Elizabeth "Betty" Boyer papers

Elizabeth "Betty" Boyer was born in Fremont, Ohio in 1913 and lived on a farm with her family before attending Bowling Green State University during the Great Depression. She received a Bachelor of Science in Education at BGSU in 1937 before attending Cleveland Marshall Law school at night while working for a publication company during the day. Boyer received her law degree in 1947 and went on to obtain her Masters of Law from Western Reserve University’s Thomas Machus School of Law in 1950. She maintained a private law and probate practice in the Cleveland area and over the years, Boyer practiced at the federal, district, and circuit court levels as well as being admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. During this time, she continued to teach as a full-time Professor of Business Law at Cuyahoga Community College.

In 1968, Boyer created the Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL) as a moderate feminist movement for professional women. WEAL provided dissent against the pro-choice stance of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Boyer served as the organization’s first president. WEAL’s goal was to improve women’s educational and employment opportunities through litigation and lobbying. This organization pressed for colleges and universities to abandon discrimination against women, desexing banks, and the passage of Title IX of the Educational Amendments prohibiting discrimination by sexual identity in any educational program receiving federal assistance. Boyer's background in law and experience with WEAL allowed her to testify about and become involved in women’s employment and education issues before committees of the Ohio Legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate. Boyer also served on a White House Advisory Committee on the status of Women and the Hoover Commission for Economy and Efficiency in Government. She was one of the first women admitted to the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1978.

Upon W.E.A.L’s closing in 2012, they donated their remaining funding to BGSU to establish the Elizabeth “Betty” Boyer Award for Student Mothers, supporting the academic achievements of student mothers at BGSU. The award has since been renamed The Elizabeth “Betty” Boyer Award for Student Parents and has been expanded to provide support and honor the work of any full- or part-time student parent, regardless of sex or gender identity.

While a student at BGSU, Boyer was part of the Debate Team and served as president of the Women’s Athletic Association. She later served as the president of the BGSU Alumni Association in 1952, as a member of the Board of Directors of the BGSU Alumni Association from 1965-1967, and as the vice president of the BGSU Foundation in 1975.

Boyer also researched and wrote a number of books about historical women, including 16th-century noblewoman Marguerite de La Rocque, who was marooned on an island in the Gulf of St Lawrence as punishment for an affair. She headed her own publishing firm, Veritie Press, and was the author of three books.