Conversations with the CTGCA Team: Lead Volunteer Recruiter Janet Cook

CTGCA Lead Volunteer Recruiter Janet Cook tells us about growing up in the 1950s, fighting back against the anti-choice movement, and how she sustains her optimism when she feels discouraged by a backslide in progress.

This interview has been edited for brevity. CTGCA Volunteer Jessica Sass interviewed members from our team to learn about their roots in the gender equality movement. To learn more about our Interview Series and read other pieces like this, please click here.

When you were a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I was born in 1950, so like many girls my age, I was given very mixed messages. Parents preached that I was to take all the math and science I could so I’d have many options. But, in fact, the real expectation was that I would marry and have kids — nothing more. If I were to fault my parents for anything, I would say that they never taught me to dream. It’s a tragedy that any child should grow up without knowing how to dream or without believing that they have many possibilities in life.

Were your dreams at all modified, because of limited opportunities for your gender, race, abilities, sexuality, religion, etc.?

Any woman born in 1950 was impacted by all of those things. Women couldn’t get into law school or business school. Jobs were listed in the paper by gender. I didn’t have a lot of dreams or imagination, so it was not quite as stifling to me in some ways as it might have been to somebody who dreamed of being a lawyer.

At what point did you start coming into your own and creating your own opportunities for yourself?

The American dream (for a white girl) — meant growing up, getting educated, finding a husband, buying a house, having kids, and making more money than your parents did. Financial security was a great motivator for me and my generation, perhaps due to having Depression-era parents. I was always striving to do better professionally. My first job out of college was working in a Hawaiian MuuMuu store where I had to clean the parrot cage for $2.13 an hour. The next job was office manager in an orthodontist office. After that, a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park. And finally, as a project manager in Pharmaceutical Product Development. I was constantly pushing myself to get better-paying jobs — jobs that required the use of my education. Then, at 45, I was divorced after a 20-year marriage and had to start over completely financially. Financial security became an even bigger driver for me because I didn’t have any money to retire on.

How did your community and family influence your passions? Did your values shift when you grew up?

I was raised in a very southern, Christian, sexist, racist, family. You grow up thinking that is normal. Both my parents were products of their time, their geography (rural Alabama and Birmingham, AL) and because of their cultural norms and experiences. My father was 21 before he ever ate Chinese food. My parents had never had pizza until they were 40 years old.

I was born in Birmingham, Alabama but due to my father’s job, we were regularly transferred all over the country. Even though we moved to some pretty backwater places, I got exposed to different people and opinions, so my life was completely different than my parents. Later, I became a world traveler. I’ve been to places that challenged my thinking about myself and my country: West Africa (from where many slaves came), India, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Borneo, Siberia, Mongolia, and Pakistan to name a few.

It’s not a far reach to see how my upbringing and experiences became the basis for my political passion for women’s rights, civil rights, and social justice.

What made you want to go to places like that?

I wanted to see the places in the news; I wanted to see them with my own eyes to answer such questions as these: Is it true America unseated democratically elected leaders of Iran? Are Palestinians mistreated? Are North Korea, Iran or Cuba threats to America? Is Africa destined to be poor forever? Is China mistreating its Muslim Uighurs? I’ve discovered our government is not always truthful with us. I’ve learned there are good people everywhere who just want to be left alone to grow up, get educated, get married, have kids and die peacefully. Over the years, my value system changed and my parent’s narrow view of the world receded.

Was there a specific mentor or loved one that shaped where you are today?

I’ve had a lot of mentors in my life, none of them formal in any way. The lesbians with whom I worked as CA Action Coordinator in the National Organization for Women (NOW) were strong, independent women who prepared me for my divorce. My neighbor of many years was a Jewish woman who’d never gone to college, but she was the most well-read, smart, educated woman I’ve ever met. Mary Hughes, Founder of CTGCA and Karen Chapman, Anna Eshoo’s Chief of Staff have been political mentors. Suzanne Martin was my professional model for many years. I’ve had a couple of male mentors as well.

The trick is to believe that you are worthy of someone’s help and attention, and once you get that through your thick head, you can be open to receiving help and guidance from all kinds of people.

When was the first time that you became politically active? Was there some sort of event that occurred or was it a gradual awakening?

I’ve had 2 experiences that paved the way toward my political activism. At 19, I got pregnant while in university in Auburn, Alabama. Abortion was illegal at the time in Alabama. I didn’t know much, but I knew I didn’t want to be married and I didn’t want a child at that time. I was required to explain to a local preacher how I got pregnant in exchange for the number of a New York abortion clinic. I returned home to Delaware, took a bus to NYC where I received the procedure but had to keep my actions secret from my parents. It was the first time in my entire life that I thought for myself and did what I wanted to do, which was the underpinning of having a political sense.

