The
New Woman’s
Survival
Catalog
Coward, McCann &. Geoghegan
Berkley Publishing Corporation
New \brk
Editors:
KIRSTEN GRIMSTAD
SUSAN RENNIE
Associate Editors: FANETTE POLLACK
RUTH BAYARD SMITH
Photographic Production: KIRSTEN GRIMSTAD
SUSAN RENNIE
Typesetting: MS. MARK ST. GILES
Production: All of us, with the assistance of Garland Harris,
Dorothy Marks, Betsy Groban, and very special
thanks to Leslie Korda Krims and Peggy Lyons.
Thanks to the women who have made sisterhood a reality and who have made this book possible:
NEW YORK: Jan, Carol, Becky, Ellen, Jane, Lynn; PHILADELPHIA: Minna, Suzanne;
BALTIMORE: Casey, Coletta, Erma; WASHINGJON: Spots, Rita, Judy, Leslie;
CHAPEL HILL: Miriam, Naomi; ATLANTA: Marilyn, Pam, Helen, Elaine; NEW ORLEANS:
Suzanne, Phoebe, Mary, Susan, Maddy, Celeste; ALBUQUERQUE: Kate, Jennifer, Debby;
SAN DIEGO: Judy, Sue; LOS ANGELES: Jordan, Judy; BERKELEY: Tannis, Isabel;
OAKLAND: Alice, Wendy, Judy, Gretchen; ALBION: Jeanne, Carmen, Heather; EUGENE:
Connie, Sam, Mary; PORTLAND: Sara, Cindy; SEATTLE: Suzie, Mary, Cathy; KANSAS CITY:
Bobby, Sandy; MADISON: Julie, Sandy; CHICAGO: Jo, Betsy, Joan; ANN ARBOR: Belita;
DETROIT: Valerie, Joann; PITTSBURGH: Ann, Mary-Jane, Charlotte, Betty.
Special thanks to Pat Soliman who took a good idea and sent it into the empyrean; and to Linda
Grey for all her help.
WE HAVE ESTABLISHED A TRUST FUND TO RETURN A MINIMUM OF 20 PERCENT OF
THE ROYALTIES OF THIS BOOK TO THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT.
Copyright © 1973 by Susan Rennie and Kirsten Grimstad
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced
in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. Publish¬
ed on the same day in Canada by Longmans Canada, Limited, Toronto.
Published by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc./Berkley Publishing Corporation
200 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10016
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-85371
SBN: 698-10567-2
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
INTRODUCTION
I COMMUNICATIONS
Presses—Speaker's Bureaus-Directories-Radio—Publications 9
II ART
Galleries—Collectives—Photography—Film—Theatre—Rock Bands 47
III SELF-HEALTH
Cllnics-Bodies-Medical Care- Therapy 71
IV CHILDREN
Single Parents-Child Care-Sexism in Education and Literature-
Liberating Literature 93
V LEARNING
Liberation Schools-Fix-lt-Feminist Studies-Women in History 123
IV SELF-DEFENSE
Rape Crisis Centers-Seif-Defense 145
VII WORK AND MONEY
Jobs-Feminist Enterprises-Alternatives 161
VIII GETTING JUSTICE
Discrimination-Legal Sources- Women's Rights-Divorce-Lobbying 185
IX BUILDING THE MOVEMENT
Women's Organizations—Organizing-Listing of Women’s Centers 203
MAKING THE BOOK * 215
PERMISSIONS 221
A SECOND EDITION .. . 223
The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be
good demands, but true emancipation begins
neither at the polls nor in courts, it begins
in woman’s soul. History tells us that every
oppressed class gained true liberation from
its masters through its own efforts, it is neces-
sory that woman learn that lesson, that she
realise that her freedom will reach as far as
her power to achieve her freedom reaches.
Emma Goldman, 1911
Throughout the United States women are forming their own law
firms and legal clinics, establishing their own business companies, run¬
ning their own printing presses, publishing their own magazines and
newspapers, starting their own credit unions, banks, anti-rape squads,
art galleries, and schools, hospitals, non-sexist playgroups and child care
centers, bands, theater groups, restaurants, literary magazines and
scholarly journals. This book catalogues and documents activities
which, unlike women’s businesses and enterprises that have existed all
along, arc aimed cxplictly at the development of an alternative
woman’s culture. These projects express a rejection of the values of
existing institutional structures and, unlike the male hip counter¬
culture, represent an active attempt to reshape culture through chang¬
ing values and consciousness. Feminist law firms press to change the
laws regarding women’s legal status; but they are equally concerned
to change public awareness of women’s second-class legal status. The
self-help movement developed not only as an alternative to the author¬
itarian treatment women receive from male doctors, but also to change
women’s consciousness about their bodies. Feminist art schools and
galleries exist not only to overcome discrimination against women in
the art world, but also to sharpen women’s consciousness about the
nature and sources of their creativity. Self-help divorce coops strive not
just for cheap divorces but to change attitudes about women’s subordi¬
nate role in marriage.
This phenomenon is merely the most visible manifestation of a
massive discontent affecting a wide spectrum of American women—
even those who would most vehemently and indignantly deny any af¬
finity with feminism. This discontent has its source in a changing
consciousness largely triggered by the control women are just beginning
to exert over their reproductive capacities, a control which suggests that
women are no longer confined to the limited and limiting choices of
wife and mother, but are free to develop as more than just adjuncts to
men.
This book is a tool for women whose rising expectations are running
into the wall of patriarchal privilege: the women who are aggrieved at
the discrepancy between their expectations of expanded choice and
room to grow and the reality of male resistance. Whether women wish
to file job discrimination complaints, equal pay suits or start their own
separatist venture, this catalog presents answers, aids, tools produced
by the feminist movement in battle against sexism. But, it has relevance
and usefulness to all women. After all, you don’t have to be a feminist
to want to prevent yourself from getting raped, to know whether that
vaginal itch is worth a trip to the specialist, to get a bank loan, to have
access to child care facilities, to avoid car repair rip-off. And the need
for these survival tools is growing.
Rape rates arc going up; rape arrests are going down. The number of
women who must enter the labor market is going up; women’s
proportionate earnings are going down.
There is no doubt that women today are asserting, or attempting to
assert the kind of freedom that men have traditionally reserved for
themselves. But they arc learning that men are reluctant to share their
privileges. For men, this kind of sharing is a zero-sum game: you share,
I lose. Why else does the Women’s Liberation Movement excite re¬
actions ranging from sick humor to fear bordering on hysteria? Take,
for example, the women’s self-help movement. The fact that we could
not allow ourselves in any way to be construed as advocating self-help—
that is, women knowing and controlling their bodies—is an absurdity.
Or, is it? Is it accidental that the explicitly articulated demands of
women for freedom are being spectacularly paced by male violence
toward women—ranging from street harrassment to rape and murder?
The whole basis of patriarchal oppression hinges on women’s false
consciousness—their inculturated passivity and dependency on men, not
any real helplessness. The most successful form of oppression has
always been that in which the oppressed were conditioned to cooperate
in their own oppression. This has crippled women and given men priv¬
ileged status. By asserting themselves, by breaking out of their passiv¬
ity, women do pose a threat to male privilege—and all men know this.
When male intellectuals begin to panic, we KNOW that Women’s
Liberation is a threatening development, no longer marginal or
peripheral. How else do we explain the pathetic attempts of serious and
respected writers to demonstrate the inevitability of patriarchy, or the
threatened destruction of civilization by a rising matriarchy? (Is it con¬
ceivable that in this day and age someone would write about the inevi¬
tability of white supremacy? We couldn’t write better propaganda for
the Women’s Movement.)
Critics of the Women’s Movement point to the fact that most women
reject it or arc unsympathetic to its aims. We see this as a rapidly erod¬
ing false-consciousness. Men’s fight to retain outmoded privileges is
daily exposing women to the contradictions in their lives and thus
sparking an awareness of their oppression. This book documents a
massive trend among American women occuring on many levels
toward self-assertion and an end to dependency. It is meant, above all,
to be a self-help tool for ALL women to take control of their lives.
v>
Tfucked away in the basement of a tidy Bal¬
timore townhouse, the DIANA PRESS looks
like just another commercial printshop. Inside
you find the usual array of sophisticated printing
equipment: two Multilith printing machines, an
instant plate-maker, a strip-printer for making
headlines, an IBM composer for typesetting, a
plate burner for making negatives, a Xerox copier,
along with beautifully self-styled drafting and
layout tables. Yet there are several features that
distinguish DIANA PRESS from your average
printshop. First, DIANA PRESS combines suc¬
cessful commercial printing (they hold the print¬
ing contract for one of the nation’s largest sport¬
ing magazines) with publishing and printing of
feminist and radical feminist literature. Second,
DIANA PRESS is entirely owned and operated
by three remarkable women: Colctta Reid, Casey
Czarnik and Erma Randall.
The story ot DIANA PRESS goes back to Jan¬
uary, 1972, when the press was established and
incorporated by a diverse collective of working
and middle-class women. As Colctta explains it,
the press had problems right from the outset. In
the first place, the collective lacked any uniform
political position. ‘‘The name, DIANA PRESS,
for example, was agreed upon as a compromise
between those who wanted to commemorate
weatherwoman Diana Oughton and others who
saw Diana as a symbol of ancient women’s cul¬
ture.” Second, in choosing to operate as an open
collective with women working whenever they
had the time, the press functioned only haphaz¬
ardly, with no clear lines of responsibility.
These Days
lee lally
diana press ini.
12 W. 25th St., Baltimore, Md. 21218
Phone: (301) 366-9262
Thirdly, from its very beginning, the women
worked in tandem with and shared an adjoining
office with “a group of leftist hippy men” who
did the typesetting and paste-up while the women
handled the printing. Together they put out
movement work for the price of the cost of pa¬
per only—all labor was donated.
By October of the same year, it was apparent
that the press could not continue to function in
this haphazard manner and still survive as a viable
enterprise. Tensions over the conflicts in the col¬
lective had already caused most of the women to
leave. Realizing the necessity of the situation, the
remaining women totally re-organized the oper¬
ation, asked the “hippy men” to leave, and
agreed to give themselves nine months to make
the press self-supporting—a goal which they a-
chicved long before their deadline. With money
obtained through donations they were able to
equip their shop with essential printing machin¬
ery. They divided up the printshop into depart¬
ments and initiated clear lines of responsibility
and a production schedule.
The sheer determination of Casey, Coletta and
Erma—the 12 hour working day, the material sac¬
rifices-has ensured the future of DIANA PRESS.
They have successfully competed for bids on
commercial work, and although none of them is
eager to help perpetuate capitalism, it is their
commercial business that pays the bills, finances
them through print school, and makes the publi¬
cation of women’s literature possible. Their next
goal is to get a Webb press with which they will
be able to print any size format, and be no mis¬
take about it, with their determination and ener¬
gy, they’ll have their Webb press, and make a
giant stride toward freeing women entirely from
male printing establishments.
The following is a list of feminist literature currently being published by DIANA PRESS. Not only
are these books a bargain at the price, they are some of the most beautiful books being printed today.
POETRY SERIES
1. THESE DAYS by Lee Lally $1.00
2. SONGS TO A HANDSOME WOMAN
by Rita Mae Brown $2.00
3. FORTY ACRES AND A MULE
by E. Sharon Gomillion $1.00
ESSAY SERIES
1. CLASS AND FEMINISM $1.50
2. WOMEN REMEMBERED $1.50
3. HETEROSEXUALITY &
THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT $1.50
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
MOMMY AND LISA by Dori Powell $1.50
POSTERS
1. AFRICAN WOMAN by Nancy McHale $ .50
2. GIRL IN A CORNFIELD by Nancy McHale $ .50
(both are 7x14)
Order from:
DIANA PRESS, INC.
12 West 25th Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
9
KNOW, inc.
KNOW, INC. REPRINTS
The following is a list of especially significant KNO
INC. reprints:
I
I
I^NOW, Inc., widely known in the women’s movement as THE source of articles and reprints of major
theoretical pieces on women’s liberation, grew out of the need to disseminate to women the out-pouring of
writings stimulated by the Second Feminist Movement.
When the press was First founded in the fall of 1969, by members of Pittsburgh NOW, it was being used
to reprint feminist articles for free distribution at local NOW meetings. “These articles were so hungrily
sought after, we decided we could support our press by reprinting and selling such articles at only slightly
over the cost of the materials. KNOW, Inc., housed in a member’s garage ana later in a basement, began to
flourish, supported by volunteer labor, donated supplies and money, good faith and growing sales. We
quickly added many original articles, several longer works and books. Each step in our development brought
us closer to the status of feminist publisher.”
By the fall of 1970, the list of KNOW articles had started to get around, orders were coming in, and thus
Betty Jones became KNOW’s first paid employee. “I was at home at that typical age where my children
didn’t need me anymore, and the walls were just crowding in on me. I didn’t know what to do with myself,
and I really didn’t know about the feminist movement at that time. I was taking tranquilizers, going to the
doctor—the whole bit. One day I asked my friend Jo-Ann Gardener (whose garage was then the premises for
KNOW), whether she knew anything a person can do who has no talent to do anything—and is over 40 years
old. She just laughed and went on to talk about something else. Then all of a sudden when she was thinking
about going off to a convention in Florida and she didn’t have anyone to leave with her little business-the
phones were ringing, mail was coming in—all of a sudden she thought of me. And that’s how I started out
and also found out about the feminist movement. 1 sort of fell in backwards, you might say. So I started
working first a few hours in the morning, then a few more, then a few more—the next thing I knew, I was
working full-time. 1 don’t know what 1 would have done otherwise. I always tell Jo-Ann she saved my sanity.
“My husband—he’s your typical male-chauvinist—always said when we First got married that he didn’t
want a wife who worked. At that time I was only 21 and 1 didn’t want to work anyway. Then after a while
1 thought, why am I sitting around here listening to him telling me I can’t work? Why can’t 1 work? Then
he would say—Well, who’s going to hire you? You can’t get a job, you can’t do anything-and I was sitting
there believing him. Now I’m the vice-president of a publishing company. He still looks at me in amazement
some days. I just say to him—You’re not vice-president of your company.”
By January, 1971, KNOW was really beginning to take in money, requiring additional personnel. The
idea of hiring a crackeijack woman just out of business school was discarded in favor of hiring part-time two
dedicated KNOW volunteers for as long as the budget surplus lasted. By the end of three months, the KNOW
team had generated enough business to warrant even further hirings. Today the press operates with a total
of six full-time and four part-time staff, who work as a collective, making policy decisions at weekly meetings.
Another landmark in KNOW’s growth and success was achieved in April, 1972, when they moved from
the Gardener basement to its present storefront location. At the last report, KNOW was investigating the
possibility of expanding into the adjacent building.
I
10
Today KNOW prints and distributes over 200 ar¬
ticles and pamphlets in addition to their FEMALE
STUDIES series—collections of course designs and
essays relating to the field of women's studies; one
full-length paperback, AMERICAN WOMEN AND
AMERICAN STUDIES I by Betty E. Chmaj;and one
full-length hardback, I’M RUNNING AWAY FROM
HOME BUT I'M NOT ALLOWED TO CROSS THE
STREET by Gabrielle Burton, published on August
26, 1972—a book written, typeset, proofread, laid
out, printed and published totally by feminists.
Which are the most popular articles on their list?
“The Politics of Housework” has always been a best¬
seller, but currently articles on rape and on female en-
trepeneurs and volunteerism are in particular demand.
Volunteerism is an issue close to the hearts of the
KNOW women. “Volunteerism IS exploitative. Wom¬
en have always been ‘volunteers’ because nobody val¬
ued their work enough to pay for it. Sometimes it’s
necessary to put in volunteer time to get your project
oing so that it can be self-supporting. But we should
ave as our goal to be successful enough as a business
enterprise that we can pay women for their work in
the women’s movement.”
In addition to the articles and publications men¬
tioned above, KNOW also publishes a list of “Re¬
porters You Can Trust,” a list of feminist periodicals
and special publishing projects, and a bibliography
titled “Books of Interest to Feminists,” as well as
KNOW NEWS, a bulletin issued about 10 times per
year, containing announcements of conferences and
demonstrations, job openings, legislative actions, ads
for feminist products.
1. THE SECOND SEX IN ACADEME
by Ann S. Harris $ -
2. WHO IS SAYING MEN ARE THE
ENEMY? by Dana Densmore $ .
3. SENECA FALLS RESOLUTION
(1848) by Elizabeth Cady Stanton $ .
4. PSYCHOANALYSIS:
A Feminist Revision by Jane Torrey $ .
5. HOW TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST
WOMEN WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
by Jo Freeman $
6. SEXIST COUNSELING MUST STOP
by Jo-Ann Evans Gardener $ .
7. BITCH MANIFESTO by Joreen $
8. WHY BRIGHT WOMEN FAIL
by Matina Horner $
9. FACING DOWN THE MAN
by Nancy Henley $
10. WOMAN AS NIGGER
by Naomi Weisstein $
11. POLITICS OF HOUSEWORK
by Pat Mainardi $
12. PORTNOY’S MOTHER’S COMPLAINT.
Depression in Middle-Aged Women $
13. GOODBYE TO ALL THAT
by Robin Morgan $
14. PRINCESS VALIUM MEETS
SHRINKTHINK: Sexism in Psychiatry
by Sylvia Hartman $
15. THE MYTH OF THE
VAGINAL ORGASM by Anne Kocdt $
16. SEXUAL STEREOTYPES
START EARLY by Florence Howe $
17. WHY I WANT A WIFE by Judy Syfers $
Add 15% of the total price for postage. All orders
must be prepaid.
For a complete listing, write to:
KNOW, INC.
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
The Feminist Press
“One of the most profound and exciting changes produced by the American feminist renaissance has been
a new style of vision. Individually, and together in small groups and large organizations, we have realized
that in the past we’ve been seeing only half a world, and doing our looking through others’ eyes. Feminism,
for all of us, at some point became an eye-opening experience.
“When we began looking at the world in this new way, a great deal needed changing. All the books that
distorted our new discoveries would have to be contested, ultimately transformed. And books that had never
seen the light of day (women’s silences!) would have to be written. What we needed, really, was no less than
a full-scale feminist cultural revolution, generating a new literature to incorporate our new vision.
“That revolution is now underway.
“THE FEMINIST PRESS is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational and publishing corporation founded
(in 1970) to produce some of the new literature needed most for educational change. From the beginning
we set out to provide materials strategic in altering what women learn. We decided to publish high-quality,
low-cost paperback books that would work well in evolving classrooms, sparking the imaginations of Amer¬
icans interested in freeing children from sex-role stereotypes. . . .”
In pursuit of these goals, THE FEMINIST PRESS has published the following biographies of feminists
and reprints of lost feminist works, in addition to their children’s literature (see the section on Children’s
Literature) and the publications of their “Clearinghouse on Women’s Studies” (sec the section on Learning).
TheYellow
Wallpaper
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Afterword by Elaine R. Hedges
Life in t Ik
I ron Mills
lit lima llartliiiir llnv is
Hii ha Kiiinr,i|ilii<nl
lnitT|»n‘l,ilion In
Tillit* Olsen
^^^llstcnecpaft incorporated
Named after the 17th century feminist, WOLLSTONECRAFT, INC., is the first women’s commercial pub¬
lishing house. Started by three women in Los Angeles, a lawyer, an editor and a designer, WOLLSTONECRAFT
will concentrate primarily (although not exclusively) on feminist books. “We want to publish books which will
have an impact on the world, books that will make people THINK. Even our novels must have a point of view.”
Becoming a commercial publisher with a national distribution will get books which are important to women
into the general market. But this choice necessitates a large capitalization for advances to authors, production of
hardcover books, publicity. In addition to personal investment, the women were able (without difficulty) to get
a Los Angeles bank to underwrite the venture. Within six months of incorporation (in January, 1973), WOLL¬
STONECRAFT was offering three books, with five more soon to come.
Is a woman-owned and managed house any different from male-dominated establishments? “Well, we do di¬
vide the labor in a conventional way. One of us supervises the editorial side, another is responsible for design and
production, and our lawyer covers the contractual and business functions. But all three of us form the editorial
board, share equally in the basic decisions whether to accept a manuscript or not, and participate in fundamen¬
tal policy questions.” WOLLSTONECRAFT believes, too, that they involve authors in the design and production
of a book to a much greater extent than is customary in commercial publishers. “One of our authors, Shana Al¬
exander, submitted her design with the book (‘Women Under the Law’, a fifty-state guide to the legal rights of
women, to be published in 1974).”
Books from WOLLSTONECRAFT’s Fall, 1973 list include:
RAPE
by Eve Norman
In her first book.
Eve Norman seeks
answers to ques¬
tions that deeply
concern us all. She
attempts to dispel
myths about rape,
myths that have
been reinforced by
the media.
Nonfiction.
$6.95
ON THE VERGE
by Cicely Nichols
A truly warm,
genuinely moving
account of what
happens in a con¬
sciousness - raising
group as told
through the experi¬
ences of several
women's lives.
Nonfiction.
$6.95
FEMINIST PRESS PUBLICATIONS
KAETHE KOLLWITZ by Marty Kearns
The first feminist biography of one of the first artists
to portray women as human beings, not sex objects.
With reproductions. $2.00
THE LIFE AND TIMESOF MY MOTHER AND ME
by Madeline Belkin Rose
An oral biography of a working-class Brooklyn woman,
told on tape, with her daughter’s reflections on their
interlocking lives. $2.00
COLLECTED STORIES by Mary Wilkins Freeman
with a biographical afterword by Michele Clark
Choice stories (most unavailable elsewhere) on the
strength and integrity of late nineteenth-century New
England women whose lives challenged contemporary
expectations. $2.00
THE GIRL SLEUTH: A FEMINIST GUIDE TO
NANCY DREW AND HER SISTERS
by Bobbie Ann Mason $2.00
MY MOTHER THE MAIL CARRIER
by Inez Maury $1.50
COMPLAINTS AND DISORDERS:
The Sexual Politics of Sickness
Glass Mountain Pamphlet No. 2 by Barbara Ehrcn-
reich and Deirdre English. $1.25
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING $1.50
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON $1.50
APPROACHING SIMONE-
A Play by Megan Terry
Based on the life of the French mystic philosopher,
Simone Weil. $1.50
CONSTANCE DE MARKIEVICZ
by Jacqueline Van Vorrs
The biography of an Irish nationalist hero, whose role
in the shaping of modern Irish history has largely been
ignored. $1.50
LIFE IN THE IRON MILLS
by Rebecca Harding Davis
Reprinted from the ATLANTIC MONTHLY, April,
1861. $1.95
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
First published in 1892, THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
is written as the secret journal of a woman who, fail¬
ing to relish the joys of wife- and motherhood, is sen¬
tenced to a country rest cure to remedy her “nervous
condition.” $1.25
Postage and handling 40tf for first two books, 10tf for
each additional book. Maryland residents please add
4 % sales tax. (Postage paid on all prepaid orders of 10
or more books.)
Order from:
THE FEMINIST PRESS
Box 334
SUNY / Old Westbury
Old Westbury, New York 11568
WOLLSTONECRAFT, INC., 6399 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90048
(§)
t
Cool
emC tdOr
Carpenter
A/iwvcC &vj ike carpenter
"I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF.
THOUGH I WOULD HAVE SAID IT DIFFERENTLY ".
THE
TREASURE
SELMA LAGERLOF
At the end of 1972, Parke Bowman, a lawyer, and June Arnold, a novelist, decided to open a pub¬
lishing house for books by women. “We had both been interested in books all our lives: we have done
copy-editing, jacket designing, book reviewing, taught writing and literature. We were surrounded by
printers in Vermont, where we had moved from New York; we knew we didn’t need a Madison Avenue
office; and we had confidence in women as the novelists of the future.”
Floating the venture with personal funds, DAUGHTERS was incorporated in December, 1972. Ar¬
nold and Bowman proceeded to write a couple of dozen letters to writers in the Women’s Movement in
search of book-length novels. Before the year was out, fifteen manuscripts had arrived. In January, they
placed an advertisement in the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS (“Arc you writing a novel, or do you
know someone who is?”) “The response was fantastic. Over a hundred manuscripts or synopses were
mailed in. We live and work in a small town. Very soon the town, via the mailman, began to wonder what
the hell was going on, with dozens of large packages arriving every day from all over the country.”
June Arnold sees two reasons for the deluge. DAUGHTERS offered a monetary incentive which is
competitive with commercial publishers-at least for novels, and particularly first novels—a $1,000 ad¬
vance and fifteen percent royalties on the first 3,000 copies with proportionate increases on subsequent
printings. Second, and she thinks this is the compelling reason, women writing novels have an extra¬
ordinarily difficult time getting published by commercial houses. “It’s really quite simple. Women’s
novels bore men. They accept books which reflect their own (male) world. And men dominate publish¬
ing. We’ve seen the power men exercise over women writers ... so many of the novels we rejected were
invalidated by a ‘cop-out’ ending clearly written for male judges: editors, critics, maybe their husbands.”
No criteria have been set as to subject or point of view. The only requirements are “quality and the
verifiable sex of the author.”
DAUGHTERS’ books will be soft cover to keep their prices down and keep them accessible to women.
They will be typeset by feminists who live in and around Plainfield on an IBM composer (as is this cata¬
log) and will be printed by women. Women who do the work at DAUGHTERS receive salaries and the
rest of the profits will go to the authors and into publishing more books. DAUGHTERS will publish
thirteen books a year—one for every lunar month.
MJGHHERSNC
DAUGHTERS’ first six books will be available in
the Fall of 1973, including five novels, and an anthol¬
ogy of writing by women in high school, titled:
DAUGHTERS IN HIGH SCHOOL, the first of a
series of DAUGHTERS everywhere.
The novels:
RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE by Rita Mae Brown
THE COOK AND THE CARPENTER by the Carpent
NERVES by Blanche Boyd
EARLY LOSSES by Pat Burch
A mystery novel by an old-time feminist, to be
disclosed when it is too late for male establishments
to rip-off the idea.
$3.00 each plus 35^ postage
For further information about DAUGHTERS and
their books, or to order, write:
DAUGHTERS, INC.
Plainfield, Vermont 05667
MAMA'S PRESS
2500 Market Street
Oakland, California
(415)653-5033
Working as publishers and printers in the San Fran¬
cisco Bay area, MAMA’S PRESS has the following
among its publications:
LET THEM BE SAID-poetry and illustrations
by Susan Griffin $1.00
TRUE STORY
by Alta 85^
MONSTER COLORING BOOK
drawn for and by kids 50^
FEEDING OURSELVES
by the Berkeley Women’s
Health Collective 30)1
MAGIC CIRCLE PRESS
31 Chapel Lane
Riverside, Connecticut 06878
A feminist press publishing poetry and the works
of Anais Nin. Has organized readings combining
poetry and art.
THE FREE WHEELING WOMEN’S PRESS
414 North Park
Bloomington, Indiana
(812) 336-8691
“We arc alive and well and functioning in the base¬
ment of the Women’s House. We are a group of several
women who get off on working together and running
an offset press. We have a fairly reliable press and
other equipment, plus lots of energy, enabling us to
print all kinds of things for people. Our philosophy is
very much in tune with the struggles of the women’s
revolution and in sympathy with oppressed peoples.
We will not print sexist, classist, or racist copy. We
want to encourage women who write or do graphics
or do whatever and who want to get their stuff printed
to come to us. These are the jobs we enjoy doing the
most.” THE FREE WHEELING WOMEN’S PRESS
reports that their prices are the lowest in town.
MOTHER JONES PRESS
19 Hawley Street
Northampton, Massachusetts
Incorporated with the (^’s FILM CO-OP, the MOTHER
JONES PRESS teaches press and film skills, in addition to
printing and distributing feminist materials.
Their most recent publication is:
VOICES OF NEW WOMEN
$1.25
EATING ARTICHOKES
Words: WlIlyce Kim
Photographs: Willyce Klm
Wendy Cadden
Single copies:Jl.00
Bulk orders:$.60
The next woman
that 1 love
should know
That when we meet
the earth will not
move,
and when we touch
no thunder shalI
crack the sky,
and when we lie
aye to aye
oceans will not part,
nor winged horses
tumble
to carry us high,
but , when we love
I promise you love
how we w 11 I Iove
to love
each other's loves...
V *
The Women’s Press Collective
THE COMMON WOMAN
Portraits of seven women
Single copies:$.25
Bulk orders:$.15
"...She's made of grease
and metal, with a hard head
that makes the men around her
seem frail
The common woman Is as common
as a nail."
Words: Judy Grahn
Drawings: Wendy Cadden
Single copies:SI .OQ
Bulk orders:$.60
"...I, woman, I
can no longer claim
a mother of flesh
a father of marrow
I, Woman must be
the child of myself."
EDWARD THE DYKE AMD OTHER POEMS
Words: Judy Grahn
Drawings: Sunny Weber
Brenda Crider
Gall Hodgins
Wendy Cadden
Single cop Ies:$ 1.25
Bulk orders:$.90
for a I I my sisters
rin 1 for any brc’hers
wro might come along
and for Joel In who know
this godaamn life too well.
“In 1970, a group of women started THE WOMEN’S PRESS COLLEC¬
TIVE. We are feminists with widely different life-experiences. For three
years we have been learning to run a print shop, as well as to collect ma¬
terials to publish. We are beginning to build a broader distribution net¬
work for feminist books, with prices most women can afford. Although
we still barely meet our expenses, we are working towards supporting
some of our group through the press.
We think of the press as a resource of the women’s movement. It has
two functions for us. It is a school where we can learn skills and new ways
to work together. It is also a tool for spreading new visions of ourselves
and analyses that are useful to us. Though financial backing must be
found for each individual project, we welcome manuscripts and all forms
of feedback."
THE WOMEN’S PRESS COLLECTIVE designs, prints, publishes (and
in certain instances, members even write) some of the best poetry in the
women’s movement-and their books are spectacularly beautiful.
EDWARD THE DYKE
EDWARD THE DYKE is a book of poems by Judy
Grahn and drawings by Wendy Cadden, Brenda Crider, and
Gail Hodgins. It is a beautiful book designed and printed
by the women themselves.
“Judy Grahn’s poems are a delight to read. She is one of
the few lesbian poets to celebrate the strength and survival
capacity of women. No self-pity or whining here. The lan¬
guage is direct and simple; you don’t have to go to the
dictionary to figure out the images. You can tell that a lot
of time and work has gone into turning her ideas, expe¬
riences, and emotions into powerful and beautiful verse.”
PRESS COLLECTIVE
PUBLICATIONS
EATING ARTICHOKES
$ 1.00/slngle copy
EDWARD THE DYKE
$1.25
CHILD OF MYSELF
$1.00
THE COMMON WOMAN
$.25
THE ELEPHANT POEM
COLORING BOOK
$.85
WOMAN TO WOMAN
$1.50
LESBIAN SPEAKOUT II
(forthcoming)
The Collective cannot afford to sell to bookstores
on consignment. Payment should be mailed with¬
in 30 days of receipt of books.
Available from:
THE WOMEN’S PRESS COLLECTIVE
5251 Broadway
Oakland, California 94610
Coletta Reid in THE FURIES, January 1972
Iowa City Women’s Press Collective
The book, ALL WOMEN ARE WELCOME TO READ THEIR POETRY, is an anthology of the first and second all
women’s poetry readings held in Iowa City. “The first all women’s poetry reading, held in the spring of 1971, was an
exciting creation of space for women and for women’s culture in this town. Many women who read their poems had
been writing poetry for along time; some were students in the writers’ workshop of the University of Iowa, but many
just had something to say about themselves, their lives and about being female. Poetry was not just an art form on
display—the form became the background for an evening of communicating our common female culture.
display—the form became the background for an evening of communicating our common female culture.
“A year and a half later, a small group of us got together to record that night and the second poetry reading that
had followed in the spring of 1972. We saw those readings as special moments in women making their own history
and wanted to share that history with other women. In the beginning, our group was going to do the gathering and
have the book printed professionally. About that time, the idea of forming a women’s press was growing inside a few
women in the group, and we all began to see that there might be a way to use the anthology to help obtain a press.
The cost of professional printing, astronomical even when we weren’t concerned with profit, became prohibitive in
this new light. We realized, then, that we’d have to print the anthology ourselves.
“How to print it . . .? We realized that all we had was a mimeograph machine. Most of us, and probably most
women, regard the mimeograph as a simple crude machine and sec labor on such a tool as so unrespected that only
women do it. Typical to this society is the attitude that all labor done by women is crude. Many women will run
mimeo machines some time in their lives for their bosses, or even for political lovers, but hardly any women will be
allowed near a more sophisticated press. We want to break that cycle by acquiring our own press, but we first wanted
to break it by respecting people’s labor—by respecting our own labor within the limitation of the only machine al¬
lowed us. We’re writing about these realizations to encour¬
age other women to see the tools available to them as what
A TTFftMPlf’P 4 they are-a mimeo is a small press, regardless of its degree
A WUmUI M * WmImX i of sophistication.
READING
ALL
WOMEN
ARE
WELCOME
TO
ms
THEIR
purrar
mumantN
QAQQ&QB jty]}
%
“Finally, out of our work and thoughts came the deter¬
mination to form a women’s press collective to enable
women in this town, and throughout the Midwest, to con¬
trol what they want to print. Hopefully, proceeds from
ALL WOMEN ARE WELCOME TO READ THEIR
POETRY will help to purchase offset press equipment.
But for us the IOWA CITY WOMEN’S PRESS began with
the printing of this anthology.”
In the fall of 1972, the University of Iowa sponsored
a lecture by Robin Morgan, who turned over her SI500
honorarium to the WOMEN’S PRESS COLLECTIVE to
purchase their offset press.
With their Multilith 220, the Collective is helping women
such as the AIN’T I A WOMAN Collective print their own
material, while getting instruction on printing methods.
Write to:
ALTA’S PRESS
IOWA CITY WOMEN’S
PRESS COLLECTIVE
c/o Women’s Center
3 East Market Street
Iowa City, Iowa
SHAMELESS HUSSY PRESS
In a garage next to her kitchen, Alta the poet, has
a printing press—the leftover of a former marriage. On
this press she prints and publishes her own searing
poetry, widely known in the women’s movement,
THE SHAMELESS HUSSY REVIEW, as well as the
poetry and novels of Susan Griffin, Pat Parker, and
Paul Mariah. THE SHAMELESS HUSSY PRESS is a
one-woman house. Alta typesets, prints, trims, col¬
lates, staples, and mails her books.
There are no books of this quality in the women’s
movement, or anywhere else to our knowledge, avail¬
able at such low prices. To make her books as widely
available as possible, Alta will not sell a book for mori
than 75 1, including the several hundred page novel
by Mary Mackey > low does the SHAMELESS HUSS'
PRESS get the books out? Authors provide the paper
and sometimes donate their labor. Payment is worked
out on a fifty-fifty sharing basis. The author takes
half of the printed copies and keeps the money from
their sale. Alta keeps the rest. (Who else gives a fifty
percent rovaltvD
In her latest catalog, Alta invites you to participate
in moving SHAMELESS HUSSY books: “some
bookstores, in an attempt to keep floating during the
depression, are phasing out some small press items on
the grounds that we dont make much money o har
har but since we’re as underground as anybody, how
would you like to sell our stuff at meetings, door to
door (dingdong hussy calling!), to yr pals - you get
bookstore discount (40%) on orders of 5 or more
per title.”
SHAMELESS HUSSY books are sold by Alta at
her poetry readings, by friends traveling to women’s
meetings (or just traveling), are ordered by women’s
bookstores throughout the country, and by individuals
who read about the books in the women’s media.
No, SHAMELESS HUSSY PRESS doesn’t pay the
rent yet. But as Alta said, “I don’t know how the hell
I would live without the press.”
Books available from SHAMELESS HUSSY PRESS include:
LETTERS TO WOMEN by Alta. Now a bit of a classic
NO VISIBLE MEANS OF SUPPORT by Alta. Thirteen years of poetic dues
TRUE STORY by Alta. Alta’s first prose collection, and all true
DEAR SKY by Susan Griffin. Her first book of poems
THE PHANTOM OF MUTUAL INSURANCE by Susan Griffin. Six stories
PERSONAE NON GRATAE by Paul Mariah. Poems from prison
IMMERSION by Mary Mackey. A recounting of breaking out of wifehood
AND ALL LIVING THINGS THEIR CHILDREN by Dan Georgakis
THE OLD HOUSE ON THE CROTON by Lyn Lifshin. Voices of the dead
PUPPET X by Jerry Ratch. "i look good/together...’’
SHAMELESS HUSSY REVIEW. The first women’s poetry magazine.
All books are 60^ each, $1 to institutions. Add 25£ postage for each book,
“extra postage money (or stamps) so gratefully received it’s shameful.”
Available from:
THE SHAMELESS HUSSY PRESS
Box 424
San Lorenzo, California 94580
THE VIOLET PRESS
THE VIOLET PRESS is a collective of three women
who publish literary and art work by lesbians. WE
ARE ALL LESBIANS, an anthology available for
S2.00, contains poetry submitted by women through¬
out the country. LOOKING AT WOMEN, by Fran
Winant, is available for $1.00.
In the future, THE VIOLET PRESS will publish
“Lesbians and the Health Care System,” personal tes¬
timony by New York Radicalesbiansja lesbian record;
and a “goddess prayer book” to provide women with
their own religious rituals.
VIOLET PRESS encourages women to send in
their writings and art.
LAVENDER PRESS publishes creative works by
lesbians, including poems, stories, plays, photographs,
graphic art, etc. The first two publications of the
LAVENDER PRESS are:
PROUD 'N QUEER, an anthology of poems pub¬
lished in October, 1972, available for 45tf
THUNDER FROM THE EARTH, poems, draw¬
ings, and photographs by lesbians $1.95
Checks should be made out to Rebecca Hunter.
Available from:
LAVENDER PRESS
411 Lathrop
River Forest, Illinois 60305
A POETRY ANTHOLOGY
CANADIAN WOMEN’S
EDUCATIONAL PRESS
280 Bloor Street West
No. 305
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA
(416-962-3904)
“The CANADIAN WOMEN’S EDUCATION¬
AL PRESS is a small publishing group committed
to publishing material by, for and about Cana¬
dian women. Operating in Toronto since Feb¬
ruary, 1972, the sixteen members of the Press,
consisting of paid and unpaid workers, operate
on a collective basis, in which everyone partici¬
pates equally in decision-making. The people on
the Women’s Press operate on a rotational basis
in order to learn all the skills of publishing.
“The primary objective of the Press is to pro¬
vide incentive to women in Canada who want to
have their writing published. While the U.S. has
produced several anthologies of women’s writing,
WOMEN UNITE!, the Press’s first publication, is
Canada’s only anthology. In an attempt to com¬
pensate for the lack of information in regards to
the Canadian movement, the publishers have an¬
thologized articles of particular historical and
political significance which landmarks the initial
stages of the movement and included articles on
alternatives to the family, methods of child care,
the situation of working women, the politics of
sex, strategy for women’s liberation, and a bib¬
liography of material on Canadian women.
“The CANADIAN WOMEN’S PRESS is now
preparing to publish material in more specific
areas of concern to women. In the near future,
they plan to publish non-sexist children’s books,
an examination of women in our culture, articles
dealing with the early history of Canadian women,
such as the suffrage and temperance movements,
and a bibliography of everything presently written
by Canadian women. But the need for women’s
writing goes far beyond these areas. The Press is
anxious to receive manuscripts on these and other
topics. They would welcome any responses to
their book and further questions about publica¬
tion of women’s writings.”
THE VIOLET PRESS from OFF OUR BACKS, September, 1972
P.O. Box 398
New York, New York 10009
Press Cooperatives
LESBIAN GRAPEVINE
373 N. Western Avenue
No. 202
Los Angeles, California 90004
“The GRAPEVINE-the National Lesbian Com¬
munications Network—was established at a publica¬
tions seminar which was an outgrowth of the West
Coast Lesbian Conference. The basic purpose of this
network will be to facilitate national communication
and information-sharing, using lesbian publications as
the tool for dissemination.
“A national secretary will be the clearinghouse for
all publication coordinators and contact people, pub¬
lishing a monthly bulletin to be sent to each mem¬
ber for printing and distributing. The topical areas
are news correspondents, publications, films/photog¬
raphers, organizations and a Wholelesbian Catalog.
Other suggestions for work areas are distributors/
bookstores, publishers, farms, art, music, poetry,
bars, and anything that would be helped by national
communication.
“Participating publications so far are: LESBIAN
TIDE, LAVENDER WOMAN, SQ’S YOUR OLD
LADY, COUNTRY WOMEN, AMAZON NATION
NEWSLETTER and WOMAN. We are asking for more
member publications and groups. Each member group
will pay S5/year and select one area to work with. It
is very important that each area is covered in order
that the network will be complete. Please respond by
contacting THE GRAPEVINE. Jeanne Cordova of
the LESBIAN TIDE is acting as national secretary.”
ASSOCIATED WOMEN’S PRESS
1229 Princeton Street
Santa Monica, California 90404
“We are all overworked, confused, duplicating each
other’s energies, and we feel the need to unite in our
efforts. We all share the same frustrations and com¬
mon goals . . . and visualize one center for a common
pool of information.”
In order to eliminate some of this “duplication of
energy,” women in Santa Monica, California have
formed the ASSOCIATED WOMEN’S PRESS and
have begun to improve the distribution techniques
and increase the circulation of five Los Angeles-based
women’s periodicals—MOMMA, LESBIAN TIDE,
WOMANSPACE JOURNAL, SISTER, and WOMEN
& FILM (see Publications Listing later in this section.)
The ASSOCIATED WOMEN’S PRESS serves as a
“clearing house” for women’s groups and individu¬
als who want to distribute any of the five publica¬
tions and also for new publications that want to be
distributed.
The ASSOCIATED WOMEN’S PRESS is now in
the process of creating a resource center which will
offer information about women’s publications, wom¬
en’s centers, and women’s studies programs. Future
plans also include starting a women’s news service
and establishing a central distribution location.
WOMEN IN PRINT
c/o KNOW, Inc.
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
WOMEN IN PRINT, organized in July, 1973, is an
association of women in publishing, women’s periodi¬
cals, presses, and bookstores. As its long-range goal,
the group plans eventually to set up a desperately
needed feminist distribution system, to finally free
women from dependence on male publishers and
media. Toward that goal, they have already initiated
the following projects:
1. Compiling a pamphlet of bookstores, libraries,
and women’s centers that order women’s lit¬
erature.
2. Compiling an annotated directory of all wom¬
en’s presses and periodicals for use by authors
and bookstores.
3. Publishing a semi-annual catalog of all new
works available from women’s presses for book¬
stores and libraries.
4. Publishing a newsletter to go to librarians to
keep them informed of new works put out by
women’s presses.
5. Publishing a newsletter to keep WOMEN IN
PRINT members abreast of useful information
in the book and periodical world.
6. Publishing a list of reviewers that do a good job
of reviewing women’s literature.
Membership in the association is open to any group
or individual for $10.00.
Other Voices
“Radio air-time, like most media time, is usually men’s time. Radio stations are owned, controlled and
staffed mainly by men. Except for ‘Dear Abby’ and an occasional token woman newscaster, the voice vou
hear on your radio is a male voice. Not only are all the announcers male, but most issues arc presented from
a male point of view. When radio deals with women at all, it’s men telling us who we are, what we want and
what we should do. You know the lines by heart: X will help you keep your bathroom spotless, Y will keep
your hands soft and silky after all that scrubbing, and Z will keep you looking younger and younger so that
you’ll be an asset to your husband’s image.”
In spite of organized efforts of women to end these unfair practices and insults in the broadcast media, there
appears to be little respite-from discrimination against women in hiring and from the outrageous images of women
presented in advertising. As a remedy, women have begun to take direct action by gaining access to public broad¬
casting and producing their own programs. One of the finest examples of WORKSHOP
Now,” a weekly one-hour show that is written, directed and engineered by THE WOMEN S RADIO WORKSHOP
of Detroit for the Detroit Public Broadcast Station WDET-FM.
Radio
ifOGETHEft .
> ™ \
‘All Together Now’ is trying to provide air-time
for women’s issues and women’s ideas, presented from
a woman’s point of view. . . . What we hope for is an
alternative to the usual stereotyped sex-role presenta¬
tions. We want to talk about things that we hope will
free women from such stereotyping: things such as
child care, women’s history and abortion. We want to
discuss issues that will be of service to women: health
information, auto and household mechanics, food co¬
ops, and welfare information. We want to criticize
those aspects of our society which are oppressive to
women: job discrimination, the sex-typed socializa¬
tion of little girls, rape and the sex-object mystique.
“A typical show might present news items about
various women’s events and activities, an interview
with women involved in a child care center, a movie
or record review, information about vaginal infections,
and music and poetry written by women.”
Programs have included the following topics: Mar¬
riage and the Family, Childbirth, Growing up Female
in an Ethnic Community, Misogony and Humor, The
International Women’s Movement, Alternative Life¬
styles, Women in the Arts, Highschool Women, Wom¬
an as Sex Object, and Rape. THE WOMEN’S RADIO
WORKSHOP has built up a collection of permanent
tapes of their shows which they are eager to exchange
with other women’s radio collectives.
For more information, write:
WOMEN’S RADIO WORKSHOP
Station WDET
5035 Woodward
Detroit, Michigan 48202
WOMEN’S BROADCASTING
CORPORATION
c/o Camilla L. Barnett
2420 South Quebec
Denver, Colorado 80231
A broadcasting corporation owned and operated
by women? Impossible, you say? Read on ... .
In rejecting the idea that women should be grateful
to be token radio announcers or to run an occasional
feminist program, women in Denver have formed the
WOMEN’S BROADCASTING CORPORATION to
organize their own radio station.
WBC has chosen a board of directors and officers
and is planning to sell stock to interested buyers. The
women are now investigating the possibility of pur¬
chasing a Denver radio station and are also studying
other women’s radio projects around the country.
Women at WBC are interested in hearing from
women who would like to work on the station. They
hope that it won’t be long before they start their sta¬
tion and “will be offering programming with new
insights into the world of women.”
RADIO FREE PEOPLE
133 Mercer Street
New York, New York 10012
(212) 966-6729
RADIO FREE PEOPLE produces Women’s Tapes
that are available for purchase at low cost. Some ex¬
amples include:
UP AGAINST THE MATTRESS: DOWN IN THE
VALLEY-A Collage of the most irritating put-
down cliches women must face in their daily lives.
Music, raps, and advertisements. A starting point
for consciousness-raising.
(Running time: 10 minutes.)
I’M FEMALE, I'M PROUD-How business and ad¬
vertising create a totally unrealistic picture of
women and their needs, and then exploit this to
sell products. (Running time: 29 minutes.)
WOMEN IN PRISON-Account of the Women’s
Bail Fund and women in prison.
MY BODY IS MINE TO CONTROL-Songs about
women’s struggle for liberation, written by Beverly
Grand and Lynn Phillips.
I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE
FREE—Includes a great rap about how women
have to fake orgasm, some history of a struggle
with the San Francisco CHRONICLE and relevant
news and music. (Running time: 31 minutes.)
COCK ROCK—The women’s movement forces a
woman to take a second look at rock music.
(Running time: 13 minutes.)
Eleven other tapes are also available. Write to
RADIO FREE PEOPLE for listings and other infor¬
mation on ordering.
Pacifica
For several years, PACIFICA Radio Stations in Berkeley, Los Angeles, New
York, Washington, D.C., and Houston have been making air time available to
women wishing to broadcast their own programs. A variety of tapes on feminism
culled from such programs is included in the PACIFICA library of tapes available
for purchase. Highlights of fifty tapes include:
GERMAINE GREER MEETS THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB-The inimitable
Ms. Greer addresses the formerly all-male National Press Club.
AMERICAN WOMEN IN HISTORY-Isabel Welch, a political scientist from
Berkeley, comments on the historical background that exists for what is going
on today in the Women’s Movement. Interviewed by Judy Chicago.
AN INTERVIEW WITH JULIET MITCH ELL-Author of WOMAN’S ESTATE,
Ms. Mitchell assesses the Women’s Movement from her perspective of contem¬
porary radicalism and Marxism.
AN EVENING WITH ANAISNIN—Anais Nin discusses her life, her work, her
struggles, and feminism as well as reading from her diary.
WOMEN’S LIBERATION AND THE ARTS-Women artists and critics dis¬
cuss whether feminine art exists. Kate Millett, Louise Nevelson, Faith Ringgold,
Grace Paley, Lucy Lippard, and others.
THE AFFAIR OF GABRIELLE RUSSIER-The story of a French school
teacher who fell in love with a student in the 1968 revolution and paid for it
with her life.
Available from:
PACIFICA TAPE LIBRARY
2217 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, California 94704
(415)848-3785
THE NOW PRESS HANDBOOK
by Lucy Komisar and Toni Carabillo
NOW FEDERAL
COMMUNICATIONS KIT
Are you offended by the image of women in the
broadcast media? The NATIONAL ORGANIZATION
FOR WOMEN has compiled an action kit for women
who WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. This
kit describes the methods available to women to elim¬
inate sexism from the airwaves. Two approaches to the
problem are outlined in the kit: how to file a legal com¬
plaint with the Federal Communications Commission;
and how to organize a public pressure campaign.
The legal course is based on the viewing commun¬
ity’s right to deny renewal of a license to any station
which has not operated “in the public interest.” This
applies to stations which have failed either to exercise
fair employment practices or present balanced views
of controversial issues (abortion, child care, ERA, etc.).
The packet includes detailed, step-by-step procedure,
from the inception of the project by community
women through the actual filing of the complaint. A
list of the expiration dates of radio and TV stations
in all fifty states is provided, so that women can act
when stations in their areas are up for renewal. Re¬
prints of the F.C.C.’s position on the public and com¬
mercial broadcasting are also included.
The NOW kit explains how to conduct a TV mon¬
itoring project, and provides sample forms for mon¬
itoring quiz shows, talk shows, variety shows, adver¬
tisements, and so on. TV monitoring data can be used
effectively in educating broadcasters, but its most
effective use is in filing a formal legal complaint with
the F.C.C.
To obtain this important kit, write to:
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN
1957 East 73rd Street
Chicago, Illinois 60649
$3.00/members
$5.00/non-members
“If a TV reporter asks an irrelevant or baiting ques¬
tion, reply: ‘1 think that is unimportant’ or ‘I’m not
interested in talking about that’, or better yet, do
what politicians do, answer the question you wish he
had asked. For example: ‘Why do you girls hate men?’
Answer (sweetly): ‘I’d like to tell you about the child
care center we have started. ...’ TV reporters repeat
all their questions after the interview for full-faced
filmed ‘cutaways’ that show them asking the question.
(These are used for editing purposes as well as for
showing the reporter on camera.) The reporter will
just have to add a question that says, ‘What are you
doing in the area of child care’?”
Written specifically for NOW members, the PRESS
HANDBOOK is essential for all women’s groups, as a
glance at the table of contents will show:
The National Organization for Women Press Handbook
I. The goals of press relations
II. How to Set Up a Press Relations Operation
A. Press Representative
B. Major Media List (wire services, newspapers, TV & radio, weeklies)
C. Ollier Media (news magazines, national syndicates, foreign press)
III. Decisions You Must Make
A. Is the event newsworthy?
B. How to communicate it to the ptess (press release, press conference,
action or meeting, telephone)
C. How and Where to tell the story
D. When to tell the story
IV. The "How To" of Press Conferences and Announcements
A. How to call a press conference or announce a news happening
(notifying the media)
B. How to write a press release (what are the different kinds; what
are the pitfalls)
C. How to conduct a press conference
D. How to follow up
V. How to Deal with Press at Street Events
VI. General Advice on Being Interviewed by the Press
A. News Reporters
B. Interview Shows
VII. Letters to the Editor
VIII. Radio & TV Editorials
IX. Press Kit and Progress Reports
X. Pictures
XI. Final Bit of Advice (How to turn your local issue into a
national one)
Available from:
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION
FOR WOMEN—National Office
1957 East 73rd Street
Chicago, Illinois 60649
$ 1.00/members
$2.00/non-members
Speakers Bureau Educational
The Chicago Women’s Liberation Union School periodically offers workshops on pub¬
lic speaking for all members of the Union. The Course Workshops cover all aspects of
public speaking-from forming a speakers bureau to handling specific situations:
ThE
SpEAliER'S
blJREAU
of
FemaIe
libERATiON
?
“As our experience has grown, the range of both
format and topics for speaking has become more
varied. A frequently requested topic is for an intro¬
duction to the women’s movement with a brief
history and an exploration of the issues of today,
such as abortion and child care. Another area is the
change in social relations where we offer a feminist
view of marriage and the family, sex roles, and al¬
ternative lifestyles. We have presented many other
topics and are open to new requests.”
Since its inception in 1970, THE SPEAKERS
BUREAU OF FEMALE LIBERATION has spoken to
large and small audiences, giving speeches or leading
informal discussion for clubs, community groups,
schools and colleges, and for radio and television.
For further information, call FEMALE LIBERA¬
TION at (617) 491-1071.
SPEAKERS BUREAU OF FEMALE LIBERATION
Box 344
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
FORMING A SPEAKERS BUREAU
Discusses how a speakers bureau functions, what
speaking engagements are accepted, and how sche¬
dules are worked out to determine availability of
speakers.
DEVELOPING SKILLS
Women practice speaking to partners in small groups,
and into tape recorders. They then get feedback from
the group on mannerisms, tone of voice, and general
delivery.
