Book details life of activism

In 1978, Gardnerville resident Jill Derby made a choice that changed the trajectory of her own career and many women to follow, through her activism efforts of the Equal Rights Amendment ratification in Nevada, which she shares in her memoir “When You Dare to Say Yes.”

“Seeking public office gives each and every one of us a chance to make a difference, and it is the course I chose,” Derby writes in the preface.

But it, wasn’t always her course.

“When You Dare to Say Yes,” which launches on Amazon Feb. 27, recounts Derby’s conservative and conventional upbringing in rural Nevada and how it evolved into a progressive political activism that influenced the course of the state’s education system and advanced women’s equality in society, while encouraging the importance and willingness of stepping out and seeking a position where an impact is made.

“Lots of hidden doors open when you advocate for something you’re passionate about,” said Derby.

The first chapter opens with the “preposterous,” notion that she run for office during the 1970s Equal Rights Amendment ratification.

“I never thought of running for office,” she said. “I thought, I’m a woman and a Democrat, Nevada has never voted for that.”

Derby joined the Nevada ERA Committee in 1977, at the urging of friends and because the organizers wanted a representative from a northern rural county.

“We were up against the headwinds of ultraconservative voters such as those who live in Douglas County, with its 80 percent plus Republican majority,” she writes. “But I knew how much we needed the movement.”

Derby shares the origins of the ERA, from the 1840s and the beginnings of women suffrage, to women winning the right to vote in the 1920s, the introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Congress in 1923, the contentious political battle that followed, and her involvement and unexpected career throughout.

Derby grew up in Los Gatos, Calif., but spent her childhood on the family’s Flying Flapjack Ranch near Lovelock. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Francisco and after living abroad and traveling widely, returned to Nevada to earn a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, followed by a master’s degree and doctorate in cultural anthropology with a specialization in Middle Eastern Cultures from the University of California, Davis.

Her political activism began in the mid-1970s with her involvement in Nevada’s effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1988, she was elected to the Nevada Board Regents where she served three six-year terms. She was the Democratic candidate for Congress in Nevada’s second Congressional District in 2006 and 2008.

Now, she is a Senior Fellow with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and chairs the Board of the American University in Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan. 

“When You Dare to Say Yes,” is Derby’s personal encounter, transformation, and understanding of living among different cultures and the courage to make a difference, loudly, proudly and politically; encouraging others to enjoy her.

“It was the last thing I expected to do,” said Derby.

Email Jill Derby at jjderby9@gmail.com for more information.