Muriel Fox

Muriel Fox (born February 3, 1928) is an American public relations executive and feminist activist.

Childhood and education Muriel Fox's parents were Anne Rubenstein Fox and M. Morris Fox. She had a brother, Jerry, who died in 1988 at age 55.

She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College in 1948, having transferred there from Rollins College.

In 1950, she applied for a job at Carl Byoir & Associates, which was then the world's largest public relations agency, but was rejected by the Executive Vice President of the agency, who stated, "We don't hire women writers."

She also served on the board of Rorer Pharmaceuticals from 1979 to 1993, chairing its Nominating Committee, and on the board of directors of Harleysville Mutual Insurance Company from 1976 to 2000, chairing its Audit Committee. She also helped edit NOW's original Statement of Purpose (1966). Also in 1979, she created NOWLDEF's annual Equal Opportunity Awards Dinner, and she co-chaired it for 22 years with co-chairs including prominent corporate American CEOs.

Beginning in 1993, she chaired the board of Veteran Feminists of America; for them she organized and chaired conferences such as their Salute To Feminist Authors and their Salute To Feminist Artists.

She was a Senior Editor of the book Feminists Who Changed America (2006).

She raised millions of dollars for feminist causes. In speeches she often urged successful women to abandon their old roles as "Queen Bee" in a man's world. Her most frequent speechline was a call urging successful women to say, "Yes, I am a feminist."

Recognition

In 1977, she received a Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications. In 1979, she was the first woman to win a Business Leader of the Year Award, and in 1983, she received an Achievement Award from the Alliance for Women in Media, then known as American Women in Radio & Television.

In 1985, she received the Distinguished Alumna Award from Barnard College. She also became the first recipient of New York State NOW's Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Award.

In 1997, she received the Caroline Lexow Babcock Award from Rockland County NOW. In 2008, she received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Rockland County Family Shelter, the Woman of Accomplishment Award from the Wings Club, and the Woman to Women Award from New York State NOW. In 2016, she won NOW's Woman of Vision Award.

On October 21, 2014 Gloria Steinem presented her with the Lifetime Achievement Award of Veteran Feminists of America in a luncheon at the Harvard Club in Midtown Manhattan, featuring appearances by feminists Eve Ensler, Rosie O'Donnell, Marlo Thomas and Carol Jenkins.

Fox is featured in the feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry (2014).

In 2017, she was inducted into PRWeek's Hall of Fame. In 2018, she was inducted into the Rockland Women Leaders Hall of Fame. In 2019, she received an Elly Award from The Women's Forum of New York.

In 2024, she was named Lifetime Champion Honoree by Legal Momentum, where she served as president, vice president, and board chair of the Board of Directors.

In May 2024, she received a Clara Lemlich Award; the Clara Lemlich Awards “honor women who have been working for the larger good their entire lives, in the tradition of those who sparked so many reforms in the aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire over one hundred years ago”.

She is listed in Who's Who In America, Who's Who In The World, Foremost Women of the Twentieth Century, Who's Who Of American Women, and Feminists Who Changed America, the last of which was edited by Barbara Love.

"Papers of NOW officer Muriel Fox, 1966–1971" is at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

Personal life She married Dr. Shepard G. Aronson in 1955.