[10] Farians had personally experienced discrimination within the religious community as a result of her sex and these experiences helped fuel her activism.

[12] Before the creation of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Farians was a member of St. Joan's International Alliance, a more moderate group of Catholic feminists who supported the Equal Rights Amendment.

In 1970 she was quoted in The New York Times saying, "Some day soon some pastor is going to tell a woman she can't read the epistle and she's going to pop him one.

[17][18] Part of her work with this organization was to gather support for the Equal Rights Amendment among faith based feminists.

[17] It was reported in the New York Daily News that she was allegedly fired from teaching at Loyola University in Chicago in 1972 for being outspoken in support of abortion rights.

[21] Alice Paul encouraged her to testify to counter the narrative from Catholic bishops that the ERA was incompatible with Catholicism.

[3] Another faith based feminist who testified in front of Congress on behalf of the ERA in the 1970s was Reverend Joan Martin.

She worked alongside notable Catholic feminist Frances McGillicuddy to bring this organization from the UK to the United States.

[23] Her contract was not renewed in the summer of 1970, the same year she testified in front of Congress for the ERA, and as a result she filed a lawsuit claiming discrimination based on sex.