AMHERST – New York City, in August 1970, was ground zero in the fight for gender equity.

Patricia Romney was there, and now she’s written a book, “We Were There: The Third World Women’s Alliance and the Second Wave,” about her work among the pioneers of feminism. Her work among local students inspired her.

“When I taught at Hampshire, in the early 2000s, they were a different type of student,” Romney said. “Those students were children of the women’s movement. They were the first generation that had benefited from some of the work done around women’s rights.”

“We Were There” is a mix of personal memoir, historical research, and feminist theory. Romney was a member of the Third World Women’s Alliance, an activist group at the intersection of gender politics and the battle for racial and economic parity. She found that few women knew that women of color, back then, played roles in fighting sexism and discrimination.“They were all gung ho, but saw it as a white women’s movement.”

Of the Third World Women’s Alliance she added, “It’s been portrayed as a black women’s organization, but this group included Chinese women, Mexican women, Middle Eastern women … It really was a group of women of color who were engaged in the work, and that work continued after 1980. They’re still working.”

Romney’s release party took place Oct. 7 at the Prometheus Bookstore in South Hadley. She described how the Women’s Alliance spread the message that women most profoundly suffer the effects of racism, which compound the impacts of gender discrimination.

“When the Women’s Alliance was told we couldn’t join the march,” Romney said, it was “because we had a big banner, ‘Free Angela Davis.’” Davis was a powerful voice for racial equality. “They said ‘that has nothing to do with women’s liberation.’ And we said, ‘it has everything to do with it’…It was our unique perspective…on what is so common now: liberation activism.”

These days, Romney is an organizational psychologist who helps businesses and public institutions eliminate systemic racism. The current resurgence of anti-abortion legislation in Texas reminded her that the struggle continues.

“We’re still fighting for daycare for women, for pay equity,” Romney said. “We’re still fighting sexual harassment and violation of women. The issues we were fighting then are still current today.”

“We Were There: The Third World Women’s Alliance and the Second Wave” can be purchased at Amazon.com and most local bookstores.