The roots of today’s political fractiousness lie, in part, in a four-day gathering in Houston more than 40 years ago. The National Women’s Conference in 1977 was designed to bring America’s women together to determine what the government could do to improve their lives, but it provoked a bitter debate between feminists and conservative women’s activists over abortion, gay rights, and other issues.

In the latest Richard D. McKinzie Lecture, University of South Carolina historian Marjorie Spruill looks back at an episode that activist Gloria Steinem said “may take the prize as the most important event nobody knows about.”

The McKinzie Lecture is co-presented by UMKC’s Center for Midwestern Studies, Bernardin Haskell Lecture Fund, History Department, Division of Diversity and Inclusion, and High School/College Partnerships program.