Carabillo, Toni (1926–1997)

US writer, feminist and historian. A pioneer of the modern-day women's movement, Carabillo was a founding member of the National Organization for Women (NOW). She led the successful fight in 1971 for NOW to adopt a lesbian and gay rights position and was a contributor to many of NOW's position papers. Carabillo's work on the development of the feminist struggle ensured that she became known as the ‘historian’ of the movement. She co-authored with Judith Meuli The Feminisation of Power and, with Meuli and June Bundy Csida, The Feminist Chronicles, 1953–1993. She cofounded the Feminist Majority and Feminist Majority Foundation with Eleanor Smeal, Peg Yorkin, Meuli, and Katherine Spillar in 1987. As a feminist advocate, Carabillo appeared on both national and local television and radio. She authored many op-ed articles, a number of which were nationally syndicated.

Carabillo earned her degree in English and American Literature from Middlebury College, Vermont, and an MA from Columbia University. She also had professional training in photography, graphic design fine art, and computer technology. In 1969, she co-founded the Women's Heritage Corporation, a publishing company that produced the Women's Heritage Calendar and Almanac and a series of paperbacks on such figures as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone. In 1970, she formed a graphic arts firm with Judith Meuli in Los Angeles, California.

Carabillo served on NOW's National Board from 1968 to 1977 and as NOW's national vice-president from 1971 to 1974. She chaired NOW's National Advisory Committee from 1975 to 1977, and led west-coast efforts for ratification of the Federal Equal Rights Amendment from 1980 to 1982. Carabillo used her design skills to good advantage also, designing many of the pins and buttons of the feminist movement, including the ERA ‘Failure is Impossible’ medallion, NOW's logo, NOW's commemorative medallion, and the Feminist Majority's women's symbol with Capitol dome pin and logo.

Carabillo died in 1997 at her home in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 71 after a seven-year battle with lymphoma and lung cancer. Beside her throughout the illness and at her death was her life partner of 30 years, Judith Meuli. At the time of her death she was completing a new book, The Feminist Chronicles of the 20th Century, which would be completed by her co-authors Meuli and Smeal. Carabillo left her library – arguably the most extensive collection on feminism in the 20th century – to the Feminist Majority Foundation.