MEDIA
Discusses how to hold a press conference and how to
act on radio-TV talk shows.
LUCINA speakers
anti-rape
her-story
self-help
lesbians
non-sexist¬
childraising
call: 823-4774
LUCINA SPEAKERS
c/o West Side Women’s Center
218 South Venice Boulevard
(213) 823-4774
DEVELOPING RESOURCES
Involves finding out what literature, slides, movies,
and tapes are available and how they can best be in
corporated into a speaking engagement. Also teachi
women howto use projectors, tape recorders, and
other equipment.
SOLVING PROBLEMS
Teaches women how to handle the “worst”-hostill
and/or silence in an audience, how to bring out dis¬
agreements in panel discussions, and how to integra
personal experiences.
For more information on learning these basic sk
and/or on arranging a speaking engagement, contac
the CWLU at (312) 348-4300.
SPEAKERS BUREAU EDUCATION,
c/o Chicago Women’s Liberation Uni
852 West Belmc
Chicago, Illinois 606
NEW YORK RADICAL
FEMINISTS SPEAKERS’ BUREAU
c/o Judy Sullivan
463 West Street
New York, New York 10014
(212) 242-7471
Provides speakers on all aspects of radic
feminism, specializing in rape and consciousne
raising.
WOMEN’S CENTER
SPEAKERS COLLECTIVE
4634 Chester Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19143
For information on hiring speakers, or abc
joining the SPEAKERS COLLECTIVE, conta
the Women’s Center, (215) SA 7-1717 or Nan
Friedman, (215) BA 2-2066.
SPEAKERS BUREAUS
NATIONAL WOMEN’S POLITICAL CAUCUS
Jane McMichael
707 Warner Building
13th & E Streets, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20002
(202) 347-9658
MOVEMENT SPEAKERS
Carole Cullium
917-15th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
(202) 737-5617
18
PRIME TIME SPEAKERS BUREAU
FEMINISM LIVES!
From Pathfinder Press 410 West Street New York
The Virgin, the Temptress, the Real Woman”: women and the church
Ageism and the life cycle of women from youth through old age.
Menopause: sexist attitudes towards older women.
The position of the older woman in Israel.
Older women’s role in self-help clinics.
Women and the law.
These are some of the topics offered by the PRIME TIME
SPEAKERS BUREAU. The Bureau fills speaking engagements
for a wide range of audiences, and is always interested in hearing
from new speakers and in introducing new topics. As the
PRIME TIME women say, “Older women spreading the word
about older women is a wide-open field.”
Women interested in hiring speakers and/or in becoming
speakers themselves should contact:
PRIME TIME SPEAKERS BUREAU
c/o Esther Labovitz
945 West End Avenue
New York, New York 10025
(212)864-7541
NEW FEMINIST TALENT
"We are catalysts for change. We believe there cannot be a liberated society while sexual stereo¬
typing still exists in every area of American life. Our speakers are dedicated to breaking down such
txirriers and rebuilding along humanist lines."
NEW FEMINIST TALENT presents various aspects of feminism by outstanding feminists of our
time, including:
Myrna Lamb, playwright
Bella Abzug, Congresswoman
Wilma Scott Heide, national president of NOW
Lolly and Jean Hirsch, the self-help advocates
Elizabeth Forsling Harris, co-founder and original publisher of MS.
Sidney Abbott and Barbara Love, co-authors of SAPPHO WAS A RIGHT-ON WOMAN
In addition to these and other speakers, NEW FEMINIST TALENT, Inc., provides other tal¬
ented feminists: “The Streetcorner Society,” who write and perform their own plays; "The New
York Tea Party” presenting four Broadway actresses in “Sylvia Plath: A Different Borning”; and
“Cabaret of Sexual Politics,” an evening of songs, poems, and dialogues about courtship, lust, ro¬
mance, seduction, motherhood, abortion, war, racism, sexism, marriage and hate, directed by
Anselma Dell’Olio.
Contact NEW FEMINIST TALENT, Inc., for further information and engagements.
NEW FEMINIST TALENT, INC.
250 West 57th Street
New York, New York 10019
(212) 581-1066/1067
NOW FEMINIST SPEAKERS
NOW FEMINIST SPEAKERS presents:
Sandee Cohen, the youngest of the New York
Chapter’s Board members, has a particular interest
in attracting younger members;
Lucinda Cisler, president of New Yorkers for
Abortion Law Repeal, an authority on abortion
and contraception;
Lee Walker, a member of the board of directors,
a frequent speaker on "The Images of Women.”
Speakers can also be provided on other feminist
topics such as “How to File an Employment Discrim¬
ination Complaint,” “Does Your Daughter Get an
Equal Education at School?” and “The Equal Rights
Amendment—Constitutional Equality for Women.”
A fee is charged for speakers. Contact Judith
Henncssee (212) 663-4817 or Betty Harragan (212)
777-0831, for further information on this service.
NEW YORK CHAPTER NOW
28 East 56th Street
New York, New York 10022
(212) 832-2955/832-2956
WOMEN’S YELLOW PAGES
by the Boston Women’s Collective
“Over the past year, we, the Boston Women’s
Collective, Inc., have compiled the WOMEN’S
YELLOW PAGES. Our research has made us increas¬
ingly aware that women in situations of distress
unique to their own role have limited avenues to turn
to for help. Most sources of help are scattered and
difficult to locate. It is difficult for male-dominated
service agencies to understand the dynamics of situa¬
tions they have never experienced. For example, men
rarely assume responsibility for birth control or for
finding child care facilities. Men never have to face
the medical and legal implications of being a victim
of rape. And no man has suffered the sense of des¬
peration, isolation and intimidation that a woman
goes through when she discovers she is pregnant and
not in a position to care for a child. In any of these
situations, a woman should be able to obtain help
from a source that is designed to serve her needs, spe¬
cifically. Furthermore, even in those problems that
are not unique to women (e.g., extending one’s edu¬
cation or finding a job), women have not been treated
as seriously as men. We see the WOMEN’S YELLOW
PAGES as a vehicle for putting women in contact
with people, organizations, and agencies who can
help them meet their needs, both in crisis and in daily
living.”
The Boston Women’s Collective has compiled an
evaluative directory of women’s projects and services
in the greater Boston/Cambridge area. The Directory
includes information on Child Care, Education, Em¬
ployment, Health, Law, Self-Defense, and Women’s
Groups. As the first of its kind in the nation, the
WOMEN’S YELLOW PAGES is an excellent model
for women’s communities around the country. An
expanded Second Edition has recently been pub¬
lished by the Collective, which is now forming a
materials-dcvclopmcnt corporation.
First Edition:
60 Cents
WOMEN'S
YELLOW PAGES
A Critical look at Health Care
>|f Defense Legal Advice on Divorce
Continuing Education |ob Training
THE MONTREAL WOMEN’S
YELLOW PAGES
by the Feminist Communications Collective,
Women’s Information and Referral Center, and
the YWCA Women’s Center
A directory which lists all the services, agencies,
and groups of interest to women in Montreal. It
also includes a listing of Women’s Centers across
Canada to benefit any “traveling sisters.”
Available from
WOMEN'S INFORMATION
AND REFERRAL CENTER
3595 St. Urban
Montreal, Quebec
CANADA
To order the first edition or for more information
on the second edition, write to:
BOSTON WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE
490 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
First edition: 60* plus 15* postage
THE NEW YORK
WOMAN’S DIRECTORY
THE NEW YORK
WOMAN’S DIRECTORY
By the
Woman power
Project
A sourcebook
lor women
with information
about:
Rt the “Are there any
oj ins Jay-care centers in
Womanpower mv neighborhood’
Project II hen- can I
liiul u m omun
l he | jnuAMfntf.*"
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IS New York women „„
sharing Iheir .. m limit
informal ion ami
experience ina
Nt.iftlme and
«ron/i«M>f from froml totter
dlKloTN
electricians
employ mem
agencies
equality under the
law
feminist literature
feminist
organizations
financial
executives
food stores
funding anil grants
galleries anil
museums
hotels ami
resiliences
house painters
interior designers
investments
job counseling
lawyers
legal assistance
loans
managing m«»noy
martial arts
courses
medical needs
movers
nursery schools
paper hangers
abortion
accountants
agents
antique dealers
apartments m
art associations J
artists M
baby-sitting S
services ■
bankers v ;
beauty m
brokers j •
carpenters ^
catering services
charge plates
chefs
child-care
cooperatives
consciousness
raising
contraception
cooking classes
craftswomen
credit cards
dav-care centers
HU vvvr
.liked .mv ot lhew
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parMtmo
employ n»cni
photographers
plumlvrs
presses anil
printers
publicists
puNishing
restaurants
roommate services
selfilefense
stage hands
stockbrokers
theater grrnips
therapists
urbanists
women s centers
Workman
Publishing Company
HI Past M Street
New York City
.nlMtrJ
by the Womanpower Project
“THE NEW YORK WOMAN'S DIF
ness-raising (we were originally affiliai
we needed help-a lawyer, a gynecolo
felt, first of all, that there were many
understand our problems. And, we
port other women in every way
women, who for too lonj ‘
We wanted to practice a
31 RECTORY began when a group of us who were in conscious-
liatcd with the New York Radical Feminists) realized that when
ilogist, even a carpenter—we wanted to employ a woman. We
■ instances in which women would be better able than men to
also thought, with our new consciousness, that we should sup¬
way we could. We believed in putting our money into the pockets of
;, through discrimination, have earned less than their male counterparts,
little positive discrimination."
Available from
WORKMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
231 East 51st Street
New York, New York 10011
20
$2.95, plus 25* postage
Feminist
Bookstores
A any woman who has ever been in a feminist bookstore knows, the experience is utterly different than bookbuying in any other kind of store
To begin with, no matter how big and fancy and well-stocked a bookstore may be, its women’s books are confined to a “women’s lib” section meagerly
stocked with the better-known titles published by commercial companies. Feminist bookstores, by comparison, arc filled with thousands of books
and pamphlets by, for, and about women acquired in a discriminating manner from commercial publishers, little-known counter-culture publishers,
scholarly and university presses, the Government Printer, and, above all, the feminist presses, and include poetry, novels, belles-lettres, how-to
books, non-fiction popular and scholarly, non-sexist children’s literature, as well as feminist political and polemical tracts. And, of course, there are
the magazine racks filled with women’s media publications. Books by men are usually available, shelved separately. One store classifies male-authored
books on women under “the enemy” or “sensitive males.”
Most of the feminist bookstores we visited had as large an inventory of women’s books as many stores have of overall titles. In fact, feminist
bookstores, especially those on the West Coast, convey powerfully the strength and breadth of the Women’s Movement. A visit would make Midge
Dectcr’s hair stand on end. But it is not just a matter of the difference between a "women’s lib” shelf and a whole store filled with women’s books.
Feminist bookstores have a quite distinctive ambience, reflecting the spirit of the Women’s Movement. Browsers really can stand all day and read
without being hassled; in most stores the reader is even invited to sit-in comfortable reading nooks, often close by coffee machines which can be
used for a nickel contribution. Women staffing the stores arc very knowledgeable about their books, and are eager to share what they know. They
are as helpful to the woman tentatively asking for a “basic women's lib book” as they arc to the movement activist wanting a reprint of Susan Grif¬
fin's “Rape: the All-American Crime,” or the student looking for material for her term paper on female voluntecrism in Victorian England. Not at
these stores any of that put-down crap from would-be-Thomas-Woife clerks who can’t even make it into the copy-editing department of a publishing
house, or those equally chauvinist hip Left males. As perfect strangers we encountered nothing but great warmth and friendliness in all women’s
bookstores with one exception, and we chalk that up to the general level of paranoia prevailing in that city.
Many major cities do not as yet have feminist bookstores. For women who love books, who are feminists, and who want to integrate their lives
with their political values, we can think of no better solution than getting together with like-minded women and launching a bookstore.
SISTERHOOD BOOKSTORE
THE WOMEN’S STORE
4157 Adams Street, San Diego, California
Like most women’s bookstores, SISTERHOOD is more than just
a bookstore. It is an exquisitely-designed environment which has in
addition to an excellent range of titles feminist-made posters, jewelry
pottery and art. There is a comfortable reading nook equipped with
a coffee machine and a bulletin board which keeps customers informed
of feminist activities around town.
In the short period of its existence (IV 2 years), SISTERHOOD'has
had to move twice to deal with expansion. But spccess is no secrct m
this case, as SISTERHOOD is clearly one of the most beautiful and
friendly bookstores you’ll ever come across.
22
1351 Westwood Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90024
(213) 477-7300
Information Center Incorporated
A
Woman’s
Place
“As women came together in the growth of the
women’s movement, as women got interested in ming¬
ling with other women, it became clear that there was
no place we could go and not be interfered with by
men. No place to socialize in, no place to hang out.
Well, there were laundromats, beauty parlors, and gay
bars. Laundromats and beauty parlors just don’t make
I it. We’ve tried gay bars and let’s face it, they don’t
make it either, for a variety of reasons we won’t go
into here, for a variety of reasons.
“A group of us have gotten together and opened a
| bookstore. We call it ICI-A Woman’s Place Bookstore.
The 1CI stands for Information Center Incorporate.
“This bookstore is different from most bookstores.
It has tables and chairs to sit and relax at, and coffee
and tea and nibblies. There are bulletin boards that
women can use to get in touch with other women.
And of course, a bookstore run by feminists is differ¬
ent from a bookstore with a feminist section in it. The
store is a pretty good size, so we can have regular rap
groups, poetry readings, movies, etc. . . .
“Energy and information are interrelated. The re¬
ceiving and transmitting of information, especially the
kinds that woman-identified-women are looking for,
is one of our top priorities. On the one hand, we push
written information. On the other hand, we believe
that revolutionary re-forming change comes through
person-to-person contact. Each such hand will wash
the other, so to speak. We do not believe in EITHER
this OR that; we believe in both this AND that.”
A WOMAN’S PLACE was opened in January, 1972
by a collective of six women, now grown to eleven.
All put in time in the store without pay, supporting
themselves with other full- or part-time jobs. This
does not imply a belief in volunteerism; the women
look eventually to supporting themselves from the
bookstore; but, at the present time, they see building
the store’s stock as their chief priority.
This policy has been very fruitful. Starting with
four bookshelves, A WOMAN’S PLACE is today the
largest, best-stocked feminist bookstore in the United
States. Only SISTERHOOD BOOKSTORE in Los
Angeles offers a comparable variety of books, pamph¬
lets, magazines, newspapers, posters. The poetry col¬
lection is exceptional. This may be partly because the
store shares space with the OAKLAND WOMEN’S
PRESS COLLECTIVE (sec PRESSES), which prints
and publishes outstanding women’s poetry. The store
also carries a wide range of hard-to-find feminist
pamphlets.
A WOMAN’S PLACE occupies a very large, very
comfortable space. There are indeed “tables and
chairs to sit and relax at.” Also, a bulletin board that
must total at least twenty by eight feet. Very little
goes on in the Bay area women’s movement that is not
posted here. As Alice confided to us, “A WOMAN’S
PLACE is really a Women’s Center disguised as a
bookstore.” Some disguise.
Write to:
A WOMAN’S PLACE
5251 Broadway
Oakland, California 94618
(415)654-9920
STARTING A BOOKSTORE:
Non-Capitalist Operation within
a Capitalist Economy
“How do you decide what can be done with the
available funds: You sit down and do some very real¬
istic figuring. In addition to the cost of merchandise
there are basic inescapable expenses to be met monthly
and a few annual or semi-annual expenses for which
you have to be prepared. Each locality varies, so you
must work these out for yourself, but I list the most
probable with some suggestions on how to meet them.
“How can you know the true cost of sales? You
can’t very well figure item by item. It requires keeping
an inventory record of the cost in its relationship to
the retail price. It means keep and summarize all those
nasty little pieces of paper of innumerable size and
shape and design. With this % applied to Sales and the
result reduced by that adjusted overhead figure, you
have a pretty accurate figure on which to ponder.
Only at year end when you do a physical count of the
actual inventory left, do you put this into the ledger
and know for sure what the answer really is. See why
I say it takes long-term commitment?
“With the rapidly growing disillusionment with big
business and capitalism in general, we feel our experi¬
ment is a transition toward a more equitable form of
the future, comparable to the various forms of coop¬
eratives. Such a future would be one where each indi¬
vidual served the needs of the community according
to ability and personal interest and thereby qualified
for a reasonable share, small but adequate food, shel¬
ter, clothing, but without interest in or ambition to¬
ward personal accumulation of wealth and useless
possessions.”
These are excerpts from an informal letter of
advice on how to start a women’s bookstore. It is
filled with invaluable nuts-and-bolts suggestions, and
certainly would help inexperienced women decide
whether to launch such a venture. The women at ICI
are willing to share this information with other fem¬
inists who wish to start a bookstore.
Write to:
ICI—A Woman’s Place
5251 Broadway
Oakland, California 94618
Send 254 to cover costs of reproduction
and postage.
Located in an old mews in a courtyard off Haste Street
is UP HASTE-though tiny, a well-stocked and inviting
bookstore. UP HASTE publishes a thirty-page mail order
catalogue of literature relevant to women’s and children s
liberation—available for 25 i.
(415)848-6359
UP HASTE BOOKSTORE
2506B Haste Street
Berkeley, California 94604
BOOK
AND
TEA
SHOP
746 24th Avenue East
Eugene, Oregon
(503)344-3422
In the finest style of women’s bookstores, BOOK
AND TEA does more than just provide a place for
customers to purchase books. Why is it called BOOK
AND TEA? Because in addition to its unusual and
discriminating line of books, BOOK AND TEA fuels
its browsing customers with a selection of fine teas,
poppy seed cake, lemon bars, lemon nut bread, and
broiled Tillamook cheese on English muffins, supplied
by a local professional woman baker.
This unusual combination of bookstore and tea
shop originated with the two owners, Mary Faust and
Patricia Tubb. “We thought we could attempt to
create a shop that had an intimate feeling of compan¬
ionship where people could chat or plot or scheme or
debate in a friendly atmosphere.” Pat wanted to open
a coffeehouse, while Mary, experienced in the book¬
store business, held out for a bookstore. The impasse
was resolved in this unique compromise. With the
help of a woman designer, the women constructed
and decorated this exquisitely beautiful shop them¬
selves. Mary’s goal was to make the shop into “a place
where women could meet and talk and realize they
had problems in common and also strength in num¬
bers,” has resulted in a particularly fine assortment of
women’s and non-sexist children’s literature, which
makes the store an excellent resource for the women
of Eugene.
A WOMENS PLACE
A WOMAN’S PLACE , 706 S.E. Grand, Portland, Oregon (503)234-8703
WOMENS BOOKSTORE
1 & RESOURCE CENTER
M BOOKS. PERIODICALS, & POSTERS
t S8* WOMEN
> 706 S.E. GRAND
4 OPEN MON, WED. FRL 4-900
m TUES..THURS. 11-4=00
** SAT. 11-600
ag 234-8703
Bookstore meets every Thursday. 7:30 PM.
Resource Center meet* every lat fc 3rd Wed. of each month, 8:15 PM.
The bookstore and resource center are a non-profit, collectively run "place
for women” to oomc together. We have a wide a election of books, pamphlets
and periodicals about women. In addition to the bookstore. th< Resource
Center seeks to provide facUlUea for women to have classes, films, speakers
and various interest groups. Ongoing classes Include such subjects as
carpentry, photography, car mechanics, radical therapy, ttorvee and oth. ra.
Women are encouraged to make use of our large mceUng room for films and
speakers on women. A reading room and library ajrwts*,*callable.
A Women's Place la a collective effort by and for (OrUanu/wnmcn. We need
help and support to grow. Join us.
a, The Woman's Vbice q
o Bookstore •<
IT’S ABOUT TIME BOOKSTORE
5502 University Way, N.E., Seattle,
Washington 98105 (206) LA 5-0999
LflBYRIS BOOKS
TV,e. F'e.tTqftnvr GOOKSTbRC in viao V 0 rK 0 ^
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33 Bartow St
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There arc, curiously, substantially fewer feminist
bookstores on the Eastern seaboard than on the West
Coast. Two feminist mail-order houses help fill this gap.
Art, aging, anthologies, politics, poetry, pregnancy,
' psychology: feminist books and pamphlets on these
and more are available from FIRST THINGS FIRST,
a Fe-mail order house in Washington, D.C.
Susan Sojourner’s enterprise is yet another example
of the imagination and initiative being used by fem¬
inists to integrate their “politics” and their everyday,
1 working lives. For a year, during 1971, Sojourner
* travelled to women’s conferences and meetings on the
East Coast as a representative of KNOW, the feminist
publisher (see PRESSES), selling their many hundreds
of reprints and pamphlets. Then, becoming house¬
bound with the birth of her son, she hit on the idea
| of continuing to sell feminist publications-by mail.
In December, 1971, she ran a small advertisement in
OFF OUR BACKS and the KNOW Newsletter, in¬
viting women to place orders for any feminist publi¬
cation they wanted to obtain. The orders trickled in,
| and FIRST THINGS FIRST was underway.
Susan Sojourner started without any stock. “I or¬
dered pretty much as people ordered.” When a re¬
quest for a particular item came in, she would review
i the list of the publisher in question and order a num¬
ber of additional titles “to take advantage of dis-
I counts, because you can’t get a trade discount on one
book.” As orders arrived, stock built up to several
hundred items within a few months: from 43 in Feb¬
ruary to over 1300 in May. Of course, the attractive¬
ness of this system to Susan Sojourner was that it did
I not require initial capital or prior market research.
The order house does not yet fully support Susan
Sojourner; she combines FIRST THINGS FIRST with
a two-day-a-week job. But at the rate the orders are
1 coming in this will not be long in coming. In fact, the
need and demand for feminist publications evidenced
| by the remarkable growth of the Fe-mail Order House
I is leading Susan Sojourner to consider expanding
FIRST THINGS to include a Washington, D.C. fem-
[ bust bookstore.
For all those books, pamphlets, posters (and a re¬
markable collection of hand-painted feminist buttons)
that are locally unavailable, or for a list of rccently-
I published feminist books, write to:
FIRST THINGS FIRST-
A Fe-mail Order House
23-7th Street, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
LABYRIS BOOKS
33 Barrow Street, New York,
New York 10014 (212)741-3460
THE WOMAN’S VOICE BOOKSTORE
673 South Pearl Street, Denver,
Colorado 80209 (303) 733-1178
THE FEMINIST BOOK MART
If the nearest women’s bookstore is Five hundred
miles away, you need THE FEMINIST BOOK MART.
And even if you live in New York City, THE FEMIN¬
IST BOOK MART may be able to help you get hard-
to-find feminist literature. The Book Mart is an inde¬
pendent mail-order business which carries a good
selection of books: women’s movement literature,
biography, some fiction, and children’s books in both
hard and paperback. Some of the hardbacks are of¬
fered at lower-than-publishers’ prices.
Write for a catalogue from:
THE FEMINIST BOOK MART
162-11 Ninth Avenue
Whitestone, New York 11357
Ain’t I AWoman?
It seems somehow particularly fitting that the
most radical women’s publication is put out by a col¬
lective of lesbian feminists in the heartlands of Amer¬
ica, Iowa City. New York, San Francisco, Cambridge,
Berkeley, have never produced anything (with the ex¬
ception, perhaps of the now-defunct IT AIN’T ME
BABE) quite like AIN’T I A WOMAN. Started in
June, 1970, AIN’T I A WOMAN, going strong into its
fourth year of publication, is virtually an institution
in the women’s movement.
If I were' to be stuck on that proverbial desert
island, AIN’T I A WOMAN would be on the top of
my list of reading necessities. Certainly it would keep
my adrenalin levels high. If I had to describe what is
so special about AIN’T I A WOMAN in a few words,
I would say—it sure as hell provokes. I can hardly re¬
member reading an issue without going into a rage at
one article or another. But it is a most productive
rage—the kind that forces introspection: why do I dis¬
agree so violently? Why does this statement, this
point of view upset me so? The answers clarify my
own position, point up hidden prejudices and prickly
issues that I would rather avoid confronting or leave
unspoken. AIN’T I A WOMAN doesn’t let you get
away with anything. Other women, at widely differing
points of the ideological spectrum, report similar re¬
actions. AIN’T I A WOMAN forces hard and critical
examination of the gut issues of feminism: sex, race,
violence, childcare, survival in this system.
What is the editorial policy? “We try to print arti¬
cles that we agree with, and as a whole, have the pa-
er represent the politics of the collective. We do,
owever, decide at times to print material submitted
to us that we may have some disagreements with, but
that we basically think are helpful and worth reading.
We do not edit any articles, but sometimes we don’t
feel right about printing certain articles without com¬
menting or responding to them in the paper to make
our own views clear. If we wish to do that, we. . . .
communicate privately with whoever submitted it to
be sure it’s all right. . . .” Although radical lesbian
feminist is the baseline, it would take a long essay to
satisfactorily define “the politics” of the collective,
since the ideological point of view of the paper has
evolved with its growth and the growth of the wom¬
en’s movement.
In this regard it is best to let the paper speak for
itself. Reading AIN’T I A WOMAN from its first issue
to the present is like taking a trip through the ideo¬
logical history of the second feminist struggle. The
theoretical pieces now considered classics in the
movement are all there: “Woman-Identificd-Woman,”
“No More Fun and Games,” “Goodbye to All That,”
“Tyranny of Structurelessness,” “Subversion in the
Women’s Movement: what is to be done,” “The
Fourth World Manifesto,” “Consumerism and
Women,” and more—all accompanied by the collec¬
tive’s own unremittingly honest and deeply consid¬
ered reactions, comments, thoughts. Very weighty,
but sett-off by beautiful poetry (Judy Grahn, Fran
Winant, Susan Griffin), powerful graphics, and a
changing layout and design—which gives you to
think that each time the paper is put out, somebody
is really putting in love, care, concern.
As a catalyst of thought and theory, AIN’T I A
WOMAN is certainly the most important and success¬
ful continuing publication in the women’s movement.
Starting in the Fall of 1973, AIN’T I A WOMAN
will be printed by the collective itself, on the press of
the Iowa City Women’s Press Collective.
Subscription rates are S5.00 per year (institutional,
$20.00). Bulk rates are 15^ per copy in advance. Vol¬
umes 1 and 2 are availble complete for $2.75 per vol¬
ume (while they last).
Available from:
AIN’T I A WOMAN
P.O. Box 1169
Iowa City, Iowa 52240
wflTrH mlT i SOMEDAY YOU MAY MEET
WAlon Wi. fl n, c/)L CASTRATING FEMALE
ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF’CLASS TO THE REVOLUTIONARY FEMINIST MOVEMENT
MARCI 1*71
by RADICAL FEMINISTS 2A |
the tyranny of
structurelessness
MOTHER RIGHT: « new feminist theory
hy jane alpert
a ujfuhL uomaAiA Aify- cAJiiuvm.
JlvAjhfothood
AMAZON QUARTERLY
ASIAN WOMEN
"The AMAZON QUARTERLY comes on strong,
a hard thing to do if one is aiming for innovation and
excellence in the arts. Tenuously-perched on the title
of‘Lesbian-Feminist Arts Journal’, the AMAZON
QUARTERLY has succeeded in transcending the
usual pitfalls of politics and perspective.
“The AMAZON QUARTERLY speaks from the
cultural perspective of woman-identified-woman. It
is unfortunate that the term ‘Lesbian’ is often inter¬
preted (even by Lesbians) as meaning ‘emulating that
which is male’, and the term ‘feminist’ by some fem¬
inists as meaning ‘anti-male’....
AMAZON
QUARTERLY
Issue ?
“The editors have titled their first printed page
‘Frontiers’ and use it to explain their intentions sim¬
ply and clearly:
We want to explore through the pages of AMAZON
QUARTERLY just what might be the female sen¬
sibility in the arts. Freed from male identification,
lesbians arc obviously in a very good position to
be the ones to cross the frontier Doris Lessing has
told us the ‘free woman' stands at.. . We are call¬
ing this an arts journal in the sense that art is com¬
munication. The standard we want to maintain is
not arbitrary, we simply want the best of com¬
munication from lesbians who are consciously
exploring new patterns in their lives.
“The AMAZON QUARTERLY is as exciting to
this suburban Lesbian as the Scars Roebuck cata¬
logue must have been to my pioneer sisters a century
ago. Sears had everything, so does the QUARTERLY.
“AMAZON QUARTERLY offers the finest short
fiction and poetry that this reader has seen—strong
authors and strong characters. The poetry crackles
with a new kind of energy that so challenges the tra¬
ditional limitations of the form that it seems to have
rediscovered the potential of poetry, especially ‘Eat
Rice Have Faith in Women’ by Fran Winant and )A
Geology Lesson’ by Judy Grahn. . . .
“A section called ‘Tools’ contains the kind of
book list 1 wish I had received freshman year. The
section called ‘Lives’ is beautiful. We all need to know
that such women as Emily Carr and Newlly Ptasch-
kina are not just fantasy people we wish we could
have been, but real women who paved the way for
us and our ideas.
“Truly the AMAZON QUARTERLY has opened
up my head as no other publication of late has been
able to do, possibly because it does not put forth
rhetoric to be swallowed up, nor does it claim to
know ‘The Way’. Revolution is a personal thing that
can only occur within a single thinking person. Cul¬
tural evolution is what happens when revolutionary
thinkers get together. The AMAZON QUARTERLY
is an irreversible step forward in the Lesbian/feminist
cultural evolution which is so necessary to us all.”
Review by Gail Ruthchild
THE SECOND WAVE, Volume 2, Number 4
Available from:
AMAZON QUARTERLY
554 Valle Vista
Oakland, California 94610
$4.00/year
$5.00/year out of U.S. or
in plain brown wrapper
ALBUQUERQUE WOMEN’S
LIBERATION NEWSLETTER
1824 Las Lomas, N.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106
ALERT:
Women’s Legislative Review
(For more information, see section on GETTING
JUSTICE)
P.O. Box 437
Middletown, Connecticut 06457
$4.00, published monthly
APHRA:
The Feminist Literary Magazine
Aphra Behn was an Englishwoman of the seven¬
teenth century, the first woman ever to earn her living
by writing. This literary magazine, named after her, is
already into its fourth volume of sophisticated fem¬
inist prose and poetry. Alix Shulman, Myrna Lamb,
and Phyllis Chesler have been among APHRA’s contri¬
butors. The Summer, 1973 issue includes a fascinating
excerpt, “The Women’s House,” from Marge Piercy’s
novel, SMALL CHANGES. Some back issues of
APHRA have been thematic, including these in-
triguingly titled issues: “Rcvolution/Art/Rcvolution”;
“The Whore Issue"; “Passion/Pain/Progress”;
Om/Omen/Women.”
Subscriptions available from:
APHRA
P.O. Box 893
Ansonia Station, New York 10023
“I sometimes think about my position as an Asian
woman in a society geared to the needs of whites and
men, and it’s pretty weird. 1 can say that now I am
content, even a little proud, with myself. After years
of wanting to be white and a boy, I am progressing.”
The ideas of women who arc oppressed doubly, both
as women and as Asians, are interesting to any wom¬
an who has thought about her own oppression in this
country.
The Berkeley women who created ASIAN WOMEN
report that it is the only publication of its kind. It is
very exciting to find such a complete collection of the
first-hand experiences of Asian American women.
Women have written articles of great scope and variety
in this journal: “Chinese Immigrant Women,” “Wom¬
en in Modern Japanese Literature,” “Birth Control as
Genocide,” and “Asian Women as Leaders.” In addi¬
tion to the forty-two articles, ASIAN WOMEN is en¬
hanced by beautiful photographs, making this journal,
in both content and appearance, well worth its price.
Available from:
EVERYBODY'S BOOKSTORE
840 Kearny Street
San Francisco, California 94108
$2.25
SPECIAL OVERSIZE
SUMMER READING ISSUE
Ellen Killoh/Walking Song
Esther Newton and Paula Webster/
Matriarchy: As Women See It
Leah Zahler/Matriarchy and Myth
Marge Piercy/The Women's House
Dacia Maraini/Manifesto
translated by Sandy MacDonald
Poetry by Siv Cedering Fox,
Alexandra Grilikhes,
Miriam Palmer
$4.50/year (quarterly)
Back issues $1.50 each
APHRA
Box 893
Antonia Station
New York, N.Y. 10023
Return Postage Guaranteed
AURORA
'SISTERS
IN
PRISON
FEMINIST,
kFICTIONy
AND
MORE
IsMal
The Common Woman:
Grass Boots
Whole Earth Catalogue
& DO-IT-TOUBSILI
MERRY
M1CHANIX MANUAL
IM UlM
76 Otftt*
AURORA:
Prism of Feminism
AURORA is beautiful. Besides the lovely visual
appearance of the journal, AURORA has many down-
to-earth, right-on articles: “A Day in the Life of a
Feminist,” “The Female as Student,” and “Sisters in
Prison.” One highlight of Issue No. 3 of AURORA is
“The Common Woman’s Grass Roots Whole Earth
Catalogue & Do-it-yourself Merry Mechanics Manual.”
This is chock full of nifty tidbits for women: how to
get a Burpee plant catalogue, how to make friends
with your car (from UP FROM UNDER), and how to
buy organic foods.
Subscriptions available from:
AURORA
24 De Braun Avenue
Suffern, New York 10901
BERKSHIRE WOMEN’S
LIBERATION NEWSLETTER
P.O. Box 685
Lenox, Massachusetts 01240
(617)637-3219
20/ each
“A man’s best friend is a dog.
“A dog’s best friend is a woman.
“A woman’s best friend is a woman.”
Hence the title of this anthology of women’s
poetry, the result of a women’s poetry reading in Al¬
buquerque, at the University of New Mexico. Simple
and eloquent poetry from the guts of women, “chosen
not solely for their form or thoughts but poems
which we enjoy.”
For price and publication information, write:
BLACK MARIA
An outstanding quarterly feminist journal published
by Chicago area women that is starting its second yeai
with a special issue devoted to contemporary fiction
by new women writers.
Subscriptions available from:
BLACK MARIA
P.O. Box 230
River Forest, Illinois 60305
$3.50/year
$4.00/four issues
WOMEN’S CENTER
1824 Los Lomas
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106
BATTLE ACTS
A bi-monthly political magazine published by the
Women of Youth Against War and Fascism.
Available from:
BATTLE ACTS
c/o Women of Youth Against
War and Fascism
46 West 21st Street
New York, New York 10011
BIG MAMA RAG
Denver’s first feminist journal, BIG MAMA RAG’s
staff includes a bus driver, a painter, a mother of two,
a legal secretary, an astrologer, a pre-med student, a
welder, a draftsperson, a past treasurer of the National
Honor society, and an ex-nun. Their diversity brings
to BIG MAMA RAG the makings of a very respect¬
able feminist paper. There are features on women’s
rights cases in Colorado and women in history in¬
cluded each month.
Available from:
BIG MAMA RAG
1635 Downing
Denver, Colorado 80218
$5.00/year (monthly)
BREAKTHROUGH-
Official Publication of the
Interstate Association of Commissions on the
Status of Women
(See section on GETTING JUSTICE for more
information).
Available from:
INTERSTATE ASSOCIATION OF
COMMISSIONS ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
District Building, Room 204
14th and E Streets, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004
appears bi-monthly, free with membership
28
$2.00/year
THE BROADSIDE
CRIES FROM CASSANDRA-
The Official Newspaper of the Amazon Nation
A monthly newsletter for women in the Houston,
Texas area. With special emphasis on the activities of
NOW in Houston and also on the national level.
Available from:
NOW
P.O. Box 58202
Houston, Texas 77058
$ 3.00/year for non-members of NOW
free to NOW members
COMING OUT
Gay women’s newsletter at Oberlin College.
Available from:
COMING OUT
P.O. Box A-22
Oberlin College
Oberlin, Ohio
(216) 774-1221, ext. 6208
A new publication which originated in June, 1973
as a protest against the “wishy-washy” politics of
Chicago Lesbian Liberation and its newspaper,
LAVENDAR WOMAN.
Available from:
CRIES FROM CASSANDRA
c/o The Amazon Nation
2916 N. Burling
Chicago, Illinois 60657
15*each 50* each
CANADIAN NEWSLETTER OF
RESEARCH ON WOMEN
c/o Dr. Margaret Eichler
Department of Sociology
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, CANADA
DISTAFF
$4.00/3 issues
CHANGE
(See section on WORK for more information)
Subscriptions:
CHANGE
968 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California 94110
$2.00/year for individuals, issued monthly
$5.00/year for institutions
COLD DAY IN AUGUST
The newsletter of Baltimore Women’s Liberation
which announces the activities of feminists of the
greater Baltimore area. The newsletter also includes
articles of general interest to women-recent issues
have discussed hitchhiking, rape, abortion, and child
care, in addition to fiction and poetry.
Subscriptions available from:
BALTIMORE WOMEN’S LIBERATION
101 East 25th Street
Suite B-2
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
$3.00/year, issued monthly
COUNTRY WOMEN
(See WORK section)
Subscriptions:
COUNTRY WOMEN
P.O. Box 51
Albion, California 95410
$7.00/12 issues
single copies, 60*
DISTAFF
New Orleans Monthly Feminist Forum
“DISTAFF means women’s work. For too long
women’s work has been used as a cliche to describe
that work which is trivial and unimportant. DISTAFF
will redefine itself by serving women as a forum for
their hopes, their frustrations, their creativity, their
true selves. We will no longer accept our lives as jokes
and cliches. DISTAFF is the realization of women’s
initiative, insights and talents—a media for women to
be heard. Now is the time for all women to take their
place upon this planet in full partnership with all
human beings.”
The Women’s Movement is thriving and flourishing
in New Orleans. In addition to DISTAFF’s excellent
features on issues of national importance, the paper
is particularly distinguished by its outstanding book
reviews. Available from:
DISTAFF
P.O. Box 15639
New Orleans, Louisiana 70175
$3.00/year
COWRIE
A new publication by the Community of Women
on Manhattan’s upper east side (started as “a place of
communication and sharing and building and belong¬
ing. . . in a homogenous area”). Contents include sur¬
vival information for the city woman, an information
switchboard (projects, workshops, businesses), and
news about the activities of the Community of
Women.
Subscriptions available from:
COMMUNITY OF WOMEN
359 East 68th Street
New York, New York
DO IT NOW
DO IT NOW is a monthly newsletter of the National
Organization for Women (NOW).
Available from:
NOW
1957 East 73rd Street
Chicago, Illinois 60649
(See section on ORGANIZING for membership
information)
$5.00/10 issues
29
DYKES ANDGORGONS
“The GORGONS were a ferocious tribe of warring
Amazons who maintained the high female standard
of allowing no men into their midst. The Amazons
were in a constant state of struggle against the invad¬
ing patriarchal armies. Myths were perpetrated cen¬
turies later by the Greeks and other patriarchs to
distort actual historical events, turning the Gorgons
from the fierce warriors they were into legendary
fearsome monsters. According to one myth, there
were three Gorgon sisters who lived on an island and
were known far and wide for their deadly power.
Two of the sisters were considered immortal, but the
earthbound mortal, Medusa, was supposedly slain by
Perseus. Legend further says that the Gorgon sisters
were creatures with great wings and bodies covered
with golden scales, with snakes that grew from their
heads like hair and that any man daring to look upon
them was ‘mesmerized’-turned to stone.
“To the Greek world, the Amazons were wondrous
warriors who were so astonishing in battle that they
posed more of a threat to the city-states than all the
other enemy nations combined. The Gorgons were an
extreme feminist wing of the Amazons, fighting a last
ditch attempt to maintain a matriarchal culture in the
face of the growing patriarchy, spreading its violence
everywhere. After the Amazons were systematically
exterminated, their spirit continued to live on through
their frequent portrayal in Grecian art. (It is from
these often sympathetic sculptures and paintings that
the memory of the Amazons is preserved.)
DYKES & GORGONS
“DYKES, we all know. DYKES, for some of us
dykes, has the meaning of a lesbian strong in her
Amazonal heritage. We are full in the midst of a war
waged upon women. DYKES are present and future
Gorgon/Amazons, struggling for tne time when we
are free of these war-inspired definitions, when we
can exist freely as dykes in a female world.”
DYKES AND GORGONS, a brand new publi¬
cation, contains brilliantly insightful and informative
articles on dyke politics, matriarchal prehistory, sep¬
aratism and more. If you’ve never heard of Dyke
Nation, DYKES AND GORGONS will help show
you the way—even if you’re a dyke.
For subscription information, write to:
DYKES AND GORGONS
P.O. Box 840
Berkeley, California 94704
ECHO OF SAPPHO
A lesbian-feminist publication for separatists and
non-separatists alike that discusses such hot topics in
the gay movement as female transsexualism.
Available from:
ECHO OF SAPPHO
c/o Sisters for Liberation
P.O. Box 263
Brooklyn, New York 11217
50tf (issued quarterly)
EARTH’S DAUGHTERS: A Feminist Arts Periodical
944 Kensington Avenue Buffalo, New York 14215 $5.00/6 issues
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FEMALE LIBERATION NEWSLETTER
EL POPO FEMENIL
EL POPO FEMENIL was written by members of
the Chicano Studies Department at Cal-State Univer¬
sity at Northridge. Bi-lingual articles deal with rela¬
tionships between Chicano and Anglo women, the
effect of the Women’s Movement on Mexican Ameri¬
can women, and Chicanas in Law School.
For more information on this special issue, write to:
EL POPO FEMENIL
Chicano Studies Department
Cal-State University
Northridge, California
THE EXECUTIVE WOMAN
Unique monthly national newsletter for business-
woinen/entrcprencurs. Offers inside contacts, invest¬
ment tips, personal profiles. . . everything that will
move you up in business. Advisory board includes
Gail Sneehy, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Elizabeth
Janeway, Doris Sassover, Jane Trahcy. This publi¬
cation is geared more with the employer in mind,
than with the average employee.
(see section on WORK for more information).
By subscription only. Write to:
THE EXECUTIVE WOMAN
747 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10017
$20.00/year; ten issues
FEMALE LIBERATION is one of the first femin
organizations in the country, as an outgrowth of Ce
16 and Bread and Roses. The women of FEMALE
LIBERATION publish a bi-weekly newsletter direct
primarily to the women of the greater Cambridgc/Bi
ton area. The Newsletter reports on the group’s acti
ities, in addition to articles of a more national scope
Available from:
FEMALE LIBERATION
P.O. Box 344
Cambridge A
Cambridge, Massachusetts 021
$5.00/year
FEMINIST ART JOURNAL
(For further information, see section on ARTS)
Subscriptions available from:
FEMINIST ART JOURNAL
41 Montgomery Place
Brooklyn, New York 11215
$3.00/four issues
THE FEMINIST BULLETIN
Westchester Women’s
Liberation Coalition
Box 9
Hartsdale, New York 10530
$4.00/year (monthly)
$3.00/students
FEMINIST NEWSLETTER
OF CHAPEL HILL
P.O. Box 954
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
THE FEDERATION "ALERT”
(For more information, see the section
on GETTING JUSTICE.)
Available from:
THE FEDERATION “ALERT"
4818 Drummond Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20015
FEMINIST QUARTERLY JOURNAL
A national feminist quarterly journal (not yet
named) has been started in Washington, D.C. to pro¬
vide a forum for political analysis and ideological de¬
velopment. Articles will be oriented to ALL women
who want to work on the various ideological and
strategic problems that face women in changing
society. Women working on the magazine are par¬
ticularly interested in receiving articles for the first
four issues on the topics: What Is Change? Money an
Class; The Self; Fantasy and Visions.
Address all inquiries to:
FEMINIST QUARTERLY JOURNAL
1520 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
FEMINIST STUDIES
A scholarly publication that was founded “for the
purpose of encouraging analytic responses to feminist
issues and analyses that open new areas of feminist
research and critique.”
Subscriptions available from:
ANN CALDERWOOD, EDITOR
417 Riverside Drive
New York, New York 10025
$6.00/year, issued quarterly
F.E.W. NEWS AND VIEWS
(See section on GETTING JUSTICE for
more information).
Newsletter from FEDERALLY EMPLOYED
WOMEN is free with membership.
Available from:
FEDERALLY EMPLOYED WOMEN
621 National Press Building
Washington, D.C.
monthly by Boston Daughters of Bilttis.
Contains news, features, pictures (some¬
times), poems.
Sample 504 , 12 Issues $5.00
Send to: D.O.B.
<19 Boylston St, Room 406
Boston, Mass. 02116
Phone: (617) 262-1592
FOCUS:
A Journal for Gay Women
Published monthly by Boston Daughters of Bilitis.
Subscriptions available from:
FOCUS
Boston Daughters of Bilitis
419 Boylston Street
Room 415
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
$5.00/year
FRONT PAGE
Newsletter of the Bloomington Women’s Center.
Available from:
FRONT PAGE
Feminist Library
The Women’s Center
414 North Park
Bloomington, Indiana
FULL MOON
The FULL MOON was put together by four wom¬
en who felt that New England needed a feminist voice.
A good account of the Vermont women’s health
clinic is included, as well as articles on child care in
New England. Although they do not plan any future
issues, the last (undated) FULL MOON is invaluable
for contacts of women’s groups in New England and
Canada.
Free from:
THE FURIES
“We believe THE FURIES will make important
contributions to the growing movement to destroy
sexism. As a collective, in addition to outside projects,
we are spending much time building an ideology which
is the basis for action . . .” -GINNY BERSON
“The development of Lesbian feminist politics as
the basis for the liberation of women is our top priority;
this article outlines our present ideas. In our society,
which defines all people and institutions for the benefit
of the rich, white male, the Lesbian is in revolt. In re¬
volt because she defines herself in terms of women and
rejects the male definitions of how she should feel,
act, look, and live. To be a Lesbian is to love oneself,
woman, in a culture that denigrates and despises
women. The Lesbian rejects male sexual/political dom¬
ination; she defies his world, his social organization,
his ideology, and his definition of her as inferior. The
Lesbian puts women first, while the society declares
the male supreme. LESBIANISM THREATENS MALE
SUPREMACY AT ITS CORE. When politically con¬
scious and organized, it is central to destroying our
sexist, racist, capitalist, imperialist system.”
-CHARLOTTE BUNCH
These excerpts appeared in the first issue (January,
1972) of THE FURIES. As promised in the first issue,
the paper has, over the past year-and-a-half, published
theoretical and analytical essays, personal journals,
poetry, reviews, which have built up a solid ideology,
centered around separation from men—emotional,
political, economic—as the key strategem in ending
the oppression of women.
As of June, 1973, THE FURIES is no more. An
ex-Fury commented that the paper’s passing should
not be lamented. “THE FURIES aimed at developing
a Lesbian/feminist/separatist theory. They succeeded.
There really isn’t much more room for the theoretical
expansion of separatism. We’ve got the theory. Now
we must work to put it into action.”
The ideas, values, vision offered by THE FURIES
have had a profound impact on radical feminism
throughout the country. Anyone who did not sub¬
scribe in the past, but who is interested in obtaining
copies can get them by writing to:
THE FURIES
P.O. Box 8843
S.E. Station
Washington, D.C. 20003
$5.00 for a complete set (10 issues)
.50 for one issue
Collections of articles from previous FURIES are also
available in pamphlet form:
WOMEN REMEMBERED: a collection of seven
biographies of women.
CLASS AND FEMINISM: a collection of seven
articles of class in the Women’s Movement.
Available from:
FULL MOON
200 Main Street
Northampton, Massachusetts
DIANA PRESS
12 West 25th Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
GENESIS III
Written by the Philadelphia Task Force on Women
in Religion, GENESIS III includes articles about the
second-class status of women in all religions.
Available from:
GENESIS III
c/o Philadelphia Task Force on
Women in Religion
P.O. Box 24003
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19139
$2.00 per volume (6 issues)
GIDRA:
Monthly of the Asian American Experience
GIDRA is not exclusively a women’s paper, but
certain issues are devoted to the double exploitation
of Asian-American women. The April, 1972 issue con¬
tains a particularly good article on the image of Asian
women in the media, in which Karen Ito Chan points
out the white male fantasies of Asian women: 1) the
Geisha, who represents soft sex; 2) the Dragon Lady/
Suzi Wong image, who represents hard sex; and 3) the
Housekeeper, the comforting mother image. All three
stereotypes are designed to keep women relegated to
roles as either sex objects or supportive helpmates.
Available from:
GIDRA
P.O. Box 18649
Los Angeles, California 90018
$2.50/year (monthly)
GOLD FLOWER
A monthly newspaper serving the women’s com¬
munity of the greater Minneapolis area.
Available from:
GOLD FLOWER
P.O. Box 8341
Lake Street Station
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408
$3.00/year
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT is a good guide to
women’s rights (political, social) and feminist rites
(festivals, meetings, caucuses) in San Diego and
around the country.
Subscriptions available from:
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT
P.O. Box 3092
San Diego, California 92103
$4.00/year (every three weeks)
$ 1.25/each
31
A Community Women’s Newspaper
Do you read HER-SELF? Probably not. Yet
another example of the communications gap that
exists in the Women’s Movement.
Like so many other women’s community news¬
papers, HER-SELF, published in Ann Arbor, Michi¬
gan, does a first-rate job of communicating to its
readers local events of interest as well as news of the
larger women’s community. There are articles on
women growing old, topless bars, getting men to teach
nursery school, sexism in comic books, survival
articles on housing, food stamps, auto and home re¬
pairs, local childcare resources. Reviews range from
Deep Throat (“Nothing to Get Choked Up About”)
to Bette Midler and Chinese women’s poetry. In writ¬
ing, design, format, HER-SELF ranks in the top half-
dozen of the 130-odd publications which are the
product of newly-awakened consciousness in women.
This, however, is not the only reason that recom¬
mends HER-SELF to a far wider readership than the
midwest region where the paper is published. HER¬
SELF specializes in health news, and almost regularly
features articles of national, not to say international,
consequence that you will rarely find reported out-
side of highly specialized publications. Articles first
appearing in HER-SELF have led to hearings by the
Food and Drug Administration-have,'in fact, pro¬
vided news you read and see in the male media.
Perhaps the most dramatic example of HER-SELF’s
health reporting has been the series of articles expos¬
ing the carcinogenic properties of DES—the principal
substance in the “morning-after” pill—its use in hos¬
pitals throughout the country on unsuspecting wom¬
en in dosages hundreds of times more than that per¬
mitted by the FDA in cattle feeds, and the FDA’s
refusal to restrict its use on women. (See the SELF¬
HEALTH section.)
Other major health stories published by HER¬
SELF include:
* The adverse side-effect of the new progestin mini¬
pill introduced by drug companies as a less harm¬
ful control pill than the estrogen pills now used
by most women (April, 1973)
* The dangers associated with amaranth, the red
food dye, used in hot dogs, soft drinks, ice-cream,
processed cheese, salad dressings, and most arti¬
ficially-colored foods (April, 1973)
* The specific dangers of birth control pills to black
women (January, 1973)
* Developments in aspiration cytology-a new bi¬
opsy technique for determining breast cancer in
women described at the 1973 San Francisco meet¬
ing of the American College of Surgeons (May,
1973—MS. describes and advocates the technique
in the September, 1973 issue)
* “Cosmetic contamination”-the harmful long-term
effects of ingredients in everyday cosmetics: hand
lotions, shampoos, night creams, lipsticks, hair
sprays (January, 1973)
* The increase in infant-mortality and cancer rates
in communities adjacent to nuclear power plants
(June, 1973)
* The presence of cancer virus in mother’s milk-
reported from research conducted by the National
Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland (January,
1973)
* The relationship between pregnancy and the use
of certain antibiotics in women using IUD’s
(February, 1973)
* X-rays and fetal damage (May, 1973, to be pub¬
lished in MS., late fall of 1973)
* Fetal damage caused by ultrasonic devices used
widely in the United States to measure the heart¬
beat of the fetus (July, 1973)
* New developments in male contraceptives (June,
1973)
* Relationships between nutrition and menstrual
cramps (April, 1973)
* The substitution by soap companies of potentially
dangerous anti-bacterial agents for now-banned
hexachlorophine (April, 1973)
HER-SELF has an all-volunteer staff. Its editorial structure is like that of no other newspaper. It iso
paradigm of mutual cooperation, and at times, frustration. Because hierarchical structures and formal
titles bespeak a male-oriented organization, it was important that the HER-SELF staffers do away with
boss!employee, dominant/submissive patterns of work. Therefore, the jobs with the most authority and
responsibility (e.g., production and layout, graphics, distribution, advertising) were rotated, so that each
member of the staff could have the experience of being an editor.
The bulk of HER-SELF’s health data comes from
so-called “official” and authoritative sources (another
example of women using the classic tactic of self-
defense: combatting a larger, more powerful oppon¬
ent by using his own strength against him). A good
deal of information is supplied by Advocates for
Medical Information, a feminist group in Ann Arbor
which does extensive original medical research. (See
the SELF-HEALTH section.) It was Kay Weiss, a
founder of AMI and a writer for HER-SELF, who
first drew attention to the connection between DES
and vaginal cancer, after painstakingly following for
months the threads of the DES story through Amer¬
ican and foreign medical literature.
HER-SELF also watches the sources with which
the general reader is as little familiar as are the news¬
room boys of the major newspapers and television
networks. Staff members have developed a unique ex¬
pertise and skill in sleuthing information from highly
esoteric sources-publications of the medical estab¬
lishment, government agencies, and health empire
watchdoggers.
