Tish Sommers

Letitia Gale Innes was born in Cambria, California and raised in San Francisco, the daughter of Murray Innes and Katherine Dorsch Innes. Her father was a mining engineer, and her mother was a teacher.{{Cite news |date=May 3, 1904 |title=Formal Normal Student Married |work=Chico Record |url=https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2021/86/180247720_5babd4a0-5292-417b-ae4a-24316b65819e.jpeg |access-date=January 6, 2023}} She studied dance as a young woman, including three years in Germany in the 1930s. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles.{{Cite journal |last=Levenstein |first=L. |date=2014-03-01 |title="Don't Agonize, Organize!": The Displaced Homemakers Campaign and the Contested Goals of Postwar Feminism |url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jahist/jau007 |journal=Journal of American History |language=en |volume=100 |issue=4 |pages=1114–1138 |doi=10.1093/jahist/jau007 |issn=0021-8723}}

During World War II, Innes worked in the parks department in Los Angeles. In 1945 she directed a youth theatrical production in Los Angeles with over 150 youth participants,{{Cite news |date=August 14, 1945 |title=Hollenbeck to Present War Chest Show |pages=8 |work=Daily News |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DNLA19450814.1.8&srpos=5&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Letitia+Innes------- |access-date=January 7, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} and chaired the program for a "thanksgiving harvest festival" in the city.{{Cite news |title=Thanks festival set tomorrow |pages=16 |work=Daily News |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DNLA19451120.1.16&srpos=6&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Letitia+Innes------- |access-date=January 7, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} In the 1950s, Sommers and her second husband worked for social and civil rights causes in the South.

In the 1970s, Sommers became focused on feminist issues, especially involving older women. With the help of her friend Laurie Shields, she successfully lobbied 39 states and Congress to pass displaced homemaker laws,{{Cite news |last=McCormack |first=Patricia |date=September 4, 1975 |title=Tish Sommers lobbies for Displaced Homemaker's act |pages=C-17 |work=San Bernardino Sun |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19750904.1.47&srpos=9&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Tish+Sommers------- |access-date=January 6, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} which offered a network of job training and counseling centers for career housewives who went through divorce or the death of a husband. Sommers coined the phrase "displaced homemaker."{{Cite book |last=DeLuzio |first=Crista |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lBdPbif6cO0C&dq=Tish+Sommers&pg=PA196 |title=Women's Rights: People and Perspectives: People and Perspectives |date=2009-11-12 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-59884-115-2 |pages=196 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Shields |first=Laurie |url=http://archive.org/details/displacedhomemak00shie |title=Displaced homemakers : organizing for a new life |date=1981 |publisher=New York : McGraw-Hill |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-07-056802-0 |pages=ix}}

Sommers chaired the National Organization for Women's task force on older women in the 1970s.{{Cite news |date=April 24, 1975 |title=Ageism, sexism; They call it double jeopardy |pages=B-2 |work=Healdsburg Tribune |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HTES19750424.2.91&srpos=4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Tish+Sommers------- |access-date=January 6, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} She was also a NOW board member and led the Jobs for Older Women Action Project. She co-founded the Older Women's League with Laurie Shields in 1980, and was its first president.

Sommers was named one of the "Bay Area's Ten Most Distinguished Persons" by the San Francisco Chronicle in 1974. She testified before a Senate committee on aging and Social Security in 1975.{{Cite book |last=United States Congress Senate Special Committee on Aging |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sh1DAQAAMAAJ&dq=Tish+Sommers&pg=PA1679 |title=Future directions in social security: hearing before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, first session ... |date=1973 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=1679–1682 |language=en}} She won the Western Gerontological Society Award in 1979, and the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation's Ministry to Women Award in 1981. In 1982, already facing a cancer diagnosis, she was keynote speaker at a conference on employment at Sonoma State University.{{Cite news |date=March 3, 1982 |title=Conference to Explore American Workplace |pages=7 |work=Healdsburg Tribune |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HTES19820303.2.32&srpos=2&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Tish+Sommers------- |access-date=January 6, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} In 1983, she testified before a Congressional hearing on Medicare and aging.{{Cite book |last=United States Congress House Select Committee on Aging |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MntapV8sk4UC&dq=Tish+Sommers&pg=PA46 |title=Medicare and Acupuncture: Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session, November 30, 1983, San Francisco, Calif |date=1984 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=46–51 |language=en}} In 1984, she once again spoke before a Congressional committee on aging and healthcare.{{Cite book |last=United States Congress House Select Committee on Aging |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-YUaAAAAMAAJ&dq=Tish+Sommers&pg=PA17 |title=Health Care for Elders: Alternative Futures : Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, Second Session, March 18, 1984, Anaheim, Calif |date=1984 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=17–22 |language=en}}

