Betty Roberts at the Oregon State Capitol.Inspire women leaders
Betty Roberts blazed political trails for Oregon women, from her first term in the Oregon House in the 1960s to her appointment as the first woman on the Oregon Supreme Court in 1982.
Bold and determined, Roberts smashed through the obstacles she faced, from subtle, insidious discrimination to inappropriate touching. And she left a legacy at Portland State University to help future generations of women continue to break barriers.
Roberts helped start the Center for Women’s Leadership at PSU in 2004 to train and mentor the next generation of women leaders. The center helps women develop the skills and confidence to lead. It’s a place where professional and political women can share their wisdom and experience with high school and college students to prepare them for positions of authority.
The center’s underlying principle is that every woman is already a leader. The Center for Women’s Leadership simply helps each woman acknowledge that aspect of herself.
“In today’s world, every woman should be able to explore her own life, discover her own uniqueness, break her own trails, and pioneer her own destiny,” Roberts wrote in her autobiography, “With Grit and by Grace.”
Roberts grew up in poverty in Texas during the Great Depression. She was 35, married and raising four children when she graduated from Portland State with a bachelor’s degree in teaching in 1958. She went on to defy the social norms of the time by teaching in a high school, divorcing her first husband (who disapproved of her career), getting her master’s degree and going to law school.
She was still a law student when she was elected to the Oregon House in 1964, one of only seven women in the state legislature. Four years later, she was elected to the Oregon Senate. She was the first woman to serve on both the Oregon Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court.
In her political career, she championed breakthrough legislation bringing women’s equality, civil rights, and environmental protections to Oregon. She performed the state’s first legal same-sex marriage in 2004.
Two years before she died in 2011 at age 88, the Center for Women’s Leadership presented Roberts with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Addressing a room of alumnae, she showed her sharp wit and commitment to leading had not faded.
“I’m not done with my torch yet,” she said. “Go get your own.”