Charlotte Striebel picketed, testified and fought for women's equality over more than two decades.
But it was her expertise with numbers that made the mathematician and University of Minnesota professor a leading advocate for equality at a time when women's opportunities were more limited and the pay gap was wide.
"She was really a role model for so many people," said Sue Abderholden, who leads the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Minnesota.
A quiet, straightforward woman with a strong resolve, Striebel attacked a problem by analyzing it, using statistics to show that women were not being treated equally. "She never backed down," said Abderholden, who met Striebel in the 1970s as members of the National Organization for Women. "She would say: 'We're right and we're going to win. We just have to be in it for the long haul.' She was quite an inspiration. ... She encouraged younger women to reach for their dreams, whatever they might be."
Striebel died after a heart attack March 12. She was 84.
Striebel was born in Columbus, Ohio, and was a mathematics professor at the University of Chicago for two years before coming to Minnesota in the mid-1960s, said her daughter, Kathryn Striebel of Oakland, Calif.
"I remember the day she walked in my [university] office," said Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis. Striebel persuaded her to join the U group WAMS — Women Against Male Supremacy.
"The idea was to get rid of stuff that was highly beneficial to men," Kahn said. At that time, the want ads were "discrimination at its worst," she said. "Women were always secretaries and men were engineers, technicians." So the group picketed the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, protesting the "sex segregated want ads," she said.
