Muriel Fox, longtime Carl Byoir exec and co-founder and initial PR director, National Organization for Women in 1966, will be on a panel in New York tomorrow that will discuss women’s issues.
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Muriel FoxToday (March 8) is International Women’s Day, a day for women to demand gender equality, says NOW. Tomorrow is the start of Women’s PR History Month, organized by the Museum of Public Relations, New York.
NOW’s website says “Women around the country will strike to demand gender equality. NOW will proudly take action for human rights alongside them.”
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Today is being promoted as "A Day without Women." Women are urged to wear red, not report for work and not spend money.
St. Petersburg, Other Cities Have Events
In downtown St. Petersburg, organizers from the Women's March Pinellas Chapter are hosting a series of speakers at Williams Park in downtown from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
In Tampa, a forum is scheduled at the John F. Germany Library at 900 N Ashley Dr. at 6 p.m. The event, hosted by the Women's March Hillsborough Chapter and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, will have presentations until around 7:15 when the group will set off on a candlelight march to Gaslight Square Park, 410 N. Franklin St.
The candlelight vigil and special ceremony will "honor the important women in our lives," according to the event's Facebook page.
"The goal of A Day Without a Woman is to highlight the economic power and significance that women have in the U. S. and global economies," said Marina Welch, captain of the Tampa chapter, "while calling attention to the economic injustices women continue to face."
Demonstrations took place in New York City, Washington, D.C., and others including foreign capitals.
The New York demonstration started at 59th St. and Fifth Ave. at noon today.
The International Women's Day official color is purple — in connection with the women's suffrage days of the early 1900s — but the #ADayWithoutAWoman organizers ask participants to wear red. Organizers also tell women who want to get involved not to work that day and avoid spending money at businesses that don't support gender equality.
While the #ADayWithoutAWoman protest was planned to occur on International Women's Day, it is not the holiday's official theme.
According to the International Women's Day website, this year's theme is "Be Bold For Change."
The website refers to the World Economic Forum prediction that the gender gap won't close entirely until the year 2186.
"This is too long a wait," the site's statement reads. "For International Women's Day 2017, we're asking you to #BeBoldForChange. Call on the masses or call on yourself to help forge a better working world — a more gender inclusive world.
"IWD can be an important catalyst and vehicle for driving greater change for women and moving closer to gender parity."
Fox, who headed the Radio-TV dept. of Byoir and became its youngest VP in 1956, will discuss women’s issues on a panel with Anne Bernays, novelist, teacher and daughter of Doris Fleischman Bernays; historian Karen Miller Russell, professor, University of Georgia; Meg Lamme, professor, University of Alabama, and Karla Gower, professor, University of Alabama and director, the Plank Center.
Fox Gave Desk to Friedan Secretary
Fox, who was NOW president Betty Friedan's main lieutenant and director of operations in its earliest years, according to Wikipedia, installed Friedan's secretary at a desk near her own at the Byoir offices.
Wikipedia says “She wrote numerous letters under Friedan’s signature to government officials demanding faster action to reduce sex discrimination – including the letter that helped persuade President Lyndon Johnson to sign Executive Order 11246 in October 1967, the order that added sex to Affirmative Action and thus opened up America’s corporate pipeline for millions of women.”
Fox Joined Byoir as Publicist
Fox had joined Byoir, one of the nation’s largest PR firms, as a publicist in its Radio-TV Department. She became head of the department and Byoir's youngest VP in 1956.
Wikipedia says she was then told she had gone as far as she could go "because corporate CEOs can't relate to women. She remained on that plateau until she had helped NOW to change the laws and the business climate for all women.”
Fox became group VP in 1974 and executive VP in 1979. She was also president of Byoir units ByMedia, communications training, and ByMart, smaller accounts.
She was described in Business Week’s list of 100 Top Corporate Women in June 1976 as the "top-ranking woman in public relations." She retired from Byoir in 1985.
Headed PR for NOW
Fox was PR director of NOW’s founding conference Oct. 29, 1966, and the two years following, She directed the nationwide publicity effort that resulted in coverage of the new movement.
She was later elected NOW vice president (1967–70), national chairwoman (1971–73), and chair of the National Advisory Committee (1973–74). She served as president of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (1978–81) and chair of its board (1981–92) and since that time remains its Honorary Board Chair.
Russell will lead a panel discussion on the role of women in PR. It will start at 6 p.m. at the Genome Center, 101 Sixth Ave.
Bernays will speak about the role her mother played in the PR industry. She has said that the contributions of Mrs. Bernays have not been recognized.
Sherrie Mazur will join the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation as managing director, of communications on Feb. 14. 
Independent Diplomat, the nonprofit that promotes democracy by organizing opposition movements and activists, has trained its sights on Venezuela.
Robert Tappan has joined the International BioMetrics + Identity Assoc., the trade group for the identity technology industry.
Tiffany Haverly, who was at Finsbury Glover Hering, has joined the Internet Association as director of communications.
BGR Government Affairs represents the American Chamber of Commerce in South China as economic and political tensions between the two countries escalate.
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