CONGRATULATIONS -- Mariam Chamberlain is 80!

Mariam Chamberlain has had a distinguished career as an economist working during the Second World War in government and afterwards in the university and in the Ford Foundation in New York City, where she provided much of the impetus for the initial funding to start women's studies at American colleges and universities. She founded the National Council for Research on Women and was its first president, and continues to share her much valued experience and wisdom with the council staff and with its member centers around the US and in other countries. On April 35, l998 Mariam's friends celebrated her at a birthday party at which many shared their thoughts and impressions about Mariam. Here is the "Extended Toast" from Debra Schultz, who once worked at NCRW and is now with the Network Women's Program of the Open Society Institute.

I have had the joy of knowing Mariam since l987 and working with her closely for six years at the National Council for Research on Women. Since then, we have remained friends and Mariam, as you know, is an extraordinary friend.

Mary Rubin informed me that I am representing "our generation" in honoring Mariam. First of all, I don't know what "our" generation represents -- we are neither the founding 2nd wave mothers nor the ungrateful 3rd wave daughters. In fact, we're very grateful, Mariam, to have met you at pivotal moments in our lives, not so much because you told us what to do, which you knew I would have resisted, but because you created an environment in which choosing to devote one's career to women and social justice worldwide seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do.

Mariam, it doesn't feel to me like you have a particular age. When you told me last week that lately you've been receiving books to review on older women, I felt a little irked on your behalf. Why are they sending these to Mariam -- she's an economist, not a gerontologist.

Nevertheless, the fact is that you have lived a certain impressive number of years and you are a feminist foremother. In my mind, you have always carried forth a kind of New Deal blend of idealism and pragmatism that we need more of. As a women's historian, I revere and bless you for perceiving and nurturing women's studies at exactly the right moment.

Like a true democrat, you talk and listen to everyone -- with an open mind and heart. I admire you for being one of the most accepting people I know; yet you never lost your critical judgement. Your insights are tendered kindly but always in the interests of accuracy and the best possible outcome.

Another way you have inspired me, Mariam, is by being a true internationalist. Women from all over the world always find their way to your desk at the National Council. And you always take the time without resentment to help them make connections and build women's studies in their part of the world.

When you travel all over the world to attend pivotal conferences, you say the key things that need to be said. Because you care so much about nurturing new beginnings, you never tire of sharing the basics with those who need them. You identify and invest in emerging leaders. In your patience, vision, generosity of spirit, and clear-thinking, you are an inspiration to me and countless others.

Now that my own work involves gender studies in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, I wonder if I am following in your footsteps. I actually feel we are walking side by side, as I look forward to collaborating on future projects. But let the record state that Mariam was WAY ahead of everyone in seeing how crucial and under-represented were women from that part of the world. Via the US/USSR Women's Dialogue, she was shepherding Russians and American feminists to and fro long before Boris Yeltsin went off the deep end. As a long-standing Board member of the Network of East-West Women and the Feminist Press, Mariam always remembers to make women from these regions visible.

In women's studies communities all over the world, when you mention the name Mariam Chamberlain, a smile of warmth and gratitude invariably emerges. When I think of you, Mariam, such a smile also appears on my face. But it is followed by a little grin, because I know first and foremost that you have done exactly what you wanted to do in exactly the way you have wanted to do it. And if I am to represent women of "youngerness" then I have to thank you especially for that greatest example of all.