There are very compelling reasons why women
must develop the knowledge and skills which allow
them to assess independently and make judgements
about this kind of information. Even if we were able
to trust fully the official institutions which are sup¬
posed to safeguard citizens from abuse and exploita¬
tion by the medical empire, these are male-dominated
institutions, and as such, see things from a male point
of view, and show greater concern for male interests.
Thus, the FDA immediately banned DES in cattle
feeds when it was discovered that this highly danger¬
ous drug could affect male hormones. But when the
drug is prescribed for exclusive use by women, in the
form of the “morning-after” pill, exposing the user ti
many thousand times the dangers in beefeating, the
FDA approves its use. Male interests, in this case the
drug companies and medical profession, prevailed
over the well-being of WOMEN. Can you imagine the
FDA allowing the use of a drug that could cause can¬
cer of the penis-whoever was making money oft it.
HER-SELF keeps women alerted to the hazards ot
existing and potential products and practices that
male institutions foist on women in pursuit of their
own interest and/or profit-dangers that your doctor
may not know about or tell you about. At least with
HER-SELF’s information you can be the judge.
Subscriptions from:
HER-SELF
225 East Liberty Street
Suite 200
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108
32
$4.00/one year, monthly
$ 10.00/institutions
HUMAN RIGHTS FOR WOMEN
NEWSLETTER
(See the section on GETTING JUSTICE
for more information).
Available from:
HUMAN RIGHTS FOR WOMEN
1128 National Press Building
Washington, D.C. 20004
INDIANAPOLIS WOMEN’S
LIBERATION NEWSLETTER
P.O. Box 88365
Indianapolis, Indiana 46208
<§TflE
APR. 1973
y * m u a.m
$2.00/year
JACKSON WOMEN’S
COALITION NEWSLETTER
Box 3234
Jackson, Mississippi
(published monthly)
THE LADDER
“THE LADDER, published by Lesbians and di¬
rected to ALL women seeking full human dignity,
had its beginning in 1956. It was then the only Lesbian
publication in the United States.. . .
“Initially, THE LADDER’S goal was limited to
achieving the rights accorded heterosexual women,
that is, full second-class citizenship. In the 1950’s,
women as a whole were as yet unaware of their op¬
pression. The Lesbian knew. And she wondered si¬
lently when her sisters would realize that they too
shared many of the Lesbian’s handicaps, those that
pertained to being a woman.”
In printing excellent poems, fiction, and essays,
THE LADDER tried “to raise all women to full hu¬
man status, with all of the rights and responsibilities
this entailed; to include ALL women, whether Les¬
bian or heterosexual.”
After 16 years of continuous publication, THE
LADDER died a financial death with the August/Sep¬
tember, 1972 issue. We mourn its passing and hope
that with financial help, perhaps THE LADDER will
once again be able to publish.
THE LADDER
JUNc JUl« }»12 11.26
W
r,
i ■
Back issues of THE LADDER are available from:
THE LADDER
P.O. Box 5025
‘ Washington Station
Reno, Nevada
$1.25 each
LESBIAN TIDE^
•■invurfi.aiMoviit •
'i- h 1 M ' '"'J
V "i I • e .v i'y
I Irnr rail .. > VI
SHALL NOT rAI^
ir±LV
LAVENDER WOMAN
“Lesbian, being a three syllable word, was harder
to learn to say. As a baby dyke at the age of twenty-
four, it was difficult enough to say ‘I’m gay’ and
watch my friends wince at the stabbing effect of the
announcement. But I’ve grown to say it-lesbian, lov¬
ingly, lesbian, every syllable, lesbian.” LAVENDER
WOMAN is joyous.
V
THE LESBIAN PjPEKof CMCAG
TO-* LAVENDER W OMAN
WWffL
THIS Parer. SSfRtt to wom*n :n rcim
itlSTtnil :Otl4 JU4D AACNTX L HOSftTXI-S.
Subscriptions available from:
LAVENDER WOMAN
P.O. Box 60206
1723 W. Devon
Chicago, Illinois 60660
$3.00/year, issued monthly
$6.00/institutions
LAZETTE
The official newsletter of New Jersey Daughters
of Bilitis. .
For price information, write:
LAZETTE
c/o New Jersey D.O.B.
P.O. Box 62
Fanwood, New Jersey
THE LESBIAN FEMINIST
The monthly magazine of Lesbian Feminist
Liberation.
Contributions, suggestions, and letters should be
sent to:
Editor
THE LESBIAN FEMINIST
P.O. Box 243
Village Station
New York, New York 10014
-
<§THE
LESBIAN
IDES>
A VOICE OF THE
LESBIAN/FEMINIST
COMMUNITY
sisters subscribe now!
$6.00 per year in U.S.
$.50 for sample copy
send to: tide collective
373 No. Western • Room 202
Los Angeles, Calif. 90004
bulk rates available upon
request.
LESBIAN TIDE
“The TIDE has always been a magazine, but it has
not always been a collective enterprise. It was started
by very few women, and as the staff grew, more-or-
less bureaucratic and hierarchical structures were de-
veloped. Recently, we have begun to experiment with
developing more egalitarian structures. This really is
an experiment, for it’s almost never been done suc¬
cessfully for any length of time except by C-R groups.
Like all Movement projects, we are in a constant
struggle for financial solvency, and like all news mag¬
azines, we are in a constant struggle to meet deadlines.
Money and time pressures and feminism are very dif¬
ficult to integrate, but we’re beginning to integrate
them. We’re growing into our name, The TIDE Col¬
lective. .. .
“We’re making efforts to listen to each other bet
ter. We’re trying to be more aware of the ways we
relate to each other. We’re trying to make our meet¬
ings more open to sisters’ sharing feelings with each
other and seeking and extending personal support,
rather than just calling for one vote after another.
We’ve done away with voting. ...
“Another issue we’ve just begun to deal with is
our feelings of competitiveness, both with each other
and with other women’s publications. Some of us feel
that there is an irreconcilable contradiction between
functioning within truly feminist structures and pro¬
ducing a magazine that survives solely on money from
ads and that gets sold in a competitive market. Others
of us feel that we should be struggling to be sisteriy
and non-competitive towards other women’s publica¬
tions, regardless of the nature of the market. Still
others of us feel that there are plenty of goodies
to ^o around and that the threat of competition with
other feminist publications is not real at this-point.
A related problem is finding ways that the various
lesbian and feminist publications can help each other
without diverting staff energies from the needs of in¬
dividual publications. . . .
“We’re dealing with a lot of problems, but the Col¬
lective feels healthier than ever for the struggle. . . .”
LESBIAN TIDE is an excellent news magazine
serving the feminist community of Southern California.
Available from:
TIDE COLLECTIVE
373 N. Western
Room 202
Los Angeles, California 90004
$7.50/year (monthly)
$10.00/year, institutions
$2.00/12 issues
33
riBeRa
• jo-ni*n
A•*.* .Vmv X-mum ll 00
LIBERA
LIBERA, A New Woman’s Journal, has a distinc¬
tive selection of prose. Written by women with grow¬
ing consciousness, the stories are often bittersweet,
always imaginative. The Spring, 1973 issue includes a
Kafka-esque story of a man who awakes to find that
his body has been transformed into that of his wife;
and a tale of a little girl whose spontaneity is crushed
by her conventional parents. Engrossing feminist
reading.
Available from:
LIBERA
Eshleman Hall, Room 516
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720
$3.00/three issues
$1.25 for issue no. 1
$ 1.00/copy
THE LIBERATOR:
An Independent Journal of Commentary
on Feminist Issues
THE LIBERATOR is “dedicated to the premise
that everybody ought to be free, whether they want
to be or not; or failing that, should have the right to
choose their own prison.” THE LIBERATOR comes
from Fort Worth, Texas, and informs Texan feminists
of what’s happening in the Texas legislature, women’s
projects such as a self-help clinic in the planning stages
in Fort Worth, and comments on other areas of inter¬
est, such as pornography. THE LIBERATOR is a one-
woman paper, published, written, and type-set by
Martha Lindsey.
Subscriptions available from:
THE LIBERATOR
1404 Grand Avenue
Fort Worth, Texas 76106
$3.00/year; six issues
LONGTIME COMING
A monthly newspaper by and for Montreal lesbians.
A recent issue included poetry, short stories, and an
excellent article on role playing and sex-stereotyping
in children.
Available from:
LONG TIME COMING
P.O. Box 161
Station E
Montreal 151, Quebec
CANADA
A Feminist ffews paper Serving the Women of New York
25t
Majority Report
wm A I#.
7 llandyMomin's I
MAJORITY REPORT
Here is a scoop from the Molly Muckenraker col¬
umn of MAJORITY REPORT: “OFF WITH HIS
WHAT?-A Baltimore grand jury recently recom¬
mended castration as the ‘only effective deterrent’
for repeat offenders for rape crimes. The jurors said
they were shocked and amazed at the ‘damnable,
diabolical and detestable crimes’ they have been hear¬
ing testimony on for the past four months, noting
that most rapists have been convicted on similar of¬
fences on previous occasions.”
MAJORITY REPORT also contains news of fem¬
inism in New York City and State, throughout the
country, and even excellent coverage of the Women’s
Movement abroad.
Subscriptions are available from:
MAJORITY REPORT
74 Grove Street
New York, New York 10014
$3.00/year, issued monthly
MAINELY NOW
P.O. Box 534
Kennebunkport, Maine
$3.00/year for non-NOW members
MARIN WOMEN’S NEWSLETTER
This publication is more than just a newsletter. It
is as fine a journal as New York’s MAJORITY
REPORT. Many articles in the MARIN WOMEN’S
NEWSLETTER arc honest accounts by women who
are experimenting with their newfound feminist con¬
sciousness. These women communicate an infectious
excitement, as they speak freely about the changes
they are making in their lives.
Subscriptions available from:
MARIN WOMEN’S NEWSLETTER
P.O. Box 1414
San Rafael, California 94902
$4.00/twelve issues (monthly)
c
c
I
L
ti
MATRIX III n
A
s
The final issue in a three-part collection of works
for “She of the New Aeon (for the artist, the feminist,
the magician, the seeker, the knower, the lover, the
heart and spirit. . . and for the savory delights of the
inner eye. . .).” Volume three includes beautiful illus¬
trations and prose by Isadora Duncan, Elsa Gidlow,
Joyce Nower, and Kit Murphy.
Available from:
MATRIX
P.O.Box 4218
North Hollywood, California 91607
$5.00/all three issues
$2.00/each
MOMMA
The Magazine for Single Mothers
(Sec CHILD CARE section for more information)
Subscriptions are available from:
MOMMA
926 Marco Place
Venice, California 90291
$3.00/year, individuals (monthly)
$4.00/year, institutions
THE MONTHLY EXTRACT:
An Irregular Periodical
(For further information, see the section on
SELF-HEALTH)
Subscriptions available from:
NEW MOON COMMUNICATIONS
P.O. Box 3488
Ridgeway Station
Stamford, Connecticut 06902
$2.00/six issues
MOTHER LODE
Why I Want
AWife
The First Man
So Long for However
Long It Tbkea
MOTHER LODE
MOTHER LODE is the major feminist paper out
of San Francisco. Each issue of MOTHER LODE
opens out into one giant poster-sized sheet. Since
January. 1971, there have been six issues of MOTHER
LODE, each with a different theme: medical treat¬
ment of women, women and the family, lesbian
mothers, women in prison. Issue No. 6 is a poster
with poetry on the back, entitled “ToCelebrate the
Strength,of Women,” available for 50 1.
Available from:
MOTHER LODE
P.O. Box 40213
San Francisco, California 94140
$ 1.50/all six issues
$2.50/institutions
Issues 1-5 available for 35 4 each
wimnw
RICHARD
NIXON?
Ms.
HAT*
muxztti a
PERSONAL
STORY
'ami#
T im uno KIW XTOV3X ABOUT
^WQ-MTCTS-, BIB, ABB lgEDPUB A.GXJ
FLO: THE WITTY FEMINIST
HI AT CONTRACEPTIVE
TYPE ARE YOU?
iiniimn
SECRETS OF RAP GROUPS
t»ss**»sss«s«ss
(
THEY DIDN'T OET MARRIED AND THEY
LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER ANYWAT
)
MOTIVE
Lesbian/Feminist Issue
“MOTIVE, a monthly magazine published by the
United Methodist Church for over twenty years, is no
more. This is its final issue. Throughout MOTIVE’S
history, radical dissension within limit was tolerated
with a few slaps on the wrist, but the church fathers
really squirmed when the special issue on women ap¬
peared in March-April, 1969. In the aftermath of the
controversy over the women’s issue, the church began
to reduce its support of MOTIVE and MOTIVE de¬
cided. . . it could not survive without church money.
So the staff and editorial board decided to close up
shop—using the remaining resources of the magazine
to put out one final GAY issue. The Furies, a collec¬
tive of twelve lesbians in Washington, D.C., which in¬
cluded a member of the old MOTIVE editorial board,
assumed editorial responsibility for the lesbian issue. . .
“In the process of putting this issue together we
built bonds with lesbians around the country who
sent in articles, graphics, and poetry in response to
our requests. In order for lesbians to complete the
entire production, we gained many new skills. Les¬
bians from several cities produced the design and
layout. The SOJOURNER TRUTH PRESS in Atlanta
printed the whole issue. .. .”
Available from:
G.P.O. Box 1677
New York, New York 10001
$1.00 each
MOVING OUT
A women’s journal that comes out of Wayne State
University, MOVING OUT combines stories from
women’s experience with theoretical articles, graphics,
and photography. A good selection of witty poetry—
especially “I Won’t Screw for Revolution (If You
Don’t Mind).”
Available from:
MOVING OUT
Box 26, U.C.B.
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan 48202
MS.
“MS. sure caught on fast. Today when the Breather
called the OFF OUR BACKS office he moaned ‘Mzzz-
zzzz’, into the phone.
“MS. is the most commercially successful feminist
propaganda of the day. Every month as many women
read MS. as read the rest of us put together. The rest
of us being papers and journals like OFF OUR BACKS,
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT, MOUNTAIN MOVING
DAY, THE LADDER, APHRA, EVERYWOMAN and
roughly 30 other publications—products of love and
conviction by mostly unsalaried staffs. Believing a
strong women’s media to be a major component of
a feminist revolution, I could love it for that reason
alone.
“Although it was hard to love MS. at first. The
preview issue in NEW YORK MAGAZINE and the
later expanded version of that first issue carried the
most degrading ads ever printed in a feminist publica¬
tion. I couldn’t believe MS. had a grasp on the life
circumstances of Johnnie Tillman, one of the co¬
founders and first chairman of the National Welfare
Rights Organization when they ran a full-page ad for
the Halycon Days Hotel, (“You’ve been in Hotels
everywhere. Now try a Hotel in the middle of no¬
where.”) a few pages from an interview with Tillman,
who isn’t taking vacations in the Carribean on her
welfare check. Then there were the salaries those
ladies were making, not that anybody at MS. was get¬
ting rich on the Women’s Movement but some of them
were making $20,000 a year, which is more than the
total income of some of us at OFF OUR BACKS for
the last 10 years.
“MS. is making feminist converts of middle class
heathens from academia to condominium-ville. A
slick, reputable-looking magazine breaks down de¬
fenses and lets the word worm its way into the brain.
MS. is almost in violation of Truth in Packaging laws.
There is a female mind-set on those glossy pages slip¬
ping into American homes concealed in bags of gro¬
ceries like tarantulas on banana boats. The latest issue
of MS. has a piece by Kate Millett on the Angela Davis
trial and a piece by Angela Davis on herself and other
black women. Curious girl children will accidentally
discover feminism in MS. the way we stumbled onto
sex in our mother’s LADIES HOME JOURNAL. “Can
This Marriage Be Saved?” hinted at marital problems
in the bedroom, sending us to the dictionary to look
up marital problems, impotence, failure to adjust,
pre-menstrual tension and other socializing terms. In
the August issue of MS. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon
matter-of-factly explain how ladies do it together.
That paragraph alone could revolutionize slumber
parties for generations.
“In the horror show world of slick magazine com¬
petition for money, MS. turns down most sexist ad¬
vertising (Eds.: it’s getting pretty bad again), offers
reduced bulk distribution prices to women’s groups
and free subscriptions to women who can’t afford
them. That’s a major ethical breakthrough for mass
circulation periodicals. No wonder they caught on
fast.”
by Onka Dekkers
OFF OUR BACKS, September, 1972
Subscriptions available from:
MS. MAGAZINE
Subscription Department
123 Garden Street
Marion, Ohio
$9.00/year
$1.00/year (two issues)
NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON
HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYMENT NEWS
1625 Eye Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
NOTES FROM THE THIRD YEAR:
Women’s Liberation
NEWSLETTER OF WOMEN’S PLACE
Newfoundland Status of Women Council
P.O. Box 5021
St. John’s, Newfoundland
CANADA
(Issued bi-monthly)
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR
WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY
(See section on GETTING JUSTICE for more
information)
Highly articulate spokeswomen for the Movement
have contributed some twenty-eight feminist state¬
ments to NOTES FROM THE THIRD YEAR. NOTES
is published once each year, as a commentary on the
most significant changes being brought about by the
Women’s Movement. Contributors to NOTES 3 inclui
Florence Rush, Judy Syfers, Ann Koedt, Betsy
Warrior, and Elaine Showalter. The publication date
of NOTES 4 is late Fall, 1973.
Subscriptions:
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR
WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY
P.O. Box 27
Dover, New Jersey 07801
NEWSLETTER OF A WOMAN'S PLACE
Woman’s Place
Place des Femmes
3764 Boul. St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec
CANADA
Notes From The Third Year:
WOMEN’S LIBERATION
$3.00/year (4 issues)
NEW YORK RADICAL
FEMINISTS NEWSLETTER
The NEWSLETTER of the New York organization
dedicated to raising the consciousness of women.
THE NEW FEMINIST
Available from:
A monthly paper that has been put out by an in-
pendent radical feminist collective in Toronto
dependent radical feminist collective in Toronto
since 1969.
From:
NEW YORK RADICAL FEMINISTS
c/o J ean Grove
80 Thompson Street
New York, New York 10012
THE NEW FEMINIST
P.O. Box 597
Station "A”
Toronto 116, Ontario
CANADA
Getting Angry • Sumo B. Anthony • Why I Went AWtte*
Women's Pitvete Writings e Rape e A DC'Watters Women
Prostitution e Children's Books e Lesbianism e Hsrrtiai
Available from:
$3.00/year
$ 1.50/year, students
,io mi m 1 cM * ls '
NOTES (specify year, 1, 2, or 3)
P.O. Box AA
Old Chelsea Station, New York 1001
NEW HAMPSHIRE SISTERS
6 Rumford Street
Concord, New Hampshire
(Issued monthly)
the
first
.revoujtk;
$ 1.50/each
*rti
A
NEWSLETTER
Kansas City Women’s Liberation Union
i of fe m, ' e ' ih '
“NEWSLETTER” is a misleading title for this pub¬
lication, for it contains not only news of the women’s
community in Kansas City but also thoughts on fem¬
inism, poems and prose of a truly superb quality.
Available from:
NO MORE FUN AND GAMES:
Journals of Female Liberation
Per»° nr
**
WOMEN’S LIBERATION UNION
5138 Tracy
Kansas City, Missouri 64110
$2.00/year, issued bi-monthly
'St
NEWSLETTER FOR THE SOUTHWESTERN
PENNSYLVANIA CHAPTERS OF NOW
P.O. Box 86024
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
A J°” r
, 0 (
One of the earliest feminist groups in the country,
Cell 16 has published, since 1968, six JOURNALS OF
FEMALE LIBERATION. Theoretical statements by
Lisa Leghorn, Roxanne Dunbar, Judy Raup, Hilary
Langhorst, Dawn Warrior, Dana Densmore, Delpfine
Welch, Betsy Warrior and others are some of the most
articulate, provocative, and most often reprinted of
any made in the course of this second feminist
struggle.
Journal 1: untitled
Journal 2: NO MORE FUN AND GAMES
Journal 3: NO MORE FUN AND GAMES: The
Dialectics of Sexism
Journal 4: THE FEMALE STATE: We Choose
Personhood
Journal 5: NO MORE FUN AND GAMES: The
First Revolution
Journal 6: TELL-A-WOMAN
Available from:
CELL 16
2 Brewer Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
36
$1.00 each for Journals 1-5
$1.50 for Journal 6
off our backs
If it weren’t for the howls of indignation that
would probably go up in the office of OFF OUR
BACKS (OOB), it would be very tempting to call the
paper "The NEW YORK TIMES of the Women’s
Movement.” But, seriously, it is precisely the most
outstanding characteristics of the TIMES that suggest
the analogy.
Although OFF OUR BACKS provides excellent
coverage of the Washington D.C. Movement, the pa¬
per is really national in scope. In OOB you will find,
for example, detailed reporting of women’s cultural
events, survival news, movement conferences such as
the First International Conference of Self-Help Cli¬
nics in Iowa City, the New York Lesbian/Feminist Dia¬
logue, the D.C. National Welfare Rights Organization
Conference, the International Childbirth Conference
in Stamford, Connecticut. Not only does OOB pro¬
vide the widest coverage of the national Women’s
Movement by any single women’s publication, but the
news presented is exceptionally well-written, its in-
depth articles are meticulously researched, and it
comes through with major news breaks. OFF OUR
BACKS was the first publication to report the torture
of women P.O.W.’s in South Vietnam; the first to
print Jane Alpert’s “Mother Right”; the first paper to
aick up the “morning-after” pill scandal when the
feminist Advocates for Medical Information in Ann
Arbor blew the whistle in HER-SELF; OFF OUR
BACKS was way ahead in reporting the Karman-
supercoil abortion controversy. (OFF OUR BACKS
is second only to HER-SELF in medical/health re¬
portage, and has published crucial stories on men¬
strual extraction, the dangers of IUD’s, vaginal de¬
odorants, the connection between herpes virus and
cervical cancer.)
In addition to news, the paper devotes substantial
space to cultural developments in the Women’s Move¬
ment. Its regularly-featured “Culture(s)” covers litera¬
ture, film, radio, records, video, art, theatre, music,
providing factual information as well as outstanding
reviews, interviews, and “thought” pieces.
OFF OUR BACKS is able to offer such wide-
ranging and original coverage because, in addition to
making every effort to permit its staffers personally
to cover as many stories as possible, the paper has
made a conscious effort—like the big daddy of the
patriarchal press—to build up a network of correspon¬
dents. If your special interest is self-health, self-
defense, childcare, art, general news, survival informa¬
tion, women’s studies, OFF OUR BACKS will provide
you with invaluable news and analysis. As the TIMES
is to the dominant culture, so OFF OUR BACKS is
rapidly becoming the journal of record for the Wom¬
en’s Movement. Certainly, anyone wanting informa¬
tion on most aspects of the Movement would be well-
advised to go first to OFF OUR BACKS.
It is at this point that any similarity to the TIMES
ends. OFF OUR BACKS is anything but the stodgy,
pompous, and somewhat pretentious publication that
the TIMES tends to be. Its style is lively, hard-hitting,
up-front. Furthermore, articles and news are presented
from a point of view that is clear-cut and sharply de¬
fined. There is no nonsense here about “the news
that’s fit to print.” Actually, most of the news printed
in OFF OUR BACKS is news seen by the TIMES as
not fit to print. On the rare occasions such news does
appear, it is relegated to two inches on page 47 of the
second section, or consigned to Family, Food, Fash¬
ions—you know, the Women’s page.
OFF OUR BACKS is the closest thing to a na¬
tional newspaper that the Women’s Movement has.
Our misfortune is that it comes out only once a
month. If you are not already acquainted with this
publication, start subscribing right away. You will be
increasing you chances of survival in the patriarchy.
You will also be ensuring that OOB stays alive. An
all-volunteer enterprise, Tike so many other in¬
stitutions in the nascent feminist culture, OFF OUR
BACKS is dependent on subscriptions and donations
for its survival.
Subscriptions are available from:
OFF OUR BACKS
1724 20th Street
Washington, D.C. 20009
$5.00/year
$15.00/institutions
37
ONE-TO-ONE
ONE-TO-ONE is a one-woman publication. Its very
first issue, which came out in February, 1973, con¬
tains intelligent and informative articles: reflections
on the life and death of THE LADDER (an outstand¬
ing lesbian magazine which published continuously
for 16 years and folded with the September, 1972
issue); a thoughtful analysis of the images of lesbians
in TV, commercial radio, and listener-sponsored
radio; and a provocative piece on male stereotypes of
lesbians: “The most popular stereotype is that of the
lesbian who in every way possible emulates the male
and even uses an artificial penis. This formulation of
the lesbian isn’t really very threatening to the male.
While such a woman would seem to be envious of his
penis because she doesn’t have one of her own, she is
also viewed as someone who admires male anatomy
and wouldn’t want to deface it. . . Another stereo¬
type is that of the ‘old maid’, the woman who has
been REJECTED by men because she is too unattrac¬
tive or because of the scarcity of males. . . . Two
other stereotypes are the lesbian who is AFRAID of
men and the woman whose TRUE sexuality is dor¬
mant and needs awakening. The male tolerates her in
a pitying way, unless he wants to ‘awaken’ her or
tenderly rid her of her fears.”
ONE-TO-ONE also contains local news of interest
to New York City women.
Available from:
ONE-TO-ONE
P.O. Box 397
Old Chelsea Station
New York, New York 10011
50tf each, issued quarterly
ON THE WAY
Anchorage Women’s
Liberation Newsletter
7801 Peck Avenue
Anchorage, Alaska 99504
THE OTHER WOMAN
An excellent, bi-monthly newspaper vvhich covers
most Toronto news and events. Book and movie re¬
views, in addition to poetry, fiction, and personal es¬
says, are a regular part of the paper—as well as a
WORLD NEWS PAGE where articles are included
from reactionary male-dominated papers.
Subscriptions are available from:
THE OTHER WOMAN
P.O. Box 928
Station Q
Toronto 7, Ontario
CANADA
$2.00/year in Canada
$3.00/year in U.S.
The women’s newspaper of Seattle is an indepen¬
dent, bi-weekly publication which tries to “maintain
communication and sisterhood among various groups
and to give fair and accurate coverage to events and
projects which concern women’s struggle forequality.”
Subscriptions:
PANDORA
P.O. Box 94
Seattle, Washington 98105
$5.00/year
PEDESTAL:
The Vancouver Women’s Liberation Newspaper
PEDESTAL is not your ordinary women’s paper.
The April, 1973 issue apprises you of this fact with
the “censor’s warning” above the logo: “Concerned
entirely with religion and pornography.” What’s ac¬
tually inside this issue arc thoughtful articles, on the
relationships between sexism, pornography, and Puri¬
tan religion; romance as pornography; and feminist
analysis of the role of religion in oppressing women.
There is also an interview with Krvstyna Marynowska
of the Polish Mime Theater, with ncr comments on
the possibilities of feminist theatre.
Subscriptions available from:
R
01
h
ri
t
d
u
1C
'c
fc
n
i
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SI
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ri
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THE PEDESTAL
130 West Hastings Street
Vancouver 3, B.C.
CANADA
$3.50/year, U.S.A. (monthly)
$ 3.00/year, Canada
PORTCULLIS:
A Feminist/Lesbian Publication
A “portcullis” is an iron grating which prevents
entry to a fortress or castle, an apt name for this
feminist/lesbian journal. PORTCULLIS, one of the
explosion of lesbian journals which have come out of
the Women’s Movement, is a place where women
express both their rage and their joy.
Available from:
PORTCULLIS
P.O. Box 65791
Los Angeles, California 90065
$5.00/twelve issues
Prime Time
Por the liberation of women In the prime of life...
’.en Fem'.nlst Monthly Itar.lory Collins, editor Vol.l. ??o,15 June 1373
OF iCKP::, riOSBT AKD THF I^.-tilAlTCiAL 3"V0UJ TI QUART POTSUTIAL OP H00SE-.;IV3S
RAPE CRISIS CENTER NEWSLETTER
(For more information, see the section on
SELF-DEFENSE)
From:
RAPE CRISIS CENTER
P.O. Box 21005
Washington, D.C. 20009
Issued bi-monthly
RIGHT-ON, SISTER:
Newsletter of Isla Vista Women’s Center
Available from:
ISLA VISTA WOMEN’S CENTER
6504 Pardell Road
Isla Vista, California
$1.00/year (monthly)
PRIMETIME:
For Women in the Prime of Life... QUEBECOISES DEBOUTTE!
PRIME TIME readers are definitely not women
who spend all their time at the bridge club. They are
writing lively and heated responses to the provocative
irtides which Editor Marjory Collins has written on
jlder women’s liberation in PRIME TIME. These in¬
dude the June, 1973 lead article on “Women, Money,
ind the International Revolutionary Potential of
IVomcn.” One reader thanks PRIME TIME for its
‘formidable aggressiveness” in dealing with the prob-
ems of older women.
PRIME TIME is clearly an impetus for older wom¬
en to galvanize themselves and get involved in projects
they never dreamed they would undertake. The March
ssue, for example, contained the “success story” of a
:elevision repair business run by two women. If you
igrce that “every period in a woman’s life should be
>rime time,” help write your own success story, and
ubscribc to PRIME TIME.
Subscriptions available from:
PRIMETIME
232 East 6th Street
Apt. 5C
New York, New York 10003
$5.00/twelve issues
QUEBECOISES DEBOUTTE! is published by “Le
Centre des femmes” in Montreal, Quebec. Written in
French, QUEBECOISES DEBOUTTE! is an exciting
journal of the struggles of Canadian women for their
rights on their jobs and in their homes. The June,
1973 issue contains a provocative interview with two
Marxist feminists on working women, the most ex¬
ploited members of the working class.
QUEBECOISES
DEBOUTTE!
Public par le centre des femmes *ol. 1, no. 6 - juin 1973
PROSE
(See section on GETTING )USTICE for more
information.)
Available from:
NATIONAL LAW WOMEN’S NEWSLETTER
79 Dartmouth Street
No. 2
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
$5.00/year (monthly)
Subscriptions are available from:
QUEBECOISES DEBOUTTE!
4319 St-Denis
Montreal, Quebec
CANADA
$ $3.00/twelve issues (monthly)
$15.00/institutions
RANTINGS
A local newsletter, for communication among
women in the Cleveland area.
Subscriptions available from:
RANTINGS
c/o Nancy Wood
11205 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
SAN JOAQUIN NOW NEWSLETTER
P.O. Box 4073
Stockton, California 95204
$3.00/year for non-NOW members
SANTA FE WOMEN’S
COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
Santa Fe must be one of the smallest state capitals
in the nation. In the first issue of this very attractively
produced magazine we have ample evidence of the
strength of the Women’s Movement throughout the
country. Among the local women’s activities listed
are the women’s own local radio show, the Women’s
Prison Craft Project, C-R groups, a women’s poetry
group. The magazine keeps in touch with state and
local developments of concern to women, as well as
the larger Movement, through articles on self-health,
women’s literature, women’s publications.
Santa Fe Women’s Community Magazine
Available from:
SANTA FE WOMEN’S
COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
520 J ose Street
No. 5
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
$1.00
39
SISTER
SASKATOON WOMEN’S
LIBERATION NEWSLETTER
147-2nd Avenue South
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
CANADA
25^/copy (monthly)
SECOND WAVE
“It may be that a second wave of sexual revolution
might at last accomplish its aim of freeing half the
race from its immemorial subordination and in the
process bring us all a great deal closer to humanity.”
(Kate Millett, from SEXUAL POLITICS.) A collec¬
tive of women chose the title SECOND WAVE for
their journal to remind women that our Movement
started well over a century ago and that we are the
second wave of feminists in an ongoing struggle. The
SECOND WAVE is such an important journal that
the first issue from Spring, 1971, is already a collec¬
tor’s item. It contains prophetic articles on the Wom¬
en’s Movement: “The Building of the Guilded Cage”
by Jo Freeman; “Lesbians and the Women’s Libera¬
tion Movement,” by Martha Shelley, and “The Case
for Studied Ugliness,” by Nancy Williamson. The
SECOND WAVE has continued to print features,
verse, and fiction that are at the heart of the feminist
movement, by authors such as Marge Piercy, Fran
Taylor, and Miriam Palmer. One representative poem
title by Palmer: “To the Gentleman Editor who Spent
an Hour Looking Over My Manuscript and then
Grabbed My Right Breast.”
Subscriptions available from:
THE SECOND WAVE
P.O. Box 344
Cambridge A
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
$3.00/quarterly
SHAMELESS HUSSY REVIEW
The second feminist revolution has generated a
veritable explosion of women’s poetry. Almost every
local women’s paper laces its pages with the works of
local poets. In the SHAMELESS HUSSY REVIEW,
Alta, one of the earliest poets of the second wave of
feminism and founder of IT AIN’T ME BABE, col¬
lects some of the finest examples of this poetic surge.
Works by Stephanie Miles, Karen Daley, Carol Glasser,
curlie c. hummingbird, Mimi Alberts, Sharon Simms,
Susan Griffin, Judy Grahn, Alta herself and many
others (even some men) make the SHAMELESS
HUSSY REVIEW essential reading for devotees of
poetry. Alta, who not only collects and edits the
works but also personally prints the REVIEW on the
SHAMELESS HUSSY PRESS, tries to get the volume
out approximately once a year for the remarkable
price of 60^.
Available from:
SHAMELESS HUSSY PRESS
P.O. Box 424
San Lorenzo, California 94580
SIREN:
“I began the Newsletter last year because I felt a
specifically anarcho-feminist paper was needed in the
Women’s Movement. ... I haven’t set down editorial
policy, because I felt such policy should evolve, but
perhaps a book would better serve our needs than a
newsletter. ... is anyone writing one? So our function
is only temporary, and our existence dependent on
how soon other anarcho-feminist papers begin pub¬
lishing and proliferating. In the meantime, I want to
affirm that anyone who considers herself an anarcho-
feminist (or an anti-authoritarian feminist) has the
right of access to the Newsletter.” —Arlene for SIREN
Already into its tenth issue, no other women's pa-
E r we know of devotes itself to “anarchism as the
gically consistent political expression of feminism.”
SIREN features theoretical statements as well as news,
national and international, of anarcho-feminism.
Subscriptions available from:
SIREN
713 W. Armitage Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60614
$2.00/year, individuals
$5.00/year, institutions
SISTER is the newsletter of the Westside Wome
Center, but it would be of interest to all women. A
recent issue was devoted to “Women in Sports” ant
the discrimination they encounter. Other issues hat
been on “Women and Aging” and “The Self-Help
Movement.”
Subscriptions available from:
SISTER
c/o Westside Women’s Center
218 S. Venice Boulevard
Venice, California 90291
$3.00/year
SISTER
The monthly newsletter of the New Haven Won;
en’s Liberation Movement publicizes activities and
meetings.
Available from:
SISTER
c/o New Haven Women’s Liberation
Women's Center
3438 Yale Station
New Haven, Connecticut 06520
SISTERS
c/o San Francisco Daughters of Bilitis
10005 Market Street
Suite 402
San Francisco, California 94103
$5.00/year (monthly)
40
SKIRTING THE CAPITOL
(See the section on GETTING JUSTICE for
further information)
ubscriptions-available from:
CIRTING THE CAPITOL
P.O. Box 4569
acramento, California 95825
$ 15.00/year
SOJOURNER
(Sec the section on the ARTS for
further information)
■
A new magazine of women’s writing and visual art.
waitable from:
SOJOURNER COLLECTIVE
Women's Interart Center
549 West 52nd Street
New York, New York 10019
SO S YOUR OLD LADY
“I am here at the Lesbian Resource Center and
this is something of a miracle when I recall that just
four weeks ago I was not even able to say the word
I bian* out loud! (which created something of a
>lem when I had to call information for the tele-
ne number). I want to relate my experience of
overing the Lesbian Resource Center so that other
women who read this will be made aware of some
lie beneficial experiences it has to offer. .. . When
gan meeting with other Gay women I identified
i their relaxed attitude and their pride-something
: I could never have gotten on my own. It is a
if to be able to be honest and I had really reached
point of being sick to death of dishonesty and the
cling that there was not one person I could be iny-
If with or who knew me as 1 really was. . .
Although SO’S YOUR OLD LADY is the official
magazine of the Lesbian Resource Center in Minnea-
iolis and as such carries articles and news of the Cen-
er's doings, the bulk of the magazine is devoted to
loetry, short stories, graphics, and general articles.
“Women Relating to Children,” “On Attempting to
lelate to Polygamy,” “People and Roles.”) Part of
he explosion of lesbian feminist literature, this
very attractive little journal deserves a wider audience
han just local readers.
lopies are available from:
SO S YOUR OLD LADY
Lesbian Resource Center
710 West 22nd Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55405
SPEAKOUT:
A Feminist Journal
Published monthly in Albany, SPEAKOUT is par¬
ticularly strong in its articles on legislation affecting
the status of women. SPEAKOUT lets women know
what’s on the floor in both the New York State cap¬
ital and Washington, D.C. It also reports on what
women legislators are pushing for, and what male
legislators should be pushing for. Not all of the ma¬
terial is devoted to legislative issues. The April, 1973
issue focused on reports of the International Women’s
Movement, some of them firsthand. The July/August,
1973 issue contained the story of one older woman’s
struggle to return to work.
INTERNATIONAL SISTERHOOD
Available from:
SPEAKOUT: A FEMINIST JOURNAL
184 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12210
$3.00/year (monthly)
SPOKESWOMAN:
An Independent National
Newsletter of Women’s News
Originally a project of the Urban Research Cor¬
poration, SPOKESWOMAN is “the NEWSWEEK of
the Women’s Movement.” SPOKESWOMAN covers
feminist activities. Its major emphasis is on legal and
legislative developments of interest to women. Also
included are news of women’s studies, in addition to
job notices and listings of professional opportunities
for women.
SPOKESWOMAN is particularly good in its report¬
ing of employment discrimination and action. In the
>ack of each issue is information on women’s organ-
zations—old and new, and their latest goals and pro-
ects, as well as listing of some currently available
mblications, records, films, and products by women.
Subscriptions available from:
THE SPOKESWOMAN
5464 South Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60615
$7.00/year (monthly)
$ 12.00/year, institutions
THE SPORTSWOMAN
A new quarterly magazine about women athletes:
stories of unsung sports heroines of the past like Babe
Zaharias, one of history’s greatest athletes-male or
female: profiles of women champions today; in-depth
reporting on the discrimination women face in all
sports and how they try to overcome it.
Subscriptions available from
THE SPORTSWOMAN
P.O. Box 7771
Long Beach, California 90807
$ 3.00/year
TELL-A-WOMAN
A newsletter from the Media Workshop of the
Women’s Liberation Center containing news of Phila¬
delphia area women’s movement activities.
Available from:
TELL-A-WOMAN
c/o The Women’s Liberation Center
4634 Chester Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19143
Contributions to be put on mailing list
TEXAN WOMAN
“The TEXAN WOMAN is a new publication, com¬
ing into existence to provide a forum for the voices of
Texas women.”
Available from:
TEXAN WOMAN
1208 Baylor Street
Austin, Texas 78703
50tf each
THIRTEENTH MOON
A book of poetry, art, and fiction sponsored by the
Writing Organization for Women at City College. The
first issue, which was published in May, included work
by Eve Mcrriam, Lois Mawby, and Adrienne Rich.
Available from:
THIRTEENTH MOON
c/o EMBISSERT/Kathleen Chodor
30 Seaman Avenue
New York, New York 10034
504 each
TRES FEMMES
volume 1 number I
TRES FEMMES
TRES FEMMES is a collage in booklet form. The
first issue, which came out in the summer of 1973,
contained:
a review of Djuna Barnes’ N1GHTWOOD,
a take-off on a classic lesbian trash novel,
a cole slaw recipe
reflections on organic gardening,
a statement by Anne Koedt on lesbianism and
feminism,
an excerpt from Jill Johnston’s column on “The
Second Sucks and the Feminine Mistake,”
quotations from Kahlil Gibran
reviews of EDWARD THE DYKE, SAPPHO ’71,
and MOODS OF EROS,
quotations from Mary Wollstonecraft Jessie
Bernard, Joreen, the I CHING, Golda Meir,
Florynce Kennedy,
and a portrait of femmesexual and one of the
foremost living composers, Pauline Oliveros.
Available from:
TRES FEMMES
906 47th Street
San Diego, California 92102
TRIPLE JEOPARDY:
Racism, Imperialism, Sexism
Available from:
THIRD WORLD WOMEN’S ALLIANCE
346 W. 20th Street
St. Peter’s Church
New York, New York 10011
$3.50/year, individuals
$8.00/year, institutions
UNION W.A.G.E.
(For further information, see section on WORK)
Subscriptions available from:
UNION W.A.G.E.
2135 Oregon Street
Berkeley, California 94705
$2.00/year (bi-monthly)
UP FROM UNDER
After nearly “going under” it is good to discover
that UP FROM UNDER, a hard-hitting, well-written
journal of working women’s experiences, is back in
circulation. The collective of women who now com¬
pose the staff of UP FROM UNDER all have jobs and
families, and devote two or three nights a week to the
magazine. In the latest issue, women in the collective
describe growing up in working-class families. Articles
on women’s experience, women in prison, mothers
and daughters, relationships with men, living alone,
middle-aged women, lesbianism, and bringing up chil¬
dren are included. All are enhanced by the profession¬
al design, lay-out, photographs, graphics, and wood-
cuts, and lightened by a hearty sense of humor.
Subscriptions available from:
UP FROM UNDER
339 Lafayette Street
New York, New York 10009
$ 3.00/five issues
published three times per year
IS
lak&mmtu ‘ ,l>08
m n ^US Trotters Phone In
ul/esy Irkm LyuftSia m* wsmif
sisterhood Revisited 1 $ Critiques
Self He lp And Me
Tallahassee US
Reviews ifatry ®alr Stonal*
WOMEN IN COMMUNICATION us
Qlampa Browai*d
paw u
Jmt Wi Mi
US (UNITED SISTERS)
A good feminist journal, with news of the Flor
feminist movement.
Subscriptions available from:
US
4213 W. Bay Avenue
Tampa, Florida 33616
$7.00/year (issued monthly)
UVA URSI
“A funky down home lesbia journaul storecs p
tuas pomes how ta dos.”
Available from:
UVA URSI
RFD
Robbinston, Maine 04671
$5.00/year (published bi-monthly)
$1.00 each
THE VOCAL MAJORITY:
NOW National Capital Area Chapter
Newsletter, published monthly as a service to
members.
Available from:
NATIONAL CAPITAL AREA
CHAPTER, NOW
1736 R. Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
$15.00 membership dues to NOW include
subscription
42
$3.50/year
$1.00 each
MT SHE WANTS
A new ill-women's paper in the Cleveland area.
, health articles, poetry, and terrific cartoons.
lions available from:
WHAT SHE WANTS
Marlowe
8
rood, Ohio 44107
13.00/year (monthly)
WHOLE WOMAN
I Intelligent articles on women and the Movement
by The Whale Woman Collective in Madison, Wis-
kotuin. One past issue included a pointed critique of
IbS. Magazine, an account of a woman political pri-
paier. and an analysis of the Women’s Movement, the
Ipower structure, and lesbianism. Theoretical pieces
■re integrated with analysis of what is going on at the
Bbdtton Women's Center. Cartoon graphics are eood.
if
til %
HontHui fcMiuisr KJewsfatcr.
from Hamm*), NAiis.
■
-MVIEWS
A WALLIS
• P0CTM
- GRAPHICS
*3.sx>/yR..
SEN 0 TO'.
WHolE VIomAkJ
*3C £.ToH*JSoM
ffAOtsoaJ Wis
Subscriptions available from:
WHOLE WOMAN
The Women’s Center
836 E. Johnson
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
$3.50/year
WICA: THE AMES
FEMINIST NEWSPAPER
Women's Coalition
Room 6-S, Memorial Union
University of Iowa
Ames, Iowa 50010
WINDSOR WOMAN
“Maybe all I can do is talk. But if that is the case,
then my talking will be teaching. I am going to tell
women not to accept the chop-suey of distorted, one¬
sided half-truths the news media serves us as fact. I
am going to tell them to sift and sort, rather than ab¬
sorb like mindless sponges. I’ll prod their sensitivity,
till they too care about fair employment practices for
all. . . among other things. 1 am going to be a gentle
threat to all those little girls who played house; and
are now big girls still playing house. 1 am going to try
to resurrect some of those beautiful people who have
buried their uniqueness, because they were not al¬
lowed to be, they were only allowed to conform-”
This is a personal statement of one of the women
in the WINDSOR WOMAN newspaper collective, but
it is representative of the spirit of this fine, bi¬
monthly newspaper.
Subscriptions available from:
WINDSOR WOMAN NEWSPAPER
1309 University Avenue, W.
Windsor, Ontario
CANADA
$2.00/year
WOMAN
WOMAN is an eye-catching weekly newspaper from
Los Angeles. Particularly good are reviews of feminist
theater, literature, and artists. A regular feature is
“Roberta RipofPs Believe It Or Not,” which lists
readers’ contributions of newspaper advertisements
which rip off women.
Subscriptions available from:
WOMAN
2621 Beechwood Drive
Los Angeles, California 90068
$8.00/year
.25/issue
WOMAN
A good, readable monthly paper begun in February,
1973. In a recent issue, Kalamazoo feminists aired
their views on sexist textbooks, women and health
care, and childbirth at home.
Available from:
WOMAN:
Serving Women Students, Staff, and
Faculty of the Berkeley Campus
Listings of women’s' activities on the Berkeley
campus: women’s studies, affirmative action,
counseling, caucuses, courses.
Available from:
CAMPUS WOMEN’S FORUM
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, California 94704
(monthly)
WOMAN ACTIVIST:
An Action Bulletin for Women
(For further information, see the section on
GETTING JUSTICE)
Subscriptions available from:
WOMAN ACTIVIST
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WOMAN BECOMING
A journal of prose, poetry, photographs and
graphics by women. The first issue, December, 1972,
was a moving collection of pieces, written simply and
honestly from the personal experience of the authors.
Available from:
WOMAN BECOMING
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$ 1.00/issue (quarterly)
WOMAN
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Kalamazoo, Michigan 49006
25^/issue
43
WOMANKIND
PUBLISHED BY THE CHICAGO WOMEN'S LIBERATION MUR
MARCH 1973 V#I J^*
WOMANKIND comes out of the Chicago Women’s
Liberation Union—and like the Union itself, the goal
of WOMANKIND is to reach all women in the Chicago
area. News articles on Vietnam, food prices, and Nixon
in WOMANKIND are written from the perspective of
the Women’s Liberation Union.
Subscriptions available from:
WOMANKIND
c/o Chicago Women’s Liberation Union
852 W. Belmont Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60615
$4.00/year
WOMAN/NEWS
A new magazine, scheduled for publication in Fall
of 1973, targeted to working women, paid on the
job and unpaid in the home. Will cover national news,
written from the perspective of the working woman.
For additional information, contact:
WOMAN/NEWS
c/o The Spokeswoman Office
5464 South Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60615
WOMANPOWER-
A Monthly Report on Fair Employment Practices
for Women
(For more information, see the section on
GETTING JUSTICE).
Available from:
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$37.00/year(monthly)
WOMANSPACE JOURNAL
(For further information, see the section on ARTS)
Subscriptions available from:
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$4.00/year, individuals
$6.00/year, institutions
44
WOMEN:
A Journal of Liberation
First published in the Fall of 1969, WOMEN: A
JOURNAL OF LIBERATION, is one of the oldest con¬
tinuing publications of the Women’s Movement. Each
issue centers on a specific theme: for example, the issue
on “Women in Revolution” contains such articles as
“Asian Women in Revolution,” “Women in Cuba,”
“Our Sister Rosa Luxemburg,” “Women in the Russian
Revolution,” “The Last Words of One Who Loves
Vietnam,” and “The Women’s Rights Movement in
the French Revolution.” This and the following other
back issues are available at SI.00 each to individuals,
S2.50 each to institutions:
“Inherent Nature or Culture Conditioning?”
“What is Liberation?”
“Women in History”
“Women in the Arts”
“How We Live and With Whom”
“Women as Workers Under Capitalism”
“The Power and Scope of the Women’s Movement”
“Sexuality”
“Building a New Culture”
“Women Locked Up”
The staff ofWOMEN: A JOURNALOF LIBERA¬
TION report that their analysis is increasingly Marxist-
Socialist.
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WOMEN & FILM
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(See section on WORK for more information)
News from the United States Department of L
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WOMEN & WORK
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14th and Constitution Avenue, N.W.
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WOMEN IN STRUGGLE
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10 *
Volume I, Number 3
MAY JUNE. 1973
paper
HE (jl'S NEWSPAPER P.O. Box 7418, North End Station, Detroit, Michigan 48202 10^ each
■OMEN'S PRESS
WOMEN'S PRESS goes beyond the scope of a
kal women's paper. Each issue has a particular
■eme, such as relationships, health care, or child
e. Thoughtful articles on such subjects as “Non-
|fcnogamy and Power," in a recent issue are included.
fOcal news of the Eugene area Women’s Movement
also covered. The latest issue was on Women and
dnev.
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45
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1
I am going (o work for the future
tKticfi is sure to come, a future in
trflich people will be seen as human
beings, not as sexual stereotypes,
•♦•nail human beings will know
•bout the struggle of women to
prticipate as full human beings,
SO contribute our gifts to the
world. Until then, I will try to
make my art according to my
Brecepts. I am committed to
miking art out of my experiences
a a woman • making it available
to as many women as I can, by
finding ways to exhibit it so that
many people can see it, by selling
my work at low prices, by trying to
build a female art community
which has high standards and a
broad base
- Judy Chicago
The design arts are the public arts,
the communications which influence
such consciousness as we have,
t have become increasingly aware of
the extent to which our visual
environment reinforces repressive
lllitudes when it could offer
iternatives. By basing our design
arts on an ideology which encourages
the direct voice of the individual
women in society, we can point
out the contradictions inherent in
patriarchal, one-directional channels
o'communication, We can present
Our ideas, feelings and needs directly
ma larger audience than the loft,
Mllery and museum going elite,
when we make our communications
Kking mav media technology.
“ Sheila de Bretteville
The Feminist Studio Workshop
LOS ANGELES
The restrictions that education and custom impose on
woman now limit her grasp on the universe; when
the struggle to find one’s place in this world is too
arduous, there can be no question of getting away
from it... What woman needs first of all is to un¬
dertake, in anguish and pride, her apprenticeship
in abandonment and transcendence; that is, in
liberty."
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
When a woman artist positively
identities herself to us through her
work, she commits a courageous and
daring act of self exposure, because
her contribution has neither spoken
to nor been understood by the
mainstream of the culture, and the
content of her art has Been bypassed
by interpretations which could not
reveal it. Thus a woman's saying,
'I am, I know myself, and I feel a
fundamental optimism - a grasp upon
my own survival as a model for
human survivalis saying something
which challenges the prevailing
worldview. If consciousness is
the content of feminist art, this
level of human responsibility and
hope is the content of consciousness.
“Arlene Raven
One of the most consequential and provocative
challenges to the patriarchy is being made by
women in the arts. This breakthrough has received
less attention than other battlegrounds, for ex¬
ample, the self-health movement. Presumably
this is because male self-interest, narrowly con¬
ceived as money, jobs, domestic comforts, is less
evidently threatened by female uppittiness in
the arts. Nevertheless, because changes in art af¬
fect the taproot of the culture-art is the vessel of
social values-the revolt of women in art has far- f
reaching implications.
The view prevails among men, and women condi¬
tioned by men, that art is art: it transcends na¬
tionality, religion, race, sex. Women are rejecting
this belief-certainly with regard to sex. They are
seeing that art in this culture has so far been pri¬
marily created by men, white middle-class men,
and it reflects men’s perceptions of reality. Heret¬
ical questions are surfacing: do women have dif¬
ferent perceptions from men? Do women express
a different point of view in their art? Do men, by
forcing on women male standards of value, con¬
dition women into a false consciousness which
sterilizes and stultifies female creative capacities?
Arc women making different kinds of art now
that the Women’s Movement provides an atmos¬
phere of support for the expression of our real
feelings?
One of America’s leading young artists, Judy
Chicago, is a pioneer in the development of a
feminist point of view in art. Chicago’s theories
are the product of a personal odyssey recorded in
her forthcoming book, THROUGH THE FLOWER:
A FEMINIST THEORY OF ART. A concrete
embodiment of her theories, the Feminist Studio
Workshop founded by Chicago, Arlene Raven and
Sheila de Bretteville, is one of the landmarks in
women’s discovery of their consciousness. Chi¬
cago has been kind enough to allow us to select
quotations from her book to describe the process
of her own struggle as a woman to find her ar¬
tistic identity, which led to the first explicitly
feminist women’s classes at an establishment
institution, was followed by the first feminist
art program (co-directed by Chicago and Miriam
Shapiro at the California Institute for the Arts,)
and has culminated in the Feminist Studio
Workshop.
The Feminist Studio Workshop
is committed to the development
of an integrated female support
community in which art making,
art historical and critical analysis,
public, design arts and feminist
consciousness merge into a new
frame of reference.
-Judy Chicago, Arlene Raven
Sheila de Bretteville
MY STRUGGLE TO BECOME AN ARTIST
I began to draw when I was three. By the
time I was five or six, 1 was attending Saturday
classes at the Art Institute of Chicago . I wanted
to be an artist even then. No one ever discouraged
me or suggested to me that my sex conflicted with
my ambitions.. . .
