Between 1966 and 1972 Joan Jordan, who used the pen name of Vilma Sanchez on many occasions, was active in the women's movement in Northern California. Ms. Jordan lobbied to improve the status of women, and also taught a course on Women, Economics and Method at Breakaway, a women's community college in San Francisco. She attended at least four major women's conferences, including the Vancouver, British Columbia, Indo-Chinese Women's Conference of 1971 and a Washington, D.C. conference of 1970. In addition, Joan Jordan published at least 16 articles which appeared in The Militant, The Guardian, The Daily Gator, Radical America, Psychology of Women by Karen E. Paige, and other places.
Ms. Jordan also became influential in the Independent Campus Women of San Francisco State College, the largest single organization in San Francisco's women's liberation movement, which was created in 1969. This campus group consisted of five committees: child care center; abortion and birth control; education and speakers bureau; women's studies; and job discrimination. The committees were mainly concerned with funding limited research and organizing meetings on their respective topics.
Between 1966-1972 Joan Jordan, while pursuing her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at San Francisco State College, attempted to build an independent feminist movement including women of all economic backgrounds. Additional information on Ms. Jordan and her political philosophy is contained in a letter dated May 18, 1972.
