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G.J. Stillson MacDonnell was born in Danbury, Connecticut in 1947 and graduated from New York University. She received a law degree from the University of Connecticut in 1973. In 1974 she started an independent practice in Hartford and 5 months later joined a Hartford law firm. She was founder and attorney for Hartford Rape Crisis Service; chair of Coalition of Connecticut, an organization concerned with women's issues; attorney and board member of Connecticut Feminist Federal Credit Union in New Haven. MacDonnell frequently worked as unpaid lobbyist for feminist organizations and testified before Connecticut legislator for the ERA, abortion rights, divorce, sexual assault laws, and gay rights. In 1969 she a joined larger firm working with legal issues of employee benefits.
The G.J. Stillson MacDonnell papers document the Connecticut women's movement in the 1970s and 1980s. They include material on women's organizations such as the founding of the Feminist Credit Union, the Coalition of Connecticut Organizations Concerned with Women's Issues, the Connecticut Commission on the Status of Women, the first rape crisis service and the first battered women's shelter in Connecticut. Also represented are MacDonnell's legal activities in Connecticut, working with, and lobbying for, women's issues in the state legislature, including the Equal Rights Amendment, gay rights, and various civil rights campaigns. Additional research files include material on the history of married women's surname; Vivian Kellems' research on taxation of single people; and issues of women's periodicals and newspapers.
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G.J. Stillson MacDonnell Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.