(At college) I was not aware that there was any¬
thing unusual about my continued dedication to
becoming an artist. When male art students
started making comments about my sex, I took
them to task and assured them that neither ideas
nor art had sex, feeling very confident about my¬
self and my rights. . . . There was no question in
my mind but that my work was the most impor¬
tant thing in my life. Many of the young women
in college seemed to think of their work as some¬
thing that they would give up as soon as they got
married or would do on the side.. . .
By my second year in graduate school, 1 was
making both paintings and sculptures. I was
working on a series of works which had to do
with my feelings about birth and death and sex¬
uality.. The pieces were filled with vaginal and
phallic images and although abstract, were very
graphic in their expression. One painting was
of a large phallus suspended below two vibrating
vaginal forms which were summoning it. Another
painting had an abstract, anthropomorphic form
giving birth to a smaller form. When I showed
the paintings to the two painting instructors
on my thesis committee, they became very irate
and began to make irrational objections to the
work. I didn’t understand what they were upset
about, and when they threatened to throw me
out of graduate school, I became very fright¬
ened. One sputtered out something about not
being able to show the paintings to his family
and then they left, leaving me feeling confused. . . .
I made some pieces in which the subject matter
was less overt and my teachers were pleased. 1
got a very strong message from that experience
that I had revealed something in my work that
was unacceptable, something about myself,
but I didn’t know what. . . .
By the time I left graduate school, I had in¬
ternalized many of theattitudes that had been
brought to bear on me and my work. I had
abandoned the paintings that my graduate ad¬
visors disliked so intensely, leaving them in a gar¬
age to be destroyed. . . .
48
What 1 am describing is a voyage that 1 was
forced to make out of the female world and into
the male world where 1 was being taught “real
art was made. 1 learned that if 1 wanted my
work to be taken seriously, it should not reveal
that it was made by a woman.. . .
As I moved into professional life, my imagery
became more and more neutralized. I began to
work with more formal and less symbolic form.
But I was never interested in “formal issues.”
I just pretended to be. Because of this, there
always appeared to be something “not quite
right” about my pieces in terms of the prevail¬
ing esthetic. ... I could not openly express the
things 1 was interested in, what it was to be a
woman the conflicts 1 was having because I was
a woman; in short, the “real” things in my life.'
If 1 tried to even talk about these things, I was
promptly put down with statements like “the
suffrage movement is over”. . . .
The Feminist Studio Workshop
is an experimental program
in female education in the arts.
Our purpose is to develop a new
concept of art, a new kind of artist
and a new art community built from
the lives, feelings and needs of
women.
-Judy Chicago,Arlene Raven,
Sheila de Bretteville
As my work came to resemble more closely
the work of my male peers, I was taken more
seriously as an artist. I began to be in shows and
to sell work. 1 went to art parties and was con¬
sidered an up and coming young artist, but my
acceptance was always less than that of my boy¬
friend or other male artists. .. .
The sexual imagery that pervaded my early
work grew out of a natural expression of myself,
which when I entered the male art world, I
learned to hide. By 1968 1 could not hide any
longer. 1 had to begin to confront my own fe¬
maleness and to de5 with what it really meant
to be a woman. . . .
I felt totally alienated. The male art commun¬
ity could never give me what I needed. Men had
constructed their community on the basis of their
needs as men. What did they know about what a
struggle it was for a woman to overcome her con¬
ditioning, to feel comfortable about being asser¬
tive, to struggle to use tools that we had never been
educated to use? They had their own struggle.
They helped each other. But they didn’t even
understand what a woman artist encountered and
THEY DIDN’T SEEM TO BE INTERESTED. Sud¬
denly, it all seemed so clear to me. What women in
the Women’s Movement were sayine applied direct¬
ly to my situation. I wanted to make a symbolic
gesture that would say to the world that 1 was a
WOMAN ARTIST, committed to the cause of
woman.
I wanted to establish a new context for my:
and for other women artists. It seemed to me
that we would have to build a community of
the arts for ourselves, based on our needs, on out
values, on our ideas, and on our feelings. I de¬
cided to begin by working with female students.
I made plans to start a class in art for women in
Fresno, California, where I was going to live fora
year. This class would provide the students with
all those things that I had never had when I was ii
school: a chance to deal openly with their femi
ninity, a female role model, knowledge
women artists whom they could look
admire, help in learning about using
E ower equipment, and most of all, a
eing a woman was not incompatible with the mi
far fetched dreams, plans, hopes and ambitions..
FRESNO
I had suspected that the main reason that man,
women cannot achieve is that their personality
structures as encouraged by the society, are direcj
in conflict with the personality structures need
for the fulfillment of their potential. Most woml
are raised to think about others before themselves
to feel that their “role” is to satisfy the needs ofj
men, that their fulfillment will come from outsit
themselves, i.e. from a husband and/or from chill
dren, and that aggressiveness is inherently “un-
femininc.” They are also generally discouraged
from being ambitious for themselves, from being
self-oriented, and from taking themselves and tht
goals seriously (after all, they are only going to
get married one day). I felt that I would have to
help my students feel comfortable about being
aggressive, selfish, unfeminine, and ambitious
before I could actually work with them in terms
of their art. In other words, I intended to help
the women “de-condition” themselves from ha
to play the role of women as demanded by socicl
In the Feminist Studio Workshop
women will be free to explore
alternative ways of introducing
their female perspective into society.
For more information about
the programs offered, write:
Feminist Studio Workshop
14120 Van Nuys Boulevard
Pacoima. California 91331
Linen Closet
Sandy Orgel
4 s one woman visitor to my
room commented, "This is
exactly where women have
always been ■ in between the
sheets and on the shelf." It
is time now to come out of
the closet.
The experience of the Fresno women im -
ply that our notions about who can or cannot be
artists need re-evaluation and that our educational
systems are allowing the potential of women to
remain untapped. I have, since that year, travelled
around the country, lecturing and working with
women. Again and again I have discovered that the
women in the various art programs are being vir¬
tually untouched by their education. They sit in
classes taught primarily by men, look at slides of
work done almost exclusively by male artists, and
are asked to work on projects which have little to
do with their lives and concerns. If they make
images that are relevant to the facts of their
femaleness, they are put down, ignored, laughed
at, or rejected. Is it any wonder that few young*
women succeed in becoming serious artists?. .. .
In order for women’s art to be honored, women
and their activities must be valued equally with
men and male activities. Valuation grows out of
culture, and it is the whole system of values that
the Women’s Movement has brought into question.
Those values are inherent in the evaluation of art,
and as long as social values demean women, art
values will do the same. Because art is the VES¬
SEL OF SOCIAL VALUES, it can play an im¬
portant part in the struggle to undo male
dominance, without women artists trying to do
“political art.” Just as the personal is the political
in feminist politics, so the personal has political
significance in art. The clear and unneutralized
revelation of female experience in art can chal¬
lenge our fundamental concepts of value and impor¬
tance in life and in art, but only if the art.can
be seen in terms of its own context, and not in
terms of male art. The struggle to accept the
symbolic experience of female experience IS
the struggle to value the experience as such.
But this can only be done if the art is seen in
its own terms and is dealt with as the expression
OF A WOMAN, revealing the point of view of a
woman. The only way this can happen is in a
female art community, in which women make their
own values and establish their own standards.
The Women’s Movement has provided a female
audience for the arts, eager to see its life ex¬
perience revealed and reflected. The impact of
this has not yet been felt, but its implications are
clear. Women are in the position to challenge the
male dominance in its most fundamental form,
in the very way we perceive reality and establish
importance on the deepest psychic levels. In
fact, it is OUR point of view which is necessary
to the world now, the point of view which stres¬
ses subjective over objective values, our ability to
cry, to respond directly, to give rather than with¬
hold, to share rather than compete. We have been
so brainwashed by male values that we hold our
gifts in contempt and do not struggle to intro¬
duce them into the world. . . .
(In 1971 Chicago and Shapiro initiated at Cal
Arts the Feminist Art Program aimed at helping
women restructure their personalities to be more
consistent with their desires to be artists and to help
then build their artmaking out of their ex¬
periences as women. Out of this process grew
Womanhouse—the artistic construction of an ex¬
clusively female environment—in an abandoned
house.)
WOMANHOUSE
When people came into Womanhouse, they
reacted in several ways. .. .Men often felt
threatened, at least during their first exposure
to what was for fhem a totally unfamiliar world.
They did not understand the rules of our world
and had as little cultural preparations for our
openly emotional expressiveness as we did for
their machines, tools, and emotional restraint.
The most shocking aspect of the experience of
Womanhouse for men had to do with a sense of
not being in control. Men are generally en¬
couraged by the culture to take control of life
situations and often develop a tendency to
“have to be” in control all the time. In Woman-
house, they were spectators to our lives, to our
art, to our point of view just as we had been the
spectators to male activities for centuries. . . .
If Womanhouse affected men, that was all to
the good, but most of all, Womanhouse was im¬
portant because it was a step toward building an
art that allowed women to feel that their lives
had meaning and that their experiences were
rich. This is not to suggest that the only kind of
art women should make is figurative, descriptive
art; but rather, that women should be able to be
themselves and build their identities on their
experiences as women, rather than despite them.
We have been trained to believe that, if we
were to tell the truth to men, they would be de¬
molished, “castrated” by our perceptions. .. .
Everything in male culture conspires to keep
us lying and underachieving.. ..
Although many women in the arts have
struggled to give voice to their experiences as
women, their forms have been so transposed
(into the language of sophisticated artmaking)
that the concept could be ignored by a culture
which doesn’t understand or accept the
simplest fact of women’s lives, much less
subtle and transformed imagery. . ..
chance to be ourselves, a chance to see ourselves
in the context of the work of other women.
We are no longer dependent upon men to re¬
cord and interpret history. We are finding our
heritage. It is something to be proud ot, and
something which helped me to find my
way as an artist. . . Perhaps we women artists,
inturningtowards a female audience, will
wish to share our work with as many women
as possible, thereby building a base in the fe¬
male culture for the more widespread avail¬
ability of art. This could be the first step in
establishing a more far-reaching base for art
throughout the culture, just as the development of
of a female community is a major step in the
development of a human community.. ..
A SAMPLE CALENDAR OF EVENTS AT
WOMANSPACE
April 28 OPENING OF 'OPULENCE' EXHIBITION
Works by Sherry Brody, Carole Caroompas
Judy Huddleston, Kathy Huberland and Il«
Segalove. Using beads, glitters, feathers, tir
satins and laces, five artists of different
aesthetic attitudes show a similar familiarit
with non-traditional materials to be an
essential ingredient in their current work.
April 29 WOMEN’S FILMS
May 2 PIONEER WOMAN: ROMONA RIPSTON
Executive Director of the ACLU, Ms. Rips
was the first woman to direct an ACLU
affiliate and is a founding member of the f
Women’s Political Causus. She is active in i
National Association for Repeal of Abortii
Laws and is on the governing boards of
educational and political institutions. She
will adress the subject “Civil Liberties and
How They Relate to Women.”
May 4 WOMEN OF THE WORD: SAPPHO, STEI
DICKINSON, PLATH, PARKER, ST.
VINCENT MILLAY. WILIE, LeDUC,
DePRIMA, MOORE, CARSON, ROSETTI
RICH, MORGAN, SEXTON & WOOLF
read by Joni Gordon, Lili Lakich, Miriam
Lowenkron, Barbara Smith, Mary Jo Sorcc
and Kristen Kethren. Remember Friday
evenings are for women only.
May 10 TWO POETS: JONI GORDON & DEENA
METZGER.
A reading of their current work by two
contemporary poets. Deena Metzger will
read from “Skin: Shadows/SILENCE, a
love letter in the form of a novel” and
Joni Gordon will read from her book “Eqt
WOMANSPACE is a non-profit organization
which came into being in January 1972, after a whole
year of continuous efforts of a varied group of Los
Angeles women in, and interested in, the arts.
WOMANSPACE was conceived as a center of women
of all classes, races and ages, a space in which women
interested in the arts could exhibit, meet, perform,
and create a sense of community, where housewives,
the yet un-professional women will have an oppor¬
tunity to derive knowledge, courage, and develop¬
ment from a group in which known and professional
women in the arts are participating as well.
“Two years prior to the opening of WOMANSPACE,
the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the
Arts brought together Miriam Shapiro, Judy Chicago,
and some other women artists from the community;
they created Womanhouse, an environmental,
collaborative project. Because this was a temporary
project which drew thousands of women, it became
apparent that a permanent environment was an
absolute necessity. From this nucleus, WOMANSPACE
was opened after a years preparation. Hundreds of
hours of volunteer labor changed a delapidated
laundry into the spacious, inviting and flexible environ¬
ment that is now WOMANSPACE. That a need for
such a center exists is evidenced by the continual
flow of new memberships; almost 1000 women have
joined, from all over California and the United States.
“In the months it has been open, WOMANSPACE
has provided the first comprehensive West Coast
center for the exhibition and performance of women’s
art. In addition to the exhibitions selected by a rotating
exhibition committee (consisting of two members of
the Board of Directors, and seven members elected
from the general membership), the Open Wall has
provided exhibition space for any member wishing
to show her work. Invitational shows (for example:
“Female Sexuality/Female Identify,” “Lesbian
Week,” “The Black Mirror”) have been complimented
by the wide-ranging program of art heritage lectures,
performances, poetry readings, Films, panels, raps,
the Pioneer Women Series, and the Joan of Art
Seminars.”
MEMBERSHIP PRIVILEGES
“Free or reduced admission to special events
*Slide Registry Privileges
‘Exhibition Privileges
‘Voting Privileges
‘Subscription to WOMANSPACE JOURNAL
and WOMANSPACE CALENDAR
“In order to fulfill the goal of WOMANSPACE
as a center for women in the arts, full membership
privileges are reserved for women only. Men in
the community who wish to join in friendship
with the women and the goals of WOMANSPACE
are warmly welcomed in our “Friendship” cate¬
gory. “Friendship” includes all the above, except
for registry, exhibition, and voting privileges.”
WOMANSPACE MEMBERSHIP
$6/six months
$25 or more makes you eligible to be a WOMANSPACE
sponsor
WOMANSPACE JOURNAL
$2/year (quarterly)
THE WOMEN’S BUILDING
743 Grandview Avenue
Los An},iles, California
Miv 11
WOMEN’S BODY SELF IMAGE: A
DEMONSTRATION WORKSHOP.
Through the use of collage, self drawings,
music, message, 3-way mirrors and other
audio-visual means, Justine Hill and
Barbara Roberts help vou to assess the image
you project through clothing and body
language, and experience defining your body
and appreciating yourself as a person. For
women only.
May 16 FEMALE ART HERITAGE LECTURE:
“The Duality of Women in the Middle Ages”.
Art Historian Miriam Lowenkron will dis¬
cuss woman as goddess, woman as chattal and
the mistress of the castle, the Mary Cult and
the Salic Law.
May 17 ]OAN OF ART SEMINAR in Art Marketing
information and techniques for artists.
May 18 & 19 DANCE PERFORMANCE: R. TOAD
ROAD & TRUCKING COMPANY. Elena
Alexander, Linda Lack, Patsy Limon, Meggy
Mund and Carol Shiffman form a unique
company all existing, choreographing and
performing without a director. Believing in
the process and joy of dance interaction with
the environment, each member of the company
has trained in traditional and •experimental
dance, and other forms of movement and
theatre.
lay 26 SEVEN MODERN ARTISTS AND ONE
ACEPTUALIST FROM NEWHALL, the
place that brought you the ‘quake, the
stabbings and nothing else. An evening of
video, films and wall work.
lay 30 FEMALE ART HERITAGE LECTURE:
Art Historian Meg Harlam discusses
"Natalie Goncharova and the Russian Avant-
garde” and the work of Kathe Kollwitz.
The first comprehensive West Coast exhibition
space for women
Paintings...sculpture...films...theatre...music
...dance...environments...song...our history...
our reality ...our future
WOMANSPACE SLIDE REGISTRY
WOMANSPACE JOURNAL, a bi-monthly
publication with articles on women’s art
and art history
WOMANSPACE CALENDAR, a fascinating
kaleidoscope of widely varied afternoon and
evening events reflecting the creative
energies of the women of Los Angeles
SLIDE REGISTRIES
“The art establishment is in general wholly ignorant
of the body of impressive work being done by women,
but with slide registries in existance, in every major city,
it can’t plead ignorance any longer.”
To register, a woman artist submits up to four slides
of her work and includes information about her art
training, the materials she used, and a brief description
of her work. The Registry is being used by curators,
writers and artists who are beginning to acknowledge
the existence of good work by women, but have not
known where to “look for good women artists.”
In most cities the Slide Registry is maintained by
the W.E.B. representative (see below). On each coast,
slide registries are maintained separately. In New York
City women should send their slides to the registry set
up by the Ad-Hoc Committee,
SLIDE REGISTRY
P.O. Box 539 Canal Street Station
New York, New York 10013
On the West Coast women can register their slides in
the Womanspace gallery as a privilege of membership:
WOMANSPACE
743 Grandview Avenue
Los Angeles, California
JOAN OF ART SEMINAR
c/o WOMANSPACE
743 Grandview Avenue
Los Angeles, California
(213)838-9668
If a woman is able to ignore the myth that there
are no great women artists because women are in¬
capable of greatness .... And if a woman can con¬
vince her family, friends, and professors that she is
really serious about becoming an artist .... And if
a woman can get her M.F.A. at a respected graduate
program ....
If a woman is able to achieve the impossible and
overcome many insurmountable obstacles . . . will
she then know how to deal with the Art World and
with galleries — either establishment or cooperative?
Along the way, will anyone ever have taken a woman
artist seriously enough to explain the practical infor¬
mation about exhibiting work or getting a teaching
position? Probably not.
Realizing that women had always been denied this
“secret” information, in 1972, June Wayne held three
consecutive seminars for women artists. Each one lasted
for six 2-hour weekly sessions and covered the artist’s
world, budgeting, taxes and insurance, selling to col¬
lectors, and dealing with galleries. After each session
the “graduates” of the previous seminar met for an
“Art Clinic,” where they discussed problems ex-
eriences, and obstacles they had encountered they
ad in dealing with the art market.
Artists at WOMANSPACE now conduct Joan of
Art Seminars several times each year at a cost of $9.00
for members of WOMANSPACE and $15.00 for non¬
members. Art Clinics following the seminars run at
no extra cost, unless there are unexpected expenses
which are shared collectively. News and information
about the Joan of Art Seminars and the Art Clinics are
carried in each WOMANSPACE JOURNAL.
WEST-EAST BAG (W.E.B.)
Realizing the desperate need for communication
among women in the Art World, feminists have estab¬
lished an information network in most cities across
America and around the world. W.E.B. (West-East Bag)
serves to inform feminist artists of programs, work¬
shops, anti-discrimination actions, and gallery practices.
A Newsletter is sent out periodically to each city’s
W.E.B. representative, who in turn, xeroxes it, and
passes the news on to other women artists in her city.
For a complete listing of the W.E.B. representatives
around the world see the spring 1973 issue of:
the FEMINIST ART JOURNAL, 41 Montgomery
Place, Brooklyn, New York 11215 ($1.00 per copy.
$4 quarterly)
51
A.I.R.
The difficulties women artists encounter in trying
to show their work have often enough been discussed
and documented. There is a pressing and obvious need
for more exhibition space given over to the work of
women artists. In addition, women art students need
the models and encouragement which a greater body
of women artists’ work would provide.
With these thoughts in mind, several of the earliest
members of A.I.R. decided to start a gallery to show
their won work and that of other women artists. They
looked through the Women’s Art Registry maintained
by the Ad Hoc Committee to find fourteen more
women artists whose work merited exhibition. No
one sort of art was favored. A.I.R. members’ work
includes performances, conceptual art, sculpture,
painting, drawing and printmaking. Prospective
members had to be financially able to contribute
to the maintenance of the gallery and willing to work
on one of A.I.R.’s committees.
After several months of making studio visits, a
group of prospective members met. After viewing
slides of everyone’s work a few days were allowed for
consideration. It was decided to incorporate as a
non-profit organization. The work necessary to find
and maintain a gallery space was broken down into four
areas, each of which was assumed as the job of a
committee.
The legal committee obtained a lawyer who would
accept art as payment for her services. The grants
committee developed the idea of A.I.R.’s functions
further. The Monday Program will be discussions
conducted by A.I.R.’s members and open to the
public. A list of topics will be available at the gallery
and will include members’ work, the problems of run¬
ning an independent gallery, the special problems of
women artists, etc. The Video Program consists of
process tapes of gallery artists and other women art¬
ists at work and talking in their studios. The tapes will
be shown in the gallery on Sundays and offered along
with the Monday Program to schools and interested
groups. To date the New York State Council on the
Arts has partially funded both the Video Program
and the discussions.
The building committee had perhaps the hardest
job — that of masterminding the renovation of the
gallery space. All members of A.I.R. and many of their
friends have worked on the actual repairing — electrical
wiring, building walls, laying a floor, painting and
plastering. The publicity committee writes press re¬
leases, places advertising and maintains a mailing list.
A.I.R.’s members meet whenever it is necessary,
i.e., whenever group decisions have to be made. The
chairing of meetings is rotated and all questions are
decided by a two-thirds vote of the members present.
Each member is allowed her say uninterrupted on any
oint being discussed. At meetings members are
rought up to date on the progress of the committees
by reports from committee heads who have no other
special function or authority beyond that of reporting
to the membership.
The problem of which artist would show when was
solved by drawing lots. The year, beginning September
26, 1972, was divided into three week blocks. Each
third Saturday two women will start their shows. The
gallery will open with a group show representing ten
artists and the season will close with a group show
including the remaining ten members.
A.I.R. has opened up new avenues of communica¬
tion between its members. Friendships and exchanges
of information and ideas have begun between the
members, some of whom feel a real difference between
their former semi-isolation in a male-dominated art
world and their present multiplicity of contacts. A
group of members have begun collaborative art pro¬
jects. One member is considering using her showing
time to present the work of women artists she feels
have been overlooked.
A.I.R. will change attitudes about art by women.
Because women artists have always met with such
difficulty in showing their work there has been a
strong pressure on women artists to produce work which
conforms to already long accepted norms, if women
want their work to be shown at all. Thus the work of
women artists is made to seem less innovative than
that of male artists, as only the more conservative
work is ever made public. A.I.R. offers women art¬
ists a space to show work which is an innovative,
transitory or unsaleable as the artist’s conceptions
demand, a rare opportunity for women artists.
A.I.R. GALLERY
97 Wooster Street
New York, New York
DO YOUR WORK
Human beings are heir to all emotions.
The basic work of creation is emotional ant
reflects the depths of humanity.
When we come on earth, we come with
the equipment of awareness. In a given
moment we can encompass the whole past
and project into the future and that is the
common denominator of humanity.
The world has thought up to now in
"male” vocabulary. Now I think the door
has opened. The level of awareness has in¬
creased in woman so naturally she will
have to, by her very nature, hit heights of
creativity that have been closed to her
before.
Article by: Louise Nevelson
ART NEWS, Vol. 69, No. 9 1971
POWERHOUSE
Powerhouse? Yes! This woman-run gallery hi
galvanized the Montreal women’s art communit;
May 1973, Powerhouse opened with a group she
organized by eight women artists who had launc
the idea several months before. Since May, the F
house women have enlarged the gallery and havt
gun to exhibit the work of non-members.
Because the founding artists wanted policy-iti
at Powerhouse to be flexible, there are no mcmt
ship fees, and new members and new work in an
medium are always welcome. On sales, the gallcc
takes 20%, one helluva slice less than that taken
the commercial galleries. The gallery’s overhead
out of those commissions, augmented by womat
—membership obligations include “Gallery-sittia
In functioning as an alternative to the establt
male-run gallery system, the artists at Powerhoui
fine professionalism on their own terms. Exhibit
choices are made collectively, and members allot
artists who are submitting work to attend thesej
ing sessions.
The enthusiasm and involvement level at Po#
house is high and according one member, “We fa
that the gallery has generated a certain amounto
energy and self-confidence among the newly-fon
community of women artists in Montreal. We fee
that women need a place of their own in whichf
can be themselvesj and we hope that Powerhousf
be a preliminary to all kinds of projects by and I
women.”
Future Powerhouse projects include runningli
shops on painting, drawing, and framing; and ar^
who are exhibiting in the gallery will soon begin
ing discussions about their own work and the
others.
C
Contact:
i
POWERHOUSE GALLERY
1210 Greene Avenue g
Montreal, Quebec i>
CANADA r
>
1
>c
r
"The insistence upon a modest, proficient, self
demeaning level of amateurism-the looking upon
art, like needlework or crocheting, as a suitable
'accomplishment' for the well-brought-up young
woman-militated, and today still militates against
any real accomplishment on the part of women, it
is this emphasis which transforms serious commit¬
ments to frivolous self-indulgence, busy work or oc¬
cupational therapy, and even today, in suburban
bastions of the feminine mystique, tends to distort
the whole notion of what art is and what kind of
social role it plays....
"I cite the contemptuous remark of a bright
young doctor about his wife and her friends ‘dab¬
bling ' in the arts: 'Well, at least it keeps them out
of trouble...
ART AND SEXUAL POLITICS
"Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”
by Linda Nochlin
Cleveland women artists
Well aware that cultural conditioning thwarts, or
It least inhibits, women from taking themselves
iusly as artists, the Cleveland Women Artists hold
■Kekly C-R meetings to help artists who are women
^eal with this critical problem. Members of the group
dude women who work in all art mediums-pho¬
nography, weaving, sculpture, wall hangings, drawings,
ind paintings. CWA also maintains a slide registry
■here Cleveland women can see the kinds of work
Dther women are doing.
Cleveland women artists
to Karen Eubel
1420 Fairchild
.2
pkveland, Ohio
116)231-3595
Connecticut feminists in the arts
w> Suzanne Benton
'«2 Donnelly Drive
Wdgefield, Connecticut
P03) 438-4650
For the past three years, feminist artists in the
■onnecticut area have been involved in a wide range
If projects in many different art mediums. Two of
■e group’s special ventures are the presentation of
piM ASKING, an improvised performance of
len, myth and heritage; and a floating gallery,
FAMORPHAS1S, which is exhibited on women’s
ms, inside their living rooms, and in other desirable
'"rnments.
OMEN'S ART CENTER
'587 Olive Street Road
Louis, Missouri
14)535-7625
:/o Jean Locey, co-ordinator
By joining the Women’s Art Center of St. Louis,;
'Oman is eligible for available studio space and can
participate in group shows, meetings, and speaking
Ugagemcnts. The Women’s Art Center is a place
'here all women with a serious interest in art and
iminism can come together. There are ongoing
roups, classes, and workshops in printmaking,
t elding, and drawing at the Center and feminist
ladings and speakers are regular events. Annual
—ibership fee is 125.00.
We really should
be called.. .
V The Women's gallery,
* ilv*iter. panel discussion.
I wiry, •■xhihilion. poilery.
’•? dance, dance Iherapy.
^ photography, paiming and
b drawing, silk screen video.
% film, music and songwrmng.
j* workspace for women artists,
a literary magazine, artist-in
\ residence, permanent art
5collection, archive on women
-i'lists Center . get to
know us by our real
W name the Women’s In-
terart Center the first
center in the country
for women artists of all
. disciplines.
& Join us to learn, to
■2 teach, to exhibit, to
5 perform . . .
Pt
5+9
a
.i
.
l
Women's Inter art Center
549 W. 5?nd SI..N.V. >0*9
(2121 246 6570
□ i woula like to join the
Women's Interjr* Center as a
working /temper for $36 .i year.
□ i would tike to contribute to
the Center. Enclosed is my
check 'or S _
□ Plfcne out me ,
mg list.
‘ vour m.iil-
WOMEN’S INTERART CENTER
549 West 52nd Street
New York, New York 10019
(212)246-6570
The Women’s Interart Center is a feminist-oriented
organization for women in the arts. Among other
activities, the Center offers workshops in the arts at
nominal cost, taught by qualified women. The work¬
shops provide a supportive environment in which
women learn new skills working with other women
with similar interests and goals, while expanding their
understanding and expectations of themselves as
women artists.
Members may participate in as many workshops as
they wish upon payment of S36.00 annual dues (at
this rate it’s the biggest bargain in town!). Modest
fees are charge for some workshops which are not
being supported by outside funding. Costs of mate¬
rials used in workshops are generally borne by
participants.
The Center is a non-profit educational corporation
run by a Board of women artists with support from
the New York State Council on the Arts.
CENTER FOR FEMINIST
ART HISTORICAL STUDIES
c/o Ruth Iskin and Arlene Raven
8330 Willis Avenue
Panorama City, California
(213)994-8025
Ruth Iskin and Arlene Raven have founded the
Center for Feminist Art Historical Studies to pro¬
mote serious historical research about women’s art.
In line with this purpose, the Center distributes
a wide range of information, slides, course outlines,
bibliographies, and handbooks. It will arrange for
professional speakers, and consultation about
women’s studies programs.
THE WOMEN’S ART CENTER
c/o The Women’s Center
4634 Chester Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(215) FA 7-1717
By the fall of 1974, the Philadelphia Women’s Art
Center should be in full swing. Concerned feminist
artists in the city have been examining ways to
“solicit funds” from interested donors, and are now
incorporating themselves to get the non-profit status
which will hopefull foster foundation support.
Increased funding will enable the Center to imple¬
ment a number of planned projects, including:
* exhibiting works by women in all art forms
and mediums.
* providing an educational setting where
women who specialize in a particular field can
share their knowledge with others.
* confronting cultural institutions with their
BLACK WOMEN ARTISTS
“The emergence of black women artists as a dis¬
tinct interest group within the black art “phenom¬
enon” is a recent development. A double minority in
the art world, black women artists first manifested
themselves as a radical and specifically feminist force
during the Art Strike in the summer of 1970. Under
the leadership of New York artists Faith Ringgold
and Michelle Wallace, WSABAL—Women, Students,
and Artists, for Black Art Liberation—protested the
exclusion of women, blacks, and black women from
the ‘alternative’ Biennale show that was to be set up
at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. From
these events also grew the subsequent Women Artists
Liberation Consciousness.”
WSABAL is no longer functioning, but the
“group” is still working to increase black women’s
art consciousness and to pressure for exhibitions on
- the theme of black women artists.
For further information, write:
nmi^ann nf an tr\
en’s works er MICHELLE WALLACE
.... ,. 345 West 145th Street
establishing and maintaining an historical New York, New York 10031
and contemporary collection of women’s
works in all fields of the arts.
* developing all aspects of the program within
a feminist setting which conveys an understand¬
ing of women’s oppression and the movement
to overcome it.
53
Chicago Women's
Graphics Collective
There are the stories of personality incompatibilities, and the group
sions produced by someone “ego-tripping” or “power-tripping”; but, oi
whole, a common strand running through Women’s Movement groups iil
spontaneous and generous sharing of skills and fortunes, and a dedicatioj
collective processes.
Question: is it possible to create art collectively? Don't we all know
the artist is the quintessential anarchist, the loner, creating “his” works
splendid (and tortured) isolation? Teamwork may-produce atom bombs[
behavioral reports, but not art, at least not good art. Right? Wrong. Ona
again, women are giving the lie to a most treasured myth of the patriarch
One of the most exciting group ventures in the Women’s Movement
Chicago Women’s Graphics Collective. Working in posters, the tradition
medium of protest and political art, the Graphics Collective has produa
most beautiful and stirring work in a Movement that has, in general, pro
the highest quality poster work since the thirties. (A statement we belie
amply documented in this Catalog.)
The Collective was started in the fall of 1970, when three women an
who were involved in the Women’s Movement got together to try to inti
their art with their politics. “The group has been evolving ever since am
we work mainly on creating posters which . . . are inexpensive and easil
able to everybody.” To date the Collective has sold over 25,000 copies (
teen posters. Once again, this has been achieved without advertising-st
by word-of-mouth and through reviews in the
en’s media. (Our only regret is that we cannot rt
duce the brilliant and vibrant colors which are i
hallmark of the Chicago Graphics Collective.
For three years the group, now numbering ni
teen, has been using a unique combination of ini
dual initiative and group participation to create:
silkscreen posters in their crowded studio on Be
Avenue in Chicago. Posters are created in one olf
ways. Someone in the group gets an idea for a pt
very often from a personal experience—say the?'
ploitation of women by the medical empire. Tfas
theme is tossed around in the group at a “postej-
think” session until someone comes up with act
cept which the group accepts. The poster gets at
way when a woman volunteers to prepare preliife
designs. Or, a woman may come to a meeting «v
sketch, or a series of sketches, illustrating a span
concept, which she would like to have the grou>i
work on. In both cases, after preliminary dra
individuals have been accepted, the productio;
poster proceeds by group effort. Color choice:
tail, and needless to say, the actual silkscreeni:
the result of collective consultation, deliberate
participation. We visited the studio at a time wfe
the Collective was making the final selection fro
series of about thirty color runs for their most!
poster, FRUSTRATION, (see the THERAPY se>
and the decision really is made by consensus. AT
though all work is publicly anonymous, within!
Collective a particular poster is informally idem,
with the woman who made the preliminary dra^,
ings— it is Tibby’s or Leslie’s or Rhoda’s poster. ■
the same time, each woman shares a sense of in'
ment and propriety in the final product. (It is If 1
enough to imagine men being creative collecti'
but anonymously?)
Demystification of art does not stop at join
creation. The Collective is dedicated to the not
that “everybody is an artist.” Only a fraction oi
women now making posters had any background
experience in the creative arts before joining thr/i
Collective. Many admitted they had “drifted in’S
literally. “I came to the Chicago Women’s Libefl-
Office, across the hall, and stopped by here tot
what was causing such a delicious smell. It wasU
ink and solvents. 1 was so intrigued by what w& s
on, that I started attending the regular Friday a
meetings and became a part of the Collective."!
women are invited to participate fully right awA*
the creative processes, as well as production. EV
BODY shares cleanup. The only distinction bet^
new women and “older” members is made to fccH
purely practical rule: new members cannot prior
the studio unless there is present an older mem!
who has been in the Collective long enough to!
completely familiar with the mechanics of silks:
ing.
i
Men have locked women into the nuclear family,
fostered the feminine mystique, not only to insulate
themselves from unwanted competition in their
"serious" activities, but to assure themselves of the
support on the homefront-sex, domestic service, ego-
nurturing-which is an indispensable aid in their own
creative flourishing. Now women arc breaking out of
these restraints; they are bonding together, and the
elicit of sharing with each other the energies pre¬
viously garnered by men is having an explosive effect,
nowhere seen more dramatically than in a group such
as the Graphics Collective. The environment of sup-
p ut and sharingresults in uninhibited and unrepressed
participation, which in turn releases talent where
none had previously been suspected. The Collective
is living proof of the message conveyed by one of its
own posters: SISTERHOOD IS BLOOMING:
SPRINGTIME WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN.
So lar profits arc reinvested in production ma¬
terials, and women must earn their living outside the
Collective. Hut they aim to build their output to the
point where they will be able to support themselves
ft "in poster-work. Already several women receive
childcare stipends without which they could not fully
participate in the Collective.
Tin Graphics Collective is eager to share its
knowledge and experience with other groups of
women who would like to start a similar venture. The
Collective will also do work on commission.
For turthcr information, for the revised 1973 catalog,
or to order posters reproduced here, write to:
Tllf WOMEN'S GRAPH ICS COLLECTIVE
t/o Chicago Women’s Liberation Union
852 West Belmont Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60657
Ml posters arc:
less than 10 10-20 over 20
51.50 $1.25 $1.00
except TOGETHER, which is:
$2.00 $1.75 $1.50
plus 25if postage for one poster or group of 10,
I0d for each additional poster.
Tree toad Graphics
Poster "Got Your Mama”
(see "Annie Get Your Gun” in
SELF-DEFENSE
Available from:
2406 Grant
Berkeley, California 94703
$1.50 plus 35tf postage
Linseed
(see "Discovery of the Clitoris” in
SELF-HEALTH)
Address:
1958 University Avenue
Berkeley, California
Humboldt Women in Art
(see “Hire a Woman” in WORK)
Address:
P.O. Box 428
Areata, California 95521
The Joyful World Press
(see “Fuck Officework” in WORK
“Fuck Housework” in MOVEMENT)
Address:
468 Belvedere Street
San Francisco, California 94117
Clitartists
Poster: “She is Light”-Devi-Female Deities
Series $2.50 plus 35^ postage
Available from:
1321A Alcatraz
Berkeley, California
55
SEX DIFFERENTIALS IN ART EXHIBITION REVIEWS:
A STATISTICAL REVIEW
For an artist and/or a feminist who is interested in having documented statistics and facts to back up
affirmative action projects and discrimination suits, the Tamarind Institute has the answer. A study pre¬
pared by the Tamirind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles documents the academic discrimination that
women artists have faced. This study also reveals that women artists do not receive equal treatment in the
art press — in some cases receiving only one line for every eighteen written about men.
To order the study, write: Barbara Lehmann, Administrative Secretary, University of New Mexico,
Tamarind Institute, 108 Cornell, S.E., Albuquerque, New Mexico 87610 $6.50
We ate creating a "dossier” of reports of sexism (rip-offs, put-downs,
discrimination) in the Art World and Art Schools — for publication and for
exhibition. Please send examples of personal experiences (naming names or
remaining anonymous, as you will) to: deadline — December 10, 1972.
or
Nancy Spero Joyce Kozloff
171 W. 71 Street 225 W. 106 Street
New York, N. Y. 10023 New York, N. Y. 10025
Committee: Maude Bokz, Loretta Dunkelman, Joan Snyder, Nancy Spero, May
Stereos, Joyce Koaloff.
This card was sent to about 800 women in the arts in an attempt to create a large-scale consciousness-
raising effort about sexism in the Art World. In publicizing the blatantly sexist ways in which women have
been “ripped-off,” the RIP-OFF FILE committee hoped that “women would discover that the humiliations
they’d endured were not unique or personal.”
By presenting this collection of statements from some of the most qualified art historians, critics, and
artists, the RIP-OFF FILE “tells it like it is.” One anonymous conceptual artist from New York City felt
that her statement was representative of the experience of most women:
“... My work involves endless amounts of research, reading, contacting scientists, etc. I put in an aver¬
age of 60-80 hours a week. I have never received a grant, although I have applied several times. Nor did I
receive any monetary or physical help which I badly need. On tne other hand, I know of several male art¬
ists with practically no background and no exhibitions who did receive help, money, and teaching offers. I
am not saying that male prejudice will keep me and the quality of my work from succeeding. All that I am
saying is that because I am a woman it will take me twice as long. I hope I live long enough ...”
Available from:
NANCY SPERO
171 West 71st Street
New York, New York 10023
JOYCE KOZLOFF
225 West 106th Street
New York, New York 10025
25c plus 15c postage
ART AND SEXUAL POLITICS
Daily, ordinary, dependable, expected ve.
irritations, and put-downs are the forces the
grain by grain erode confidence, purpose, a>
identity of women in the university art wor
Consider, by way of clarification, some oft
ordinary, expected, completely unshocking
doxes that might be statistically defined:
First: Women art majors tend to outr.
men art majors in undergraduate dept
ments, but there are more men than i
in graduate art programs.
Second: A woman and a man may ap
the same graduate school, present aln
identical evidences of achievement (p
folios, recommendations, grades) but
woman is more likely to be rejected a
man accepted.
Third: Women who are accepted into
uate programs in art appear to have It
sibility for receiving financial aid. Th,
course, is not exclusively an art-depar
pattern.
All college art teachers, men and wo me
had to console a bright young woman art:
with the ordinary, routine, banal explanat
graduate schools seem to prefer men. Disa ,
ment and anger are routine experiences: /
watched women undergraduates discover i
beneath the academic dove there is an iror
that the gender-ratingwolf wears sheepskin
Lee Hall
in ART AND SEXUAL POLITICS, edited
Thomas Hess and Elizabeth Baker, Collier
866 3rd Avenue, New York, New York 1C
$1.95
SURVEY OF THE COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION OF THE STATUS OF WOMEN
TABLE 4. Rank and Sex Distribution of Pull-Time Faculty in 164 Departments.
Rank of Full-
Men
Women
Total
Time Faculty
N
#
N
*
N
_
Full Professors
555
88.0#
76
12.0#
631
100 . 0 #
Associate Professors
455
82.1#
99
17.9*
554
100 . 0 #
Tenured Faculty*
(1st Sub-Total)
1010
85.2#
175
14.8#
1185
100 . 0 #
Assistant Professors
571
77.5*
166
22.5#
737
100 . 0 #
Instructors**
379
69.8#
164
30 . 2 #
543
100 . 0 #
Non-Tenured Faculty***
(2nd Sub-Total)
950
74.2#
330
25 . 8 #
1280
100 . 0 #
Total (All Run¬
Time Faculty)
I960
79.5*
505
20.5*
2465
100 . 0 #
*It is assumed that all full professors and associate professors have tenure.
**The designation "Instructor" includes full-time instructors and full-time lecturers.
***It is assumed that no assistant professors or instructors have tenure.
SUMMARY OF TABLE 4i A total of 2465 full-time positions are included in the saaple. Worn
hold 20.596 of these positions. Of the tenured faculty, 14.8# are women, of the non-tenur
faculty, 25.8# are women. According to rank, women are 30.2# of the instructors, 22.5# o
the asst, profs., 17 . 9 # of the assoc, profs., and 12# of the full profs. A clear example
of "the higher, the fewer".
THE FEMINIST
i ART JOURNAL
WOMEN OF SURREALISM
CONVERSATION WITH BARBARA HEPWORTH
FEMINIST ART JOURNAL
To make sure that women are very much a part of
today’s art and tomorrow’s art history, the Journal
exposes the discrimination and oppression to which
female artists are subjected. An editorial policy states:
“In the fight against discrimination and suppress¬
ion in the arts it is necessary to recognize the universal
aspect of the various problems confronting women
artists. However, it is not enough to deal with these
problems in generalized, non-specific terms. Universal
patterns of discrimination are formed out of specific
circumstances involving specific people. Merely
analyzing the methods and patterns of physical, spy-
chological or social exploitation will not stop its per¬
petrators from continuing their application of such
practices. Yet most women entrapped in the isolation
compartments of our sexist society have been con¬
vinced that their particularly demoralizing experiences
are too petty, too personal, too degrading to be shared
with others. They also fear retaliation from those who
have demoralized them. But only by naming names
and citing deeds can we hope to put an end to these
kinds of activities. Otherwise we are permitting those
who carry out these actions to fool themselves and
others, as to who is really doing the dirty work and
no pressure will be exerted on the guilty parties to
change their ways.”
In the same issue is Robin Morgan’s story of her
publisher’s (Random House) whitewashing of her
poem “Arraignment,” dealing with Morgan’s accusa¬
tion that male poet Ted Hughes “murdered” his wife
Sylvia Plath.
Neither does the Journal avoid the issue of women
in art who are fearful or derisive of the Women’s
Movement:
“Most successful women artists are notoriously
uncooperative toward the feminist movement and
having gotten to the position they have attained over
rock-strewn roads because of their sex, are still afraid
and reluctant to identify with other less successful
artists. That has been one of the causes of discrimina¬
tion, women not wanting to help other women,
afraid of losing hard-earned ground.”
The staff of the FEMINIST ART JOURNAL tries
to make sure that there is “something for everyone”
in each issue. The contributors themselves cover the
gamut of the Art World—artists, critics, sculptors,
students, poets, curators.
HOWEVER, the FEMINIST ART JOURNAL is
faced with the age-old problem of money. According
to Cindy Nemser, the Editor-in-Chief (Both Mainardi
and Moss, although still contributors, have too many
WOMEN OF SURREALISM
BY GLORIA ORENSTEIN
A college student who is taking a course on
Women in Art might be surprised to see, that along
with the established male “scholarly” material on
the reading list, there are readings from a quarterly
publication called the FEMINIST ART JOURNAL.
Only a year and a half old, the FAJ is already beginn¬
ing to make its way as an educational source as an
increasing number of the academic art establishment
realizes its value.
How is feminism creeping into the academics?
Through first-rate writing on the work and theories
of women artists, writers, poets, and filmmakers; and
through consistently provocative articles. The FAJ
pulls no punches in its indictment of the art world’s
blatantly sexist treatment of women.
Cindy Nemser, an art critic, and Patricia Mainardi
>nd Irene Moss, both painters started the FEMINIST
ART JOURNAL in April 1972 with the premise that:
"Women in all the arts must at this time, make
an all-out effort to rediscover their own history. It
is essential that we recognize and give credit for the
first-rate achievements of our forebears which have,
for so long, been denied or down-graded by established
male authorities. We must no longer allow ourselves
to be robbed of our heritage past or present.”
The Journal specializes in superb and thoroughly
loeumented accounts of women artists of the past.
A recent issue discussed women Renaissance painters—
Sfonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, and Artcmesia
Gentilcschi; 18th century French artists - Adelaide
Labillc-Guiard, Marie Louise Elizabeth Vigee-LeBrun,
and Anne Vallayer-Costcr; and 19th century American
* 'men artists - Sarah Miriam Peale, Jane Stuart
[daughter of Gilbert), and Lily Martin Spencer.
The Journal uses historical studies as a vehicle for
defining “art." The Winter 1973 issue analyzes quilting
is the Great American Art. Patricia Mainardi traces the
history and technique of quilt-making, seeing the style
and design of quilts as “women’s art”;
"The textile and needlework arts of the world,
primarily because they have been the work of women
lave been especially written out of art history. It is a
nalc idea that to be 'high’ and ‘fine’ both women and
irt should be beautiful, but not useful or functional.”
she added that:
“One of the revolutionary aims of the women’s
cultural movement is to rewrite art history in order
to acknowledge the fact that art has been made by
ill races and classes of women, and that art in fact,
is a human impulse and not the attribute of a
particular sex, race, or class.”
One tool the magazine uses with beautiful effect
to rewrite women back into current art history, is to
present in-depth interviews with women artists—to date
Louise Ncvelson, Barbara Hclpworth, Eve Hesse (post¬
mortem).
This really isn’t too difficult. The Journal does not
need rhetoric to hang the offenders; it simply lets them
convict themselves.
The issue in which the above editorial appears
records a discussion between William Rubin, Chief of
Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York City, and several feminist
artists. Listen to Rubin:
I don’t think that the charge of discrimination
is valid at least insofar as any conscious discrimination
takes place. I mean certainly, none of the curators at
the Museum of Modern Art would ever be conscious
of that, and I might add that the majority of them
are women and that decisions are made by majority
vote, so that if there is discrimination, it is dis¬
crimination more by women than by men. (Note be
FAJ editors: This is a recent development and the
women are as usual concentrated on the lower rungs of
the curatorial ladder. The chief Curator is Rubin].
However, I think that discrimination whether in art
or anything else, functions on an unconscious as well
as conscious level, and it’s bound up to all sorts of
attitudes of a sociological order, that get built in, in
a sense. ...”
other professional commitments to continue editing
the paper), the Journal rarely can make ends meet.
When it raises $1000, the FEMINIST ART JOURNAL
is promised a matching grant from the Coordinating
Council of Literary Magazines. Nemser is now apply¬
ing for foundation grants and is convinced that the
JOURNAL will continue publication.
She urges readers (editors note; and so do we) to
spread the word about FEMINIST ART JOURNAL
and to convince local bookstores to carry the Journal,
to subscribe themselves, and to urge public and
college libraries to subscribe.
Subscriptions available from:
FEMINIST ART JOURNAL
41 Montgomery Place
Brooklyn, New York 11215
$4 for four issues for individuals
$5 for institutions
57
PENELOPE & SISTERS
603 South 4th Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
<&nefo]# tt 5 ’lSt«T 5
£outl> H * Street
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WOMANCRAfT In * recently
opened ntor* displaying «rl*t
A crnftu handmade by local
•om«m. We are ■ non-profit
cooperative in which oil
members participate Actively
in running the otor-. Our
stock varies but we have,
for example, crocheted *
knitted ufgans, sweaters,
hato, scarves, ruga A puroen.
Stltcnary. candleo, painting.:; |
pottery, coramlcs. Macrame
belts, haadbanda, purses A
window hangings, woven
wallh.«neings, nurses, scarve.
4 piHowi. Children's toys
A clothes tnd "ome hand-aown
woman'll clothing, Including
embroidered <wH «*•»liked.
We are ollii :»clivoiy n.—kli.
woman who make crufln to joir.
the cooperative. Cill Ml-
. e.. it.r.o r - t c
Crafts Stores
I
Tfe Womens Cooperative^
< Sr'Crajv Store
HOURS:
IZ-5
OPEN:
TUES-SAT.
THUR.S. NIGHTS
Wi^k&rtC
cjpiystatn to thtsunCofz
clothes ^jewelry ••• macrame
quilts •> toys * purses:- belts
Cdother handcrafted items
1
WOMEN'S COOPERATIVE & CRAFT STORE
1314 N.E. 43rd Street
Seattle, Washington
58
WOMANCRAFT
407 W. Franklin, #2, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Film
WOO WHO? MAY WILSON by Amalie R. Rothschild
hen her husband informed her that his future plans
longer included her, May Wilson, age 60, former ‘wife-
ther-housekeeper-cook’ and a grandmother, moved
lew York City and began the painful process of
king out a new life in which the art that had once
n a nobby became central... A documentary por-
it of this strong woman’s coming to terms with her
i life, and developing a new self-image in which she
i accept herself as an artist.” 33 minutes, color.
ital $35 + $2 handling; Sale $375.00
JETTY TELLS HER STORY by Liane Brandon
ty relates a story of needing ‘the perfect dress’ for
ry special occasion. Betty describes in amusing
lil how she found just the right one, spent more
i she could afford for it, modeled it for admiring
ids, felt absolutely transformed and then . . . never
to wear it. The story and Betty are witty, engaging
delightful.
Then Betty is asked to tell her story again, and
time ... Betty reveals how she really felt: her anx-
over buying the dress, her discomfort at being
sed for beauty she feels she doesn’t have, and her
lequent shock at the way things turn out . .. The
trast between the two stories is haunting.” 20 min-
i, black and white.
til $25.00; Sale $200.00
NEW DAY FILMS
It is a rare commercial distributing company that will take a chance on “Women’s Lib” film by a female
producer. If and when a company does accept a feminist film, the filmmaker loses almost all control of her
work. She is cut off from participating in the distribution process, and the distributor makes all the money.
Recently however, women have begun to seek alternatives to this “rip-off” distribution. Women film¬
makers know that their work is not “done” when they have completed their movie. Realizing the importance
of communicating with as many women as possible, women have formed their own cooperatives to distribute
feminist films.
New Day Films was started in September 1971 as a project to distribute only one film, Julia Reichert’s
GROWING UP FEMALE. Since that time New Day Films has been expanded to include the work of other
women filmmakers: Liane Brandon, Amalie Rothschild, Claudia Weill, and Joyce Chopra. Each woman
produces her films independently, using her own funds. All of the money a film earns goes directly to its
creator. Since the main motive of New Day is not profit, the women keep rental fees low enough to be access¬
ible to audiences unable to pay the usual commercial rates. The co-op has survived through what Julia
Reichert calls “an underground network of interlocking communication” formed by women’s groups around
the country. This network has made it possible for women to view consciousness-raising films that would
not otherwise be available.
Among these films are:
IT HAPPENS TO US by Amalie R. Rothschild
Documentary in which women of different ages, marital
status and race speak about their abortion experiences.
30 minutes, color.
Rental $30.00; Purchase $300.00
JOYCE AT 34 by Joyce Chopra and Claudia Weill
“The camera closely follows Joyce during this year as
she impatiently awaits the arrival of her child, takes
six-week old Sarah with her on assignment, or lets her
writer husband care for the child while she is on another
assignment. Joyce’s own thoughts and comments
about her work and about being a mother convey the
pressures, delights, doubts, conflicts, and compromises
she experiences as she fits this new person into her
daily routine and resumes her filmmaking.” 28 min¬
utes, color.
Renta! $36 + $2 handling; Sale $350.00
ANYTHING YOU WANT TO BE by Liane Brandon
“(The film) humorously depicts the conflicts and absur¬
dities that beset a high school girl. In her bid for class
president, she finds herself running for secretary; in
her desire to become a doctor, she leaves the guidance
office convinced to be a nurse; her history book is my¬
steriously replaced by THE JOY OF COOKING. Coax¬
ed by voices from T.V. movies, and magazines, she
mimics female stereotypes; the worldly sophisticate,
the wholesome homemaker, the sexy ‘chick’, the sweet
young thing, the imperious matron, and a harried house
wife.” 8 minutes, black and white.
Rental $15.00; Sale $100.00
GROWING UP FEMALE by Julia Reichert and
James Klein. (This film) “shows the socialization of
the American woman through a personal look into the
lives of six females. Their ages are from four to thirty-
five, and their backgrounds vary from poor black to
upper-middle class white. We see in action how many
forces shape them: their parents, teachers, guidance
counselors, the media and advertising, pop music and
the institution of marriage.” Robin Morgan says of
GROWING UP FEMALE: “No rhetoric, no exhorta-
tory phrases, no propaganda or ‘politics’ in the tradit¬
ional sense; yet the film is thoroughly political in its
simple, straight-forward, understated presentation of
the suffering women undergo as we are being culturally
conditioned into feminine creatures.”
Valuable for use in high school and college classes
and for discussion for women new to the issues of
Women’s Liberation. 60 min, black and white.
