Carrie Nell Moye oral history interview, September 1, 2001

Interviewed by Janet Paulk. Carrie Nell Moye describes her childhood on a farm close to Barnesville, South Georgia. An insecure student, she excelled in school and was named valedictorian. She says that she disappointed her father by attending Emory University, an institution he considered to be a hotbed of communism. She recalls being nominated for a graduate scholarship, but turned it down, as she felt that graduate work was not appropriate for women -- especially married women. After Moye married and had children, she recalls that she was very unhappy as a homemaker, and with the urging and support of her husband and psychiatrist, realized that the quality of her time with her children was more important than the quantity. Moye says that she was thirty-one years old before realizing “that a woman could indeed be a person in her own right.” She joined the League of Women Voters, and considers her work with the League as a stepping-stone to her involvement with the Equal Rights Amendment. After being offered a job as Atlanta director for UNICEF, Moye recounts joining many different organizations for women, including the YWCA, and the Business and Professional Women. She says that it was because of her UNICEF job, that she began speaking publicly about the ERA and women’s issues, and she describes a number of debates she participated in, including one with a Baptist minister, and one with Phyllis Schlafly. She also describes the contentious ERA Georgia election in which she ran against Joyce Parker. Through her work with UNICEF, Moye traveled to the Middle East. She discusses her experiences there, and the strength and autonomy of the women she met. She says that the reason the ERA failed was due to women’s ignorance and fear: fear that their lives would be turned upside-down; that they would not be allowed to be homemakers; that gay marriage would be legalized. She contends that conservative religion has compounded this fear. She feels that women should understand that “In the Women’s Movement [that she knows], a women does something because she chooses to do it, not because she has to do it.”