Ruth Margolin was a tireless champion for Kansas City women. She’ll be sorely missed | Opinion

The terms “icon,” “mentor” and “role model” are often overused, but Ruth Margolin, former director of the Women’s Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, embodied them all. Ruth, who passed away Oct. 8 at age 98, was a tireless and fearless proponent for women. Ruth returned to college as an adult learner, earning a master’s degree in counseling. Her 1971 thesis, “Women on the Move,” was the blueprint for the Women’s Resource Service, which later morphed into the larger Women’s Center at UMKC.

Ruth envisioned helping women with their lives. Decades ago, women often dropped out of the job force, along with unfinished education. The minimum wage was $1.60 an hour, with divorce on the rise. Child support was largely unenforceable, with child care paid from low salaries in dead-end jobs. Ruth created the “Women on the Move” bimonthly seminars with dedicated volunteers, providing career testing and career guidance. In less than 10 years, the Women’s Resource Service had served over 12,000 women. Thousands more women would follow.

Ruth was a whirlwind — working long hours and contributing to countless committees, panels and conferences. In one notable (and typical week), she gave 21 speeches to various groups. Her closet was full of awards and citations. She was probably then the most decorated and celebrated woman in all the greater Kansas City area.

But Ruth did not seek accolades. She always said: “It’s not the awards — it’s the work.” If you accompanied Ruth anywhere, a woman would stop and recount how Ruth had helped her. It was like being with a celebrity. Rose Kemp, the director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor, tells the story of visiting a Kansas prison, where an inmate yelled: “Ruth! I am getting out soon!” Ruth yelled back: “Then come see me!”

Ruth and her community volunteer committees created large yearly conferences that had sold-out attendance with national speakers. Programs such as “Women and Politics,” “Women and Money,” “Women and Friendship” and countless others attracted hundreds of women. Ruth would look at the energized crowd and observe, “Women just love to be together.”

Although Ruth and the Women’s Center received great support from the vice chancellor and director over her work with the center, Ruth was not always popular. She faced resistance on large-scale conferences in other departments that featured all-male speakers. Ruth would insist on including women, particularly women of color. Inclusion and diversity were not commonplace then, or even understood. Ruth insisted that speakers represent a wider audience. It made for some hostile meetings, but Ruth would stand her ground.

Ruth provided consultation to various organizations and businesses. She once told FBI recruiters that luring women to the bureau would be easier if they stopped calling them “chicks.” Ruth was a creative program planner and would include drama, arts and music in presentations, never afraid to do something innovative or experimental. Ruth “walked the talk.” Our administrative assistant brought her three children to the office, to save on child care. My infant baby slept in a basket under my desk so I could work. Ruth absolutely loved those solutions and said the Women’s Center now had true bragging rights.

Ruth’s vision of services to help women in all areas of their lives grew into the larger and better funded Women’s Center, which still exists today in its own designated space on the UMKC campus. Ruth never wanted accolades — only a better future for women. She changed countless lives and was a true pioneer.