Rental $60.00; Sale $375.00
When ordering, state title, exact date needed, alter¬
nate date if possible. Specify name and address of
person to ship film to, name and address of person to
be billed, and purchase order when applicable.
These filmmakers do commissioned work—filming,
editing, producing, writing,-through their own film
companies. To contact the filmmakers and to order
the films listed above, write:
NEW DAY FILMS
P.O. Box 315
Franklin Lakes, New Jersey 07417
(201)891-8240
59
WOMEN
MAKE
107 WIST 26th STREET, H.tC. 10001 212-929-6477
M0VIE8 INC
Injuly, 1972, two women filmmakers set up a workshop in a New York church basement to t
munity women skills to express themselves in film. The workshop, operated with support from t
York State Council on the Arts is open free to community residents. Since its opening, forty-fivt
have learned to write scripts, direct, film, control sound and light, and edit their own creations.
The women of WOMEN MAKE MOVIES come from a wide variety of backgrounds, range of:
fessions, and nationalities: Spanish speaking mothers, secretaries, senior citizens, single parents, b
keepers, teenagers. Eight movies have been completed so far dealing with city themes: the loneli:
older woman; the fears conquered by a young woman when she confronts a rapist; the struggle o:
girls in a youth center. Finished films are so shown at neighborhood meeting places, block partie
and community centers, and churches.
“In 1970 a group of New Haven women — Liz, Jill,
and Renee — got a small grant from the United Christ¬
ian movement, bought some early feminist films and
some stamps, and thus became the first (and only) film
distributors for the Women’s Movement throughout
the country.”
At the beginning of 1972, these women left New
Haven to make their own films. Four women from the
Valley Women’s Center in Northampton took over the
tasks of distributing feminist films to women’s groups
across the country. The rental fees are low enough so
that these films are accessible to a wide range of women.
The Women’s Film Co-op exists on the contributions
of feminists. This money is used primarily to put out
a catalog in which films are available through the
Women’s Film Co-op and other distributors are listed
and reviewed. The current issue of the catalog includes
information on how to run a women’s film festival
for fun and/or profit.
Films available from the Women’s Film Co-op include:
SISTERS by Jill Foreman Hultin
“Sisters on a symbolic journey starting at the younger sister’s birthday
party. The older sister lures the younger from her mother and leads her
through a series of incidents about the emptiness of female roles. Near
the end, the older sister is confronted by her own image. For the first
time she realizes that she is involved in some of the patterns she wants to
warn her little sister against.”
21 minutes, color. Rental $25.00
WINDY DAY by Faith and John Rubley
“Animation—cartoon of two sisters acting out their fantasies. Big
sister thinks up the games and takes the fun parts — she plays adventur¬
ing knight while little sister is cast as sighing princess. Little sister rebels
and goes into her own fantasy world full of animals, often portrayed as
mommies and babies. The girls see women as brides and mothers: the
only other situations they play with are old age and death.”
20 minutes, color. Rental $25.00
HOME MOVIE by Jan Oxenberg
“A combined personal and political statement about being a lesbian in
contemporary America. Scenes of a Gay-In, Christopher Street March, gay
women playing football, home movie footage of the filmmaker as a child
mimicking her mother’s roles. The narrative is a personal document about
‘coming-out ”
10 minutes, color and black and white. $15.00
WOMEN’S IMAGE IN ADVERTISING
“A 30-slide show of ads taken mainly from business magazines for men.
Women are objectified, identified with the produce they are used to sell.
We are seen as mindless mannequins. A sequence of masks reveals the
frequent use of fear as an allure tor male consumers. The show ends with
a short series of sex role perversions as seen in ads using children.
Script included. . . . ’ The slide show was created by the Women’s Re¬
search Project.
Rental $10.00 Films are available from:
THE WOMEN'S FILM CO-OP
200 Main Street
Northampton, Massachusetts 01060
(413) 586-2011
Films which are currently available for distribution include;
DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY by Harriet Kriegel
FEAR by Jean Shaw
FOR BETTER OR WORSE by Judith Shaw Acuna
IT’S A MIRACLE by Marie Celine Caufield
JUST LOOKING by Suzanne Armstrong
PARANOIA BLUES by Jane Warrenbrand
KATIE KELLY by Barbara Brown, Nancy Greiner,
Lorraine McConnel, Ann Weiner and Helen Zaglen
THE TRIALS OF ALICE CRIMMINS, made collectively
These films run from five to seven minutes, and are available for sale or
rent. Also available from WOMEN MAKE MOVIES are two films by
the women who began the project:
SWEET BANANAS by Ariel Dougherty
(thirty minutes, color)
An unsettling documentary portraying the love/hate ambivali
contemporary women.
Rental $30.00, Sale S
THE WOMEN’S HAPPY TIME COMMUNE
by Sheila Page
(fifty minutes, color)
Set in a fictional 1850, the first all-women “western” is aboi
man’s attempt to recruit others to band together in an all-worm
Rental $50.00, Sale
f THt
/ WOMEN'S
IIAIM’Y TIM|;
: ( OMMl M
(50 aln, enter. 1*T7J
►7 ShalU *•!«•( !■*•)
With MUrti Kn4aa. franc— CMa.
Haryljm U«Mn. an* Judy Hare*.
M W< llctiml 1*10. (Ha flrat
all- — ■-.!«.* la a taut ama
aaaan'a at'aapt (a meruit athnra (a
MM tana that in an all-waa«a-- -
Raaial. 1)0.00i Mia. 1)00,00
Write to:
WOMEN MAKE MOVIES, INC.
107 West 26th Street
New York City 10001
(212)929-6477
FEMINIST FILM PROGRAM
iblymorph Films Presents
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omen. . .
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f *«kin M—T.t fWo
•Take Off": A Striptease That Dares
Co All the V\ky...
•Hov to Make a Vtanan'..
•Six Urn-Males in Search
trf a Wfedding'...
m> Mb. kmr.~ ttm
POLYMORPH FILMS, INC.
331 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
(617) 262-5960
Running time: 81 minutes (16 mm, sound)
Cost: $100.00 flat fee plus shipping for a single
NEWSREEL FILMS
NEWSREEL is a group of independent filmmakers
and distribution organizations around the country.
Since 1967 various NEWSREEL groups have been
making documentary films to serve as catalysts for
social change. Women’s films available from NEWSREEL
are:
THE WOMAN’S FILM by Louise Alaimo,
judy Smith and Ellen Sorrin
One of the first films to come out of the women’s
movement. Interviews with women: “not the
women you will see, as a rule, in a women’s
liberation demonstration, nor NOW members.
They are poor and working class women with
problems that have to do with their every¬
day existences. While realizing that they are
made to play a supportive role to men, they
know that their real oppression comes from a
system that does not recognize their needs as
human beings, as women, as poor people. Issues
like welfare rights, workers’ strikes, the lack
of day-care facilities, the Vietnam war, and
racial discrimination touch their lives as does
sexism in all forms.”
40 minutes, black and white. Rental $60.
MAKE OUT produced by NEWSREEL
“’ r - oppressive experience of making-out
in a car from the woman’s point of view. Short
and sweet.”
5 minutes. Rental $10
HERSTORY produced by NEWSREEL
“Through the use of a cranky (dramatic,
colorful drawings on a hand-turned paper
film), songs, rhythms, music and narration,
the San Francisco Women’s Street Theatre gives
a short history of women’s struggles from pre¬
history to the present.
9 minutes, color. Rental $10.
The above films are available from NEWSREEL
film distributors in Boston, New York, Ann Arbor,
Detroit. Milwaukee, Yellow Springs, Lawrence, and
San Francisco.
NEW YORK NEWSREEL:
26 West 20th Street
New York City 10011
FILMS OF FAMOUS WOMEN
The Extension Media Center at the University of
California distributes a good number of films of
interest to women by a variety of film producers. If
you are looking for films about great women to rent,
the following are available through the Center
GERTRUDE STEIN: WHEN THIS YOU SEE,
REMEMBER ME By Contemporary Films,
McGraw/Hill
“Uses still photographs, paintings, rare home
movies, newsreels, radio recordings, scenes
from operas for which she wrote libretti, and
interviews with some of her noted acquaintaces
to present a comprehensive and provocative
narrative of Gertrude Stein’s life, her develop¬
ment as a writer, and her influence on many
forms of art in the early twentieth century ....
Recreates the world of the painters and writers
who transformed twentieth century art while
living in Paris during the period from 1905 to
1930, including Picasso, Matisse, Joyce, Eliot,
Apollinaire, and Hemingway, and shows the
central role Gertrude Stein played in the devel¬
opment of the new art.”
89 minutes, color. Rental $47.
(this films is also available through Contemporary
McGraw Hill Films, Princeton Road, Hightstown,
New Jersey 08520)
HARRIET TUBMAN AND THE UNDER¬
GROUND RAILROAD Produced by CBS
by Contemporary Films, McGraw/Hill.
“Dramatic portrayal of the first of 19 trips
into the South made by Harriet Tubman before
the Civil War to lead runaway slaves along the
underground railroad to freedom in the North
. . . Excellent depiction of a strong and import¬
ant black woman and her leading role in the
struggle against slavery.”
54 minutes, black and white. Rental $20.
MARGARET SANGER
“Uses still photographs, newsreel footage, and
other visual media to trace the life of Margaret
Sanger, who devoted herself to the struggle to
make family planning both legal and practical
for women all over the world.”
Black and white. Rental $9.
(also available through McGraw/Hill Films,
Princeton Road, Hightstown, New Jersey 08520)
VIRGINIA WOOLF: THE MOMENT WHOLE
produced by ACI
“Selected passages from Virginia Woolf’s
writings convey her concept of woman and
articulate the problems and pressures of being
a woman writer. .. . [Includes] scenes of
Marian Selder, in a setting reminiscent of the
’30’s [reading] from Woolf’s works including
A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN, THE WIVES, and
her diary.”
10 minutes, color, Rental $12.
Descriptions of the above films are taken from the
list of Films on the Women’s Movement, compiled by
the General Service Administration’s Federal Women’s
Program. All films may be ordered from:
EXTENSION MEDIA CENTER
University of California
Distribution Desk
Berkeley, California 94720
$1000.00 brings you four nights of feminist films
and a feminist lecturer by Doubleday and Company,
Inc. If the program is used as a fund-raising event,
fifty percent of admissions collected on the third and
fourth nights must be turned over to Doubleday.
Feminist filmmakers have been quick to
point out what a rip-off this is. As one feminist
of the Women’s Film Co-op states: . . the
so-called Feminist Films package of Doubleday’s
Author Lecture Service is another exploita¬
tion of the women’s movement for the profit of
big capitalist publishing houses, and that any
women’s community could put together exactly
the same program of films, and give more than
one showing of them, for the price of $346
(Doubleday is charging $1000). Any commu¬
nity group can also invite feminist filmmakers
to speak for what the community can afford
to pay and travel expenses. Most women film¬
makers I’ve met who have some committment
to the women’s movement — returning the image
making process to the people, to being paid
for their work but not exploiting any market,
to opening dialogue between artists and ‘others’
— are glad to do this.”
WOMEN AND FILM, Volume 1, No. 3 & 4
If you nonetheless choose this program, you can get
the following films:
GROWING UP FEMALE (also avail¬
able from New Day Films)
FEAR WOMEN
GERTRUDE STEIN: WHEN THIS YOU SEE
REMEMBER ME (also available from the
California Extension Media Center)
WOMAN’S FILM (also available from Newsreel)
A VERY CURIOUS GIRL.
Write for further details to:
POLY ELLIOTT
Author Lecture Service of Doubleday and Co.
277 Park Avenue
New York City 10017
Order from the NEWSREEL office in the city closest
to your home.
WOMEN AND FILM
Film has an incalculable influence on us all: those
lovely images on the silver screen are the stuff that
American culture is made of. There’s no telling how
many women have spent their lives in hopeless imita¬
tion of Marilyn Monroe; or playing Doris Day to a
potential Rock Hudson.
Male directors and filmmakers have set the fashion
for “feminine” behavior. Women have been confined
to the usual stereotypes: bitch, dumb chick, nag,
nymph, child/woman. Yet it is women, especially their
bodies plastered on billboards, that have sold movies.
WOMEN AND FILM analyzes the image of woman
in film from a feminist perspective while attempting
to “struggle towards formulation of a theory of
feminist cinema.” Articles include discussion of the
portrayal of women in film; interviews with male and
female directors; and studies of historical genres (e.g.
suffrage films). A recent issue contained a fascinating
article on women filmmakers in American film history,
starting from Lois Weber, whose career in film began
in 1913. WOMEN AND FILM contains the latest on
what current feminist filmmakers are doing: projects,
festivals, and experiments.
We all go to the movies. Whether you go as a film¬
maker, culture-maven, or just plain for fun, as a woman
you should subscribe to WOMEN IN FILM.
Subscriptions available from:
WOMEN AND FILM
2802 Arizona Avenue
Santa Monica, California 90404
$3.00/year
$5.50/instititons
published tri-annually
WOMEN IN FOCUS
Jeanne Betancourt found she needed a guide to
non-sexist films for her own use as a teacher. None
existed; so she wrote one herself. WOMEN IN
FOCUS, scheduled for publication in January 1974,
will review seventy-five films, each accompanied by
still photographs. All of the films included present
positive images of women. There is a biography of
each filmmaker, and a statement by her/him as to
her/his attitudes concerning women and film.
WOMEN IN FOCUS is designed to help teachers
and “non-film” people find films for a variety of
teaching subjects. There will be complete indexing-
chronological, by director, by subject, etc. A
bibliography of further readings, related to the contents
of each film is included. WOMEN IN FOCUS will be
available from:
Dorothy Ar/ner rose through the ranks
beginning her career in the 1920's as a
scenario typist lor William de Mille. In
1933 she directed "Christopher Strong"
from WOMEN starring Katherine Hepburn in her
AND FILM major role^_
WOMEN’S CULTURE
“Women’s Culture is a slide/tape project designed
to search out and encourage the unique expression
of women.” The project gives women the opportunity
to hear and see each other “without the screen of male
culture between them*” Women speaking spontaneously
about their lives or describing their work are recorded
and photographed.
The project utilizes rich, untapped experiences in
the everyday life of women. Four generations of women
in one family, for example, speak out on their lives as
women in different life situations in this country.
Women reading poetry, women’s worship services,
and women’s theater groups have already been re¬
corded on sound tape and slides.
A similar project, developed by some of the same
women, is “EVE’N US: Women and the Judaeo-
Christian tradition:” a slide/tape shown on women in
the church, from a feminist perspective. “It is de¬
signed to reveal the history and present status of
women in the church, or more accurately, the lack
thereof.” The show is designed for use in local
churches.
For more information on both projects, contact:
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
c/o Rena Hansen
Department of Church and Culture
475 Riverside Drive, Room 576
New York City 10027
(212)870-2722
FILMS ON THE WOMEN’S MOVEMEN1
Are you trying to find films by and about wo
for your school or community group? The Unite
States General Services Administration has com[
an invaluable list for anyone interested in initiat:
discussions on the issues of the Women’s Movem
-ocialization, family, role-playing, etc. Films are
indexed by topic and listed alphabetically. Althc
most films included arc pro-Movement, some are
purposely included as poor, stereotyped portray
of women. The listings are annotated with the fi
company’s description and rental information. C
shortcoming: directors’ names are frequently orr
The June, 1973 list is available, and the list is up
every six months.
Write to:
] AN ICE K. MENDENHALL
Federal Women’s Program Coordinator
General Services Administration
Office of Civil Rights
Washington, D.C. 20405
FILMS by
and/or about
WOMEN
FILMS by and/or about WOMEN
Directory of Filmmakers, Films, and Distributoi
Internationally, Past and Present
An essential resource for anyone interested ii
women and films has been compiled by the Wor
History Research Center in Berkeley. Over 500
are listed by catagory (e.g. female portraits, fern
liberation movement, social protest). The filmm
distributor, price, and a short description of eac
are listed. The Index includes a listing of over 2C
filmmakers, and an index of films by distributoi
directory is the most complete source available ■
subject.
Write to:
WOMEN’S HISTORY RESEARCH CENTER, If
2325 Oak Street
Berkeley, California 94708
$2.00 plus 15% postage
62
PFLAUM PUBLISHERS
38 West 5th Street
Dayton, Ohio
.n® E 0
i z
VIDEOWOMEN
I Video Women was organized by feminists. All
■embers of the grouphave been through conscious-
feetsraising, and several have been activists in New
Bork Radical Feminists and The Feminists.
Half-inch video, we feel, is far superior to film
for our purposes. Tape is much cheaper, although
more difficult to edit. Because the videotape recorders
are portable and the cameras require little, if any,
additional light, the process of taping is less instrusive
than film. Videotape can more easily capture spon-
eity; people are far more relaxed in front of a tape
lera than in front of a film camera. Because tape
can be reused, we can also afford to shoot at a high
ratio,
“We are also learning new skills — directing,
camerawork, interviewing, editing. Seed money for
/ Our first project was provided by the Women’s
1 Liberation Writing Collective. Our tapes are available
for rental, sale ana for lecture-demonstrations, in either
1/2 inch reels or cassette formats.”
“We want, first, to preserve a historical record of
nportant feminist conferences. Equally important, we
ram to effectively communicate to other women the
tnor and content of those conferences, and the process
ly which women inquire into formerly forbidden sub¬
sets. Also, we are tired of hearing movement thought
sferred to as ‘rhetoric’ and movement women as
idealogues".
The Video Women tape liberary includes:
Marriage: Women Speak Out by Minda Bikman
Women describe their experiences vis-a-vis dating
’ Bitterns, first being married, doing housework,
having children, and dealings with guilt. They con¬
clude by relating how they’ve resolved their con¬
flicts. by either reestablishing their marital relation-
ihips along feminist lines or by leaving their
jes. They speak with un-self-conscious
esty and candor. 50 minutes
Selections from the First International Feminist
( Planning Conference by Barbara Bunker
Women from Japan, Egypt, and the USSR discuss
the status of women and the impact of feminism
in their respective countries. 25 minutes
Women Talk about Sex by Minda Bikman
Through interviews and group discussions, women
speak about heterosexuality, bi-sexuality,
i lesbianism, masturbation, older women’s sexu¬
ality, and the struggle for an independent sexual
identification, ana the relationship between
economics and sexuality. 30 minutes
Coming tapes include: Working-Class Women and
Employment
Available from:
VIDEO WOMEN
c/o Minda Bikman
535 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014
CABLE TELEVISION AND
THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
The success of any political movement in this
country depends largely upon that movement’s
ability to use mass media and to control informa¬
tion about itself.... Corporate broadcasting’s
stranglehold on the media is being broken right
now by a communications development that will
drastically change life in America and that has the
potential to become a primary tool for revolution¬
ary feminism. In order for women to have the
maximum voice in determining the politics, tech¬
nical capabilities, and scope of this almost new
media, it is imperative that we inform ourselves
and that we act immediately and decisively in each
community that is considering the installation of a
cable television system.
JANICE CARRICK
from "Cable Television: A Priority for the
Women’s Movement,” reprinted in
THE VOCAL MAJORITY, April, 1973
FEMINIST VIDEO TAPE COLLECTIVE
The Feminist Video Tape Collective (formed in
January, 1972) is devoted to exploring the uses of
Vi” videotape ... as a means of communicating with
other women through the screening of women’s tapes,
as a teaching tool, and as a means to self-awareness
(this often in connection with its teaching function).
We have also been involved in showing women and
men how to use the equipment for themselves for
these purposes. . . .
The Collective has spent 1973 producing video¬
tapes on women artists, painters, musicians, sculptors,
and actresses; videotapes of women craftspeople and
their work; documentation of popular art forms: The
Rockettes, street musicians and gospel choruses in
storefront churches, grafitti arts.
These documentaries will include the philosophy,
thoughts and actions of the artists as well as video
documentation of their art. We feel that as women
we have a unique perspective and sympathy towards
women artists. And as women we have the ability to
get intimate portraits of the artists, as well as a por¬
trait of her working and her work.
Audience for whom these tapes will be program¬
med, will include the women artists themselves—for
whom the feedback is very useful, rewarding and
exciting. The programs will be broadcast over cable
TV in Manhattan and at numerous women’s meet¬
ings, conferences and festivals.
Membership is open to all women seriously inter¬
ested in learning to produce videotapes.
Tapes made by the Collective include:
1. OTANNENBAUM
A humorous tape on the housewifely art of
baking. (5 minutes)
2. THOUGHTS ON RAPE
Interviews with women on the subject of rape.
A good starter for a discussion, not a conclusive
tape. (12 minutes)
3. “I AM A MAKER...” Sari Dienes
Views of her sculptures and conversations with
Sari Dienes, a modern sculptor, age 73.
(12 minutes)
4. POTTER’S SHOP
Owner of her own pottery shop in Greenwich
Village talks about being a woman and an artist.
(20 minutes)
Rental information available on request from:
THE FEMINIST VIDEOTAPE COLLECTIVE
320 West 87th Street
New York, New York 10024
BALDWIN STREET GALLERY OF
PHOTOGRAPHY
23 Baldwin Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(416) 364-2630
“I wasn’t trying to organize women. 1 wanted to
be in a situation where I was taken seriously and where
I could learn. The gallery where I was working in¬
credibly hard was becoming a very negative experience.
No matter how hard 1 worked I was in no way taken
seriously by the people (usually men) who came to the
gallery.” The patronization, condescension, and plain
rudeness exhibited by male “patrons” prompted Laura
Jones Jones (the “I” above) to turn the Baldwin Street
Gallery of Photography into a non-profit gallery run on
a cooperative base by women showing women’s work
only. An increasingly negative, not to say hostile
attitude on the part of males to the gallery’s new
orientation only crystallized the bias into explicit
feminism. What started as a “show women” gallery ex¬
panded into a “women-teach-women” gallery.
When the Gallery decided to organize an exhibition
of photographs by and for women for the 1972 women’s
Festival at the University of Toronto, over 1500
prints from about 130 women poured in. Only a few
of those women who responded identified themselves
as “professional” and most spoke of their fear of
competition and of being put-down. Ten women took
part in the decision-making and jurying of the entries —
which were shown first at the University of Toronto
and later at the Baldwin Street Gallery.
image nation
The group next compiled a special issue of
IMAGE NATION, a prestige Canadian photography
magazine. Included in the magazine is selection from
the Women’s Festival exhibit with letters from the
contributing women photographers.
The Baldwin Street women modestly state that
they are the only women’s photography gallery in the
Toronto area. There are other photography collectives
in the United States and Canada, but the Baldwin
Street group is probably the only women’s photo¬
graph gallery in North America, and certainly the most
diversified photographic “gallery” that we have en¬
countered. The following is a list of their ongoing
projects and services for women:
* exhibition space
* traveling exhibits
* library of in-print and out-of print books
* files of information on sources and other
galleries
* darkroom facilities
* book store with 900 in-print and 125 out-of
print titles
* courses on basic darkroom techniques
The gallery is open from 12:00 PM to 6:00.
IMAGE NATION 11 is available from:
IMAGE NATION
Coach House Press
401 Huron Street (rear)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
$3.25/each (U.S. currency)
63
CINEMA FEMINA
Kristina Nordstrom, film editor and organizer of
the first Women’s Film Festival in New York City,
is planning CINEMA FEMINA, a multi-purpose or¬
ganization for women filmmakers. Cinema Femina
will distribute feature films written and made by
women who do not have U.S. distribution. It will
also have classes and equipment for women film¬
makers.
CINEMA FEMINA will hopefully grow into a
referral system for information on American women
filmmakers and their work. A speakers’ bureau for
filmmakers is planned. Ms. Nordstrom has complied
an extensive list of women filmmakers and their
works. For more information on this and Cinema
Femina, write to:
KRISTINA NORDSTROM
c/o New Feminist Talent
250 West 57th Street
New York City
HERSTORY FILMS
Herstory is a production company of women
who make political films. The women of Herstory
work collectively, sharing the responsibilities of t
typing, letter writing, sweeping, and menial labor
with the actual work of filmmaking. “We do not
specialize,” says Marta Vivas, the founder of Her¬
story, “which is unique among filmmakers.”
Most of the films available from Herstory are
witty vignettes about some aspect of women’s
lives. Herstory is beginning to make longer fea¬
ture films and there are plans for a feature on the
suffragists.
Films now available from Herstory include:
THE FEMINIST PARTY STREET WALKS
Feminist Party members and Flo Kennedy
in street scene at NBC, Time/Life, CBS, NY
TIMES, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral protest¬
ing Shirley Chisholm’s “white-out” by the
media.
6 minutes, balck and white. Rental $10.00
ROLL OVER
Depicts past and future roles of women.
15 minutes. Contact Herstory for rental in¬
formation.
SHADOW PLAY
Four minute vignette about marriage.
Black and white. Rental $10.00
THE RING THAT BINDS
Tracts from the New York Radical Fern,,
inist Conference on Marriage. Available in
December.
KNOW YOUR BODY
Slide series designed to be used in a selfhelp
group.
For further information on the rental or sale
price of any film listed, contact:
HERSTORY FILMS
17 East 97th Street (3D)
New York City 10029
(212) 369-0858
64
IMPACT FILMS
Impact films distributes some of “the
world’s finest socially and politically con¬
scious works of cinema.” Among the wo¬
men’s films available from Impact Films are:
THREE LIVES by Kate Millett for the Women’s
Liberation Cinema. Produced by Kate Millett,
Louva Irvine, Susan Kleckner, Robin Mide.
“In this film three ordinary but very different
women present a succession of thoughtful and sen¬
sitive autobiographical monologues. They talk
about past conflicts, decisions, and consequences
of their actions which have led them to their pre¬
sent realizations of womanhood.
THREE LIVES is significant because it is not
about heroines, wives, mothers, mistresses, daught¬
ers, or “career women,” but because it brings to
the fore, without pretense or parallel, the complex
truth of modern womanhood, and does it with
skill and originality in a medium too long domin¬
ated by the male vision.”
The directors state, “Our intention was to pre¬
sent the lives of three individual women . . . with
sympathy, understanding, and reverence for human
ity .. . and their vulnerable personalities ... to
other people so that they might see them as well.”
70 minutes, color. Rental $75 (classroom use);
$135 (when charging admission). Purchase $750.
EREBUS PRESS
EREBUS PRESS is another one-woman “press.”
ARW, a feminist poet, having long since felt “the
dead-weight of the printed word on paper,” invented
and patented a new nonlinear medium using vinyls
and acetates.
The reader may create the poem for herself by
combining words and images in myriad ways as they
appear on transparent discs. Each set of nine discs is
accompanied by a recording of the poem in 2 and 4
voices, done by ARW and her reader, T. Mullin.
ARW first began her company in 1969 by drawing
by hand a series of 6 miniature books (2x3 inches).
These she bound and packaged herself and sold in the
New England and New York areas.
She has now made 2 limited editions of the new
medium, 500 copies each of two poems-STONE
STONE WATER and TOUCH TOUCH TOUCH,
with photographs by Susan Rennie and prints by
Kirsten Grimstad.
Copies of these award-winning editions
are available from:
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
11 West 53rd Street
New York, New York 10012
Or
EREBUS PRESS
1422 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10018
$4.95 each, prepaid
(Distributed to libraries and colleges through
Baker and Taylor, Inc., Audio-Visual Division)
WOMEN TALKING by Midge Mackenzie
“WOMEN TALKING features conversatio
leading personalities in the forefront of the «
liberation movement. Seeking to bring an ur
standing of the vital problem confronting ou:
to all women, they relate experiences that co
to a greater awareness of the social oppressio
men. Contrasted with their attitudes about t
of contemporary woman are those of a grouj
liberated’ women, gathered in a television sti
appearing on a daytime program for homema
The housewives, whose lives revolve solely ar
their husbands, chat about the simple joys of
dedicated to one’s husband, his job and homi
ing tips, oblivious to their greater responsibili
women, to themselves and to society”.
Betty Friedan, Laurie Zimmer, Susan Silverrr
Kate Millett, and Selma James are featured.
80 minutes, black and white. Rental $50.001
room use); $100.00 (when charging admissio;
Purchase $650.00
Available from:
IMPACT FILMS
144 Bleecker Street
New York, N.Y. 10012
•«
^PUD>!. ,
Theatre
IF SHAKESPEARE
HAD BEEN A WOMAN
What would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister.... She was as adventurous, as imaginative,
as agog to see the world as he was. But she was not sent to school. She had no chance of learning grammar and logic, let alone
of reading Horace and Virgil. She picked up a book now and then, one of her brother’s perhaps, and read a few pages. But
then her parents came in and told her to mend the stockings or mind the stew and not moon about with books and papers....
Soon, however, before she was out of her teens, she was betrothed to the son of a neighboring wool-stapler. She cried out
that marriage was hateful to her. She made up a small parcel of her belongings, let herself down by a rope one summer's
night and took the road to London - She had the quickest fancy, a gift tike her brother’s for the tune of words. Like him,
she had a taste for the theatre. She stood at the stage door; she wanted to act, she said. Men laughed in her face. The mana¬
ger-a fat, loose-lipped man-guffawed. He bellowed something about poodles dancing and women acting-no woman, he
said, could possibly be an actress. He hinted-you can imagine what. She could get no training in her craft. Could she even
seek her dinner in a tavern or roam the streets at midnight.... at last Nick Greene the actor-manager took pity on her; she
found herself with child by that gentleman and so-who shall measure the heat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught
and tangled in a woman's body?—killed herself one winter’s night and lies buried at some crossroads where the omnibuses
now stop....
Virginia Woolf
A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN
Its ALL RIGHT TO BE WOMAN
Theatre
ones from our lives,dream plays, music,chants&crankies
65
r
ITS ALL RIGHT TO BE WOMAN
Theatre
“The subject of our theatre is our dreams, our joy, our anger, our lives.. . . Our costumes are
whatever we happen to be wearing, our props are our own bodies with an occasional milk crate,
mask, or piece of cloth.”
It’s All Right to be Woman Theatre presents warm and spontaneous vignettes about woman’s experience.
The women write, act, direct, and create the music for the Theatre collectively. Improvisation, dream plays,
music, chants, and crankies are used to tell “stories from our lives.”
It’s All Right to be Woman Theatre performs at colleges, in community buildings, and anywhere women
gather.
IT’S ALL RIGHT TO BE A WOMAN THEATRE
c/o Gretchen Davis, 2680 Broadway, New York, New York 10025
(212) 663-5999
CRANKIES
Cranky is a frame of mind, but a CRANKIE is something else again, it is a
homemade storytelling device very much like a paper television, it gets its
name from a scroll of paper that is cranked from left to right, pulling the
pictures, words, shapes, and forms painted on it across the screen. ...
Since I’ve become a "crankie crank, "I’ve seen crankies performing their
magic in many situations, in consciousness-raising groups, for example,
women who are trying to share life experiences have used crankies to express
individual feelings and also to express shared feelings when the whole group
creates one together.
My theater group illustrated poetry with crankies. For a poem about the
struggles of women throughout history, I set the verses to music, transferred
the notes to a crankie roll, and we all sang along as the crankie revolved. In
fact, we were so turned on by the form that we created a human crankie using
out bodies as the materials.
A woman’s group from San Francisco mounted a large crankie on a step-
ladder (for greater visibility) and used it for street theater. Their theme was
the "herstory " of women; while one woman operated the crankie, another
narrated. Because this crankie was large and portable, the women were able
to reach greater numbers of people. (For information about their crankie,
write to The Woman's Street Theater, Peoples Press, 968 Valencia Street,
San Francisco, California 04110)....
The size of the crankie is usually determined by the width of
the paper roll. The wooden frame should be at least 2 inches
higher than the width of the paper roll. To attach the paper to
thi;. frame, wind the end of the story around a cardboard tube
and roll back to the beginning, attaching the beginning to
pole A. Slip pole B through the cardboard tube.
Crankie Without a Frame
An adequate margin should be
left at both ends of the story
to allow for tape and leverage.
Attach the end of the story to
pole B and roll back to the be-
gfjlhing. Then attach the front
<fnd to pole A.
Crankies can be made in any size with almost any kind of paper. / havt
used adding-machine paper, which is plentiful and cheap. A painted milk
carton with the front cut out and with pencils for turners makes a good fi
for an adding-machine crankie. For larger crankies, / prefer plain white sh
paper in rolls. Large rolls are available in hardware stores; thicker, supersh
rolls can be found in art supply stores. Pencils, pens, crayons, ink felt mar,
fast-drying watercolor paints and acrylics are excellent drawing tools. Brit,
colored Con- Tact paper and stickers like gold stars work fine to illustrate,
points in your crankie....
Milk-Carton Crankie Frame
ftpcfl*
Cl*+
fbink/
milk ufhn
ddinj michi,
>
A painted milk carton with the front cut out and with pencil
ape:* -
for turners makes a good frame for an adding-machine pap
crankie. a
__ t
It all sounds so simple, almost childish, that until you are actually scr.
bling or cranking away, you cannot anticipate how effectively the most i
tense and personal stories are reduced to a simple clarity that gets right t
heart of the matter.
SUE PERLGUT
in MS. Magazine, May 1973
ei
I
in
tc
«.
hs
66
WESTBETH
PLAYWRIGHTS
FEMINIST
COLLECTIVE
Yes. the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collec-
started out as a tenants’ association bargaining
'tli the landlords at the Westbeth Artists’ Residence
the west side of New York City. The group turned
Hts attention from political activity to doing readings
jof members plays. Actor-tenants - female and male -
recalled on to do readings so that the playwrights
Id have the opportunity of hearing their work per-
icd. Although feminism was never discussed as an
tein early meetings, the group’s own conscious-
t became apparent. Members began writing plays
iut topics that affected women—specifically about
•ape.
The play about rape developed into an evening of
’wen's plays entitled RAPE-IN, produced in the
iem6/y Theater in New York in May 1971. Since
the group was working within the traditional theater
Kructutc with actors and directors interested in
their own craft and not in feminism, the play was only
feminist theater from a thematic point of view.
After RAPE-IN, the group produced UP! AN
IPPITY REVUE at the Westbeth Cabaret in February
md March 1972 — only this time a woman directed.
IP! AN UPPITY REVUE explored the various roles
that women are forced to play in life. Other perform¬
ances include FAMILY, FAMILY in which the nuclear
unily is brought on stage, but men and women take
C osite roles, and INTERVIEW in which rious
interviews are humorously depicted.
The Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective
works within a non-authoritarian group structure—
j the playwrights produce, and the director is theoretic-
ply answerable to the collective. In turn, the director
tself treats rehearsals in a non-authoritarian manner,
touraging the actors to contribute ideas and sugges-
ns.
| In addition to producing plays, the Collective
nu an active playwrights’ workshops which tours
schools and colleges in the New York State area.
Ilie Collective is building a repertory of plays written
nr women based on self-awareness through indiv¬
idual consciousness-raising.
The members of the group have themselves under¬
gone considerable changes raising their own con¬
sciousness since their beginning. According to one
®f the Westbeth feminists, "I automatically wrote
Hays about men when I first began writing — and was
•“vised to do so, because men can do so much more.”
Those days are over for the Westbeth Feminists.
WESTBETH PLAYWRIGHTS FEMINIST COLLECTIVI
463 West Street, Studio 402D
New York, New York 10014
(212)691-0015
EARTH ONION WOMEN’S THEATER
1832Park Road.N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20010
'202) 462-4242
Who says that ‘Svomen’s libbers” have no sense of
K not? Whoever, it is, has never seen the Earth Onion
eater groun perform. The group’s show “Woman
totion is taken from the life experiences of the nine
Contributing members and is a comic presentation of
!he problems women are faced with.
Woman Potion” is narrated by a witch who is
rearing a potion which will clarify the reasons for
romen's discontentment. The potion is a fine witch’s
[lend of vignettes about women - ranging from a
fustrated, fragmented “super-Mom type” to a girl on
•ne of her first dates.
Earth Onion is made up of nine members who have
een together since 1971, performing at colleges and
omniunity centers. All the women work collectively
Ifd share in all aspects of the workload.
ALIVE & TRUCKING THEATER
A women’s conference in Madison, Wisconsin
catalyzed the Alive and Trucking Theater. During
the summer of 1971, the Minneapolis contingent saw
the Madison Street Theater perform ‘The Independent
Female or ' A Man Has His Pride” and decided that
Minneapolis needed its own theater group.
Both women and men formed the Alive and Trucking
Theater. The group performed in public parks for
women’s groups and radical organizations until they
found a theater building.
In its permanent home, Alive and Trucking Thea¬
ter has developed a repertory of plays of which the best
is “Pig in a Blanket” which includes a rape scene, a
bedroom conversation between a couple who had just
made love, and a family of apes turning into Barbie and
Ken dolls!!!
The group has added two children and three musicians
to the troupe; and is branching out in subject matter
(plays about women’s history) and activities (women’s
theater workshops).
“Pig in a Blanket” is available in book form with
other Alive and Trucking Plays.
Write to:
ALIVE AND TRUCKING THEATER
2746 Stevens Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota
THANK-YOU THEATER
c/o Women’s Center
218 South Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
(213)8234774
Four feminist performers, one sound-woman and
one-light-woman comprise the Los Angeles Women’s
THANK-YOU THEATER. The six women present the
play, “Free This Day,” a fast-moving selection of
seven scenes in trial form.
The play is a shocker, a sweeping denunciation of
the patriarchy which has raped women physically and
mentally. All our foremothers are there: Eve, Atalanta,
Zelda, Gertrude, and Ophelia. . . . The dialogue of
the play is at times so extremely beautiful, so lyrical,
and at other points so shrill.”
In one of its humorous points, the play presents a
trial about Adam and Eve. In testifying against Adam,
Eve states, “I thought he was hungry. I gave him an
apple.”
After the play, the cast sits down with the audience to
discussion reactions and give a view of the Women’s
Movement. The play is like a consciousness-raising
session, releasing the rage inside and then in the after¬
session allowing for the sharing of experiences.
, “Free This Day” has been used as a consciousness-
raiser many times over in the greater Los Angeles area
and has introduced many LA-women to the Women’s
Movement.
W0MANS0NG THEATRE
"Now is the time for women. Women are making
changes in their lives. The ‘happy housewife’ isn’t so
happy any more. ‘Sweet Young Thing’ has turned sour
- she hasn’t got time to wait for the phone to ring
(she’s too busy installing them). And America’s sex
objects are realizing that the old ‘gotta get your man’
game ain’t what it’s cracked up to be.
“Women are examining their traditional roles -
teeny bopper, hip chick, dike, coed, working girl,
bride-to-be, housewife, mother, career woman,
wall flower, old maid. We are all beginning to see that
these roles are created by men. And a woman’s value
is determined by how well she performs.
“Womansong Theatre is these women, and they
are outrageous. The ten women write their own songs,
skits, mimes and madness. The subject is women.
‘Davida Frosting,’ that charming hostess, interviews
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Peckerhead in a spoof on hetero¬
sexuality. ’Our Clothes Are Our Roles’ is a radically
different kind of fashion show. Another skit, ‘War is
Rape,’ makes a strong analogy between rape and im¬
perialism. Other issues that Womansong examines are
women’s relationships to men and sexist ideologies
from Freud to the Rolling Stones.”
With finely-fashioned drama and razor-sharp
humor, Womansong deals a double-barreled blow to
the enemies of Women’s Liberation. It is no exaggeration
to say that Womansong is the wittiest and finest example
of women’s theatre we’ve seen.
Womansong can perform a two hour show for your
college, organization or theatre. For further informa¬
tion about rates and dates available, call or write:
W0MANS0NG THEATRE
WOMANSONG THEATRE
P.O. Box 15462
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
(404) 872-8422
67
MOUNTAIN MOVING DAY by THE CHICAGO AND NEW HAVEN WOMEN’S LIBERATION BANDS
Mountain Moving Day is a collectors’ item for feminists and rock fans. It is the first record cut by the first two
feminist rock bands to grow out of the Women’s Movement.
“All of us wanted to create a new kind of band and a new kind of music, though we had no clear idea how to do
that. We knew what we didn’t want: the whole male rock trip with its insulting lyrics, battering ram style and con¬
tempt for the audience. We didn’t want to write the female counterpart of songs like ‘Under My Thumb,’ ‘Back-
Street Girl, 'It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ where men say to us ‘you’re beneath contempt and we will celebrate
your degradation.’ We had to think of some other way to make a hit besides bumping and grinding like Mick Jagger,
raping ancburningour guitars like Jimi Hendrix, or wacking off on stage like Jim Morrison. We didn’t want to pul¬
verize our audience’s (and our own) eardrums with 1010 decibels. As performers we didn’t want to get off by
trashing the people we played for, and we didn’t want to have a star backed up by a squad of secondary musicians.
“But what did we want anyway? We knew that we wanted to make music that would embody the radical,
feminist, humanitarian vision we shared. And they lyrics were the obvious place to begin - the field was wide open.
Most of the rock songs women have sung till now were about the pain men cause us — the pain that’s supposed to
define us as women. We didn’t want to deny that tradition (women struggled hard for the right to sing even that
much) but we wanted to sing about how the pain doesn’t have to be there — how we fight and struggle and love to
make it change.
“What we all want to do is use the power of rock
to transform what the world is like into a vision of
what the world could be like; create an atmosphere
where women are free enough to struggle to be free,
and make a new kind of culture that is an affirmation
of ourselves and of all people.”
MOUNTAIN MOVING DAY contains right-on
feminist songs written by the Chicago and New
Haven Women’s Liberation Rock Banks including
“Secretary,” “Ain’t Gonna Marry,” “Abortion Song,”
“Sister Witch” and the beautiful title song, “Mountain
Moving Day.” Although the Chicago group is no
longer playing together, the New Haven Women’s
Liberation Rock Band is still doing performances for
feminist occasions.
Order from:
ROUNDER RECORDS
727 Somerville Ave.
Somerville, Mass. 02143
$3.50/ each
For bookings, write:
NEW HAVEN WOMEN’S
LIBERATION ROCK BAND
1504 Boulevard
New Haven, Conn. 06511
ORDER F ROM ROUND! R RI COH
66 Park Street. Somerville. Massachusetts. 0?
PRICE LIST
1 • 4 alburnt
$3.6
6 • IS albums (ureoaid) $2.6
S • 10 albums (on consignment)
$2 7
$76
16 • 24 albums (aranaidl _ $2 2
CO
Enclosed please find $_lor
TO:
ilbums
(name o» orpr
.(addrvsil
<1 tip i
68
he Family Of Woman
I "Picture this: the first National Lesbian Conference ever held . . . lesbians from all over the nation have ‘come out
nno Pu- 103 concerns ’ emotional preoccupations theoretical conceptions ... the UCLA campus
abounding with 1200 lesbian women with axes to grind, sisterhood to build, heads to get together, and a lot of
.idge to share ... . meetings, workshops, displays of artistry are hectically taking place ... so many things to
i ” ”*" y m “ e WOme " ,h “ ■ • • P'of-™ 1 when i,
J)n the last night of the conference, though, all of the pressure was transformed into a vivid, dynamic milieu of
bdamy and joy, as a lesbian feminist musical group from Chicago finally got their ‘time’ and brought the tension
circle to an overwhelming display of togetherness and love.
"That's how Joan Capra, member of the FAMILY OF WOMAN, the nation’s only publicly declared lesbian
mimst group of musicians (they stress they are not a rock band), described the scene in L.A.
I "mE FAMILY OF WOMAN began 10 months ago (August 1972), as four women playing music for a Chicago
gf Liberation-Women s Center benefit. They did not decide formally to become a group until after that concert
W, since then, have gotten engagements in towns (particularly college towns) all over the Midwest. Many of their
tans are written by members of the group, which includes Linda Shear, Vocals,piano, and electric guitar; Judy
Handler, vocals and bass guitar; Ella Szekeley, drums;
SING ALONG WITH THE
LIBERATED SPIRIT!
At last, a stereo album that puts
the movement into music, pro¬
duced and engineered, written and
sung by women.
Stomp and learn, smile, march and
feel a joyous support from these
songs of sisterhood. The 12 selec¬
tions on VIRGO RISING sing of
the strength and humor of the
whole woman, the reality of wel¬
fare mothers, the collapse of the
romance dream, man's role in a
woman's world.
So, Sing Along With:
Malvina Reynolds and Janet Smith,
Nancy Raven, Charley’s Aunts and
Kit Miller.
Royalties from VIRGO RISING will go
to the Women's Action Alliance —
West.
r ORDER RECORD FROM: “i
j THUNDERBIRD RECORDS
• 325 Flint, Reno, Nevada 89501 1
_ records @ $5.95 ea.
. cassettes @ $6.95 ea. j
-tapes @ $7.95 ea.
Add 500 per record, cassette or tape
to cover postage and handling.
BANK AMERICARD NO_
J name
|
| MdfM!
1
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t city
^ *ut«
zip
...
- D—-*■** > y , vji mild,
and Joan Capra, vocals and violin. Their own songs are
very well arranged, as are the songs they do that are
written by others (Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman,’
John Prine’s ‘Angel From Montgomery,’ Donovan’s
‘Season of the Witch,’ and It’s a Beautiful Day’s
‘White Bird.’)
“Whether their songs are original or not, they
all convey messages concerning the oppression of
women — past and present, the unique position of
the lesbian, the ‘dynamic’ of being a woman, and
the power and manifestations of love between women.
Whatever a song may lack in lyrics, the group makes
up with some of the most emotional declarations that
I have ever sensed in performing musicians. A
FAMILY OF WOMAN concert is an emotional ex¬
perience, not only for lesbian women, but for all
women.
“The group would prefer that men do not attend
their concerts, as they are designed strictly for
women. All women are welcome. The group, how¬
ever, does not ignore the oppression that lesbian
women may face from their straight sisters. As in
the song, ‘Together Alone,’ it is made clear that
certain strides for lesbian women can only be con¬
ceived and directed by lesbian women. In ‘Rainbow
Race,’ however, there is a tender plea for female soli¬
darity in which the musicians sing to their sisters,
• • • Judy, youngest member of the group, (an absolute
experience singing and ‘guitaring’ “Season of the
Witch’) has written (and sings) two mildly feminist songs
that are just great, which all women are certain to
identify with. They are ‘Leave Me Alone,’ a command
to men to stop treating women like ‘pieces of meat’
and ‘Going Steady,’ a parody of a young girl devoting
herself to her boyfriend at a very early age.
“One of the most uplifting experiences in the
world has to be Linda Shear’s singing. The songs ‘Family
of Woman’ (which she wrote), Dylan’s ‘Just Like a
Woman,’ and ‘She was Good to Me - Let Them Talk
(a medley of two love longs dedicated specifically to
lesbian women) are sung with such feeling, depth and
tenderness, creating a catharsis, to say the least . . .
Joan is fantastic on the violin, adding just the type of
variation a group needs to give it a certain musical stamp,
making it unique . . . For any woman, no matter what
the level of her consciousness, the experience of seeing anc
hearing a Family of Woman concert is sure to be a
significant one, one that will leave her more positive about
her place in the world.” by Bonnie Taman
CHICAGO EXPRESS, June 27
-July 3, 1973
The FAMILY OF WOMAN has adopted the principle
of not participating in anything from which men profit
— this includes being interviewed for this catalog. We
were, however, treated to a private impromptu perform¬
ance which more than verified the wild enthusiasm these
musicians spark among women everywhere.
For booking information, contact:
JOAN NIXON
836 W. Newport
Chicago, Illinois 60657
(312) 935-5078
“HYSTERESIS”
Musical composition is an area in which it is as
difficult for a woman to be treated seriously - and
fairly — as in the Playboy Club. Of course, women
can play the cello and do modern dance, but
serious composition is abstract; it’s like chess and
astronomy and mathematics - and, like blacks,
women just don’t have the right kind of genes, or
glands, or something, to contribute to this dimension
of human civilization.
But talented and creative women do not any
longer just fade into the background (read home-
front) when they run into “this is serious - men
only” discrimination and exclusion.
Tired of being shut out, eleven Mills College
women joined together to create and perform elec¬
tronic music. Electronic! Women! But what about
the hardware, the amps, the output? The music is
performed in a mixed media setting aimed to produce
an hysteresis effect on their audiences. When groups
hire “Hysteresis” for a performance, they them¬
selves become part of an experience of art, com¬
position, video, dance, and writing — all from a
Feminist perspective!
For information about engagements and per¬
formance write to:
HYSTERESIS
P.O. Box 9383
Mills College
Oakland, California
A FEW LOVING WOMEN
“LFL is very excited and proud to be distribut¬
ing an album of lesbian feminist performers. The
idea for this album came about the Sunday we
made posters for the Gay Pride March. The video
tape crew, LOVE, was showing tapes from the prior
Performers’ Sunday when Claire had a flash. She’d
been thinking how great it would be to have a record
of the music she was hearing. Suddenly she rushed
to the phone and a week later the record had been
cut and was on its way. It is now in its second
pressing and available through LFL.
The music ranges from soft ballads, country,
folk, rock, and original sounds. It is an album
by, for, and about lesbians ....
The performers include Ali, Lee Crespi, Connie
Benna, Bici Forbes, Jeriann Hilderley, Roberta
Kosse, Arlene Minidis, Margaret Sloan, Mary
Solberg, and Lucy Martha Wilde. All proceeds
from the sale of this record go to LFL.
Available from:
LESBIAN FEMINIST LIBERATION
P.O. Box 243
Village Station, N.Y. N.Y. 10014
*
69
Feminist Women’s Health Centers
•he FEMINIST WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTER in Los Angeles is the mother of them all. It grew out of the
original Los Angeles self-help group (described in intro.), developed into a women’s health center, offering a variety
of services, and has itself spawned numerous self-help groups as well as two other FEMINIST WOMEN’S HEALTH
CENTERS in Santa Ana and Oakland. Within the next year, they even anticipate opening up a women’s hospital!
Each Center offers on-going free self-help courses through which women can learn self-examination, use of the
speculum and in general find out about their bodies. They also provide free pregnancy screening and counseling. At
their gynecology clinic, which started as of August, 1973, a woman who has a gynecological need can opt for one of
UPPER FOR DOWNER
Carol Downer, co-director of the FEMINIST
WHEN'S HEALTH CENTER, was acquitted of
\ charges of "practicing medicine without a li¬
cense. "She was arrested after having helped a
friend diagnose a yeast Infection and insert
yoghurt as treatment. The law defines practicing
medicine as diagnosing and treating a disease.
Downer's defense attorney, Diane Wayne, said
the statute was so vague that she "wouldn't be
dWe to discuss a cold with a friend or offer her a
• Kleenex for it" and "half the mothers in the
[county could be charged with diagnosing that
I their children had the measles.
Though the FEMINIST HEA L TH COLLEC¬
TIVE had consulted a lawyer when they began
i their program of self-help health care, the law
hwsso vague that it took a test case to find out
whether this type of health care is legal. Carol
Downer believes that this case has set a precedent
so that the self-help clinics may continue their
... . r A I I - - -wiiivw au. uy tilt Sldlt Ul
California. The Los Angeles abortion clinic, located about 2 blocks away from the health center, is a very comfort
able and cheerful place that opened last March. Here a woman can get an abortion up to the 12th week. The abor-
flnn In _J _.... J. I I i • 1 n II 1 1 ,
# § r - - e>”- ~ ^ ys J a oy iupaim.ui. WUIIIdll LUUII5UL
and although the abortion itself is performed by a male physician, the women paramedics handle all the rest. The
Women s Choice Clinic in Oakland has even managed to get a woman doctor who performs vacuum aspirator abor¬
tions up to the first 9 weeks of pregnancy.
, pregnancy.
The fees charge at the abortion clinics help to support the services of the health centers and pay the salaries of the
stall members. The Los Angeles center has 15 full-time staffers, who, in addition to their counseling and paramedi¬
cal work, also have speaking engagements and even cross-country tours to help women in other parts of the country
start their own clinics. Recently the staff has produced
three videotapes, including one on self-examination and
one on menopause, which are available for purchase for
$30.00. Although it is often argued that these services
■ should be free, thereby requiring all volunteer labor, the
FEMINIST WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTERS believe that
women T
that they
from OFF OUR BACKS, December 1972
should be paid a living wage for their work, so
can survive materially while devoting their
energies to the movement.
The women of the FEMINIST WOMEN’S HEALTH
CENTER believe that to maintain an efficient and ef¬
fective feminist clinic, the staff needs structure. Carol
Downer, one of the founders of the self-help movement
and active member of the FEMINIST WOMEN’S
HEALTH CENTER, has explained that “structure” in
the organization of the Center does not mean rigidity
or authoritarianism: “We have simple structures such as
sign-in sheets and bulletin boards and in-out-baskets,
and we have sophisticated structures, such as forms,
training sessions, personnel files, and thick policy. As
feminists, we are careful to have an OPEN structure,
maximal participation in policy making activities, and
we have a profound commitment to struggle to achieve
not only the ideals of equalitarianism, but we are also
determined to make the structure work for us, not us
for the structure.” (SISTER, July 1973: $3.00 for
twelve issues from 218 South Venice Boulevard, Venice,
California 90291.)
In order to train women to staff women’s health fa¬
cilities, each center runs a 7-week summer session. Each
session is limited to 6 women and costs $150.00. They
provide practical training and experience in telephone
counseling, working in a women’s medical clinic, hos¬
pital counseling, conducting educational workshops on
health care and self-help clinics, and overall business
experience.
