changes among its however that May give some clue As to How similar changes Are moving through american one of the biggest discernible differences is that More Hope women now hold paying jobs than eight years including several who vowed then that they would never work outside the Are More said 34yearold Charlene a married working Mother of most of the women say that their working has More to do with the Economy than with the influence of the Wom ens in another departure from the prevailing attitudes o Hope women seem divided about the proposed Iqual rights which was not the controversial Issue then that it has become one supporter of the amendment is 24yearold re Becca who has been working in her parents hardware store because it was the Only Job she could get since her divorce four years i like men to open doors for and i Don t want to be but i still think i deserve an equal Chance when it comes to getting a change has come creeping into the 150yearold protestant and Republican stronghold in other too the towns Only full time lawyer is a Joyce v Hauser High named after the towns moravian Martin has recently added girls Bas volleyball and Tennis teams that compete in the school Only had Intra mural the Hope Library now has about a dozen feminist oriented books in 1972 it did not have Imogene pm Mart the 52yearold said she did not have Many requests for those except for the Hite the results of a questionnaire on american women s sexual re that one really Hopes teenage girls Are becoming More there the ones who go after the said Cindy Lar son a Home economics teacher at Hauser High Carson added judging from some recent discussions in her Community living a lot of the Guys now feel it is their Job to do their share of cleaning and household the Home Federal savings and loan association recently appointed a 22yearold woman As Branch manag and so far the Farmers have not made any big withdrawals of their As some Hope people had things Are slowly but said Thayer who was in College eight years she added among the reasons she thought she had been accepted As a professional woman in Hope were that she grew up in the went to Hauser High school and is now any woman coming into town alone and trying to establish herself would have a very hard time she Back in Patsy Harris was a 30yearom housewife and Mother of four who said that she was Happy staying Home and could not imagine in her wildest dreams getting up in the drag Ging her children to a Babysitter and going to today Harris has a full time Job As a Library aide at the Hope elementary one of the reasons she went to she is because she and her a Junior High school social studies bought a House a year i bring Home enough to make the House which is a she we would have had a hard signs of Hope at Entrance to Indiana Kathleen Clouse uses Maiden despite her new status As a working Harris said she still considered herself to be a a Mother and a in that Ive had to give up some things i like bowl Ine on a Bowling she but if youre which i you will be Happy no matter what youre eight years Judy Douglas was running her husbands jewelry store while he was attending a watchmakers school in she said she was eagerly awaiting the Day she could be at Home full time with her two and and All those things that bore most has a full time night Job working with mentally retarded adults in a federally financed program in nearby she and her who sold the jewelry store two years ago after he became have been separated twice since they Are currently living Ive probably changed a great she said As she sat in her modest ranch style in still extremely my boys still come but the times we live in now make it very difficult to be in my i have to Douglas said that on monday nights she is enrolled in a Colleg level psychology course in the first higher education course she has she still finds time to can and she but i dont enjoy it As much As i used Douglas smiled when she was reminded that eight years ago she had said she believed a Man should be head of the House and that she did not want equal rights with i still believe that a Man should be the she but More and More in starting to think it should be a 5050 split Between husband and you she in really at a Point now where i think a woman president might make a change for the i would never have said that eight years eight years ago another Hope Mayelene who pumped Gas at her husband derbies Gas had vowed she would never vote for a woman for there so they have and  be Able to run the she had they be sick in bed All the Embs also said at the time that she thought that if someone has an Abor they ought to take pm out and hang if it want gods they  have gotten pregnant in the first now said she had received death threats from out of town after she was quoted in the but i still feel the same about she said through the screen door of her yellow victorian barring any conversation Back in Kathleen then a 23year old former student at Purdue had just returned to where her father runs the town s biggest closes to try to pull herself together while going through a at the she was flirting with the Radi Cal for of using the title rather than because in nobody wife who went on to get a College degree in com Puter was remarried a year to a tug boat Captain who spends half of each month in Long where his ship is his name is Ralph but Johnson has returned to using her Maiden Kathleen because i feel i am Kathleen and that our whole naming Structure is Clouse said that she drove either her husbands 1973 purple porsche or a yellow Yamaha motorcycle to her Job in nearby where she works As a computer manager for a business called legis Lex that is owned by the fact that i didst take Ralphs name got a lot of negative reaction in she but basically they just think were Page 14 the stars and stripes