Secondly, early in my marriage, I signed up for the ERA Missionary Project in Salt Lake City, Utah, which was 3 weeks of door-to-door canvassing in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. I was away from my husband for the first time; I learned I could lobby for something I felt was just and fair. It was a beginning.

How did your experiences shape your views toward reproductive rights?

My abortion experience was seminal to my political development. Any woman at the mercy of a preacher in Alabama who holds the key to your future is changed by having to ask. It also changes the way you look at birth control access, abortion services, parental consent, or the people who barricade abortion clinic doors to keep women from getting abortions.

I sat for six years on the board of Health Connected, a local nonprofit that provides sex education all over California. I was also a Planned Parenthood abortion counselor for many years, and I led the statewide effort to track the arrest records of the anti-abortion, clinic blockading group Operation Rescue. Rather than locals who had moral objections to abortion, these people were moving from city to city to blockade clinics all over California. When we presented pages of arrests to local district attorneys they were much more willing to jail the lawbreakers which eventually curtailed their activities.

What organizations did you participate in when you were younger?

Beyond NOW and Planned Parenthood, I worked on political campaigns. And because of my travel experiences, I supported efforts in the areas of homelessness, immigration rights, Amnesty International, Palestinian rights, and social justice groups.

Simply electing progressive women who supported all the issues I cared about meant I didn’t have to spread myself so thinly on these issues individually. Recruiting progressive women for Close the Gap made my work more impactful and more effective.

Were there any barriers or challenges you encountered to sustaining the momentum in your passion?

My marriage was very traditional, and not surprisingly, given my upbringing, it certainly cramped my political development for a while. My upbringing made me question a lot of the feelings that I had about injustice, particularly as it touched on women, gay rights and people of color.

The political climate today is so discouraging; I feel like I’ve been beaten to a pulp every day under Trump. Some of these battles women my age have fought for not just once, or twice, but maybe even three times. I’m sick to death of it. That’s why I continue to dedicate myself towards the more long-term change of electing progressive women. Because they are going to elect judges and go on to be senators and presidential candidates. We need to think longer term and more broadly about fixing the system. And again, my conclusion is electing women.

I was heartbroken after the 2016 election; thoroughly depressed and demoralized. It was Mary Hughes who brought me up short with this: “I’ll give you two weeks to mope. And after that, it’s nose to the grindstone. We start over.” Trump is gone. CTGCA recruits.

What gives you hope regarding California’s future?

One of the things that gives me great hope is women like Elizabeth Betancourt [2020 CTGCA Recruit] who ran in AD 1 between Sacramento and Redding. AD 1 is rural California, an area the Democrats haven’t paid much attention to in years. It has rural problems that are shared by immigrants and lower-income people everywhere: no broadband access, inadequate healthcare and poor education. Elizabeth developed a relationship with the office of Tony Rendon, the Speaker of the Assembly, as a result of an introduction by CTGCA. Now the state Dems are paying more attention to rural California. That’s an amazing development! Close the Gap was part of making that happen. And that, to me, is a giant step forward, not only for rural California but for how the issues of rural California impact the whole state. That’s truly exciting.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Learn to dream. Trust your gut. You really can do anything you want.

I’ll tell you the other hard lesson to learn; to ask for help when you need it. Know that it’s such an honor to be asked for help. If any friend came to you and said, “I’m having such a hard time with this. Can you help me?”, you’d be there in an instant. It’s a great life lesson to learn when you’re younger, as opposed to older, but anytime is a good time. It gets easier with practice.

Is there anything else we should know?

• Education never ends. White people and white-focused institutions have a lot of work to do.
• Political work never gets done; it never gets checked off the list of things to do.
• You must take care of yourself, nobody else is going to.
• For there is always light
  If only we’re brave enough to see it
  If only we’re brave enough to be it — Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman

Close the Gap California is committed to building on progressive women’s historic momentum by recruiting them statewide and achieving equality in California by 2028. Join us!

About Close the Gap California

Close the Gap California (CTGCA) is a statewide campaign launched in 2013 to close the gender gap in the California Legislature by 2028. By recruiting accomplished, progressive women in targeted districts and preparing them to launch competitive campaigns, CTGCA is changing the face of the Legislature one cycle at a time.

One in every four women in the Legislature is a CTGCA Recruit. Our Recruits are committed to reproductive justice, quality public education, and combatting poverty, and nine of 10 serving today are women of color.