In discussing the politics of women’s health care, the
centers state that “as both the consumers of our health
care (as women) and the providers of that care, we are
in a far more realistic position to determine relevant
health care for women. In this way the FEMINIST
WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTER departs from all other
existing traditional medical services which keep women
in a dependent position by the health authority, usually
male, pontificating on what is good for women. The
FEMINIST WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTERS have
broken through the mystique which maintains such an
absurd situation and is successful in making real changes
in the imbalance of power. In addition, the educational
Self-Help Clinics are demystifying the long kept ‘secrets’
by sharing of information and experience.”
A self-help gynecological slide show is available from:
FEMINIST WOMEN'S HEALTH CENTERS
746 South Crenshaw
Los Angeles, California 90005
(213) 936-7219
429 South Sycamore Street
Santa Ana, California 92701
(714) 547-0327
WITH MY SPECULUM,
^ I AM STRONG! r
\ I CAN FIGHT! /
444 - 48th Street
reprinted from the cover of SISTER lulv 1973 Oakland, California 94706
(415)653-2130
n r
The Vermont Women’s Health Center got started
in January, 1972 after a Vermont supreme court de¬
cision liberalized the abortion law in Vermont. A
group of 40 community women, including two
women physicians, married and single women, women
with and without children, feminists and non-femin¬
ists, developed the idea of a women’s clinic, incor¬
porated, and spent thousands of woman hours setting
up the clinic. 812,000 and three months later the
clinic opened. The money had been raised through a
bank loan and personal contributions.
In addition to two women doctors certified in
obstetrics and gynecology, the staff includes four
full-time and eight part-time paramedics who work
as a collective, rotating functions that range from
answering the telephone to laboratory work. The
E aramedical personnel do pap smears, VD tests, draw
lood, give injections, give emergency first aid, do
pelvic examinations. Abortions are performed by
three male and one female doctors. The staff salaries
as well as the other costs of maintaining the center
are financed through patient fees which are computed
on a sliding scale. (Ten volunteers are currently being
trained to supplement the paid staff.)
The Vermont Women’s Health Center is located in
the large basement of a doctor’s office in Burlington.
Women from the New England feminist journal,
FULL MOON who visited the clinic describe the
physical space as including “a large reception area,
two counseling rooms, two examining rooms, two
bathrooms, a small lab, recovery room No. 1 which
has four beds, and recovery room No. 2 which is for
sitting, coffee, and group interaction. We spent about
half an hour walking through the rooms looking at
the equipment, at the bulletin boards, at the posters,
and the feminist literature. We found the atmosphere
warm and the colors of orange, yellow and blue ap¬
pealing. In one of the examining rooms, above the
examining table, there was on the ceiling, a poster of
mountain views from the Sierra Club. . . .’’
The same article also detailed the organizational
structure of the Vermont Women’s Health Clinic:
“For the purpose of incorporation, there was a formal
Board of Directors set up. There are seventeen women
on the board, all of them from the original group of
forty. . . . One of the board members is on the staff,
but otherwise the board members do not participate
directly in patient care. Board meetings are open for
anyone to attend and contribute to the decision¬
making process. The Board basically deals with the
financial aspects of running the Center. . . . The staff
also meets regularly as a unit ... to deal with prob¬
lems of running the Center: case problems, opera¬
tional difficulties, financial and interpersonal hassles.
There are a number of conflicts among the staff
which have yet to be worked out, with which many
of us in the women’s movement can readily identify.
One of the conflicts is between full- and part-time
workers. Although the rate of pay is the same, three
dollars per hour, there is still a feeling of hierarchy
involved. It is harder for the part-time workers to
take full responsibility for the operating of the clinic
even for the time they are there. They do not attend
staff meetings nor are they as likely to attend Board
meetings as regularly as full-time workers. An aspect
of this is that all the part-time women have family
responsibilities which seem to affect their involvement
level. These kinds of organization problems will prob¬
ably intensify with the introduction of the ten volun¬
teer women who will probably spend even less time
at the Vermont Women’s Health Center, as well as
not being paid.” — FULL MOON, No. 2, 200 Main
Street, Northampton, Massachusetts.
In spite of its organizational growing pains, the
Vermont Women’s Health Center offers an impressive
array of health services for women within a feminist
context. . . .
72
ARADIA CLINIC
4224 University Way, N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
ME 4-2090
THE WOMEN’S HEALTH CLINIC
3537 S.E. Hawthorne Boulevard
Portland, Oregon 97214
234-9774
Aradia Clinic was started to provide quality health
care for women and also to challenge establishment
medical practices. It began in the spring of 1971,
when the women of the University YWCA in Seattle
wrote a grant proposal to HEW for funds. A woman
architect drew up plans and, starting in the fall of
1971, community women began constructing the
clinic. In January, 1972, HEW granted the clinic
$50,000 for a year’s operation. Now Aradia has six
paid workers and several volunteer workers who offer
free medication and services to women of the area. In
the interest of furthering women’s self-help, the clinic
also teaches the techniques of self-examination.
Besides educating lab and paramedic workers on
the physiological aspects of running a clinic for
women, Aradia also carries on political education,
discussing such topics as why Aradia and other
women’s clinics were started, the ways in which
women were dissatisfied with health care and the
way it is traditionally practiced, health care as a right
or a privilege, the relationship between sexism and
the medical establishment, how we are mystified by
health care and our own bodies.
A group of women in Portland who felt tliai
specific needs of women were not being answe
the medical establishment saw the alternative i
women’s clinic where women could help each
With the help of private donations, they opened!
clinic, but not without difficulty. First came t!
charges by professionals that they were not q
to do lab work and pregnancy counseling. The!
OEO branch that had been providing partial ful
for the clinic cut off funds because the wome
refused to set up an administrative hierarchy,
clinic has instead functioned without a doctor.!
women wanted to avoid the problems which resg
when doctors by virtue of their superior titles «
they know everything and intimidate patientsal
subordinate staff. The women have bypassed th
problems of professionalism and mystification!
medical care by doing all the work in the clinic,
medical and administrative, themselves. They h
furthermore opted for an all-volunteer staff ini
to prevent the development of hierarchical divi
between paid and volunteer, full-time and part-
staff. There are presently forty volunteers at th/
The name ARADIA was chosen because it sym¬
bolizes the return of health care to women, with
whom it originated. Aradia was a mythological pre-
Christian female messiah. She was sent to earth by
Tana, the earth-mother, to teach people of earth how
to grow crops and care for the land, how to care for
themselves and their bodies.
clinic who teach courses on women’s bodies in
high schools and offer community education c
on herbal medicine, sexuality, birth control an
abortion. As they have adopted as their stated
ciple that good health is not something you shi
have to buy, all services except the therapy are
vided free.
WHAT WE OFFER
li your concern b— Our services are— And you should know
Contraception
Counseling
Examination
All methods are provided
If you choose the IUD, it should be inserted dk
menstruation
- J
Detection of pregnancy j
Urine test
Pelvic exam
Counseling
Bring in first voided urine of morning in jar oi
than mayonnaise, peanut butter or aspirin. 1
Refrigerate until transported to clinic. Wait ulfL
period is 2 weeks late. U
Menstruation or menopause
• knowledge
• problems
Counseling
Examination
For these and similar problems, we will discui
you:
• results of tests
• the nature of the disease or problem 1
• preventative measures
• treatment if necessary
We will make appropriate referrals when ne<^
or requested.
l
r
N
o
Prevention or detection of
breast or cervical cancer
Breast exam and instruction
for self-exam
Pap smear and pelvic exam
Urinary tract infection
(burning, frequent, uncom¬
fortable urination)
Diagnostic exams
Information
Treatment
Prescription
Vaginitis
(vaginal burning, itching,
uncomfortable discharge)
Diagnostic exams
Information
Treatment
Venereal disease
Diagnostic exams
• culture
• blood test
Information
Treatment
Unplanned Pregnancy
Diagnosis
Examination
Counseling
Termination
We provide termination of pregnancy by vao)
aspiration up to 12 weeks of pregnancy 1
Unmarried women under 18 require a guardL
consent for termination.
We will make referrals to agencies or physidL
the area when necessary. We encourage and^
follow-up visits.
Education:
• anatomy
• physiology
• sexuality
Self-help programs:
• Prenatal and
postnatal care
• Nutrition
• Recovery from mas¬
tectomy, hysterectomy,
etc.
Discussion groups
Books
Movies
Speakers
Outreach
We feel that these programs and activities
grow out of the needs and interests of comn/t
women. 1
We welcome your creativity, encouragemetf *
participation la
•s
>t.
d
•g
&
----
VERMONT WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTER
P.O. Box 29
Burlington, Vermont 05401
a.
di
:c
E
HOW TO TAKE THE WORRY
OUT OF BEING CLOSE:
AN EGG & SPERM HANDBOOK
VOLUNTARY STERILIZATION
DALKDN SHIELD
(actual si 2 e)
For Men:
Vasectomy is a 15-30 minute minor ope
under a local anaesthetic in the doctor’s of
clinic or hospital. The doctor closes the tiny
tubes through which sperm travel. The sper
then unable to enter the semen and no sper
discharged during intercourse.
For Women:
Sterilization involves tying the tubes thr
which the egg passes each month. The egg >
longer enter the womb—thus conception is
vented. This procedure is more complicated t
vasectomy and requires a few days stay in a
from a pamphlet prepared by:
THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF PLANN
PARENTHOOD-WORLD POPULATION
810 Seventh Avenue 1
New York, New York 10019
A - BLADDER G - OVARY
B - PUBIC BONE H - UTERUS
C - UREIHRA I - CERVIX
D - CLITORIS J - DIAPHRACM
E - LABIA K - VAGINA
F - FALLOPIAN TUBE
DIAPHRACM
LIPPIES LOOP
(actual size)
IS YOUR DIAPHRAGM JELLY
LETHAL-TO YOU?
HOW TO HAVE INTERCOURSE ...
WITHOUT GETTING SCREWED
In the past couple of years information has
surfaced about the dangers of mercury in our en¬
vironment and the poisonings that can result from
it....
A GUIDE TO BIRTH CONTROL, ABORTIO
VENEREAL DISEASE, prepared by The A
Students of the University of Washington
by Marian Johnson Gray and Roger W. Gray
HoW To
TAKE the Worry
6UT qo^
Mercury is of particular concern to women for
two reasons. First, methyl mercury, the most
ubiquitous and dangerous form o f mercury, is
known to cross the placenta from the mother to
the fetus and to preferentially concentrate in the
fetus. It is the most potent agent known for in¬
ducing damage to chromosomes and hence causes
certain birth defects.
Secondly, a well-known brand of spermicide for
use with the diaphragm contains mercury in the
form of Phenyl mercuric acetate (PMA ).
A Japanese researcher, M. Shimizu, studied the
effects of this product on rats. His results, pub¬
lished in July of 1971 by the Japanese Obstetrical
and Gynecological Society, proved THA T MER-
CUR Y CAN BE ABSORBED THROUGH THE
VAGINA L WALLS AND THA TSOME INJUR Y
TO THE KIDNEYS MA Y OCCUR BY THE
REPEA TED USE OF PMA AS A CONTRACEP¬
TIVE. This product contains 400 times the Food
and Drug Administration's Limit on mercury in
fish (half a teaspoonful of pure PMA taken orally
would be lethal to the average person), so the
spermicide is of particular danger to those who
do oral sex.
Other brands of spermicides do not contain
mercury and are definitely preferable to that one
which does contain mercury. Check the package
of your spermicide to see if it contains mercury.
HOW
TO HAVE
INTERCOURSE.
WITHOUT
CETTIN
SCREWE
This pamphlet was written for the use of Univ'
of Washington students, to provide them with
basic information on conception, contraccpti
abortion, vaginal infection and VD. In addi
from LIBERATION NEWS SERVICE
AN EPx* ANo S psm NAN°B%K
IUD AND ANTIBIOTICS
MARIAN J. GRAY
P.O. Box 2822
Oakland, California 94618
504 includes postage
Physicians are still telling women that they do
not know how the IUD works. They maintain this
position to women consumers years after scien¬
tists have shown that the action of the IUD is to
set up a low-grade infection of inflammation in
the uterine lining, thereby preventing implanta¬
tion of a fertilized ovum. If a woman takes aspir¬
in, she is likely to counter this inflammation,
allowing implantation and thus pregnancy to
ensue. Doctors should warn women who take
antibiotics or large doses of aspirin while de¬
pending on an IUD, to cover with another form
of birth control.
the clear information on these subjects, inclu
an excellent chart on the estrogen and proges(
levels in each brand and type of birth control,
there is specific information on the services and
cies in the Seattle area. The pamphlet concl
placing the practical information in a thcore
text with a discussion of female sexuality fro
a feminist and sociological point of view.
In this booklet, birth control methods, or “a
tives to abstinence,” are thoroughly descri
discussed in terms of their advantages, disad
and effectiveness, in their humorous presen
the authors try to remind you that sex is fu
necessary precautions are taken.
From:
UNIVERSITY YWCA
University of Washington
4224 University Way, N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
by Kay Weiss
ADVOCATES FOR MEDICAL INFORMATION
35^ plus postage
FB1ALE FRONT VIEW (KITH LOOP)
EGG IN OVARY
OVARIES
FALLOPIAN TUBES
LOOP IN UTERUS
CERVIX
VAGINA
1O0P BEING INSERTED INTO UTERUS
THCONTROL HANDBOOK
Authoritative, readable information on birth con-
conscious of the way birth control availability is
ted by sexist, racist and profit-oriented attitudes,
he booklet - what more could anyone ask? It’s
1IRTH CONTROL HANDBOOK published by a
dive in Montreal.... The handbook combines rec-
ion of the necessity for dependable birth control
S preeiation of the dancers of forced population
jthc international and racial dimensions are
nually included, and the book begins with a
i summary of the relationship between popula-
:ontrol, utilization of natural resources and pol-
WOMEN’S PRESS, May 1973
then thoroughly discusses the available and ex-
icntal methods of birth control. According to
CH, the pill is “an endocrinological insult to the
Ic body,” but then the reader is reminded, after
ut it docs work exceedingly well. On the 1UD,
ollectivc claims that, “(it) is neither harmless nor
relive as the manufacturing companies claim. It
[possible at this point to determine exactly how
(women die as a direct result of IUD use (possi-
tom perforation); it is known, however, that ma-
innicn die during or after normal pregnancy
a300 per million pregnancies) and that some
Musing an IUD become pregnant.” For more
mation on the risk of death with various contra-
vc methods, check the chart reproduced below
the BCH. This remains the most comprehensive,
handbook on birth control; every woman should
it.
Ibooks arc available from:
m CONTROL HANDBOOK
Box 1000
on "G”
tteal 130, Quebec
iADA
(idual orders free
25< to cover
age and handling.
Are you on the Pill ?
Th«r« are many different brands of the birth control pill. You should use a brand containing
the least possible amount of estrogen.
Estrogen and progesterone are the two female hormones that make up all birth control pills.
Medical studies have shown estrogen to cause most side effects to the Pill. Such side effects
are usually harmless and temporary; however, a small number of women taking the Pill do
experience dangerous complications.
Not more than .05 milligrams of estrogen in each tablet is necessary to ensure 100% contra-
ceptive protection. The following brands of the birth control pill contain not more than .05
maligrams of estrogen in each tablet:
• Demulen 1
• Demulen .5
• Norlestrin 1
• Norlestrin 2.5
. (all registered
• Normvl 1 trademarks)
e)
• Ortho-Novum 1/50
• Ovrai
Many women still use a Pill that contains more than .05 milligrams of estrogen in each tablet. Many
doctors have not read the latest medical information on the Pill and may not realize that women should
take only low dose pills. Drug companies that manufacture the Pill are more interested in profits than
m people's health. The drug companies have not withdrawn high dose brands from the market and
women with old prescriptions can continue to receive out dated high dose pills.
Toensvreyour own health while on the Pill:
1. Have a gynecological examination at least once a year.
2. Use a brand of the Pill that contains not more than .05 milligrams of estrogen in each
tablet.
If you are not using one of the low dose brands named above, go to a doctor or birth control clinic for
a change of prescription.
For furthor information, contact:
Moatraal Health Press, lac.
P.O. Box 1000, station ”G"
Montreal 130, Quebec, Canada
phone: (514) 844-5838
Medicine for the People
RISK OF DEATH WITH VARIOUS CONTRACEPTIVE METHODS
Women age 20-34 years
(1,000,000 users/year)
Women age 35-44 years
(1,000,000 users/year)
Deaths due to
Deaths due to
Deaths due to
Deaths due to
Method
Pregnancies
pregnancy
method
Total
pregnancy
method
Total
IUD
30,000
7
unknown
17
unknown
Oral contraceptives
5,000
1
13
14
3
34
37
Diaphragm
120,000
27
0
27
69
0
69
Safe period
240,000
55
0
55
135
0
135
Pregnancy
1,000,000
228
228
576
576
79
SIDE-EFFECTS OF THE PILL
The most serious side-effects of the pill in¬
clude: Thromboembolism, or blood clotting:
Estrogen in the pill may cause unnecessary clot
forms within a blood vessel, obstructing the
flow of blood and starving body tissue. Throm¬
boembolism can have serious and even fatal
consequences.
Strokes: Estrogen in the pill causes blood
pressure to increase in susceptible women. High
blood pressure increases the chance of a stroke,
which is the rupture of a blood vessel leading
to or from the brain. Severe, debilitating head¬
ache is a stroke symptom. If severe headache
is experienced when taking the Pill, a doctor
should be consulted to rule out the possibility
of stroke.
Women should NEVER take the pill if they
have or have ever had thromboembolism,
thrombophelbitis, pulmonary embolism, a
stroke, retinal thrombosis, heart disease or
defect, severe endocrine disorder, recurrent
jaundice of pregnancy, or any form of cancer.
Nuisance effects of the pill are many. They
include nausea, fluid retention, weight gain,
giant freckles on the face, excessive vaginal dis¬
charge, changes in facial or body hair, mood
changes, fatigue, oily scalp and skin, breast
enlargement, breakthrough bleeding, yeast or
fungus infections, and other metabolic side-
effects.
from THE BIRTH CONTROL HANDBOOK
PILL ATTACKS GALL BLADDER
A major new study of the effects of oral con¬
traceptives has shown that women who use them
are twice as likely to develop gall bladder disease
as those who don't.
In the report, the investigators of the Boston
Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program of Boston
University Medical Center estimated the annual
attack rate of gall bladder disease in women taking
oral contraceptives to be 158per 100,000 com¬
pared with 79 per 7 00,000 in women who do not
use oral contraceptives.
The study, based on data from 24 Boston hos¬
pitals, said that the frequency of gall bladder sur¬
gery is especially high in women who have been
on oral contraceptives for 6 to 12 months, com¬
pared with women who have been using them for
longer periods. This suggests that women who
develop gait bladder disease because of the Pill tend
to do so early in the course of taking the drug.
The research said evidence in other studies sug¬
gests that the estrogen (a hormone) contained in
the piii induces changes in the composition of bile
which can result in gallstones.
Significantly, almost all the women tested were
using LOW estrogen birth control pills already.
from LIBERATION NEWS SERVICE
JTAKE THE PILL WITHOUT!
,GOOD COUNSELING: The pill
^may be the best method for you^-
rbut be sure YOU know its possible
"dangers.
[BE ESPECIALLY CAREFUL IF YOU or your;
family have: -
sickle cell trait or anemia
fibroids diabetes
high blood pressure
EVEN if you are healthy,
the pill may cause
blood clotting and
..who knows what
else...
from A GUIDE TO WOMEN’S HEALTH SERVICES
IN LOWER MANHATTAN
by The Health Organizing Collective of New York
Women’s Health and Abortion Project
SECOND REPORT ON THE
ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES
by the Advisory Committee on Obstetrics and
Gynecology, Food and Drug Administration
“Hormonal contraceptives produce numerous
effects on many organs, for example, the liver, the
thyroid, the adrenal. They also affect some of the
body’s homeostatic mechanisms; for example, they
produce changes in salt and water metabolism and
occasionally induce hypertension. Recently, morpho¬
logical changes in blood vessels have been described....
There is no evidence at this time that any of these
drug-induced metabolic alterations pose serious haz¬
ards to health. The systematic effects of the drugs
arc so fundamental and widespread, however, that
continued medical surveillance and investigation is
required.”
Although this report dates to 1969 and drue com¬
panies have in many instances since modified the
content of oral contraceptives (lessening the amount
of estrogen), this report is well worth reading by
those women who are on the pill. The report, written
in medical language—but understandable by the lay-
woman—focuses on the principal side effects of oral
contraceptives including metabolic effects such as
those described above, and the somewhat more scary
possibilities of cancer and thromboembolism (strokes)
associated with use of the pill.
Just as you “can’t take the country out of Salems,”
the drug companies can’t take the estrogen out of
oral contraceptives (not yet)-and estrogen remains
the principal problematic ingredient.
The Report is available from:
U.S. GOVERNMENT
PRINTING OFFICE
Washington, D.C. 20402
$ 1.00
SECOND
REPORT
ON THE
ORAL
CONTRACEPTIVES
THE “MINI PILL” HITS THE MARKI
Birth control is big business; recently com
ies... have been losing money because potei
customers have stopped taking birth control
because of the adverse side effects caused by
estrogens in the pill. Now a leading company
developed an estrogen-free pill, NOR-QD, wi
contains .35 mg of norethindrone, a syntheti
progestin. The term progestin is used to desc
certain kinds of synthetic progesterones. NO
must be taken each and every day of the yea
Women who have had serious reactions tc
ventional oral contraceptives will now be toi
NOR-QD is a new "panacea"pill for those m.
cannot tolerate estrogens. However, very litt
known about NOR-QD, or about any proges
based oral contraceptive. The mechanism of
is unknown, and the pregnancy rate is highet
pregnancies per 100 women) than with thee
ventional birth control pill... .
Under 3,000 women have been clinically
with NOR-QD, which means that once the /:
distributed on a nation-wide basis, the Arne,
women will be used as guinea pigs in yet ant
medical experiment. The assumption ipehinc
NOR-QD is that an estrogen-free pill will be
dangerous than a combination estrogen-prot
teronepill. HOWEVER, THERE IS NO CU.
EVIDENCE TO SHOW THAT PROGESTIN
BASED BIRTH CONTROL PILLS WILL St
NIFICANTLYALTER THECHANCE OF
HARMFUL SIDE-EFFECTS TO ITS USER
Belita Cowan
HER-SELF, April 1973
Black Women and the Pill
There are hidden dangers for black women
taking birth control pills. A black woman whe
carries the trait for sickle cell anemia may dev
blood clots if she takes oral contraceptives.
Frances Lang reported evidence in the Febi
1972 issue of RAMPARTS Magazine which in
cated that black women are not being informe
the risks of blood clot, stroke, and heart attad
they run by taking the pill. Women who carry
sickle cell trait are often not aware of it, for If
bear no symptoms of the disease. But taking tl
pill may bring on dangerous reactions to a wor
who carries the trait. The pill may lower theo:
gen level in the blood, bringing on the "Sicklin
crisis which may lead to blood clots.
It is advisable for a doctor who is about to
scribe oral contraceptives for a black woman t.
order a sickle cell preparation and a hemoglobi
test. If the sickling trait and/or Hemoglobins
found, the woman must NOT take the pill.
HER-SELF, April 1972
I
■TheV.D. Handbook
Although the authors of the VD HANDBOOK (also authors of the BIRTH CONTROL HANDBOOK)
Sn!nS5° r h Ven r dlS T WOn,t . st °P ‘“ntil human relationships are based on mutual respect
£21,hour'n 7 T’A T ea , ntlme ’ P u ^hed a 48 page handbook which gives us the scientific
miormation about our anatomy and the diseases related to sexual intercourse (VD).
Sn,°j n d Ude SP f CifiC inf0 ™ ationabo “ C th f hi 8 hest q ua,it y of medical treatment available so that
imlprirate doctors °" reCe,Vl " 8 n ° th,n S leSS than S uaIit y care from P ublic Health clinics, hospitals,
“The largest area of the HANDBOOK is devoted to gonorrhea so that ‘we can rid ourselves of this un-
and unpleasant complication to sexual freedom’. Gonorrhea is transmitted through vaginal, anal
Jrfe' ,nterc omse and presently afflicts 2,000,000 Americans a year. Eighty percent of the women
g0n0rrt ' ea have "° symptoms for the first few weeks or months until complications set in,
1 have symptoms in three to five days. Thus the need for partners to inform each other becomes
acute....
“When medicine is prescribed, we have a right to know what the doctor found, the diagnosis, and the
E o°3r mmCnded ° r tre ? tr T t - The HANDBOOK encourages us to refuse treatment from a
|*T" d accompany it with a thorough explanation. It then devotes four pages to the types of
fc:’d , :: g :r d ™ ethod s. of ad ™ lnls <; ratI ° n (injection, pills, etc.) most effective. The negative effects
licy ale aSfdeUikd med ' ClneS for those wlth allcr g ies - and medicines to be avoided during preg-
“There is a beautiful effort to rid the HANDBOOK of sexism and racism. Doctors are not ‘he’ but ‘he or
l and a woman or man s sexual partner is a ‘sexual partner’ or ‘lover’ not a specific sex. Heterosexual and
te2 irr hl P S I? W | th S;d i? ty S ' de W ^ h "° b ' aS indicated - And d ™gs harmful to specific
l2 recommendation PC ° P e 3 CCrtam b °° d e " Zyme def,cienc y) are noted with every treat-
“Perhaps the only criticism of the HANDBOOK would be in the attitude of total reliance on the medical
■ ptession tor treatment of such things as monilia and trichomonas. The self-help clinic approach to yeast
BUccoons would be recommendation of vinegar douches and yogurt applications to the vagina to return the
■pul lining to its natural acid state and bacterial/yeast balance, not conducive to yeast overgrowth. But
■«ce a majority of people still rely on institutions, educating ourselves to deal with those institutions is also
■a important step toward receiving better medical care.”
from OFF OUR BACKS, December 1972
‘Smgte copies of THE VD HANDBOOK are available free, plus 25^ postage, from:
F.O. Box 1000, Station G, Montreal 130, Quebec CANADA
IF YOU THINK YOU’VE
BEEN EXPOSED TO VD
Go to a clinic or doctor. Tell them you
believe you have been exposed to gonorrhea.
They should do a “Thayer-Martin” test. This
involves taking a culture from the cervix and/or
throat. If both partners have performed both
roles in the oral/genital act, then the cervical
swab will probably be sufficient. However, if
you performed ONLY the oral role, then a
throat culture must be taken. Generally it is
best to have BOTH cultures taken. When a
throat culture is taken this must be noted in
the record the doctor makes to avoid mis¬
diagnosis because of other bacteria which are
found in a normal throat.
from AIN’T I A WOMAN, February 11, 1972
VENEREAL DISEASE PAMPHLET
Another excellent source of information for
women on VD is the pamphlet put out by the New
York Women’s Health and Abortion Project. It dis¬
cusses syphilis and gonnorrhea in terms of their
symptoms or lack of them in women, the difficulty
in testing for and diagnosing either disease in women,
treatment, long-range results of the disease if it goes
untreated, and prevention of VD.
From:
WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTER
156 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York ^$4
SHOULD GENITAL
| DEODORANTS BE USED?
...At a recent count there were 30 brands of
“feminine hygiene spray, ” the euphemism for
women's genital deodorant. According to the trade
mnat, AMERICAN DRUGGIST, "feminine hy-
fene sprays” are "the success story of the dec-
Wt...."TV and magazine advertising expendi-
ties for the product totaled an estimated $13
tillion in 1971 .... in typicalMadison A venue
Sy/e, the demand has been created for a new
product.
To the extent that... vulvar odors naturally
occur... Consumer Report's medical consultants
tdvise soap and water as the most effective and
I certainly the safest hygiene. And an authoritative
drug-evaluating publication, THE MEDICAL
LETTER, states, "It is unlikely that commercial
feminine hygiene sprays are as effective as soap
\nd water in promoting a hygienic and odor-free
| external genital surface ....”
No comprehensive study of the wide-scale use
dgenital sprays has been published in the scien¬
ce writings at this time. But a number of reports
“'physicians to medical journals are disturbing....
m of the reported cases went beyond mere dis¬
comfort. One 14-year-old girl was reported by her
physician to have suffered "incredibly" swollen
\bbia. In one of at least two lawsuits filed against
•AHxrto-Culver, a woman who used an FDS spray
tdiile pregnant alleges that she quickly developed
^ge lumps and had to be admitted to the hospital
the condition became so painful that she had
“ Yu/fy walking. Her doctor diagnosed the
)lem as a severe reaction to FDS spray. "The
'ling was as big as a grapefruit," her physician
IJtff "You never saw a more miserable girl in
your life ....”
The answer to the immediate problem of
Utnltal cosmetics is simple. Don't use them!
Uom CONSUMER REPORTS, January 1972
INFECTIONS OF THE VAGINA
Most women have probably had an infection of the
vagina or bladder. Although these infections are not
medically serious, sometimes women feel very an¬
xious about them, because we connect them with
VD. This pamphlet, another by the N.Y. Women’s
Health and Abortion Project, has all the basic infor¬
mation on the various forms of vaginal infections:
yeast infection, trichomonas, non-specific vaginitis,
bladder infections, etc. Women can learn to recog¬
nize the symptoms and causes of such infections and
get treatment so that they need be bothered no more.
Available from:
THE WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTER
156 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
BUBBLE TROUBLE
Bubble baths, douches, and the use of feminine
hygiene deodorant spray have been linked with
vulvovaginitis (inflammation of the vaginal area).
In a study done at the U.S. Army hospital in
Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, a group of 275 women
was divided into subgroups on the basis of whether
they had vulvovaginitis or had had it in the past.
Ninety-three percent of the women who had symp¬
toms of vulvovaginitis had used or were using one or
more of these vaginal cleansing agents; 83% of the
women who showed no symptoms were using one or
more of the three preparations.
More than half of the women who took bubble
baths, sprayed with vaginal deodorant spray and
douched had had vulvovaginitis. The real villain of
the three is the spray, which was “unique in its ability
to cause contact dermatitis.”
from OFF OUR BACKS, December 1972
Be a
‘meat & potatoes 9 man
riith
BUTTERBALLS
masculine hygiene deodorant
• meat & potatoes
• locker room
• gunsmoke
• musk
“Don’t strike out with foul balls!"
For more information, write to: OOB, room No. 1013.
1346 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
Butterballs Poster
Available for $1.50 from B&B Posters, P.O. Box 15652 Lakewood, Colorado 80215
81
Common Methods of Abortion
MENSTRUAL EXTRACTION
from SALINE ABORTIONS
Menstrual extraction, or endometrial a
is a process by which the uterine lining is ren
from a woman at the time when her monthlj
is due. A four to six mm cannula is introduc
through the cervix, suction is applied either t
hand pump or an electric suction pump, and
uterine lining is removed all at once. The prc
takes about 60 seconds. If menstrual extract
performed within 5 to 10 days after the date
menstrual period is due, the menstrual lining
uterus and any fertilized egg which might ha-
implanted there will be removed.
There are several controversies surroun.
the use of this technique. First, there is cons
discussion as to whether the technique shoulc
at all. Supporters argue that (1) the use of th
nula simplifies the abortion procedure by virl
eliminating the need for dilation of the cervi»
anesthesia. (2) Menstrual extraction reduces t
of uterine perforation. (3) Menstrual extract:
resents a faster and less expensive method of
ting a possible pregnancy than waiting until tl
woman has gotten a positive pregnancy test,
ents of the procedure argue that (1) the tech
still experimental, (2) it is not painless and w
who have not had children often require anes
(3) it is not totally reliable as an abortion tecl
(4) Many of the women who undergo the tecl
are not pregnant, (5) there is not enough evic
to determine the rates of uterine perforation ;
fection, and to determine the long range side ■
The second controversy involves the qu.
of who should perform menstrual extraction,
perspective claims that the procedure is only s
it is performed by a qualified doctor, whereas
believe that the procedure is simple enough th
one trained in the technique can perform it.
The third area of discussion concerns th
menstrual extraction as a method of controllii
monthly menstrual cycle. Menstrual regulatio
inates the inconveniences and discomforts of t
monthly period as well as functioning as a con
ceptive measure. However even those who adi
the use of menstrual extraction as an abortion
nique caution against the unknown long range
effects of its repeated use.
Length ot Pregnancy
(from 1st day of last
Method
1)D&C: Dilation &Curettage
2)ASPIRATION: (or suc¬
tion curettage)
Uterine contents sucked
out by vacuum apparati
Performed in hospital,
clinic, or Dr.'s office.
Local or general anes¬
thesia.
Uterine contents scraped
out.
Performed in hospital,
clinic, or Dr.'s office
Local or general anes¬
thesia.
Up to 12 weeks
D&C and ASPIRATION occasionally performed but
risks are higher than earlier in pregnancy.
Preferably performed in hospital.
General anesthesia.
12 to 14 weeks
No generally accepted safe method in use in U.S
14 to 16 weeks
1)SALINE INJECTION
( salting out)
Some Amniotic fluid re¬
placed by salt solution
causing uterus to expel
contents.
Hospitalization preferable
Local anesthesia.
2) HYSTEROTOMY
(mini-cesarean )
Uterine contents removed
by major abdominal sur¬
gery.
Performed only in hos¬
pital.
General anesthesia.
16 weeks and over
SALINE ABORTIONS and VACUUM ASPIRATION ABORTION
by the New York Women’s Health and Abortion Project
These two pamphlets provide the most concise and clear presentation of tf
techniques, side effects and complications, safety precautions, and t-Parri™*
WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTER
156 Fifth Avenue
Room 1228
New York, New York
(212)865-0805
uterus
vacurette
amnioti
attaches to
vacuum
curettage unit
vaginal canal
speculum
CHICAGO WOMEN’S LIBERATION UNION
852 West Belmont
Chicago, Illinois 60657
25 4 each plus 10 4 postage
IT HAPPENS TO US
by Amalie Rothschild
Women speak candidly about their abortion ex¬
periences in this documentary, filmed and edited by
an all-women crew. Their stories run the gamut from
horrifying to amusing, but each reveals the problems
of illegal versus legal, medically safe abortions. Be¬
cause the film displays such empathy for women’s
feelings, it is also valuable for consciousness-raising.
Available from:
NEW DAY FILMS
P.O. Box 315
Franklin Lakes, New Jersey 07417
$30.00—Rental
$325.00—Sale
Operating unit for
VACUUM SUCTION ABORTION
from OUR BODIES OURSELVES SIMON AND SCHUSTER 630 Fifth Avenue New’
$2.95/paperback
VACUUM SUCTION ABORTION
IMlUrfP "TW Ok ±r
|yo««
koro "**• W**«
PANIC! •••■
THE
ABORTION
GAME
POJI.J
bbooklet was written to accommodate the many
men who traveled to New York City between Janu
>1971 and January 1973 to have abortions. Most
ike booklet is an evaluation of abortion facilities
(lew York City, but there is also good informa-
i on standard laboratory work, local vs. general
sthesia. It also contains a sample clinic-evaluation
stionnaire on how to evaluate an abortion facility
tell as several thoughful pieces on abortion as big
iness, repeal vs. reform of the abortion laws, and
iking for the Man in an abortion clinic.
lilable from:
WOMEN'S HEALTH AND
ABORTION PROJECT
P.O.Box 136
Times Plaza Station
Brooklyn, New York 11217
75 4 includes postage
NDBOOK FOR OPERATING
ABORTION - BIRTH CONTROL
FERRAL SERVICE
Oman in need of health care often does not know
it to turn. She mav fear a run-in with unsym-
Ittic, intimidating doctors, or she may not know
rctogo to get the kind of care she needs. Many
sen’s groups and women’s centers have tried to
«r this need by organizing referral services. This
able handbook offers guidelines for setting up
i a service, including information on Finding and
iking out cooperative doctors, Finding staff mem-
,getting publicity and financing, administering
ferral service, sample forms that you can use, in-
nation on medical procedures that a counselor
lid know, and a bibliography of books, articles
films on birth control and abortion. With your
Bofthe handbook you get a complimentary copy
Howto Have Intercourse without Getting Screw-
(see birth control section for description.).
(Handbook was prepared by:
WOMEN
NTEER WORKERS
•Birth Control Referral Service
M University Way, N.E.
title, Washington 98105
6) ME 24747
SOCIATION FOR THE
UDY OF ABORTION, INC.
0 West 57th Street
w York, New York 10019
• ASA seeks to educate the public about abortion
dfoster public and professional implementation
judicial decisions on women’s right to abortion,
i an information clearinghouse, ASA provides free
prints of articles on abortion, from medical views
l^Ctsonal statements on the subject. Write for a
■bibliography of publications available.
HOW TO FIND AND CHOOSE AN
ABORTION FACILITY
In spite of the supreme court decision declaring
abortion laws unconstitutional, women are still hav¬
ing great difficulties getting abortions. Many hospi¬
tals and clinics continue to refuse to perform abor¬
tions. Or if they do perform them, women frequent¬
ly must endure unnecessary delays which maximize
the difficulty and risk involved or else they are sub¬
jected to cold and unsympathetic if not punitive
treatment by the medical staff.
The surest way to avoid all this and get compe¬
tent and sympathetic treatment for an abortion is to
go to a feminist abortion clinic, if you are lucky
enough to have one in your area. As yet there are
very few of these, though there is great demand and
the existing feminist facilities have been very success¬
ful. These facilities are listed below; for more infor¬
mation on them, consult the section on women’s
health clinics.
1. Women’s Choice Clinic
1027 S. Crenshaw
Los Angeles, California 90005
2. Women’s Choice Clinic
2930 McClure Street
Oakland, California
(415) 653-2130
3. Women’s Choice Clinic
c/o Feminist Women’s Health Center
429 S. Sycamore Street
Santa Ana, California 92701
4. Emma Goldman Clinic
c/o Women’s Center
3 E. Market Street
Iowa City, Iowa
5. Vermont Women’s Health Center
Interstate 89, Exit 16
Routes 2 & 7
Clochester, Vermont
(802) 655-1600
If a feminist abortion clinic is not available to
you, then the next best alternative is to contact either
a women’s abortion referral and counseling service
(see referral services below) or a women’s health clinic
(see health clinics). They do extensive research on
the local commercial abortion facilities and will be
able to refer you to the most acceptable facility of
the lot.
Lacking either of the above resources, try con¬
tacting your local women’s center. They will be able
to provide some information, if not.exhaustive at
least helpful, on the local facilities. As a last resort
in seeking advice you can always turn to either Clergy
Consultation Service or Planned Parenthood.
However, if you are left entirely to your own
resources, there are several questions you can ask each
clinic to help you make your decision. The following
Q uestions on evaluating an abortion facility were
rawn up by the staff of WOMAN, Box 135, Kalama¬
zoo, Michigan 49006, and appeared in their February
issue.
Ask what kinds of lab tests are routinely per¬
formed for each woman seeking an abortion. If urin¬
alysis, blood type and factor tests are not performed,
skip to the next place on your list. These tests are
important and a facility which omits them is not too
scrupulous in its treatment of women.
Ask if the clinic does contraceptive counseling
with each patient. You may not feel the need for
such counseling, but even if you don’t particularly
want it, the availability serves as a good guide to the
clinic’s attitude toward its patients. Contraceptive
counseling indicates that the people care not only
about your immediate need but also what will happen
to you after you leave the clinic. Ask about pre- and
post-abortion counseling. You as a patient have the
right to know what will happen to your body. You
should also expect to be told how to take care of
yourself after the abortion to prevent infection and
other complications. You should also expect the
clinic to do some kind of counseling as to why you
want an abortion at this time. This discussion allows
women who have not previously had a chance to
discuss their feelings an opportunity to do so.
Women’s
Counseling
Projects
NATIONAL CLERGY CONSULTATION
SERVICE ON ABORTION
55 Washington Square South
New York, N.Y. 10012
A 24-hour electronic answering service records the
numbers of Clergy Consultation Services in almost
30 states. In states with no consultation service,
call (212) 254-6314 for referral to an abortion facil¬
ity near you, checked out by the Clergy Consultation
Service.
PREGNANCY COUNSELING SERVICE
3 J oy Street
Boston, Mass., 02108
(617) 523-1633
Pregnancy Counseling Service is a non-proFit, lay or¬
ganization established to assist any woman seeking
advice on legal abortions, and to offer information
on other social, health, and welfare services should
she decide to continue her pregnancy. Voluntary con¬
tributions support the service.
WOMEN’S COUNSELING PROJECT
Earl Hall, Columbia University
117th Street and Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10027
(212) 280-5113
The Women’s Counseling Project at Earl Hall is open
to all women, regardless of Columbia University af¬
filiation. Free referrals are made for birth control,
abortion, VD and personal counseling to facilities
which have been screened by the women of the
Project.
WOMEN’S HEALTH COUNSELING
115 State Street
Springfield, Mass., 01103
(413) 732-1852
Feminist counselors offer counseling and referral for
various health problems women face, including birth
control, abortion, sterilization, natural childbirth, VD,
etc. These women also do some local speaking en¬
gagements, such as debating right-to-life groups. The
Health Counseling Project is affiliated with the Spring-
field Women’s Center.
WOMEN’S SERVICES, INC.
Box 1132
Nashua, New Hampshire
c/o Harriet Bronstein
Women’s Counseling, information, and referral service.
85
ABORTION - BIRTH CONTROL
REFERRAL SERVICE
University YWCA
University of Washington
4224 University Way N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
(206) ME 4-3460
Phones answered Monday - Friday 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.,
staffed by volunteer workers. Services available in¬
clude referrals to physicians, emergency transporta¬
tion, child care, homes for women outside the Seattle
area, health rights advocacy, counseling.
BIRTH CONTROL AND PROBLEM
PREGNANCY COUNSELING AND
REFERRAL
2330 Guadalupe
The University ‘Y’
Austin, Texas
(512) 478-0452
CHICAGO WOMEN’S LIBERATION UNION
852 W. Belmont
Chicago, Illinois
(312) 348-4300
PROBLEM PREGNANCY INFORMATION
CENTER
Box 9090
Stanford, California 94305
(415) A*B*0*R*T*l*0
Located in Palo Alto, the PP1C serves the Bay Area,
providing referrals for low cost pregnancy tests, preg¬
nancy and abortion counseling and referral. Two
psychiatrists, a legal advisor, and religious leaders
volunteer their time to talk with women with more
complicated problems. For women who want to
terminate their pregnancies, information is offered
concerning the various medical techniques for an
abortion and arrangements are made at a competent
and sympathetic abortion facility. They also coun¬
sel and help women who want to continue their
pregnancy and either keep the child or place it for
adoption. Other services include birth control refer¬
rals, VD information, sexual counseling. ALL ser¬
vices are free.
WOMEN’S ABORTION REFERRAL
218 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
(213) 823-4774
A free service, run by women for women. Birth
control counseling is also available.
WOMEN’S COUNSELING SERVICE
621 W. Lake Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408
(612) 827-3819
This women’s service has been operating for
as a medical information and referral service whi
grew out of a women's collective. The WCS holrh
classes and workshops about birth control, aborto
pregnancy, nutrition, and the health rights of wo
The women also do some speaking on feminism a
women’s history. Presently the service is attempts
to organize a self-help clinic for women.
WOMEN’S HEALTH AND ABORTION
PROJECT
Washington DC Women’s Center
1736 R Street
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 483-4632
This project provides counseling in birth controli
an information and referral service for obstetrics,
gynecology, pre-natal care and venereal diseased
also do pregnancy and RH negative testing. Thee
phasis is on women controlling their own bodies
This is done by education, information gathering
and sharing about common problems. The group
also visits hospitals and clinics acting as advocates
for women patients.
Pregnancy testing done for $1.50. Bring a sample of
your first urine of the morning.
COUNSELING AND REFERRAL SERVICE
Women’s Center
1824 Los Lomas
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106
(505) 277-3716
Counseling and referral for abortion, birth control,
personal problems, vocational counseling, and legal
aid.
PREGNANCY AND CONTRACEPTION
INFORMATION SERVICE
450 Sutter Street Suite 316
San Francisco, California 94108
(415) 433-5855
“Our purpose is to make available to all women infor¬
mation concerning unwanted pregnancy and contra¬
ception.” All services are kept confidential — and
all are free, including pregnancy test. Abortion re¬
ferrals are made to a licensed obstetrician in San Fran¬
cisco. Post-operative check-up and counseling ser¬
vices are provided.
PREGNANCY COUNSELING SERVICE
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
(919) 933-5506
Confidential, free referral service and counseling.
84
red, yellow, orange poster 20 x 26 from
CHICAGO WOMEN’S GRAPHICS COLLECTIVE
852 West Belmont, Chicago, Illinois 60657 $1.50
Health
Directories
25t
Women’s
e Ai«l Dire c ,
i directory catalogues a total of 91 health facilities
liable to women in the San Francisco Bay area,
ed on the assumption that “the American health
itm is inadequate for everyone,” the directory rep-
ins the efforts of the many women in the San
ncisco-Bcrkcly-Oakland area to get excellent
Ith care into the hands of the women who need
The MEDICAL DIRECTORY includes not only
riled descriptions of the eligibility requirements,
irs, fees ana services of each facility but also very
fulevaluations of those services and the attitudes
ard women that prevail at each facility. However,
directory constitutes more than just an excellent
ice of information for women in the San Francisco
i;it also is a superb model, which we urge women
ihcr parts of the country to follow in providing
rymore such guides on maneuvering through local
Ith system, for “as a part of the struggle for con-
of our bodies, it is important that we begin to ex-
nc those who examine us!”
additional copies and fufther information, contact:
Golden Gate Mental Health Center
1902 Webster St.
San Francisco
346-4236
Requirements: Open to anyone.
Hours:
Fees:
Services:
Mon.-Fri. 9:00 - 5:00. Appointment needed.
Sliding scale according to income. Group counseling usually
$15 per session; individual usually $35 per session. Accept
Medi-Cal and other health insurance.
Individual and group counseling. Groups are 4-8 people
and meet once a week for one hour. Individual counseling
is 50 minutes per session.
from THE WOMEN'S MEDICAL DIRECTORY
^ Y''
fa
%
W/ J ^ \ }
.A VtS^ouverWomens Vteal+V\ Booklet v
A VANCOUVER WOMEN’S
HEALTH BOOKLET
Although written primarily as a guide to health care
and services in the Vancouver area, this booklet also
contains a great deal of information that is valuable
to all women. The booklet grew out of a health sur¬
vey taken by the collective of 100 women in the Van¬
couver area. The women who responded answered
questions about their experiences with menstrual dif¬
ficulties, vaginal infections, birth control, the pill,
the IUD, diaphragm, sterilization, infertility, VD, preg¬
nancy and childbirth. These responses, which are de¬
tailed in the first section of the booklet, tell a great
deal about the treatment and attitudes of the medical
profession toward women. “When women come to¬
gether to talk about their experiences, everyone has
a story to tell, or many stories, of humiliation, of
bullying, of callousness, or out-right carelessness on
the doctor’s part.” MOTHERLODE, Spring 1972
Following the responses to this survey is a sec¬
tion called “Analysis and Action” in which there are
articles on sexism in gynecology texts and how wo¬
men can take action to challenge the present health
system. The final section contains an excellent guide
and appraisal of medical facilities for women in the
Vancouver area.
Available from:
VANCOUVER WOMEN’S
HEALTH COLLECTIVE
146 East 18th Avenue
Vancouver 10, British Columbia
CANADA
50tf plus 18tf postage
Picture from
WITCHES,
MIDWIVES
AND NURSES
published by
FEMINIST
PRESS
Box 334
Old Westbury,
New York
11568 $1.25
86
Gynecological exam
“The Doctor is Instructed
to Mess You Over”
'SELF EXAM
FOR
BREAST CANCER
l
hahm on you will be trying to find a
or Chickening. Lie down on your bed,
pi pillow or a bath towel under your left
teliir and your left hand under your head.
Btt tht fingers of your right hand held together
4 .
I.
Sit or stand in front of your mirror, arms relaxed
at your sides and look for any changes In size,
shape and contour. Also look for puckering or
dimpling of the skin and changes on the surface
of the nipples. Gently press each nipple to see if
any discharge occurs.
2 .
Raise both arms over your head and look for
exactly the same things. Note difference since
you last examined breasts.
J
With the same gentle pressure, feel the low Inner
part of your breast. Incidentally, In this area you
will feel a ridge of firm tlsaue. Don't be alarmed.
This is normal.
Examine your breasts every month, about one
week after each oenst'ual period. Be sure to
continue these checkups after your change of life.
Your own doctor may want you to uae a slightly
different method of examination. Ask him to teach
you that method.
Rat. press gently against the breast with small
Jtmlar notions to feel the inner, upper portion
jwr left breast, starting at your breastbone
|af|oln| outward toward the nipple line. Also
I fail the area around the nipple.
5 .
Um th* same genii, pleasure to fe.l the upper
out.r portion of your left bre.et from the nippi.
line to where your arm la renting.
7 .
Repeat the entire procedure, aa described, on
the right breast ualng the left hand for the
examination.
atrlag your left arm down to your side and
gill ualng the flat part of the fingers of your right
, Itel under your left armpit.
And finally, feel the lower outer portion of your
breast, going from the outer part to the nipple.
If your find a lump or thickening, leave It alone
until you see your doctor. Don’t be frightened.
Most breast lump, or changes are not cancer, but
only your doctor can tell.
from THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
| DIETHYLSTILBESTROL:
GYNECOLOGY OR GYNECIDE?
Ihe drug diethylstilbestrol (DES) is a synthetic
[ etiogen that was administered in the late I940's and
\irly1950's to hundreds of thousands of pregnant
>en who were thought to have a high risk of mis-
\miage. As of December 21, 1972, 91 cases of
arcinoma of the vagina and cervix (a rare but
j indignant cancer) have been detected in females who
| m between the ages of 8 and 25 at the time of
diagnosis,,..
In an article entitled "Adenocarcinoma of the
Vagina"published in the New England journal of
Medicine (April 21, 1971) Doctors Herbst, Ullelder,
and Poskanzer point out...",there is a highly sig-
dicant association between the treatment of the
mothers with estrogen diethylstilbesterol during
pregnancy and the subsequent development of
carcimona of the vagina in their daughters. "
Of the 91 females who had genital adenocarci-
mona, 53 had vaginal cancer and 38 had cervical.
.41 the time of diagnosis, the average and median
sgeof89 of the patients was 17 years old....
Since many women in the late 1940's and
early I950's were inadequately informed about
DES and there were cases in which medical
records were not kept or were destroyed, it is
crucial that these women be informed of the pos¬
sibility of cancer developing m their daughters and
that their daughters who have begun to men¬
struate be routinely examined for the tumors.
Great efforts must be made to prevent any fur¬
ther damage to these mothers and their daughters
and to women who are taking DES now....
fromapaperby ROBIN GOODMAN
Available from Robin Goodman, 115 Jones,
Englewood, New Jersey, $.75 plus $.15
postage.
THE GYNECOLOGICAL CHECK-UP
by the New York Women’s Health
and Abortion Project
This superb little pamphlet describes in detail what
a good gynecological examination should include. It
is designed to make any woman who reads it into a
better health care consumer.
As part of your medical history, the gynecologist
should take your gynecological history in detail.
These are the questions you should be asked:
1. Is your period regular?
2. How long is your cycle?
3. Has it been changing?
4. Is your period heavy, medium, light?
5. Has that been changing?
6. Do you have cramps? Severe or slight?
7. Have you ever been pregnant?
8. Did your pregnancies end in miscarriage/abor¬
tion/childbirth?
9. If pregnancy ended in miscarriage, at what
month were there problems?
10. If pregnancy ended in abortion, at what
month, under what circumstances? (You
have the right to refuse to answer, but if
there were complications you would be wise
to explain them.)
II- If pregnancy ended in childbirth, at what
month, how heavy was the baby, were there
any complications in the delivery?
12. What methods of birth control have you
used?
13. With what effects?
14. What method of birth control, if any, are
you presently using?
15. Have you had any infections, diseases, or
operations?
!f your gynecologist does not ask you these ques¬
tions, or does not give you a physical examination
preceding the gynecological one, ASK him/her for
these things. We know that scrupulous medical atten¬
tion is not common practice.
Available from:
WOMEN'S HEALTH CENTER
156 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
WHAT DOES YOUR GYN
THINK OF YOU?
‘" c '"evnuouny or suttermg, whether in inter¬
course, contraception, pregnancy or labor.
,hZ y r. W ° m “ n has had a gynecological examination
that hurt. Now we are beginning to examine our-
seives-even clinica/ly-and to see how unnecessary
such experiences are. But they remain a part of
the medical curriculum. OBSTETRICS AND
GYNECOLOGY (by J. Robert Willson, eta!) Is
a recently revised textbook with a liberal outlook
it acknowiedges the proof by Masters and Johnson
that a! orgasms are physiologically identical, and
it declares that
death from abortion can be eliminated or
reduced to a minimum by making reliable
contraceptive methods and legal abortion
available to everyone who wants them.
But the view of women presented is one of the
most destructive collection of stereotypes to
appear in print recently.
The authors elaborate on their conception of
femininity in a section on the "feminine core"-
whatever that is:
FEMININE NARCISSISM:
Every phase of a woman's life is influenced
by narcissism. To an adolescent and young
woman it gives impetus to her efforts to
attract a man. As a wife it allows her to be
gratified by the success and achievements of
her husband. In pregnancy and labor It ex¬
pands her conception of herself in that she
is going to reproduce and give her husband
a gift of a child. . . .
