Peg Yorkin, chair and co-founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation, announces an historic gift of $10 million to the Foundation; the largest contribution ever made for women's rights. The purpose of the donation is to empower women to take action, and to ensure a legacy of feminism for future generations. "My gift is a wake-up call to women. The pleading by women to men in power must stop. We must empower women,"said Yorkin. The first program of the endowment is to help make RU 486 or another anti-progestin available to women. The timing of the gift was providential. The Yorkin announcement generated unprecedented hope and can-do spirit among women at the same time that the Senate's treatment of Anita Hill generated unprecedented anger.

NEW INITIATIVE -- The Foundation launches a campaign for gender balance in the Los Angeles Police Department after the Rodney King police brutality incident in Los Angeles. The Feminist Majority Foundation calls for gender balance on the special commission investigating the beating and for an investigation of the relationship of the gender composition to police brutality on the police force. Research shows that increasing the numbers of women in police departments reduces police violence and increases police response to domestic violence calls.

Feminist Majority Foundation releases reports discussing promising indications of RU 486 as a possible treatment for breast cancer, endometriosis,and Cushing's Syndrome.

VICTORY-- Operation Rescue ends their Los Angeles offensive after two years of being out-numbered and out-organized by the FMF National Clinic Defense Project.

Feminist Majority Foundation releases Empowering Women in Business and Empowering Women in Philanthropy, and Empowering Women in Medicine reports.

NEW INITIATIVE -- In the wake of the Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill hearings, the Feminist Majority Foundation opens Sexual Harassment Hotline to provide information, assistance and feminist strategies as a part of our Campaign to Fight Sexual Harassment.

Anita Hill and Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal

Feminist Majority Foundation conducts postcard campaign directed at FDA Commissioner David Kessler, urging that RU 486 be taken off the import alert list.

In February, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Institute for Biological Sciences (ABIS) join the American Medical Association and American Public Health Association in urging availability of RU 486 and other anti-progestin agents in the United States. The Feminist Majority Foundation helped introduce and win AAAS and ABIS resolutions as well as resolutions passed at other scientific and medical associations. Almost every scientific, medical, and feminist organization supports the introduction of RU 486.

Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal testifies before Congress against the Food and Drug Administration's Import Alert on RU 486, calling the ban on personal importation "medical McCarthyism" and decrying how the ban has halted research on the drug's non-abortion indication's as a treatment for diseases such as Cushing's Syndrome, meningioma, and some types of breast cancer.

The Foundation mobilizes support to keep the television series The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, featuring Sharon Gless, on the air. The show was renewed for a year.

New Hampshire passes a resolution encouraging the release of RU 486 to the United States and the selection of New Hampshire as a clinical trial site. Feminist Majority Foundation Director of Policy and Research Jennifer Jackman presented testimony in favor of the resolution, which was sponsored by Representative Gary Gilmore. Others testifying for the measure included NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Cancer Patients Action Alliance and Brandeis Professor of Law and Social Policy Deborah Stone.

Feminist Majority Foundation 1991 Feminists of the Year include Stanford University Medical School Professor Dr. Frances Conley; Author Susan Faludi; Congresswomen Barbara Boxer, Nita Lowey, Patsy Mink, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Patricia Schroeder, Louise Slaughter, and Jolene Unsoeld; University of Oklahoma Law Professor Anita Hill; Thelma and Louise Screenwriter Callie Khouri; Lesbian Rights Activists Sharon Kowalski and Karen Thompson; Texaco Credit Manager Janella Sue Martin; Waste Management Truck Driver Dawn Munday; USA Today Columnist Barbara Reynolds; Dr. Heidi Weissmann; Author Naomi Wolf, and Former NOW President Molly Yard.