Gram Swing lived in Washington, DC, Connecticut, and Vermont, where she worked with the Inter-American Commission of Women, and on behalf of the National Woman's Party to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. After her release, she joined the National Woman's Party as a national organizer and worked for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. With her sister Alice, she joined the women's rights movement in 1917 and was part of a group arrested for protesting the treatment of Alice Paul in prison. Suffragist Betty Gram Swing was born Myrtle Eveline Gram. She also worked to forge links with other social justice and civil rights groups and was the prime architect of NOW’s Global Feminist Program. Early in her presidency, Ireland led NOW in organizing the March for Women’s Lives and initiated the Elect Women for Change campaign to bring a record number of women to political office. She continued this work after her election as NOW’s president in December 1991. In 1989, she developed NOW's Project Stand Up for Women, an initiative to defend women's access to abortion, and worked as the national coordinator. In spring 1987, Ireland was elected executive vice-president and national treasurer of NOW. In 1985, she managed Eleanor Smeal’s successful campaign for the NOW presidency and chaired the national NOW by-laws committee. In 1980, she was elected as a representative to the National NOW Board, and in 1983 she became chair of Florida NOW’s lesbian rights task force and a member of the internal structure review committee. Ireland was a feminist activist, lawyer, and president of the National Organization for Women.