FEMININE MASOCHISM:
The idea of suffering is an essential part of
her life, since every woman has to face the
fear of childbirth and the fear of pain that
is attached to this. Pain is not an integral
part of the male's concept of his role. . . .
Every aspect of a woman's life is colored
by her ability to accept the masochism
(hat is part of her feminine role. ... In the
role of a wife she often must submit her
own needs to build up the personality and
strivings of her husband and family.
Sexually there is always an element of rape
in that the male organ penetrates. . . .
FEMININE PASSIVITY:
The woman's passivity is activity that is
turned inward toward herself, her home,
children and husband. ... She must accept
the idea that she is given things by her hus¬
band and even her children, rather than
assuming an active and aggressive role in
attaining these things for herself. Sexually
she must be passive and receptive to the
male. ... in the normal sexual act the
woman must allow herself to be conquered
by the male. This entails a masochistic sur¬
render to the man.
Many of us have experienced in the doctor's
office the effect of this ideology of inevitable
passivity and suffering. The best way to combat
it is with knowledge. Across the country women
are reading, talking, and examining themselves .... ’
THE WOMEN’S PRESS, February 1972
P-O- Box 562, Eugene, Oregon 97401
12 issues/$3.00
87
15 *
AT YOUR
DOCTOR
SHOULD
TELL YOU
fry
dr. susan
25C
WHAT YOUR DOCTOR SHOULD TELL YOU
by Dr. Susan
The seven articles in this booklet are written by Dr. Susan, who, the introduction tells us, “is not
only a very fine doctor, she’s HONEST. She knows where the rip-offs start and tells us where to
end them.”
In plain, untechnical language, Dr. Susan tells how to ask your doctor about the kind of drugs
she/he is prescribing, how they work, and what they are supposed to do for you; how to get drugs
prescribed so as to dent your pocketbook least; the real lowdown on diet pills frequently prescribed
for women patients by male doctors; how to know if you arc getting a proper physical checkup; and
other little nuggets of information that can help us know what can and should be done by doctors
and hospitals when we have a particular problem.
Available from:
OCTOBER 4th ORGANIZATION
Box 14745
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19134
AMMUNITION (Health Variety)
Single copies/25^
15 or more/2Otf
WITCHES, MIDWIVES, AND NURSES
“Witches were persecuted in Europe forfos
centuries because they indulged in sexual intercoe
with the Devil. They were also persecuted bccaus
they were peasant women who practiced medicist
without the consent of the Church.
“In WITCHES, MIDWIVES, AND NURSES.
Barbara Ehrenreich agd Deirdre English attempt
show through historical analysis that male contto
over the practice of medicine came about not bt
men possessed superior skills or technology, but
cause male doctors have traditionally served ther
classes, while women have been the physicians oil
poor; and it was a coalition among different rulini
class elements that forced women out of mediant
‘When women had a place in medicine, it was in
people’s medicine’. Male doctors destroyed at onci
popular medicine and women’s role in it.
“The pamphlet is only 41 pages and coverst
tremendous area. Occasionally the authors’ identa
cation of women’s medicine with people’s media
seems facile and more evidence is needed to prove
that women were in the past the only doctors ol
poor, as well as more information about the deve
ment of medical practices....But the pamphlet
carefully documented that the informational gaps
arc probably caused by stringencies imposed bysp
The thesis of the pamphlet — that medical history
the conflict between male and female healers-b
critically important for an understanding of how
fight sexism in the medical profession. It suggests
that sexism is the root of worker oppression in mi
cine. About 95 percent of nurses — always in a set
dary position to doctors - are women, and WHO
MIDWIVES, AND NURSES suggests that this is it
outcome of male triumph in the battle of control
medicine. Low level medical workers are oppressr
once as workers and as women; elimination of
in medicine would necessarily mean climinationo
sexism. This is a thesis that would be invaluabletc
vestigatc further.”
Review by: Frances Lang, OFF OUR BACKS, _
November 1972 I
Available from:
THE FEMINIST PRESS
Box 334
Old Westbury, N.Y 11568
$1.25
"... The charge that male doctors harbor an
underlying sadism against women is increasingly
being heard. ... A discussion took place among
surgeons on attitudes toward orchidectomy (re¬
moval of the testicle) and oophorectomy (removal
of the ovary) and it was agreed that surgeons rarely
hesitate to remove an ovary but think twice about
removing a testicle. The doctors readily admitted
that such a sex-oriented viewpoint arises from the
fact that most surgeons are mate. Said one of them
wryly, 'No ovary is good enough to leave in, and
no testicle is bad enough to take out.'"
“Women MD’s Join the Fight,”
MEDICAL WORLD NEWS; Oct. 1970
MEDICAL AND INSURANCE
GUIDE FOR CONSUMERS
Seven free publications aimed at increasing con¬
sumer know-how in meeting health care and insurance
needs. Aids in making informed, intelligent choices
and avoiding common pitfalls.
SHOPPERS’ GUIDES TO SURGERY, DENTISTRY,
AND LIFE INSURANCE are available from:
PENNSYLVANIA STATE
INSURANCE DEPARTMENT
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120
LETTER FROM
MEDICAL SCHOOL SISTER
(Second-year UCLA medical school)
"I was amazed and infuriated when I came to
medical school and discovered that many profes¬
sors used slides of pin-up girls to enliven their
lectures: e.g., a slide THE END written across a
naked rump.... The presentation of male and
female illnesses was often colored with the same
mood. The class was hushed with almost religious
awe the time a professor mentioned the removal
of a testicle. He was quick to point out that the
patient’s loss could be camouflaged 'to salvage
his dignity'. But cancerous breasts are merrily
'lopped off’-a radiologist clued us in the second
day of class that the real pros call them ‘boobies’.
from SISTER, Vol. IV, No. 5
WITCHES
MIDWIVES
AND NURSES
88
MORNING-AFTER PILL
IS CANCER-LINKED
Advocates for Medical Information
who were brav 1 enou gh to fight the medical establishment formed ADVOCATES FOR
MEDICAL INFORMATION in the fall of 1972. They hoped to bring a revolutionary approach to consumer
medicine, and at the very least, to question the principles upon which modern medicine is practiced: that
!“ k f H S1C r as . g ,? d the P atlent as ignorant guinea pig. ADVOCATES FOR MEDICAL INFORMA¬
TION tocused specifically on women’s health issues, citing the case of the morning-after pill as an attempt
y doctors to use a captive population in testing out the experimental and suspect use of diethylstilbestrol
(DES) as a post-coital contraceptive.
“Kay Weiss, whose diligent and thorough research first opened up the controversy of the cancer-causing
properties of DES, and Belita Cowan, a medical editor, waged a campaign to let women know that the use
ol stilbestrols, and in fact, all estrogens, were responsible for the recent increased incidence of breast and
genital cancer among the American population. Weiss and Cowan went to Washington to bring their find¬
ings to the attention of Nader’s groups and National N.O.W.
“What they accomplished was to force physicians nationwide, and especially at the University of Michi¬
gan Health Service, to start informing patients of the possible short-term and long-range side effects of drugs
such as the monrmng-after pill And to alert women that there were alternatives to taking dangerous drugs-
m the case of an unwanted or feared pregnancy, for instance, the alternative of endometrial extraction.”
from HERSELF, ApriM973
PATIENTS’ RIGHTS
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT:
-TO KNOW:
what treatment your doctor wants to use and why
what other treatments are possible and why this one was chosen
how risky it will be
how much it will cost
how much it will hurt and for how long
how much time in the hospital it will mean
whether health insurance will cover it
-TO HAVE THINGS EXPLAINED CLEARLY
-TO HAVE ALL THE KNOWN POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF A DRUG
EXPLAINED TO YOU
-TO KNOW WHO IT IS THAT IS INTERVIEWING OR EXAMINING YOU
-TO BE INFORMED AND ASKED WHETHER YOU WISH TO PARTICIPATE
IN MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS; TO BE INFORMED OF THE PURPOSES AND
USES OF THE INFORMATION IF YOU DO PARTICIPATE: TO BE IN¬
FORMED OF THE POSSIBLE RISKS AND SIDE EFFECTS OF ANY MED¬
ICATIONS YOU ARE GIVEN
-TO REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE OR BE INTERVIEWED FOR RESEARCH
OR MEDICAL STUDENT TRAINING.
-TO SEE YOUR OWN MEDICAL RECORDS: TO HAVE THESE KEPT
IN STRICT CONFIDENCE BY YOUR DOCTOR OR HOSPITAL
Last year the FDA banned DES as a cattle feed
because DES residues were showing up in beef in
tiny amounts. For nearly 10 years, scientists had
been asking that DES be banned from our diet.
But not until 100 cases of DES-linked vaginal
cancer were reported did they have the first clin¬
ical evidence that human exposure to DES could
and would cause cancer, it was this evidence
against DES that was so strong that the FDA
could no longer avoid acting on it. So they banned
DES as an additive to cattle feed but approved
DES for use on women as a synthetic hormone
even though such use offered the strongest evidence
against it. The morning-after pill contains 835,000
times the amount of DES that was "banned for
human consumption"in beer.
The morning-after pill is taken after unpro¬
tected intercourse, and statistics show that 96.4%
of the women who take it have no need of it be¬
cause they have not conceived, in addition, it is
only 60% effective in preventing pregnancy. Men¬
strual extraction should be offered instead for
those 4% of women who become pregnant from
unprotected intercourse.
if the FDA were less protective of the profits
of large drug companies, and the medical profes¬
sion were less eager to do competitive research, we
might assume that neither would want to repeat
the tragic mistakes already made with DES as an
"anti-miscarriage"drug, and experiment on
women with DES as a new morning-after pill. Yet
hundreds of thousands of college women are
presently being used in such experiments, a num¬
ber of them "DES daughters" who already carry
a high risk of vaginal cancer.
Based on the following sources:
1) Dr. /. Robert Herbst. JOURNAL OF THE
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIA TION,
Voi. 220, No. 5, May 1, 1972, Medical News.
2) J. Kinderiehrer, PREVENTION, October
1972, page 121.
3) Dr. Phillip Cole, Harvard Department of
Epidemiology, re.: "Estrogen Profile and
inherited Cancer Tendencies."
KAY WEISS
ADVOCATES FOR
MEDICAL INFORMATION
1156 McIntyre Drive
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105
THE POLITICS OF HEALTH CARE
A BIBLIOGRAPHY
Edited by Ken Rosenberg
and Gordon Schiff
This sourcebook provides an annotated listing of ar¬
ticles and other information about the policies and
practices of the health care system in the United
States. Sections of special interest include “Power in
the Health System,” “Women in the Health System,”
“Health in Our Oppressive Environment,” and “Stra¬
tegies for Change,” among others. The list of infor¬
mation is quite extensive, and prices and publishers
are listed for each entry.
NEW ENGLAND FREE PRESS
60 Union Square
Somerville, Massachusetts, 02143
554 includes postage
(Furnished by the Washtenaw County Patients’ Rights Association of the Medical Committee
for Human Rights.)
J
89
INSTITUTIONALIZED MADNESS
Both psychotherapy and marriage are the two
major socially approved institutions for women,
especially for middle class women. Both psycho¬
therapy and marriage isolate women from each
other; both institutions emphasize individual
rather than or before collective solutions to a
woman's problems. Both institutions may be
viewed as re-dramatizations of a little girl's rela¬
tion to her father in a male-dominated society.
Both institutions are based on a woman’s helpless¬
ness and dependence on a "stronger" male-or-
female-authority figure—as husband or psycho¬
therapist.
Both psychotherapy and marriage may be
viewed as a way of socially controlling and op¬
pressing women. At the same time, both institu¬
tions may be viewed as the two safest havens for
women, in a society that offers them no others.
Psychotherapy and marriage are ways in which a
woman can safely express (and politically de-fuse)
her anger and unhappiness-by experiencing them
as a form of emotional "illness." Many women
experience headaches, terrible fatigue, chronic
depression, frigidity, and an overwhelming sense
of inferiority. (In Freud's Vienna this was all called
"hysteria.") Each woman as patient, thinks these
symptoms are unique and are her own fault. She
is "neurotic "-rather than economically and
psychologically oppressed. She wants from a
psychotherapist what she wants-and often can’t
get-from a husband: attention, understanding,
merciful relief, a PERSONAL SOLUTION-in the
arms of the "right" husband, on the couch of the
"right"therapist. In a complicated way, the in¬
stitutions of marriage and psychotherapy not only
mirror each other: therapy is a way of shoring up
the marriage institution by substituting for it, by
supplementing it, by encouraging an intrapsychic
rather than a political vision.
Phyllis Chesler
in the RADICAL THERAPIST,
reprinted by KNOW, Inc.
WOMEN IN TRANSITION
THERAPY PACKET
“Often, when women see themselves, or others see
them, as unfulfilled, depressed, or unable to function,
they feel crazy and think that something is wrong
with them. In reality, thousands of women are having
the same kinds of problems trying to adjust to roles
and patterns which are not healthy and not fulfilling.
Sometimes women may be betteroff looking outward
and making changes in their lives, such as getting a
job. getting a divorce, refusing to do all the house¬
work, etc., rather than spending time, energy, and
money looking inward. However, therapy is often
very useful in helping a woman deal with confusion,
deep feelings, anger, etc. Most often the two pro¬
cesses work well together, and the understanding
gained from therapy can help you make outward
changes. WOMEN IN TRANSITION encourages you
to think about joining a consciousness-raising group
as well as going into therapy. A group is a good place
to meet other women, to explore how similar or
dissimilar your experiences are, and to check out
some of the things you are learning about yourself
in therapy.”
This, neatly stated, is the position of WOMEN IN
TRANSITION on women and therapy. WOMEN IN
TRANSITION is a feminist group that assists Phila¬
delphia women who are contemplating separation or
divorce. (See the section on GETTING JUSTICE for
their manual on separation and divorce.) WOMEN IN
TRANSITION sends out their packet, entitled
"Before You Choose a Therapist” to women who
have expressed interest in seeing a therapist. The
packet contains reprints of articles, including "The
Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm," “Woman as Nigger,”
"A Good Therapist Is Hard to Find,” and an intro¬
duction to group skills for women’s groups.
Available from:
WOMEN IN TRANSITION
4634 Chester Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19143
(215) SA 4-9511
ROUGH TIMES
(Formerly the Radical Therapist)
ROUGH TIMES is published by radical thera¬
pists dedicated to the principal that “therapy is
change . . . not adjustment.” For many readers it
will hardly need introduction. For those who are
unfamiliar with ROUGH TIMES perhaps the least
wordy way to convey its flavor is to say that if
you have had it with the psychiatric-therapeutic
establishment you will find the magazine’s pro¬
vocative, tough, knowledgeable articles a reaffirma¬
tion of the mind-healing profession. Most issues
have articles on and BY women-this is probably
the only journal published by therapists that views
the Women’s Movement as a positive, healthy, and
necessary force for social change.
The September 1972 special issue on WOMEN
AND ■ PSYCHOLOGY is still available, and with
articles on motherhood, psychosurgcry (“The
Final Solution to the Women Problem”), feminist
research, poetry by Marge Piercy, Alta, Judy
Grahn. It is a steal at 50d. Another back issue of
note to women is Volume 2, No. 2, which has
articles on “Male Supremacy in Freud,” “Facing
Down the Man,” “Wives. Mistresses, and Other
Services Trades.”
Available from:
THE RADICAL THERAPIST, INC.
P.O. Box 89
West Somerville, Mass. 02144
$6.00/9 issues
FEMINIST THERAPIST ROSTER
“This roster was developed out of a need expressed
by patients and therapists who noted that sexist values
and attitudes of many therapists often had a deleter¬
ious effect on their women clients.” The roster lists
responses of female therapists in 18 states in each of
three questions: what are your credentials, what ser¬
vices do you offer, what do you think of feminism.
The third area is most telling - even therapists who
consider themselves feminists vary greatly in their re¬
plies. The roster was compiled by Annette M. Brod¬
sky, PhD., 1600 W. Freeman, Carbondale, Illinois,
62901, who indicates that she is continuing to col¬
lect data on feminist therapists.
Available from:
KNOW, INC.
Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
35 4 plus 12tf postage prepaid
C1C2 PROJECTS
Dorothy Tennov
U. of Bridgeport
Bridgeport, Conn., 06602
These projects are based on the idea that therein
times when women simply need someone to talkt
Many women who consult psychotherapists disca
tinue their treatment when they find that intend
with other women in a CR setting is just as constn
tive as the one-to-one relationship with a shrink.!
a woman who feels she would like to talk about In
personal situation in more detail, the C1C2 projet!
was formed.
The project operates like this: a woman cal
to a central location (a women’s center, for examp
She gives her name and telephone number andai
man is then located from the files who lives neath
and is free to visit or call. The second woman tli«
calls back and the two decide when and where tlw
will meet, or whether they would prefer to condi#
their discussion over the telephone.
There arc now five separate C1C2 program!;
operation: New York City, Washington DC, Hartfi
Fairfield County, and Westchester (for informal
write to Dorothy Tennov).
SEDATING AMERICAN
WOMANHOOD
* 7 out of three Americans use prescribed
mood-altering drugs on a regular basis.
* Women outnumber men two to one on usage
of these drugs.
* Women account for 53% of the adult popula¬
tion but, among habitual or frequent (6 or more
times a month) users or mood altering drugs, they
are more than adequately represented: 54% of
barbituate users are women; 58% for major tran¬
quilizers; 70% for minor tranquilizers; 72% for
antidepressants; 76% for controlled narcotics; 80%
for diet pills.
* Many women are caught up in multiple drug
use. For example, of the housewives who habitu¬
ally use amphetamines: 75% also take barbiturates,
16% take other powerful sedatives; 16% take tran¬
quilizers; 22% take antidepressants; 38% take non-
controlled narcotics. Also-of the housewives who
take relaxants: 6% also take diet pills; 9% take
anti-depressants; 16% take narcotic pain-killers;
17% take barbiturates; 11% take other powerful
sedatives.
A full-page ad photograph of a middle-aged
woman. Sullen but defiant look on her face.
In bold print: 1
The Collector. At 35 she’s collected, among
other things, a college degree she’s never used,
two children under foot most of the day, a
husband whose career takes him away most of '
the time, a folder of unpaid bills, and various 1
symptoms-real or imagined.
The cure is then offered-this company's
tranquilizer. 1
A series of snapshots covering a period ot aboul ^
7 5 years. Each one is a woman posing with a dif- V
ferent man. One snapshot is the woman and her
father. Final shot is the woman, alone on the deck &
of a ship:
35, single, and psychoneurotic. The purser on
her cruise ship took the last snapshot of Jan.
You probably see many such Jans in your
practice. The unmarrieds with low self-esteem.
Jan never found a man to measure up to her
father. Now she realizes she's in a losing pat¬
tern—and that she may never marry.
The cure-a specific antidepressant.
Nora Jones
COMING OUT: A WOMEN’S NEWSPAPER
August 1973, 229 West College Street,
Oberlin, Ohio 44074
$1.75
IUI
1
| HE SAID I WAS SICK
RUTH: "I was married about eight years when
' 'niy my husband seemed to be bored with me
ixl the children. So he kept going to meetings
nay night. He had fun with the boys and became
my popular. But I felt neglected. So / got angry,
then / asked him why he couldn ’t stay home
dime with me and the children he just slam-
Mi door and said I was sick and needed a
xtor. Well, / believed him and went to someone
mended. To make a long story short, this
doctor didn't ask me my problem. All he did was
tie me a needle and put me to sleep. Then he
*ptgiving me shock treatments... this caused
mto sleep all the time. Consequently, my chiI-
tm missed my attention and my husband en-
Ihis freedom and had no guilt.... This shock
pent went on for about six years. I was very
dued all the time and never objected to
fling."
OMEN’S PRESS, July/August, 1973
rtEN’S COUNSELING SERVICE
1325 Fourteenth Avenue,
in Francisco, California 94122
15) 392-0400
leoup of psychologists, also radical feminists, pro-
iltdirect services for women in the form of individ-
d,group, couple and family counseling. These wo-
ualso hold informative and experientially-oricnted
ninarsand workshops. “We are attempting not
«iy o divest traditional therapy of its sexist assump-
m,bui to develop a new and revolutionary feminist
bebtherapy' ”
LYSSUM
157 Union Street
iFrancisco, California
1-8390
Biisa drop-in and on-going women’s group which
lilsclfasan alternative to male-dominated therapy,
““omen who facilitate the group have varied ex¬
ecs in Gestalt, role-playing, body work, etc.
/hope to expand into a full-time center. Drop-in
bonsare Wednesdays, 3-7 p.m. No appointment
“ary; 13 per session.
AINIST PSYCHOLOGY COALITION
ERAPY REFERRAL SERVICE
dCUNY Graduate Center
1W. 42nd Street, Room 607
i York, N.Y.
e feminists have organized to fill the needs of
len who are looking to Women’s Liberation ra-
ithan to traditional sources to find therapists.
IBen are referred to fifty screened therapists, both
•hand without credentials, straight and lesbian.
Wall women. The Feminist Psychology Coali-
* stresses the importance of finding a therapist
io not only has positive attitudes toward women
I their liberation, but also has other healthy as-
“ptions as well:
“Therapists who claim that ‘politics’ have no
tin therapy are showing considerable lack of a-
"less of the ways in which their own politics bias
Ktceptions whether they like it or not. A ther-
«»ho believes that capitalism is a just system, who
• to sec a connection between profit and poverty,
glee a person who .s not making much money as
'luate'. Not only will this increase feelings of
U-cstecm, it makes it difficult to identify the
jfW obstacles to living a better life . . . Under-
Hing the connections between objective Condi-
1 , the myths that support them, and personal
pience is PSYCHOLOGY. Sharing these undcr-
s is THERAPEUTIC.”
FEMINIST COUNSELING COLLECTIVE
of the Washington, D.C. Women’s Center
1736 R Street
Washington, D.C.
The collective conducts problem-solving groups, indi¬
vidual crisis counseling, and organizing of conscious¬
ness-raising groups. Through peer counseling, women
can share experiences, support each other and give
each other honest feedback to help each woman grow
to greater self-sufficiency in every area of her life.
CHICAGO COUNSELING AND
PSYCHOTHERAPY CENTER
1525 E. 53rd Street Suite 830
Chicago, Illinois 60615
(312) 684-1800
Special programs for women operate out of the Chi¬
cago Counseling and Psychotherapy Center. There
are alternative therapy programs for women as well
as peer counseling programs, where women learn to
be empathetic listeners to each other. The women
staff of the center hold Women’s Personal Growth
Workshops, in which they use experiential methods
(T-groups and structured exercises) to deal with is¬
sues we share because of our common socialization
as women. The purpose of the workshops is to be
more specifically relevant to women’s needs than
traditional sensitivity or encounter groups. Call the
Center to find out the date of the next personal
growth workshop.
THE WOMAN’S INSTITUTE
4180 N. Marine Drive
Chicago, Illinois
(312) 528-8319
Set up by feminists as an alternative to sexist psycho¬
therapy, the Woman’s Institute coordinates the work
of 26 therapists in the Chicago area — psychiatrists,
social workers, psychologists - who work with wo¬
men in alternative programs and institutional settings.
Current areas of concern to the Woman’s Institute
arc sexuality and mother/daughter relationships. Wo¬
men’s groups in the Chicago area make referrals of
both individuals and groups to the Woman’s Institute.
In addition to this kind of therapy, the Institute holds
conferences on various topics concerning psychology
and women. Different women’s activist groups parti¬
cipate, such as anti-rape groups, self-help groups, and
feminist speakers from the Chicago Women’s Libera¬
tion Union, who help make the connections between
the personal and the political.
Therapy/Consciousness- Raising/Sisterhood
"My experience after three therapy groups and
three consciousness-raising groups is that more
people in the rap groups were able to make de¬
cisions about their lives and act on them.... We
learned a lot by talking... surprising ourselves
with what we emphasized, with the connections
we made, with the sudden recollection. We also
learned from the questions and comments of
others, and from their parallel experiences....
"For the most part, / think we have, collec¬
tively, the skills we need to help each other and
ourselves. This ideology, of course, is the major
difference between therapy and consciousness-
raising. The self-image of a neurotic was itself a
barrier to change. In women’s C-R groups we
believed that our problems were unsuccessful
adaptations to a society whose craziness and
cruelty guaranteed conflict. We felt our own
competence to make specific changes in ourselves;
our anger at the external insanity was fuel, as was
our growing self-confidence to challenge the
society that was hurting so many people in so
many ways ...."
from WOMEN’S PRESS, July-August, 1973
$3.00/year from P.O. Box 562,
Eugene, Oregon 97401
ST. LOUIS WOMEN’S
COUNSELING CENTER
5007 Waterman Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri 63108
(816) 631-6233
Twelve experienced counselors with degrees in psy¬
chology, counseling, or social work are interested in
meeting the needs of St. Louis women, particularly
women in transition from one role or stage in life
to another. The first session of counseling is free,
then further sessions arc based on the ability to pay.
In addition, specific workshops are offered in the
following areas for a small colt: Women in Transi¬
tion, Family Communications Systems, Women and
Their Bodies, Divorced Women’s Group, Discovering
Me as a Person, and Dance Therapy. Workshops meet
from three to five times, for about two hours each
session. Contact the Women’s Counseling Center
for their current schedule of workshops.
ihe Department of Health, Education, and Welfare estimates that there are about 7,000,000
single mothers in the United States today-not married, divorced, widowed, or separated. This is
MOMMA’s primary audience. But MOMMA is of special interest to those single mothers who do
not see their lives as a phase be tween marriages-simply marking time until another man comes along.
The changing consciousness of women has contributed to the growing number who consciously
decide to bear and raise children without benefit of marriage. More and more women in unsatis¬
factory marriages are getting divorced or separated rather than sacrifice themselves “for the sake of
the children,” and are finding their single parent family more satisfying for themselves and their
children than remarriage.
"Designed to recognize the unique needs of
divorced, widowed, separated and never married
mothers who are raising children alone, MOMMA
is relevant for ait women, children and men in¬
terested in new family forms, children's welfare
and liberation, work, social legislation, and
daily problems. The single mother experience is
unfolding, the blossom is MOMMA."
Whether the choices made are deliberate or not, the emphasis in this society on the patriarchal,
monogamous, nuclear family confronts all single mothers with a singular set of problems over and
above those ordinarily encountered in raising children. Naturally, money is the problem. Finding a
job to support herself and her children (see the alimony myths in section on GETTING JUSTICE)
the single mother finds herself in what MOMMA calls “the Great Double Bind” (see issue, June,
1973—“It is sickening to be told you cannot be hired because of your kids. . . when the only rea¬
son you need a job is to feed your kids”). Actually, the bind is triple. Before a woman can get a
job to support her children she must find adequate child care to allow her to go to work. (Every
manied woman at home with children is one man away from welfare.) MOMMA features articles
on work-finding jobs, re-entering the job market (a special problem for older women), affirmative
action, non-traditional jobs for women, welfare, child care, schools,
legal problems. MOMMA also addresses itself to another dimen-
w sion of the single mother experience: the emotional and psycho-
■ logical difficulties imposed by a society which accepts the nuclear
\ J family as the norm. Children’s literature, schools, toys, movies,
■ and, of course, TV, bombard children with images of mommy
V and daddy, daddy at work, mommy in the kitchen. How docs the
' single mother deal with this situation—only one of the problems.
^^ . Not surprisingly, MOMMA is published by a collective of nine
- single mothers from a variety of backgrounds, representing a va-
9 jj■ riety of ages—but all sharing in the common experience: raising
j children themselves. Nearly two years ago, two of these women,
‘„Z —' f,/ V Karol Hope and Lisa Connally, conceived the idea of MOMMA.
7 Jj fojhfri Armed with powerful arguments for the need of such a publication and
'J tki& T /A , tricd lo raisc fun<ls to laonch the project. The foundation and bank cxe.
■B; idea. No one offered money.
UT After a year, the women finally decided to go ahead and put out the
, cac ^ ot ^ cr ' s living rooms, the paper was published. Lucky for us. It is in
*’ < Sl ‘Ivsigned. intelligent and imaginative publications to come out ol tl
crates in a rather special way. Describing the paper’s staff as a “collective” is not
to a system of participation and decision-making which rejects any sort of
chain of command or elitism. The all-volunteer
staff “contract” with each other specific work for
specific amounts of time. This does away with the
impossibility of criticizing the work of someone
who is giving it for free, and creates a division of
labor satisfactory to those participating in the
work—plus it clearly defines and articulates each
individual’s expectations of what is required of
her and the others. In addition, the group has in¬
itiated an experiment in collective decision-making:
ALL decisions are made collectively—from content
to distribution to office supplies. The collective
concedes that this is much more time-consuming
than hierarchal decision-making. However, they
feel that what might be gained in “efficiency,” can¬
not begin to compensate for the costs of working
in “an environment that takes your spirit, rewards
your punctuality, and can fire you at a moment’s
notice, depending on someone’s bad mood.” (For
more about MOMMA’s system, see “Collectivizing,”
in the July, 1973 issue.)
Meghan and her single MOMMA
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landrn, yo® booht to uho® 'a»arwt.
maim*.; mom.
campatyn can lomai.mai do m®a than
ultmy thouyh mt®mmatM FT A and
adattory counc.l maatm®
•at lady Im a cucuil. houtakaapa.'.
parant. ouaan and taiWA Appa<a
liont ara ba.nq lakan ^
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mt.oducad a brlt to amand tha Intwnat
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butmau daductron I® houiahotd and
chridcwa aapantat mc®>ad by wck.ny
motha.i to anabh them to ba yamlully
amployad Thw wo®d taka houtahold
maintananca and childcd" out o' lha
•aalm ol "pa-tonal a.panw and into
tha araa ol a butmau a.panta. thut
racojn.t.ny tha .motional and Iman
ctal 'aallly o' tha wo.tiny mothat
Non w».t chihd>.a>my II you haaa
any inl®matron on whara to obtam
non want to,, boot, yamat. Mmt.
■ac®dt. ate . land a ih®t dawr-pton
O' the nan., whar. it can ba obtamad
and tha cott to JoanFiufi.Mi
l avatmy A® . I® Anytlat. Calil
9007* andJ® Syh*. Ho®.. IS03 S
Oatcant Htiyhtt. I® An®., 900»
Ot.ldtan with non tpaolic aWnpat
Idutt. ®mi. ttaat. ate I at m®t in
capfbla to thaw tacondary mlact«na
Thaw non tpacrlic allarya, ano mat
quarada at Irapuant coldt Two to
•o® co Ml p® yfa< art conudarad
normal m®a than that myht indi
cata that yout child Km aMa.ywi
It yo® child hat fitqutni coMt.
dneutt thn with yo® pad-atnoan
Tha uw ol a com®nation anthtla
mmatkaconyattam at lha l«M tiyn
ol a tunny now can cut down on tha
nutnba. ol coMt and tha coanplicatmn.
Rap®t, at a.a labia on lha Fiaudani i
Ccmmiuion on tha Slalut ol Woman,
and Con If ran® rapo.it Itom aatiout
Tha.a tt a waahh ot ml®maiton bamy
it®Jwd. and bamy publnhad about ut.
and'® ut
Addratt yout raquatti to
Woman t Btuamr
CHILDREN
Book! that damet woman w®k my m
maanmytul capacmat that laat®a
y.H at tha mam cha.acta.t that dial
■aalntically with tubtaett tha follow
my raadiny hit wat com®tad by
Sntwhood Book it® a f® MOMMA
at a contmumy column
that ® nan tt non want boo*, I®
Gwmy an aipact® ant ta d>uy that
makat it aatrar to cough up mucuil
tuch at Rcbrtuttm hal®a badbma
can ®a®nt a poll natal drip from
tutti ng mto bronch-ti It •> imp®
•*nt «o ditcutt tha tHacIl ol thaw
d.uyt with yo® trfdiatirCian ®cr
chrldtrn tftpond diM.t-ntl, I' tha
doct® ixaKi.br *t antibntwmra
dnonprttant amt n makn ,0® child
hypat tall tha doct® and find anotha
madrona
Fmwboo' Tht Drtfoo tm tt*
Oocf®. ” Bubo a 0 an.th If ammnt
Ftati. SO Thn n tha tt®y o« a yu l
doct® and a boy n®M who Cura a
dtayon t u»a tad with tha help ol an
X ray machma «®rutun»l MPn>/'
t® Marriam lAlhtd A Knopt. S4 M)
A baautifuiiy ilhnttatad book which
•howt mothatt in a wrda range ol iobi
l.om taa.it.on duector to t®t®y
«®kar Tha traditenat rota ol mother
ft th# loamy n\rtu«ff and W®kf>
m tha homa n alto ponrayad m a
news from
Note The uw ot Robituum n my
own pntonal malarano All other
ml® matron hat baan >anl*d m the
-Handbook o' «Ndwtr<t.' v.th
atbbon
Amy a poop o* woman down to lha
**0A tottica Art--, turn why
»t -a not piling , ( >® child lupoon
a* att-g hai o» the hook Tallrry
MOMMA is one of the outstanding publications
catalysed by the new woman’s consciousness. We
think women, mothers or not, are doing themselves
a disservice if they do not subscribe. The centerfold,
featuring concrete ideas and suggestions, “ways of
making your own life more pleasant, more creative,
more hassle-free,” is alone well worth the price of
subscription.
Oowing toma tt rang* athn* tmat m
yo® rating haNtt T’yfatmgtpa
flhett. with chopttKk, ® mak.ny a
P II* with pftf twead Or bit>w tur.i
Wa ®gr you to ratu.n tha qua,bon
nar*t l»om the Mxch iuua it you ha®
not already dona to They a'a coming
m to MOMMA liltad with m!®mft>on
and rdaat that w,ll ba mad to pian n
mat and document what wa wa taymg
about tha laaMtai ot ungla pwant
•amtiy h«a m Amanca today Yout
Nalmgt. yo® e> pane next, yo® pa.
captont about what tha raat nmat
Apt 3 to B Oum on Account ot
O-wav. " Jana Thayer (Morrow
Junic* Bookt. S4.50) MaryAnn.
who low dmotaun Imdt Dandy,
a brontota®. who hat baan ttaap
Getting angry and complf.img -han
you wa oil compania, adarttrung with
patty wild Rowa.1. pamtmyt and
butter Hat
Thn tpaca ■ ate.rad f® wnimn m
potniront working to powdt wr
.1®, to tha community MOMMA
would —a tint tpaca lo reprrwnt
all parti Ol tha country, baud', tha
Let Angalat araa. to tend ot ml®ny
lion about woman working ut new
•aid, you know about Wa would
A bowl ol pjppm or goMfnh in lha
MOMMA, P.O. Box 567, Venice, California 90291
$5.00 for 12 issues for individuals
$8.00 for 12 issues for institutions
The Single Parent Resource Center
The SPRC is responding to the same needs which
gave birth to MOMMA—the growing number of single
mothers, widowed, divorced, separated, unmarried,
whose desperate need for child care is inadequately
dealt with by existing social agencies. As we all know,
what meager childcare facilities do exist for women
who don’t have large incomes, have been drastically
cut back—leaving working mothers with the choice of
going on welfare or finding alternative child care. The
Single Parent Resource Center was organized to help
such parents help themselves get the needed time to
work, but also to provide their children with the im¬
portant and necessary experiences of a pre-school
situation.
The Single Parent Resource Center, in addition
to two childcare co-operatives, operates the Childcare
Switchboard and the Resource Collective. The pri¬
mary emphasis of the Switchboard is to assist parents,
particularly single mothers, in forming small childcare
co-operatives and playgroups. Each playgroup established is individual in nature and conceived to meet the needs of the parents and
children involved. Playgroups meet on a rotation basis in participating homes, or, when possible, in a central location. The Switch¬
board maintains files of people desiring childcare situations who are matched up according to neighborhoods, ages of children, and
specific childcare needs. When a new co-op or playgroup is established a Switchboard staff member maintains close contact with the
group until any initial problems are resolved and it can function on its own. The Switchboard provides on-going support to play¬
groups, filling vacancies in playgroups, organizing weekly discussion groups dealing with problems that may crop up in running the
group, donating toys and lending equipment to playgroups and co-operatives.
The Resource Center houses a collective which helps parent-run playgroups and childcare co-operatives obtain materials, equip¬
ment and information which are otherwise inaccessible; books, pamphlets, films; duplicating facilities; tools for building and repair¬
ing facilities and equipment. The Resource Center’s library not only makes available literature about group care of children, child
development, activities for children, but it is also preparing literature which specifically deals with the lifestyles of young alternative
families—single parents, communal families. The Resource Center has put together a Toy Bank of expensive, hard-to-find toys.
These toys circulate among the existing co-operatives and playgroups.
KEEPING YOURSELF TOGETHER
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TOKAY/
A TA Primer for the Single Parent
by
KATHRYNJ
HALLETT
Available from:
KATHRYN HALLETT
1005 Dunn Road
St. Louis, Missouri 63031
$1.00 each, plus 16^ postage
KEEPING YOURSELF TOGETHER:
A TA PRIMER FOR THE SINGLE PARENT
by Kathryn J. Hallett
“Fortunately, attitudes have altered, and children
living with one parent are not as unusual as they were
ten years ago. It’s not uncommon, for example, to
find many children today who have no father to at¬
tend the Father’s Day Banquet, nor is it stange to find
children whose mothers work and can’t attend school
functions. Any community, school, or church acti¬
vity, however, which makes your child more aware of
his loss will continue to set off not-okay feelings, un¬
less your child is prepared to deal with them.
Don’t allow your child to use these occasions to
feel victimized. I found that refusing to let my own
children cash in on bad feelings forced them to take
responsibility for these times. . . . Essentially, the
child needs to know that the absence of one parent
doesn’t mean that he/she is unloved or loved less. . . .”
Based on the psychological technique of Transac¬
tional Analysis, Kathryn Hallett’s booklet is for par¬
ents, both women and men, who have experienced a
change in their lifestyles-that is, they became single
parents due to death, divorce, or desertion. The hand¬
book is devoted less to dealing with one’s children,
however, than it is to dealing with oneself.
Write to:
THE SINGLE PARENT RESOURCE CENTER
4284 Douglas Street
San Francisco, California
(415)282-7858
\Vhy do people choose to be single parents? •
• Men m mothers • •
loneliness. be<o*e ond Altar • r*n ..."■• n' ■ •
Single porenthood os sotiol protest •
'• • ' •" *» " ■'"> ni III' III '' ' gist" l ' M 'I M • •
Should I He po'enl ond <H<ld be ol
the some sn 1 • M- •■nndli mn'n .. <i. • •
Dotmq ond sc* problems lor'He single parent •
lego! issues ns private adoption •
*« i ' ' • Mow *o deol with school ond com
munity • ft', rik.no On m -i »•• • n••• , •
D«. .11 • WHot docs It cost’
cm
BYCNO£ klfrlM
Available from:
WALKER AND COMPANY
720 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10019
A
ilsanursery school teacher in a pre-school for wealthy children, I had
■•distressed for a long time by the lack of pre-schooling or child care for
iddienofmy own neighborhood. Each day I would leave behind on my
kd working-class and welfare children whose parents could not afford pre-
idool orday care. It was obvious to me that the state of child care in this
non would not soon fill the need. So I took my concern to my commun-
h... we decided to start a morning playgroup, three days a week, free to
iOurexcitement was great; our children could share experienceswe had
■Kthing to share with the community.
■for the first months we met outside: me, the parents, five children, and a
■tables, chairs and blocks. . . . (After) the weather (began) turning cold,
■realized) we couldn’t float around the park much longer. We rented a
»hlegarage across the street for S20 a month. We had a nursery school.
“Once we had the building, our numbers grew. The garage became a hive
activity, not only for pre-schoolers and parents, but for children coming by
ter school to ‘hang out’. We rented the adjoining garage and, because some
sntshad to leave the playgroup to go to work, we added three teachers and
Uday care program. We soon had 30 children, 10 all day, and were open
n 6:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M_
Ventures in Day Care
■(Now), at the end of this two and one-half years, we are continually full and have a waiting list. And we are no longer free. We had to realize that it was simply
rulistic to continue as a free playgroup, much as we wanted to-(Now we ask) $15 a month for morning nursery school and $15 a week for full time day
tAndwe are still not self-sustaining. We are being forced to seek funding, as a subsidy. . ..
These years have not been without struggles or victories. After all this, we have not been just a nice playgroup. We are presently immersed in a full-fledged
ilbct with the city of Los Angeles, a conflict which is threatening our very existence-The city began to seriously hassle us. The fire marshall asked to see
ikense; it seemed we had none. But there is a clause in the state codes which provides that if a school is meeting a need which no other school in the area is
twig, and it children’s safety or family relationships are not endangered, then certain of the state codes can be waived. This encouraged us; we were sure we
Jdmcet this requirement. But it all hinged on zoning. ... We found that zoning restrictions stated that day care centers had to be in commercial zones, not in
dtntial areas. To applv for a zoning variance in a residential area requires a fee of $500. By this time other ‘illegal’ playgroups had started in the city and they
itcommg up against the same problems. It was clear that changes had to be made for all. So we refused to pay the $500 fee.
The Silverlake Playgroup
Silverlake is a pre-school and full-time daycare program operated and supported
by the people of the Silverlake/Echo Park community of Los Angeles. These
people have created a strong sense of community, struggling together to meet
Iheir needs. The account below is by Ruth Beaglehole, Silverlake’s "prime mover.”
DE-SEXING SILVERLAKE
We greatly de-emphasize sexism and racism. Little
boys are encouraged to experience emotions, to be
warm, to cry. Little girls are encouraged to wrestle
and participate in physical activities, to ‘flex their
muscles’ too. No one is excluded from a game be¬
cause of sex; everyone can do carpentry... We want
our children to see both men and women as nurtur¬
ing adults; we always try to have at least one man at
the playgroup every day... It has been important for
the children to see that men can be sensitive to their
needs as well as women.
Excerpted from MOMMA, P.O. Box 567, Venice, California 90291
“The Department of Building and Safety was also breath¬
ing down our necks. We had taken all reasonable precautions
to rid (our garages) of any obvious dangers. We also agreed
to follow any recommendations the building and safety
people made, but not once did they offer any specific con¬
crete suggestions. Instead, they sneaked around like secret
agents building a case against the enemy. Their attitude was
never more than punitive, as if we were irresponsible par¬
ents, oblivious to the safety of our children. . ..
“The question of (safety) codes is complicated. The state
and city codes are protective of children; they have closed
down a lot of bad places. But they do make it impossible
for a group like ours, with little or no money, to finda build¬
ing or to renovate one that would meet every code. We saw
we had two alternatives: to make them as safe as we could
and at all times have adequate supervision ... or to close
the school. We chose the first. And decided to fight.
“We sought publicity at the City Council, visited our
councilman, state assemblyman and senator, and asked them
to speak out for us. We knew our actions had serious impli¬
cations—to challenge the building and safety codes, to take
on City Hall, was risky for all of us. . . . (A hearing was held
in which people testified about the valuable nature of our
playgroup facility.) The Department of Building and Safety
listed, for the first time, what they considered dangerous.
But the city attorney agreed not to prosecute. He could not
understand why so much fuss was being made over a day
care center. He wanted us to negotiate.
“As a result of our actions. . . . the Chairwoman of the
Building and Safety Committee of the City Council called
for review of the codes related to child care. A public hear¬
ing was called and an advisory board made up of building
and safety people and interested people in the community
was formed. . . . Throughout, we have had one constant de¬
mand. We have no intention of leaving our garages without
an alternative place to go. We have asked the city to provide
us with a licensable facility such as a portable bungalow in
our park, a state building or an empty classroom in a local
school. They are afraid to do this because they don’t want
to set a precedent. ‘If we do it for you, we will have to do
it for other groups.’ We say, ‘Right on!’ since ultimately we
want the state to provide day care for all who need it. . . .
“Our very existence fights the defeatism bred by a sys¬
tem unresponsive to the needs of its people. But playgroups
alone are not enough. Silverlake cannot sustain itself finan¬
cially, much less serve all the families in the community_
The slogan ‘universally available, parent-worker controlled,
publicly financed, 24-hour quality child care’ is a slogan
which must have real meaning. We must be funded on a
permanent basis so that we can plan ahead. The parents,
workers, and teachers, as well as the people from the com¬
munity, should have the right to spend the money accord¬
ing to the needs of their own center. . . .
“We want quality child care—not custodial, not institu¬
tional, but care that offers a protected, stimulating, creative
and loving environment.”
ANOTHER PLOT
Grimke School
A group of feminists from Baltimore Women’s
Liberation are now making definite plans for the
Grimke Elementary School. The school, which
will open in January 1974, will accept daughters of
feminists from grade 1-grade 6 age level; however,
each student will work at her own rate on an un¬
graded basis. When the school opens, the women
plan to have only 15-20 students with one teacher
teaching the basic academic subjects and volunteers
teaching supplementary sublects such as self-defense
physical education, carpentry, leatherwork, plumb¬
ing, mechanics, alternate lifestyles, etc. In the next
few months, the women hope to find an appropriate
location in Baltimore and hire a certified feminist
teacher. Tuition will be on a sliding scale, but
fund-raising will be a major problem. The women
of BWL are willing to offer suggestions to other
feminists around the country who are planning a
school, and would also welcome advice from those
whose schools are under way.
"At present the biological situation of the continuing relationship of the child to its
biological mother and its need for care by human beings are being hopelessly confused
in the growing insistence that child and biological mother, or mother surrogate, must
newer be separated, that all separation, even for a few days is inevitably damaging, and
that if long enough it does irreversible damage. This... is a new and subtle form of anti¬
feminism in which men-under the guise of exalting the importance of maternity-are
tying women more tightly to their children than has been thought necessary since the
invention of bottle feeding and baby carriages. Actually anthropological evidence gives
no sypport at present to the value of such an accentuation of the tie between mother and
child. ... On the contrary, cross-cultural studies suggest that adjustment is most facili- 1
tated if the child, is cared for by many warm, friendly people."
Margaret Mead
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY
"Nothing is so important to the sexual constitution as the creation and maintenance
of families. And since the role of the male as principal provider is a crucial prop for the
family, the society must support it one way or the other. Today, however, the burdens
of childbearing no longer prevent women from performing the provider role; and if day
care becomes widely available, it will be possible for a matriarchal social pattern to
emerge. Under such condition, however, the men will inevitably bolt. And this develop¬
ment, an entirely feasible one, would probably require the simultaneous emergence of
a police state to supervise the undisciplined man and a child care state to manage the
children. Thus will the costs of sexual job equality be passed on to the public in vastly
increased taxes. The present sexual constitution is cheaper."
George Gilder
HARPER’S MAGAZINE, June 1973
Write:
Barbara Warnock
c/o Baltimore Women’s Liberation
101 East 25th Street, Suite B-2
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
(301)366-6475
Kansas City Day Care
In Kansas City, Missouri a group of parents have created a childcare center which is
more than just a babysitting service, but instead is an ideal learning and living environ¬
ment for their children. Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 5:30 P.M. the children
learn and play at the center, which is run entirely through the nonhierarchical cooper¬
ation of parents and volunteers.
The two main goals of the center are:
1) to enable very young children to relate to more than one single adult author¬
ity figure by having as many adults as possible participate in the center on an
equal basis, and
2) to present an environment that ideally reflects “non-sexist childrearing, ab¬
sence of cultural, racial and class distinctions, independence for the children
while still providing support, security and love.”
In recruiting help, the collective offers “the rewards of experience, gratitude, ex¬
posure to little children, the fatigue of labors of love, and the joy of watching your
accomplishments grow and develop as reflected by the children.”
Write to:
DAY CARE COLLECTIVE
3800 McGee
Kansas City, Missouri
(816) 561-6168
West 80th Street
In May of 1966 the inadequacy of local day care
facilities led the West Side Community Alliance to
initiate plans for a day care center. They mobilized
community support, raised funds, found a building,
and recruited a staff. The center opened in Sep¬
tember, 1966.
The heart of the program, and what makes the
West 80th Street Day Care Center so special, is that
the center is community-controlled. The governing
board, composed of parents only, oversees admin¬
istration and operation of the center—from inter¬
viewing, hiring and firing staff through program
planning and center budgeting. There is no sliding
scale fee, instead the fee is the same for everyone:
S5 per week per family.
The center is staffed by para-professionals. Only
the director has a degree; of the four teachers, two are
in training and two have just finished training. The
center has decided on its own curriculum and ma¬
terials which are designed for the children at the
center.
The West 80th Street Day Care Center is a fine
example of a community-controlled child care fa¬
cility. It deals directly with the children’s self-image,
self-reliance and cross cultural appreciation; it also is
concerned with in-service training for the staff, with
working opportunities for parents and for involve¬
ment for the community.
“All Kinds of Love in a Chinese Restaurant,”
which describes the project, is out of print, but is
available for reference in school and public libraries.
For information about the center, write:
DIRECTOR, West 80th Street Day Care Center
West 80th Street at Broadway
New York, New York
(212) 787-3415
Child Care at Joshua Tree
'There is still far too much to be done in the whole area of child care for any of us to be grateful for
ihot little we will receive. We will not accept what will most certainly turn out to be glorified babysitting
•/vices for welfare and low-income mothers. Quality educational child care must be made available to A LL.
k should not stop our efforts until that is a reality."
DOROTHY O'CONNOR in MOMMA, May 1973
l^:rnard Grenell . . . is president of a company, headquartered in Redondo Beach, California, that manufactures . . . medium-priced fashions for
women-Mr. GreneU’s manufacturing plant is in the heart of a dense, industrial, M-l section of Gardena, California_Inside the plant, approxi¬
mately two hundred-fifty women, all specialists in their field, sit at machines. . . . Directly behind the office of the plant supervisor is an unmarked
door. It could be an exit.
But it isn t. It is an entrance . . . into a whole new world. A Japanese fish kite hangs from the ceiling, a real live fish swims in a little bowl, sunlight
streams through windows plastered with vari-colored finger paintings-bright royal blue Scotch plaid blankets are stacked neatly in the corner-ABC’s
are painted on the wall. .. and through sliding glass doors, a giant, shocking pink turtle, big enough to sit on and slide down, snoozes in the sand in the
noonday sun. . . .
The children who play and learn in this child care center are outwardly no different from any other children who learn and play in every quality
pre-school child care center across the land—except for one very important, very delightful difference—their mothers work all day right through that
unmarked door! ...
Bananas
The simplest form of a playgroup is a group of five
arents-with-children who meet in one another’s
omes five times a week. One parent cares for all the
children on Monday, a second on Tuesday, and so
forth through the week.
Children of full-time working parents can also be
in playgroups. The parent can either have a baby¬
sitter take the children each week or could take the
group on the weekend. A group with several non¬
working parents could also invite a child of working
parents to join without the parent taking a regular
day.
Weekends-only playgroups, once-a-week play¬
groups, all-day or part-day playgroups: the variations
are limited only by the needs and desires of the
participants ....
But before any of this can happen, parents and
kids need to know each other. BANANAS will be
working to get people in touch with one another so
that they can form such groups. To do this, BANANAS
will:
-develop a file of parents and kids who would
like to form playgroups (including type of group,
kids’ ages, neighborhood, etc.)
—keep a list of groups that are seeking new
members.
-organize playgroup workshops so that parents
and others can share ideas for playgroups.
-provide services such as toy recycling, a lending
library of books about play activities, a directory
of where to find materials, a list of places to
visit, a list of volunteer “resource persons.” etc.
The phone is staffed everyday from 1-3 P.M.
“When I tried to pinpoint just when and how Bernard Grenell
arrived at the idea for an inplant child care center ... his explan¬
ation was a logical one, for the good businessman he is ... . The
absolute success of the expansion program (at Joshua Tree) de¬
pends upon reliable, responsible employees. For a long time, the
company had been beset by a high rate of turnover and absen¬
teeism, due for the most part to baby-sitting problems and chil¬
dren’s illnesses. One day of absenteeism costs Mr. Grenell’s com¬
pany money. And so, he came to the conclusion that quality
child care for the working mother is a basic need. Not a fringe
benefit—but a basic need! ...
“This is a quality pre-school educational facility. The center
presently has a staff of three—an administrator/teacher ... a tea¬
cher . . . and an aid. It is currently licensed for 43 children. . ..
“The children are surrounded with a great deal of love, warmth,
and security—but a great part of this security comes from the
knowledge that their mothers will be ‘dropping in’ on them dur¬
ing coffee breaks and lunch hours. . . .
“The child care center is just now beginning to attract many
new employees to the company-the kind of employees that Mr.
Grenell had in mind when he conceived the idea. . . . (One woman
employee said) that since she came to work at this company, she
lost—almost overnight-the one thing that had plagued her since
she first had to go to work many years ago . . .her horrible sense
of guilt. . . .
“Joshua Tree is a remarkable place. It is certainly not the end-
all solution to child care for working mothers. We who are single
mothers are all too aware of that. There are still far, far too many
unsolved problems. There are no acceptable solutions to infant
child care—no acceptable solutions to extended child care-and
there are too many of us still who must face these unsolved prob¬
lems every day. But Joshua Tree is a hell of a beginning . . . .”
