Mary Jean Collins

Activism

She joined the National Organization for Women in 1967, and she was elected as the Chicago Chapter of NOW's president after moving to that city in 1968. That chapter sponsored the Women's Strike for Equality, which occurred in 1970. In the late 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, Collins was a Midwest Regional Director and Board member of NOW, in 1980 she was again elected as the Chicago Chapter of NOW's president, and in 1982 she was elected as national Action Vice-President of NOW; she continued in that last position until 1985. In the 1980s she also helped in the direction of the campaign for the Illinois general assembly to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. She was also a co-chair of NOW's Sears Task Force, which fought against discrimination by Sears, which was then the largest employer of women in the world. As well, she led anti-discrimination efforts against AT&T.

As of 2017 she is on the Board of Directors of Veteran Feminists of America.

She has also served as a Deputy Director of Catholics for a Free Choice, a Board member of Choice USA, and a Vice-President of People For the American Way.