• The not-so-helpless female: How to change the world even if you never thought you could; A step-by-step guide to social action (1973)
• "Freelance Agitator Argues for Hiring Changes: Look Out Job Market!" (1978){{Cite journal |last=Sommers |first=Tish |date=1978 |title=Freelance Agitator Argues for Hiring Changes: Look Out Job Market! |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44872266 |journal=Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=8–9 |jstor=44872266 |issn=0738-7806}}
• "If We Could Write the Script..." (1980){{Cite journal |last=Sommers |first=Tish |date=1980 |title=If We Could Write The Script... |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44875007 |journal=Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=7–35 |jstor=44875007 |issn=0738-7806}}
• "If I Had a Billion..." (1981){{Cite journal |last=Sommers |first=Tish |date=1981 |title=If I Had a Billion . . . |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44875061 |journal=Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=11–33 |jstor=44875061 |issn=0738-7806}}
• "Caregiving: A Woman's Issue" (1985){{Cite journal |last=Sommers |first=Tish |date=1985 |title=Caregiving: A Woman's Issue |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44875293 |journal=Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=9–13 |jstor=44875293 |issn=0738-7806}}
• "Three Caregivers Tell Their Stories: Seriously Near the Breaking Point" (1985){{Cite journal |last1=Sommers |first1=Tish |last2=Zarit |first2=Steven H. |date=1985 |title=Three Caregivers Tell Their Stories: Seriously Near the Breaking Point |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44875298 |journal=Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=30–33 |jstor=44875298 |issn=0738-7806}}
• Women Take Care: The Consequences of Caregiving in Today's Society (1987, with Laurie Shields){{Cite book |last=Sommers |first=Tish |url=http://archive.org/details/womentakecarecon0000somm |title=Women take care : the consequences of caregiving in today's society |date=1987 |publisher=Gainesville, Fla. : Triad Pub. Co. |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-937404-28-7}}

Innes married Sidney Arnold Burke in 1938; they later divorced. She married fellow activist Joseph Sommers in 1949; they adopted a son, and divorced in 1972. "Undoubtedly the divorce was, in part, my own awakening," she later recalled.{{Cite journal |last1=Sommers |first1=Tish |last2=Sorrel |first2=Lorraine |last3=Sojourner |first3=Susan |date=1982 |title=with the wisdom of an owl: an interview with tish sommers |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25774188 |journal=Off Our Backs |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=6–7 |jstor=25774188 |issn=0030-0071}} Sommers died from cancer in 1985 at the age of 71, in Oakland.{{Cite news |date=1985-10-19 |title=Tish Sommers Dies; Led Older Women's Union |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/19/us/tish-sommers-dies-led-older-women-s-union.html |access-date=2023-01-07 |issn=0362-4331}} Some of her papers are held in the San Diego State University Libraries. The Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco established the Tish Sommers Senior Scholars program to honor her; it supports the work of older graduate and postdoctoral students working to improve the lives of older women.{{Cite book |last=University of California, San Francisco |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hvM2AQAAMAAJ&dq=Tish+Sommers&pg=RA26-PA9 |title=UCSF News |date=June 10, 1993 |publisher= |language=en}} In 1991, a biography of her was published, titled Tish Sommers, Activist: and the Founding of the Older Women's League.{{Cite book |last=Huckle |first=Patricia |url=http://archive.org/details/tishsommersactiv0000huck |title=Tish Sommers, activist, and the founding of the Older Women's League |date=1991 |publisher=Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-87049-691-2}}

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=

{{Cite book | last=Borenstein | first=Audrey | year=1983 | title=Chimes of change and hours: views of older women in twentieth-century America | publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press | isbn=978-0-8386-3170-6 | pages=41–42 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HMxxespYaHAC}}

{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1985/10/19/tish-sommers-71-womens-activist/ |title=Tish Sommers, 71, Women's Activist |publisher=Chicago Tribune |date=1985-10-19 |access-date=2011-11-27}}

{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-19-fi-15129-story.html |title=Tish Sommers | Older Women's Advocate Dies at 71: Tish Sommers Was Co-Founder of 15,000-Member Group |work=Los Angeles Times |date=1985-10-19 |access-date=2011-11-27}}

{{Cite book | last=Love | first=Barbara J. | year=2006 | title=Feminists who changed America, 1963-1975 | publisher=University of Illinois Press | isbn=978-0-252-03189-2 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/feministswhochan00love/page/434 434]–435 | url=https://archive.org/details/feministswhochan00love | url-access=registration |accessdate=2011-11-27}}

{{cite web|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1n39n50p/ |title=Tish Sommers Papers |publisher=Online Archive of California |date= |accessdate=2011-11-27}}

}}

• A 1982 video interview with Tish Sommers from KPBS television, on Internet Archive

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommers, Tish}}

Category:American feminist writers

Category:American women's rights activists

Category:1914 births

Category:1985 deaths