Professional Women's Group Celebrates 45 YearsBy Tammy Daniels
iBerkshires Staff
02:13AM / Friday, April 24, 2009
 Cutting the anniversary cake at the Williams Inn. Left, Patricia Byron speaks at the meeting; top, guest speaker Gillian Jones. Below, a raft of citations for Northern Berkshire Business and Professional Women.
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — They've only been around half as long as their national organization, but the Northern Berkshire Business and Professional Women has been providing an essential support and advocacy network for local women for decades.
The group celebrated its 45th year on Wednesday night at the Williams Inn with members and guests in attendance, including former Women of Achievement recipients and Kathleen Pavelchek, president of the Massachusetts Business and Professional Women. Tables along one wall were heavy with citations, newspaper clippings, documents and photo albums full of the group's activities over the years.
"Looking at some of these citations it reads like a political history of Berkshire County over the last 45 years," said state Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, an invited guest and the only man in the room. "It's quite remarkable."
Downing presented the group with yet another citation from the state Senate signed, as he pointed out, by the legislative body's first woman president, Sen. Therese Murray. Then, recalling how his sister had had to put up with three brothers, he joked that being in the minority here made him "want to call her up and apologize, for what I don't know ... ."
The national organization has been helping women work toward equity in the workplace since 1919. Growing out a panel established during World War I to coordinate where professional women could help the war effort, the organization has advocated for equal pay, equal rights and against sex discrimination in the work place.
It worked to pass child labor laws, to help create jobs during the Great Depression and lobbied for Title IX, which ensured equal opportunities for education. The local group has raised thousands in scholarship funds to help young women pursue higher education.
"This has been women helping women for 45 years," said 1st Vice President Dorothy Ransford. "And we're still growing strong," adding "... oh, we do allow men."
 Twenty-two-year member Patricia Byron spoke on how true the word "remarkable" was, and how women must use the education, opportunity and clout that they have achieved. "We have become more visible," she said. "Our place in society has changed forever.
"I just want all of you to be the remarkable women you are."
Guest speaker was Gillian L. Jones, chief photographer of the North Adams Transcript since 1992. Jones, a New York transplant who graduated from Mount Greylock Regional High School, also teaches photography at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, does some writing and operates a wedding photography business.
Eschewing the standard speech, the photojournalist told her story through a slideshow illustration mostly of photographs she's taken over the years. Ranging from spectacular wrecks and fires to daily life, to animals to landscapes to celebrities, Jones' photos are to large extent an encapsulation of life in the Berkshires from the tragic to the sublime.
 Where it was often more difficult for women to break into male-dominated arts like painting and sculpture, they were far more accepted in the relatively new medium of photography, she said.
Still, she's found herself mostly surrounded by men, including amongst a gaggle of photographers waiting in a hallway at Berkshire Superior Court to get a shot of serial killer Lewis Lent. But being female does have its advantages, said Jones.
"People are less afraid of women, less intimidated," she said, making them more accessible. In contrast, a young male intern she'd sent to take pictures at a playground got the third degree from a parent.
"Whether you're a man or woman, you have to be persistent to do this job," said Jones. "You can't have any airs about you."
Most of the images provoked oohs and aahs from the audience, and one woman found her then 6-year-old son in the mix. "I thoroughly enjoyed it," said BBPW member Sylvia Proud. "I think everyone here did, too."
Club members Gwendolyn Boillat, left, and Allyn Basel |
The NBBPW often invites speakers to meetings, in addition to the annual meeting, to talk on a variety of issues. It's one of the things member Allyn Basel enjoys about the group along with offering scholarships and networking: "It's a learning experience."
"It's getting to know some of the women in Berkshire County you wouldn't be as likely to meet," said member Gwendolyn Boillat.
"We're a brotherhood of sisters," laughed Nancy Lescarbeau.
The Northern Berkshire Business and Professional Women will host the annual state meeting in May. |
