Lillian Ciarrochi

Lillian T. Ciarrochi (1930 – April 13, 2016) was an American feminist. She was known for her work with the National Organization for Women in advocating for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in Florida.

Early life Ciarrochi was born in 1930 in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Mary Taraschi, an Italian immigrant, and Alfred Ciarrochi. The couple had fourteen children although only nine survived, of whom Ciarrochi was the youngest. She graduated from West Catholic High School for Girls and received a bachelor's degree in accounting from Villanova University, where she attended night classes. She began working as an accountant at the Scott Paper Company. She was frustrated by the sexism she witnessed at work, including training men who would then take promotions to positions above her and assisting her female coworkers with filing sex discrimination lawsuits.

Activism Ciarrochi joined the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1971. She became the treasurer, the executive vice president in 1975 and then the president of the chapter in 1977. While she was president, she led a group of 3,500 to attend the March for the Equal Rights Amendment on July 9, 1978, in Washington, D.C., and encouraged other local women's groups to write letters to the president and Congress in favor of the ERA. This project led the charge to inspire television stations to hire more women as producers and on-air talent and to follow the organization's guidelines on non-sexist language. Ciarrochi was personally focused on the promotion of Jessica Savitch to anchor of KYW-TV and in August 1974, Savitch was promoted as a co-anchor of the 5:30 news. The chapter organized Teachers NOW to establish a curriculum which used sex-neutral language. The same year, she ran for treasurer of NOW against Sue Devaney. From 1979 until 1980 she served as president of the Philadelphia branch of NOW.

She resigned from her job in September 1981 in order to work on the campaign to ratify the ERA in Florida, during which time she helped to organize volunteers visiting residences. She also coordinated phone banks, demonstrations and public relations on behalf of the ERA. She moved to Washington, D.C. in late 1982, where she served as controller of NOW and worked on national direct mail campaigns, before returning to Philadelphia. She would later encourage Eleanor Smeal rise towards president of NOW.

Later life After leaving NOW, she worked for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society as the manager of accounting and for the Pennsylvania Treasury Department as an auditor. and later endorsing Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

She died on April 13, 2016, of an aneurysm in her house in Center City, Philadelphia.