Karen DeCrow

Karen DeCrow ( Lipschultz; December 18, 1937 – June 6, 2014) was an American attorney, author, activist and feminist. She served as the fourth national president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) from 1974 to 1977. She was also a strong supporter of equal rights for men in child custody decisions, arguing for a "rebuttable presumption" of shared custody after divorce. She also asserted that men as well as women should be allowed the decision not to become a parent. Early life Karen Lipschultz was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Jewish family, on December 18, 1937. She was the oldest child of Samuel Meyer Lipschultz, a businessman, and Juliette Abt Lipschultz, a professional ballet dancer. She graduated from Sullivan High School in 1955 and received a bachelor's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1959. After graduating from college, she worked as a writer and editor for a number of magazines and publishing houses, including as a fashion editor at Golf Digest. She married Alexander Kolben in 1960 but they divorced five years later. She was remarried the same year, to Roger DeCrow, a computer scientist, and the couple moved to Syracuse, New York. Career and activism DeCrow joined the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1967, after she and her female coworkers at a publishing house realized they were earning less than men. She was a co-founder of the Syracuse chapter of NOW and became president in 1968. In 1969, she ran for mayor of the city of Syracuse, becoming the first female mayoral candidate in the history of New York.