MOMMA
The Newspaper/Magazine for Single Mothers
FOOTNOTE:
in the next issue of the paper some MOMMA readers registered
their dismay at MOMMA 's "saccharine praise of a man who has
made millions of dollars off the labor of the women Whom he
pays, at best, subsistence wages." To this MOMMA replied, "Joshua
Tree is not a sweatshop. If for one moment (we) had witnessed
such conditions at this plant or talked to employees outlining
such conditions, the article on Joshua free would not have taken
the vein that it did. (Our) intent was to tell the story of a child
care center in a manufacturing plant, a unique facility, in fact,
the only one of its kind in the 13 western states. .. "MOMMA
also cites examples of the fair treatment of women employees at
Joshua Tree with respect to their salaries, which they call "the
very opposite of exploitation ."
BANANAS
YWCA
2134 Allston Way
Berkeley, California
(415) 548-4343
Day Care Resources
- Ratio ot males to females on the staff?
If no males, have you made an attempt to recruit males
If no attempt to recruit males, why do you reject the
males caring for children?
Ratio of blacks to whites on staff?
flas there been any deliberate effort to eliminate or wa¬
fer racist and sexist children's materials?
Is there any attempt to involve boys in domestic role |
(cooking, playing house) and girls in more active and asserti-
or activity (moving furniture, building things, etc)?
What kinds of services are offered?
creative play program
outdoor exercise
hot breakfast
lunch
sleeping or napping tacililies
medical facilities (nurse, doctor consulting)
change diapers, it you accept children under 2
What is the extent ot parent participation and control?
Do parents go to meetings?
Do parents have a role in decision-making or is the cent
strictly on a private basis?
What is the center 's relationship to the surrounding com
ty?
Do you receive any lederal or state tunds? Have yoa
applied ?
from WOMEN'S YELLOW PAGES, by THE BOSTON WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE
Distributed by The Sanctuary, Inc., 1151 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. 02138 60<( plus 15tf postaji
kow to evaLuate a child caw center
Probably no child-care center is ideal for everyone, but we
believe that asking the following questions can be useful in helping
you to evaluate a center where you are thinking of sending your
child.
A questionnaire based on the following considerations was sent
to child-care centers in the Boston area by Boston Women's
Collective, Inc. A comprehensive evaluation of the data received will
appear in the second edition of the Women's Yellow Pages.
Important questions you can ask:
- Age group of children served (A large age span is ideal so that
younger children can learn from older children.)
- What is the racial and ethnic mix ot the children?
- What is the maximum capacity ot the center?
- Cost per child?
-- Are there any income restrictions?
- All day or half day facility?
- Any night-time services?
- Ratio of staff to children?
- What kind of qualities and work experience do you look tor in
those you hire as staff?
-- Do you recruit teenagers, older people, or people of mixed
ages as assistants or volunteers?
- How manv professionally-trained staff do you have?
LABOR PAINS NEWSLETTER
Development is preparing a
on most aspects of day care,
ks are now available:
EMENTOF PRINCIPLES (30*)
ss for the operation of day
ren of all ages.
day care
1 a statement
of principles
4G INFANTS (75*)
ks which deals with a specific
ition about planning for infants
i and development.
'JG PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN
•aration)
cerned with the requirements
lay care.
sIG SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN
(70*)
;es and problems of day care for
so includes an appendix with
is, books, articles, and
-TRAINING (50*)
rtance of training and career de-
i day care situations.
TH SERVICES (75*)
about planning health services
ire centers and for their parents.
NISTRATION ($1.25)
lity administrative craftsperson-
n day care operations.
ING CHILDREN
SPECIAL NEEDS (75*)
s and provides guidance for
ildren with speech and hearing
isabilities and retardation.
) DEVELOPMENT
: Health, Education, and Welfare
CVAILP
This newsletter, a bi-monthly coming out of Cam¬
bridge, Massachusetts, deals with issues of child care
and children’s liberation. The paper, which grew to a
large extent out of the efforts to organize city-wide,
community-controlled child care in Cambridge, has
adopted as its stated goals child care that is:
-“non-racist, non-sexist, and non-authoritarian
—free and available to anyone who wants it
—parent, worker, and when possible, child-
controlled
—attempting to break down staff hierarchies
—defending the rights of child care workers to
make a decent living and to receive health em¬
ployment, and social security benefits. . .”
Available from:
LABOR PAINS
Box 72
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
$2.00/year for individuals
$6.00/year for institutions
THE CHILD CARE RESOURCE CENTER
The Child Care Resource Center is involved in
from LABOR PAINS NEWSLETTER, June 6, 1973 child care and children’s programs in the Greater
P.O. Box 72, Cambridge, Mass. 02138 Boston/Cambridge area. The work done by the
Resource Center falls into three broad categories:
1) Information and referral services—listing of
local centers, licensing regulations, reports of current
research on children and child care, and child
placement.
2) Technical assistance-help with licensing advice,
basic organizational help, information on curriculum,
purchasing, and budgets.
3) Child care advocacy—serving as a source for
I ^A m political information and assistance, working on
Uviy Care nUW'lUS referendums, lobbying, etc.
The Child Care Resource Center is planning other
model projects. The group plans to set up child care
facilities in community space in low and moderate
income housing developments; to organize child care
services in hospitals for hospital workers, out-patients,
and the surrounding community; to distribute a
comprehensive evaluative listing of all existing child
care centers; to set up a supplies cooperative and sell
equipment in bulk amounts; and to form an alliance
of groups with common interest in order to maintain
unity and positive results.
Write to:
CHILD CARE RESOURCE CENTER
123 Mt. Auburn Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
(617) 547-9861
DAY CARE AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
COUNCIL OF AMERICA
The Day Care and Child Development Council of America is a national, non-profit membership organization
that has as its goals the development of a community-controlled, publicly supported child care system for all
families and individuals who want or need it. The Council feels that child care services are a family’s fundamen¬
tal right—they provide children with opportunities to develop as full human beings during their early years—they
provide parents with real choices about employment and other activities outside the home.
The Day Care and Child Development Council of America makes up a listing of publications and audio-visual
aids covering such topics as organizing and programming for day care services; facilities and equipment; child
care legislation; annotated bibliographies for special interest groups; and bilingual information. RESOURCES
FOR DAY CARE, which lists these publications, is available on request and is updated several times a year.
Membership in the DCCDCA is $5.00 per year for day care parents and students, $20.00 for individuals and
$50.00 for agencies. Members receive a year’s subscription to RESOURCES FOR DAY CARE and VOICE FOR
CHILDREN, a monthly newsletter that deals with issues such as revenue sharing and money distribution and
reports news about specific day care facilities in the United States and in Europe.
Write to:
DAY CARE AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
COUNCIL OF AMERICA
1401 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
(202)638-2316
0013
99
Day Care
and
Child Develepment Council
Publications
DIRECTORY FOR THE
CHILD CARE ADVOCATE
DIRECTORY
Tor the
CHILD CARE
ADVOCATE
O.Y CftMtCHIlO OTVI.OM.IP.' COUHCH OV l»C.
- 1.01 4». NW WMOmoum.OC WOOB
A listing of national organizations, government
agencies and departments involved in creating and
monitoring legislation pertaining to children.
ACTION FOR CHILDREN
ACTION FOR CHILDREN, a quarterly newsletter
published by the Action Council for Comprehensive
Child Care, deals with issues affecting child care and
children in the greater Los Angeles area. Because
ACCC is affiliated with the Day Care and Child De¬
velopment Council of America in Washington, D.C.,
the newsletter also contains national news regarding
DCCDCA and information about laws affecting child
care throughout the nation.
Membership in the Action Council for Compre¬
hensive Child Care is $2.00 per year and entitles an
individual to receive ACTION FOR CHILDREN four
times a year. A $5.00 yearly fee also includes VOICE
FOR CHILDREN, in addition to RESOURCES FOR
CHILDREN.
Write:
ACTION FOR CHILDREN
c/o Action Council
for Comprehensive Child Care
5889 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90019
(213) 388-5596, 380-3875
OPERATIONAL DIFFICULTIES
OF GROUP DAYCARE
GUIDELINES FOR OBSERVATION
AND ASSESSMENT:
An Approach to Evaluating the Learning Environment
of a Day Care Center
Guidelines are offered on “what to look for” with
respect to physical setting, relationships between tea¬
cher-child and child-child, and program, such as cur¬
riculum content, teaching strategies, and “socio-emo-
tional climate.”
The authors are aware of the importance of elim¬
inating sex-stereotyping from day care. In the section
on “curriculum content,” they encourage the observer
to ask the following question: “Are children encour¬
aged to use the whole range of play options (i.e., do
iris play with trucks, do woodworking; do boys play
ouse, take mother role, etc.) or is sex-stereotyped
activity promoted?”
The straightforward questions in this booklet
should enable anyone to make an accurate assessment
of a day care center, based on concrete and detailed
evidence.
$1.75
Finding Available Resources in the Co
Listed below are a sampling of some of t
groups from whom assistance might be solic
1. Local 4-C Committees. (Where they e
sources of information and expertise.
2. The Department of Public Welfare at
and/or State level. (A day care unit n
handles licensing and offers some con.
3. The Mayor’s Office. (Zoning regulatic
ing codes and other local ordinances ■
tained here.)
4. Governor’s Office and State Planning
(Some have day care consultants.)
5. Public Health Department at the loca
State level. (Some have day care unit
handle day care through the unit on I
and Infant Care. A number of them a
licensing authority.)
6. Local Housing Authority. (Sometime
ing units to offer as a day care facilit
7. Model City Agency. (Day care is a to
in these programs.)
8. Head Start Child Development Cente
be able to give you technical assistan
9. Regional Training Office for Head St
vides materials and expertise.)
10. Health and Welfare Council. (Rcscart
statistics; also good referral agency.)
11. Welfare Rights Organization. (Know!
rights regarding day care for welfare r
12. Women’s Liberation Movement. (Thi
many groups—all are interested in da
13. State Department of Public Safety. (
rules and regulations which apply to
censed service.)
14. Junior Chamber of Commerce. (A gc
tact for getting business involved.)
15. Junior League. (Very effective in giv
tance on setting up board, etc.)
16. Council of Jewish Women. (Has beet
fectively involved in day care in man
17. League of Women Voters. (Very intc
day care legislation.)
18. NAACP. (Has a strong interest natio
day care legislation.)
19. National Alliance of Businessmen. (/
tact for getting industry involved in
20. Urban Coalition. (Might be a fundin]
and might be able to give technical a
21. Local or State chapter of the Nation
tion for the Education of Young Ch
source material, good consultants, cl
22. State Department of Human Rights,
day care.)
23. Public School System. (Many are be-
creasingly interested in preschool pr
ticularly for the four year old.)
24. State Department of Education. (Ha
money and might have a day care sp
its staff.)
25. Universities and Colleges. (Excellent
for consultants on curriculum, child
ment, and training of child care stafl
26. Agencies operating child care progra
27. Organized parent groups.
from PLANNING A DAY CAR
All publications are available from;
THE DAY CARE AND CHILD DEVELOI
COUNCIL OF AMERICA
1401 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
f%torically, day care has not been primarily from the educational perspective. The overriding
tnle for day care has been as a necessary evil for working mothers. While day care has a long
lay In this country, the first center having opened in 1838, only during wars have we had a sub¬
til! number of day care programs because women had to join the work force. When the wars were
u, the men went back to their jobs, the women went back to their homes, and day care went back
Its low prewar priority. For example, the period following World War II was characterized by
glorification of the family and the home. It was thought that women could find complete ful-
nent through child-rearing. This idealized view of homemaking has received a serious if not fa-
• How in the past few years from the women's liberation movement."
KENTUCKY FRIED CHILDREN?
r
c
^ hploM' dei>e[(Tf>,
ftmfe. * day c<vn* ceyfer
hE'MeFjtu#' BeftSttutr
Marlene IVeiashui
Drss
E, Belle Evans, Beth Shub, and Marlene Wein-
Jtern started a storefront daycare center for twenty
children in Boston and in two years expanded it
into two centers for 200 children. The three au¬
thors have written a how-to book which includes
theoretical and practical planning advice. DAY
CARE takes the would-be daycare parent through
the maze of federal, state, and local rules and
regulations, finding a site, interviewing teachers,
letting up classrooms, finding funds, setting up
budgets, etc. This book is a valuable guide for
coping intelligently with groups of young chil¬
dren; it is useful for all parents-thosc whose
thildrcn arc in daycare centers and those who
#e trying to start a facility.
The authors are concerned with the children’s
optimal growth and development, but they do
lot deal with the children’s preconceived and
C nditioned stereotyped notions of sex-role
or. Ideally, a woman could use this book
jaguide for starting a daycare center, but
■ould supplement her information with some of
he other pamphlets listed here concerning sex-
sle stereotyping in child care.
Available from:
BEACON PRESS
25 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts $3.95
Also available from Beacon Press is DAY CARE
FOR INFANTS by E. Belle Evans
and George Saia. $6.95
rARTING A CENTER
The basic steps involved in putting together a child
Reenter:
1. getting a group of interested parents together.
deciding what the children and parents need.
1 deciding what types of programs you want to
offer.
4 learning state and federal rules and regulations.
5. becoming incorporated.
6. finding a site for your child care center.
7. recruiting and training staff members.
; 1 finding funding.
k9. opening your center,
evaluating your program.
HOW TO ORGANIZE
ILD CARE CENTER
s Action Alliance
m
from DAY CARE
by E. Belle Evans, Beth Shub, Marlene Weinstein
HOW TO ORGANIZE
A CHILD CARE CENTER
by the Women’s Action Alliance
“This packet is designed to give an idea of the dif¬
ferent steps involved in organizing a child care center.
It will suggest resource materials and organizations
which can help with specific aspects of setting up and
operating the center.
“Through this packet and the resources we suggest
we are hoping to promote the concept of high qual¬
ity, community-controlled child care that acts to
eliminate racism, sexism, and classism. We hope that
you share our interest in opening up all possible op¬
tions to our children and in eliminating all forms of
prejudice and discrimination in our society.”
Available from:
Some persons are marketing franchises for chi Id
care the way others have sold franchises for root
beer and fried chicken. Franchises are opening up
centers, especially in the South.... Customers
who buy franchises pay from $ 18,000 to $30,000
along with a continuing fee of about 6 percent of
gross sales. Construction and other initial costs
may require as much as $200,00 in capital to start
one of these outfits. The promised return on the
investment is said to vary from between 12 and
20 percent and purchasers of franchises hope to
earn from $25,000 to $50,000. Fees to parents
are $20 to $30 a week.
Since most nonprofit day care costs around
$40 a week, the nonprofit day care orthodoxy is
deeply suspicious of KENTUCKY FRIED CHIL¬
DREN. / share their suspicions. / don't think the
franchises will be able to make money running
good programs. At best, they will provide pleasant
inexpensive baby-sitting services for children, not'
an educational program....
The situation on the local level reminds many
people of battles some time ago in state legislatures
to establish some sort of standards for nursing
homes. These battles in most places were lost to
nursing home interests, which then went on to
make fortunes out of federal medicare and med¬
icaid windfalls, without any improvement in their
abysmal services.
WOMEN’S ACTION ALLIANCE
370 Lexington Avenue
Room 313
New York, New York 10017
from HER-SELF, June 1973
ONE^LASSROOM C^TWENS^CHILDREN^ 0 **^^'*'^ ^ CARE CENTER
Program Element % Time No &/
I. Staff
A. Director-Hoad Teacher 100 1 Mnnn
B. Teacher (parents, student 50 6 —
volunteers)
Salary
$7,000.
$7,000.
II. Consultant Services
Curriculum and supervisory consultants: 20 days at $50 per day
III. Equipment
A. Educational
B. Caretaking and housekeeping
C. Office
D. Kitchen
E. Carpentry
$7,000.
$ 1 , 000 .
$ 568.
416.
100 .
200 .
216.
IV. Supplies
A. Educational (art)
B. Caretaking and housekeeping
C. Office
$1,500.
Total
50.
V. Food
1 meal and two snacks: 354 x 20 children x 260 days
$1,101.
Total
$ 1,820.
VI. Space rental
1,000 sq. ft. (35 sq. ft. per child = 700 sq. ft., plus
300 sq. ft. for kitchen, staff room, and storage space,
and toilets) at $2.50 per sq. ft.
$ 2,500.
VII. Utilities
Telephone at $15 per month
Heat at $12 per month
$ 180.
Light at $10 per month
144.
120.
Total
Grand Total
(per child)
$ 444.
$15,365.
$ 768.
(per week)
$ 1,476.
Page showing part of day care budget from DAY CARE by Evans, Shub, and Weinstein
101
"In his veto message of the Comprehensive Head Start Development bill of 1971, President Nixon stated
that 'there is a respectable school of opinion that this legislation would lead toward altering the family re¬
lationship, (that it) would commit the vast authority of the National government to the side of communal
approaches to child rearing over against the family-centered approach'.
“We are of the opinion that this position of the President was based upon the standards of the affluent
and ultra-rich family, or the industrialist family which he supports. However, even here, there has not ex¬
isted a real 'family-centered' approach to child rearing. Everyone knows that this family has always had
nurses, camps for the summer, boarding schools for the winter, and in between, housekeepers or a govern¬
ess to mind its children."
quoted in THE WOMAN QUEST ION IN CHILD CARE
Day Care and Child Development Council of America
“BEAUTIFUL JUNK” by Diane Warner and Jeanne Quill, Project Head Start
CHILD CARE:
People’s Liberation
According to a review in CINEASTE, thisij
“an inspiring film which offers some goodcoa-J
Crete ideas on how to set up and run a com¬
munity child care center ... the film actually
shows a composite of various child care centei
in the metropolitan New York area.”
Available from:
NEWSREEL FILMS
26 West 20th Street
New York, New York 1001
Black & white, 20 minutes
rental—$35.00
sale—negotiable
DESIGNING AND DEVELOPING
DAY CARE CENTERS
by Lillian Mack, George Saia,
and Ann Walsh
Mack. Saia, and Walsh have writ¬
ten a comprehensive, practical guide j
to setting up a child care center. There
is information on how to find a spot
best suited to specific program needs,
how to perform necessary renovations,
and how to construct floor plans and
furniture design. This excellent bookis
written with the child in mind-infor¬
mation on building and designing is
very concerned with meeting the
changing needs of growing children.
Available from:
EDUCATIONAL DAY CARE
SERVICES ASSOC.
11 Day Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 0211
$2.50
WORKING MOTHERS
DIRECTORY OF DAY CARE SERVICES
FOR CHILDREN
in the San Diego, California area,
compiled by the San Diego section,
National Council of Jewish Women
The San Diego directory is a listing of licensed day
nurseries according to zip code area—included are age
and session information.
The National Council of Jewish Women has in¬
cluded an outline of types of day care other than day
-nurseries. For each of these types of services, there
is a phone number to refer to in order to find out
specific information.
Available from:
CREATIVE INSTANT PRESS
140 West Main
El Cajon, California
(714) 442-0746
LICENSED DAY CARE SERVICES
FOR CHILDREN
by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Division of Family Health Services
The Listing of Licensed Day Care Services in
Massachusetts is set up in four parts arranged on a
geographical basis. Four lists have been prepared al¬
phabetically by cities and towns in the Northeastern,
Southeastern, Central, and Western Health Regions of
the state.
Information includes classification according to
funding, quota and ages of children, and session hours.
Available from:
THE DAY CARE UNIT
Division of Family Health Services
Massachusetts Department of Public Health
88 Broad Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02110
(617) 727-6112
The number of children with mothers in Ih
force increased sharply during the last decadt.
26 million children under 18 years old had m
who were working or looking for work in Man
1972. More than 5.5 million of these children
under 6 years old. In 1969, 15.7 million chili
under 18 had working mothers, and about 4i
of these children were under age 6.
from DAY CARE FACTS
By the Women’s Bureau, Departmentofj
THE WORKING MOTHER
—The Voice of Mothers’
and Children’s Liberation
"All mothers are working mothers.”
THE WORKING MOTHER, a news quarterly
covers news of child care legislation, child carccolj
lectives throughout the country, sexism in edui
and abortion. There is some question about the
quency of future issues.
For information write:
THE WORKING MOTHER
c/o Maternal Information^
Suite IE
46 West 96th Street
New York, N.Y. 10025
$3/year—individuals
$10/year—institutions
Sexism in
Education
EDUCATION AMENDMENT OF 1972
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex,
be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of,
or be subjected to discrimination under any education pro-
ujum 1 ° r ? ct ' v ' ty receivin g Federal financial assistance..
While this prohibition applies generally to elementary and
secondary schools, it does not apply to "admissions” to ele¬
mentary and secondary schools, except to “institutions of
vocational education.”
TITLE IX of Public Law 92-318
EXCERPTS OF TESTIMONY OF AN 11TH GRADE
GIRL STUDENT AT A QUEENS, N.Y. HIGH SCHOOL:
Q: “Are there any classes or activities or programs within the classes that arc
students and not to female students?”
open to male
A: “Well, within my physics class last year, our teacher asked if there was anybody interested
m bung a lab assistant in the physics lab, and when I raised my hand, he told all girls to put
their hands down because he was only interested in working with boys.”
N ? W 7° rk NOW . l,as compiled a collection of letters, testimonies, newspaper articles, and reprints which
angrily document the sex bias that exists in the public schools of New York City. The report begins with
he documentation of court cases of girls in N.Y.C. junior high and high schools who were denied admission
to courses and activities restricted to boys. Textbook material fnr rhiMrr»« oil J . ... • i
_ „ , ... .—:, *'• * .V-. jumui uign ana men scnoois who were denied admission
S-f activities restricted to boys. Textbook material for children of all ages is quoted extensively
m order to show the sexist conditioning to which children are subjected all day long. Chauvinistic attitudes
sr >re also cited - New York now poiiits to ***** — --d
„,it a rd StrU ^ e Solut j°"’ l , his book J let "Eludes Resources for more “equal” education-curriculum
guides, reading lists, sample budgets and programs, and a chauvinism index quiz for educators.
in America™ 1 ’ ^ ^ editi °"’ infuriate an y woman whose children a «end public (or private) schools
REPORT ON SEX BIAS IN THE PUBLICSCHOOLS
Prepared by New York NOW
47 East 19th Street
New York, New York
(212)674-8950
$2.95
103
Need for Studies on Sex Discrimination
The Citizen’s Advisory Council on the Status of Women, originally
appointed by President Kennedy, has published a very radical and timely
booklet about the need for the examination of sex-discrimination in
public school systems. NEED FOR STUDIES OF SEX DISCRIMINA¬
TION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS recommends that studies be made of one-
sex restrictive public schools, restricted courses in co-ed schools (usually
for girls’ and boys’ sports programs, the use of certain text books, li¬
brary books, and filmstrips, and the procedures for promotion of
teachers}.
The Council has admitted that “systematic surveys of public schools
in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and New York City by women’s organizations
document areas of inferiority in the educational opportunities afforded
girls at all levels of the public schools surveyed. The Council believes
that such injustices are common in the many public school systems
throughout the country.” The Council suggests taking complaints to
local school boards, but also states that, “If the school board is unwill¬
ing to correct discrimination, there are a number of avenues open for
further action. Advice and assistance might be sought from the State
board of education. In some states, the State board has considerable
authority over local boards. . . Another possibility that can be explored
is enactment of State legislation such as that in Massachusetts and Il¬
linois, which in 1971 enacted laws prohibiting discrimination in public
schools because of sex.” The Council has included a valuable appendix
which lists useful publications on sex-stereotyping in school systems
and in children’s books. It also offers suggestions in guidance counseling
for women and in filing sex discrimination complaints; the pamphlet
has a listing of related court cases which deal with issues of sexist treat¬
ment in schools.
For price and distribution information, write for:
NEED FOR STUDIES OF SEX DISCRIMINATION
IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
THE CITIZEN’S ADVISORY COUNCIL
ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
Department of Labor Building
Room 1336
Washington, D.C. 20210
Women’s Rights Policy
from AIN'T I A WOMAN, P.O. Box 1169, Iowa City, Iowa 522
AFT
WHEREAS, a goal of education is to direct and inspire individuals so as to enable them to develop to their maximum potential, and
WHEREAS, valid teaching materials are crucial in attaining the goal of maximizing potential by developing a positive self image, and
WHEREAS, teaching materials that portray limiting sex-role stereotypes can result in irreparable psychic damage and distorted aspirational
levels of women, and
WHEREAS, erroneous and/or biased sex roles are apparent in numerous ways in teaching materials; therefore be it
RESOLVED, that teaching materials should include at least some of the following characteristics, when appropriate, so as to reduo
sexist caricature of women:
1. The use of such terms as "humankind” or “person” or "people” should be substituted for “man” or "men” as neuter nouns.
2. Females as well as males should be portrayed as problem soivers, creators and executors of ideas.
3. The portrayal of older women should depict them as individuals, free of age stereotypes and with a wide variety of personalit
and interests.
4. Females should be portrayed as receiving public recognition and succeeding in a variety of fields of endeavor.
5. Females should be portrayed in a greater variety of actions in which they are shown as being independent, competent, athleti
persistent and interested.
6. Females should be portrayed more frequently in illustrations in a variety of roles, in the foreground as well as in the backgroi
7. The personification of inanimate objects as well as of animals should involve the female without traditional stereotypes.
8. More content should focus on females.
9. Females should in some instance be taller, heavier, more intelligent and/or more capable than males; and be it further
RESOLVED, the life style of the family in teaching materials needs to be altered so that males are portrayed in a wide variety of hon
making activities, some first-born children should be portrayed, family relationships should not show individuals subordinated to oth-
because of sex, and children and adults should be portrayed in single parent families and in a variety of life styles; and be it further
RESOLVED, that Union contracts and locals provide for teacher membership on curriculum and materials selection committees; and
further
RESOLVED, that the AFT instruct the Women’s Rights Committee to develop a process for rating teaching materials in light of sexis
to forward recommendations on texts to the Executive Council; and be it finally
RESOLVED, the American Federation ot Teachers will notify all publishers of materials found to be sexist that Union teachers willn
recommend or purchase said materials until the inaccurate portrayals of women are corrected. (1972)
104
WOMEN’S RIGHTS POLICY RESOLUTIONS
adopted by the Annual Conventions of the American Federation of Teachers AFL-CIO.
"In 1969 a Syracuse, N. Y school board budgeted $90,000 for
extra-curricular sports for boys; $200 was set aside for girls. In
1970 the board cut bach on the athletic budget, trimming the
boys' program to $87,000. Funds for the girls’ interscholastic
program were simply eliminated."
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, May 28,1973
TTHEM ASPIRE and AN ACTION PROPOSAL
the Committee to Eliminate Sex Discrimination
he Public Schools in Ann Arbor, Michigan
I LET THEM ASPIRE, a group of Ann Arbor women analyzes sex discrim-
on in the local public school system. LET THEM ASPIRE was presented to
ichool board together with an action proposal recommending specific changes
idget plans, hiring practices, curriculum, and teacher attitudes. What is sig-
int about the Ann Arbor report is that it is applicable to most public school
ms in the country, and would be invaluable to women wishing to eliminate
liscrimination in the public schools in their own communities.
Available from:
KNOW, INC.
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
$2.50 plus 40tf postage
EVALUATING SEXISM IN READERS
MALE FEMALE
1. Number of stories
where main character is: _ _
2. Number of illustrations of: __
3. Number of times children are shown:
(a) in active play __
(b) using initiative __
(c) displaying independence __
(d) solving problems __
(e) earning money __
(f) receiving recognition __
(g) being inventive __
(h) involved in sports __
(i) fearful or helpless __
(j) receiving help __
4. Number of times adults are shown:
(a) in different occupations __
(b) playing with children __
(c) taking children on outings __
(d) teaching skills __
(e) giving tenderness __
(f) scolding children __
(g) biographically _ ___
5. In addition, ask yourself these questions: Are boys allowed to
show their emotions? Are girls rewarded for intelligence rather
than for beauty? Are there any derogatory comments directed at
girls in general? Is mother shown working outside the home? If
so, in what kind of job? Are there any stories about one-parent
families? Families without children? Are baby-sitters shown?
Are minority and ethnic groups treated naturally?
from SEXISM IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
by Carol Jacobs and Cynthia Eaton, as reprinted
from TODAY'S EDUCATION, NEA JOURNAL
CHANGE FOR CHILDREN
A Multi-ethnic Center for Non-sexist Education
“We are a parent-teacher education action project
concerned with helping children develop a sense of
identity and purpose according to their interests
rather than their sex. Inherent in this role is the elim¬
ination of racial stereotyping and the encouragement
of pride in ethnic identity.” A multi-racial staff con¬
ducts workshops to help teachers and parents detect
sexist and racist stereotyping in the classroom and in
educational materials. CHANGE FOR CHILDREN is
developing alternative materials and is setting up a
lending library for pre-school, child c«*e, and elemen¬
tary school children.
“Women at Work,” a series of photographs of
women of all ages and ethnic groups in non-traditional.
jobs, is available. Write for further information to:
CHANGE FOR CHILDREN
2588 Mission Street
Room 201
San Francisco, California 94110
(415)282-3142
TRAINING LITTLE MEN
"Susan is a student at a Connecticut high school.
She had sufficient talent to be a member of her
school's varsity cross-country and indoor track
teams. There was no girls' team, and she was pro¬
hibited by a state regulation from the Connecticut
Interscholastic A thletic Conference. The case was
heard on March 29, 1971 in the Superior Court of
New Haven and Judge John Clark FitzGerald ruled
against her. In giving his decision Judge FitzGerald
stated, ‘The present generation of our younger male
population has not become so decadent that boys
will experience a thrill in defeating girls in running
contests, whether the girls be members of their
own team or of an adversary team. It could well
be that many boys would feel compelled to fore¬
go entering track events if they were required to
compete with girls on their own teams or on ad¬
versary teams. With boys vying with girls... the
challenge to win, and the glory of achievement, at
least for many boys, would lose incentive and
become nullified. A thletic competition builds
character in our boys. We do not need that kind of
character in our girls. ’ "
from SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, May 28,1973
SEXISM IN EDUCATION
by the Emma Willard Task Force on Education
The Emma Willard Task Force on Education is an
independent group of Minneapolis women who believe
that the education of children in American schools is
one of the major contributors to sexism. As they state
in their introduction, “it does little good to abolish
medical school quotas on women students if kinder¬
garteners laugh at the idea of a ‘girl doctor’ and if fe¬
male high school students interested in medicine are
counseled into nurses’ training.”
As a result, these Minneapolis women have com¬
piled a fascinating, very readable book about sexism in
education. It includes all kinds of material—quizzes to
test consciousness levels, quotes from misogynists
throughout the ages, specific criticisms of educational
programs, and suggestions for new non-sexist educa¬
tional programs.
The second half of the book is a marvelous collec¬
tion of information about the women’s movement,
with lists of children’s books, periodicals, films and
publications in all fields of interest. Bibliographical
material also includes publications and reprint articles
about men’s liberation and consciousness raising.
Available from:
THE EMMA WILLARD
TASK FORCE ON EDUCATION
University Station
P.O. Box 14229
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414
$3.50
105
r
UttIe
Miss Muf Pet
Fiqhis BacIv
Recommended Non-Sexist Books
About Girls for Young Readers
compiled by
Feminists on Children's Media
i collective ol people interested in
upgrading the portrayal ol girls and
women in children's literature and
other media
Feminists
on
Childrens Media
Feminists on Children’s Media is a collective of
women who joined together in the summer of 1970
because of their concern that the rigid sex roles de¬
picted in children’s books were detrimental to the
development of young readers of both sexes. They
set out to reach publishers, writers, librarians and
parents about the problem. Together with a sister
group from Princeton, New Jersey (WOMEN ON
WORDS AND IMAGES), they set up a slide show
presentation which examined the influence of sexism
in school readers, award-winning children’s fiction,
and picture books (slide show is available from
WOMEN ON WORDS AND IMAGES-see above).
The program was given originally at the joint meeting
of the Author’s Guild and the Children’s Book Coun¬
cil in October 1970. Since then it has been shown at
PTA meetings, to women’s liberation groups, and to
organizations of librarians, writers, teachers, school
administrators and students. The paper examining
sexism in award-winning fiction for children is avail¬
able from the Feminists on Children’s Media for 25 4.
The group has also compiled a list of non-sexist
children’s books called LITTLE MISS MUFFET
FIGHTS BACK. The 200 books listed in this bibliog¬
raphy for children ages three to fifteen were selected
from nearly 1000 titles recommended by publishers,
librarians, educators and feminists throughout the
country. Books were included according to whether
they had “girls and boys participating in both physi¬
cal and intellectual activities, female characters lead¬
ing aspiring and independent lives, girls having a
variety of choices and aspiring to a variety of goals,
male characters respecting female characters and
responding to them as equals.”
In addition, you can obtain a “List of Literature on
Sexism in Children’s Books” from them free of
charge. All orders must be prepaid and accompanied
by a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
To place an order, write to:
FEMINISTS ON CHILDREN'S MEDIA
P.O. Box 4375
Grand Central Station
New York, N.Y. 10017
from The Motoring Millers
From tIie Past
Bjldtrson. Margaret
WHEN (AYS FLY TO BARBMO
World, 1969
12-15
14-year-old Ingeborg lives on a Norwegian island
during the German occupation, and protects her in¬
valid aunt and Per, the Wood Troll.
Burch, Robert
QUEENIE PEAVY
Viking, 1966
8-12
Queenie the roughneck must learn to deal with her
stubborn streak when she gets into serious trouble.
Constant, Alberta Wilson
THE MOTORING MILLERS
Crowell, 1969
8-12
A delightful family behaves delightfully! And,
among other adventures, one of its daughters drives
an auto to victory in Kansas' first auto race.
De Angeli, Marguerite
THEE, HANNAH
Doubleday, 1940
7-10
HE COP -OUT BOOK
Tie Cop-Out Book is often the most insidious. At its worst, it promises much and delivers nothing,
he better ones are the most infuriating, for often they are only a step away from being the exact
of literature we’d like to see for girls and boys about girls. The actual cop-out may be only a
llline, a paragraph, the last chapter. But somewhere a sexist compromise is made, somewhere
ook adjusts to the stereotyped role of women, often for the sake of social pressure and conform-
he compromise brings with it a change and this change is not only disturbing, but often distorts
igical development of the character herself. Suddenly her development is redirected-or, rather
ed.
Tie many Cop-Out Books... are probably a fair reflection of the social uncertainties and inner
ids of writers, publishers, and reviewers in our sexist society....
ie making of a girl’s growing up to the abandoning of her ’tomboy’ ways is a depressingly fre-
t theme in these books. As a stage in growing up, tomboy behavior appears to be acceptable,
he girl must in the end conform to more socially approved behavior....
Young readers of such grievous cop-outs are forced to believe that the spunk, individuality,
Physical capability so refreshingly portrayed in tomboy heroines must be surrendered when
grow up-in order to fit the passive, supposedly more mature image of a young woman,
where is that earlier energy to be spent? Is depression in the adult woman perhaps linked to
mnful suppression of so many sparks of life?
In a way we could call the Cop-out Book the ‘co-op’ book, for it permits the tomboy reader
ilieve she can pass comfortably over into that other world at a safely future date. Real life
rely like that."
from A FEMINIST LOOKS AT CHILDREN’S BOOKS by Feminists on Children’s Media
FEMINISTS LOOK AT THE 100 BOOKS
The Portrayal of Women in Children’s Books
on Puerto Rican Themes
Compiled by Dolores Prida and Susan Ribner
in collaboration with Edith Davila, Irma Garcia,
Carmen Puigdollers, and Arlene Rivera
“The unfortunate finding of our study is that with
only a few minor exceptions, the books repeat and
reinforce the traditional female stereotypes. Very few
of the Puerto Rican girls have any character at all, and
their activities are dull. Mothers and adult women are
portrayed as similarly uninteresting. In fact, the non-
Puerto Rican authors in depicting their misconcep¬
tions of Puerto Rican life-not one of the fiction books
about girls was authored by a Puerto Rican-have
circumscribed the female all out of proportion to
reality. Not only is the female role in the books more
constricted than a comparable Anglo-American girl’s
would be, but it is even more limited than the Puerto
Rican female role is in actual fact. A Puerto Rican girl
faced only with the prospects presented in these
books might reasonably choose not to grow up at all.”
Available from:
COUNCIL ON INTERRACIAL BOOKS
FOR CHILDREN
29 West 15th Street
New York, New York 10011
25tf each plus postage
Bulk rates for this feature available on request.
107
Liberating \bung Children
From Sex Roles
Boys are strong.
Girls are graceful.
Boys are doctors.
Girls are nurses.
Boys are policemen.
Girls are metermaids.
Boys are football-players.
Girls are cheerleaders.
Boys are pilots.
Girls are stewardesses.
Boys fix things.
Girls need things fixed.
Boys invent things.
Girls use what boys invent.
Boys build houses.
Girls keep houses.
I’m glad you’re a boy.
I’m glad you’re a girl.
We need each other.
In these boxes we had intended to re¬
produce drawings from I’M GLAD I’M A
BOY, I'M GLAD I’M A GIRL. The top
box was to have shown a little boy in¬
venting a sunlamp—and the bottom box
was to have shown a little girl reclining
Miami-beach style, basking in the light
from the sunlamp.
“These statements quoted from the children’s book
I’M GLAD I’M A BOY, I’M GLAD I’M A GIRL, pub¬
lished by Simon and Schuster in 1970, blatantly teach
attitudes and beliefs about sex role differences that
parents, teachers, and the mass media teach in more
subtle ways. Learning to conform to these sex roles
has been considered a normal and healthy part of
human development.”
Now imagine that the statements had read as
follows:
Whites are doctors.
Blacks are nurses.
The rich are strong.
The poor are graceful.
The rich build houses.
The poor keep houses.
Americans invent things.
Asians and Africans use what Americans invent.
Using examples such as this LIBERATING YOUNG
CHILDREN FROM SEX ROLES discusses the ways
in which adults who would vehemently reject any
national, race, or class stereotypes consciously or
unconsciously teach sex role stereotypes to children.
The booklet then describes some excellent methods
teachers have adopted to challenge the ideology of
sexism as it is expressed in children’s play.
Unfortunately, however, the publish¬
er of I’M GLAD I’M A BOY, I’M GLAD
I’M A GIRL-Simon & Schuster-re¬
fused to grant us permission to repro¬
duce these graphics.
Do the contents of their own pub¬
lication embarass them, perhaps?
LIBERATING YOUNG CHILDREN FROM SEX ROLES:
Experiences in Day Care Centers, Play Groups, and Free Schools
by Phyllis Taube MacEwan
from THE NEW ENGLAND FREE PRESS, 60 Union Square, Somerville, Massachusetts 02143 30tf plus postage
<ft»Mhrrmvie
RASBERRY EXERCISES-HOW TO START YOUR OWN SCHOOL
.... AND MAKE A BOOK by-Salli Rasberry and Robert Greenway
CONTENTS
•share, live in groups, be responsible for yourself,
talk straight
Be Therapeutic ...
•promote health, personal growth
'allow "integration of mental fragments into gestalts '
'clear the decks of had cultural debris
•help fulfill children's needs [i.e., holding them etc,I
•entertaining, fun
Re Anarchistic
•an adventure
•free to do whatever comes up
•discover stuff, explore
Increase Perception
‘of the senses
•of the child's sense of the world, of nature
•of other cultures
Foster Spiritual Crowth
’be a ground for rituals
•a place for engendering myths "unique to us"
•allow a sense of the holy to flow.
ON GOALS - THE ULTIMATE
Mott groups wanting a school meet a few times, hope
»feels ok, get into some business details, and get
enltd. A few laboriously go into goals and processes
rod debates on the nature of learning. Sometimes it's
«t incredible bullshit, but it's our impression that such
ikoolt, bullshit or not, tend to be the ones that thrive.
iMaybe if you talk enough about it at meetings you’re
to tired to bother the kids much.)
At any rate we got to wondering what it would look
like if we collected all the free-school goals wc could
find and coalesced them into one grand set of Cosmic
Soper Coals. Here it is:
1 MSWSHOFAComEtr
Harvey Ha.br-s H-toey
Car o. »«•«.* SkUaol
Mo*«3 of o* Oii Hn.
If All 5hw4«4 Rouhuu
A Case *3-...** Pjkl.c.
2a aerniiQ
E«o»pit» bvtll*rri ScUool if foje
M«A Vor a.
Pta-W* >ek,«, TeacMtr*
Te®cwe^ S.«>••» o-d K.6%
•ftAa 5«*»■»«
4**d "Oie Tmmftv • - <y Fable
O'* Os«*a CaWtats or Or-ae»m*^L»
Pedovulix o* ike B-rMc of Lera.
On Goats -- «<e UlfcWc
3 DETAILS
latorperobao
Taw S*oVr' ^
Louis a-d Free SekooU M
Boil Ainas
He® Hk.
A
Tra ns porfaf ton
A-J . A Heal**.
A Free, fire ScUool (C a** bn Sac FVte School)
L o^illani School dmaaces
4 doing rr
•WE WANT OUR SCHOOL TO
Build or Increase Skills — in order to be able to...
'Survive (in wildernesses, "dying cnvironments,"or
"in a revolutionary future")
'master the culture ("basics," "the three r's")
'protect oneself from the culture
'attack and change the culture
'put things together ("problem solving," "reason¬
ing" "creating," "learning how to leant")
o» F,l_,
Ewn f oWwf b
R^oala
On Umbrcllos awe) Oifr-Ayck
Qoali oF *hc ~ Qtuel
O®. Rtod.n.
The CUtlXr*. Talk Aboof Tk>,«q I*
O®. Sar«« Cnss^ Diiuon
Mofk. Prog-vum.
from THE BOOK PEOPLE, c/o The Bookworks
2010 7th Street, Berkeley, California $3.95
UNLEARNING THE LIE:
Sexism in School
by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
“When boys violate girls’ physical integrity, the
pis are held equally to blame: Embarassed third-grade
nls complain of boys ‘pinching their bottoms’ and of
toys peering over lavatory walls to ‘spy on them’. The
teacher suggests to the girls that they are ‘teasing’ the
boys, and to the parents that the girls were being ‘pro-
iccative’. A parent questions her girl: ‘Mommy, I was
Basing, 1 guess. But 1 don’t know what I did. I don’t
mow HOW 1 teased. I never touched THEM. When
pis are assaulted, they feel guilty.”
Because of incidents like this, Barbara Harrison
joined other parents at the Woodward School, a pri-
ote, interracial parent-teacher cooperative in Brook-
Ip, New York to form a “Sex-roles Committee.”
[Concerned with the “boys will be boys, girls will be
|pis" syndrome, the Committee began to explore the
lays in which Woodward was perpetuating the
‘mind-and-spirit debilitating stereotypical sex roles.”
UNLEARNING THE LIE can be used as a blue¬
print for action for all schools and parents who reject
lie sexist education children receive and who want to
provide an alternative.
JACK AND JILL
by Bonnie Belky Zimmerman
NON-SEXIST EDUCATION PACKET
by Women’s Action Alliance
Q: “How can a child care center oiler the greatest
possibility for a child’s growth and development with
out dealing with the sex-stereotyping that restricts a
child to a traditional role model?”
A: “It can’t. . . .
“If affirmative programming to end sex-stereo¬
typing is not an integral part of a child care curricu¬
lum, then each center is serving to reinforce society’s
destructive sex roles.”
The Women’s Action Alliance is sponsoring a pro¬
ject to develop a non-sexist approach to teaching in
the early childhood years. The information publica¬
tion is developed to inform teachers and parents to
help children realize their fullest potential—to open
all options to all children and to help them under¬
stand that they are not bound by the conventions of
society relating to race, class, or sex.
Available from:
Knie fun^
WOMEN’S ACTION ALLIANCE
370 Lexington Avenue, Room 313
New York, New York 10017
Available from:
LIVERIGHT BOOKS
386 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10016
“This booklet attempts to stretch young minds
into considering the unexpected events, alternate life
styles and realistic preparation for self-support. And
most of all, to free young girls from the pervasive ir¬
relevant stereotyping which limits their actions and
goals throughout life.
“The subtitle ‘This is the World that Jack Built: And
Jill Came Tumbling After’ combines two rhymes to
show woman’s PERCEIVED role in life. Man makes
crucial decisions; woman supports and nurtures. She
is not involved directly in life.
“We contend that it is time to change that per¬
ception.”
Available from:
KIDS LIBERATIONVILLE
TIMES CHANGE PRESS
In their catalog, TIMES CHANGE PRESS
ays, “We are interested in circulating the
thoughts and experiences of people involved
in struggles toward liberation.” One of their
publications, YOUTH LIBERATION, NEWS,
POLITICS AND SURVIVAL INFORMA¬
TION, by Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor,
focuses on the liberation of children.
“The authors describe the oppression of
being young in an adult chauvinist society;
imprisonment in families and schools, eco¬
nomic dependence, denial of legal rights, and
more.” This reader, one of many the Press
produces, is priced at $1.35, and is 64 pages.
BONNIE BELKY ZIMMERMAN
P.O. Box 405
Livermore, California 94550
$1.00 per copy, prepaid
Poster from TIMES CHANGE PRESS
Penwell Road, Washington, New Jersey 07882
$1.00 plus 35tf postage
FEMINIST RESOURCES
FOR EQUAL EDUCATION
HERSTORY INTERACT
INTERACT designs educational “simulations” or
acting-out units of instruction, each lasting three-four
weeks. Because simulations involve students in issues
that affect their lives, classroom work becomes more
alive and students relate more easily to the materials.
One of the simulations, HERSTORY, emphasizes the
problems of sex-role stereotyping.
Paired by chance, boy-girl study couples join
seminar groups that study male-female role expecta¬
tions....Students simulate aspects of marriage such
as who does the domestic work and who makes key
decisions. Scholarship is central to each cycle as sem¬
inar group members read and observe information sub¬
stantiating or attacking HYPS (hypotheses) and then
report their findings to their group. The 44 HYPS are
divided into four categories on the history and posi¬
tion of women: manners-courtship; marriage and
divorce; jobs, achievements, reform; nature-nurture.
During each cycle all students also participate in and
evaluate role-playing of contemporary sexual prob¬
lems. Other activities include 66 SISTERS research
into the contributions of American women, past and
present; a two day simulation of the first women’s
right convention at Seneca Falls, New York, 1848; a
CONTACT PROJECT in which students examine
sexual roles in the real world; a FUTURE FORUM in
which groups discuss what they hope and expect
American sexual roles will be in 2025 A.D.; pre-
and post- MALE-FEMALE SURVEYS to chart atti¬
tude changes.”
Each simulation contains 35 STUDENT GUIDES
and one TEACHER GUIDE. The latter includes ob¬
jectives (understandings, attitudes, skills) basic and
in depth assignments, maps, charts, decision forms,
bulletins to insure interaction and commitment,
objective and essay tests, pre- and post- tests and
surveys (if called for), bibliography, and a detailed
daily sequence of teacher-student activities. Permis¬
sion is granted to duplicate these forms so that the
simulation may be used with more than one class
at a time and so that yearly reordering is unnecessary
Order from:
110
INTERACT
P.O. Box 262
Lakeside, California 92040
FEMINIST RESOURCES FOR EQUAL EDUCA¬
TION has created educational materials for preschool
through college, which include photographs designed
for school children to dispel the illusion that pro¬
fessional people and community workers are always
men.
Set 1-COMMUNITY HELPERS -(8 black & white
photographs, 8'/2 x 11). Pictures of women as: pedia¬
trician, orthodontist, policewoman, milkwoman,
mechanic, madwoman, farmer, and bus driver.
Set 2-PROFESSIONAL WOMEN -(8 black &
white photographs, 8'/2 x 11). Pictures of women as
surgeon, judge, ornithologist, artist, potter, architect,
computer programmer, and politician.
Write to:
FREE
P.O. Box 185
Saxonville Station
Framingham, Massachusetts 01701
$2.00 for each set
A FEMINIST LOOKS AT
EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE MATERIA
by Lois Hart
A FEMINIST LOOKS AT EDUCATIONALS
WARE MATERIALS-a survey of educational ta
films, filmstrips, transparencies, and records fron
feminist point of view, which includes materials:
able for purchase from publishers and distributor
educational software materials. Hart has judged t
materials according to the following criteria: the
ber of women represented in biographical matcrii
how women arc represented in “Community Hel|
units used in primary grades, what options are prt
sented to young women facing vocational choices
extent of the coverage of the Women’s Movemcm
historically and in the present, and the portrayah
roles in the family in “Family Life” materials.
F
F
COMPANY
WOMEN IN
BIOGRAPHY
COMMUNITY
HELPERS
VOCATIONAL
GUIDANCE
HISTORICAL
PRESENTATION
OF WOMEN
McGraw-Hill
S
— only women are the
librarian, teacher,
nurte
- A Man's Work" Mr in
interviews 100 man
talking about thair jobs
as they work!
- "What Jab for Ma?"
Includas Judy the Wai¬
tress, Batty and her
Typewriter, Ginny and
the Office Assistant, and
Sandv the Lineman!
* (F) "Women on ths
March"
- "Black American
Civil Rights Leaders"
has no women
Doubleday
3
pictures show men
? descriptions avoid gan¬
der, but
- pictures show women
as office worker; men
as the planner scien¬
tist. mechanic
- (FS) "Clerical" reads.
"Introduction to
careers for women in
business . . .private no
retary, key punch oper
ator"
-n
no women in section!
on Black History,
"Contemporary Profc
lems" or "Men of
Thought. Men of
Action"
S V E
2
? descriptions avoid
gender; but pictures
show male grocer,
trucker, postman,
cowboy
Thanksgiving story
shows women looking
on as men work.
Media Unlimited
0
()
- "What Does Dad
Do?"
no women in Black
History; "Man on the
Move", "Man and His
Environment" or "Hit- ,
tory of Man's Scienti¬
fic Progress and Tech¬
niques"
Available for $1.00 from: EVERYWOMAN’S CENTER, Munson Hall,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01022
$10.00 plus 75^ postage
iisii
Silenced Majority: A Multimedia Kit
“A multimedia program for all ages, THE
SILENCED MAJORITY surveys women’s struggle in
America from both an historical and a present-day
point of view, and pinpoints the position of women
today in relation to the home, employment, the law,
education, and the media. Presenting the story of
women’s rights in a wide variety of graphic techniques
—photographs, collages, cartoons, comic strips, ads
(all in full color)—the FIVE-PART SOUND-FILM¬
STRIP PROGRAM uses a vivid musical commentary
to underscore the narration by television personality
Arlene Francis.
“Directed at the experience and perceptions of
students and adults becoming accustomed to today’s
quick-paced visual “TV” language, the program uses
images torn from the media, juxtaposed in such a
way that one begins to ask “What is the media AC¬
TUALLY saying to us about ourselves?” or, “How
long has THIS been going on?” Looking at MEDIA
BEING USED AGAINST ITSELF, one suddenly
finds out a lot about one’s assumptions and the
society that forms them.”
THE SILENCED MAJORITY
I woman's liberation multimadia kit
Full-Color Sound Filmstrips
Kit Includes Discussion Guide and Multimedio
Materials (Poster , Stickers, etc.)
NARRATED BY ARLENE FRANCIS
It Liberation Now
ti Women, Jobs, and the Law
•t Women and Education
a This Ad Insults Women
•i Rapping with the Feminists
(Kate Millett. author, Florynce Kennedy,
lawyer, Megan Terry, playwright,
Jacqueline Ceballos, NOW)
THE SILENCED MAJORITY has been designed
for high schools, colleges, and adult discussion and
awareness training programs. Some of the varied sub¬
jects include English, Social Studies, Guidance, Ameri¬
can Literature, Psychology, Anthropology, Women’s
Studies, Community & Discussion groups, and Man¬
agement and Labor Training Programs.
THE SILENCED MAJORITY
is available from:
MEDIA PLUS
60 Riverside Drive, 11D
New York, New York
THE SILENCED MAJORITY
A Women s Liberation Multimedia Kit
iChock gf your prolarencai balow)
108-FR □ 5-part filmstrip program with records $75
108-FC Z 5-part filmstrip program with cassettes $85
G Total payment enclosed_
G Bill me 1^ PO. »
'iCMOOt *
■TATI
71*
BILL TO
City_State-Zip,
OROEAEO BY_
fsionatur*)
XJRCE CENTER
[SEX ROLES IN EDUCATION
|The RESOURCE CENTER FOR SEX ROLES
UCATION is being established as a project
P ; lhe National Foundation for the Improvement
ucation. The Center is primarily concerned
bthree goals:
) preparing materials that will assist schools
andcommunity groups in the reduction of
sex roles stereotypes.
12) developing a national clearing house of ma¬
terials and resource people.
| )) providing assistance to groups concerned
with sex role stereotyping and providing
of training and technical help in carrying
out these projects.
[flic Resource Center is concerned with rcach-
ximum number of concerned indivi-
blcputon their mailing list and receive their
letter, write to:
RESOURCE CENTER FOR
SEX ROLES IN EDUCATION
c/o The National Foundation for the
Improvement of Education
Suite 918
1156-15th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
FREE TO BE YOU AND ME
“In 22 separate selections, children hear songs
about mommies who work and daddies who care
deeply about their kids, poems about girls and
boys growing up to be whatever they want to be,
songs about kids showing their feelings proudly
and openly, stories about animals who are funny
and sensitive and sometimes silly, poems about
housework and helping and having a friend.”
This record album, sponsored by the MS.
Foundation, presents a cast of celebrities—Mario
Thomas, Carl Reiner, Carol Channing, Roosevelt
Grier, Diana Ross, and others-singing songs for
liberated little people. Royalties from the sales
will be donated to women’s movement causes.
Available from:
MS (Department R)
370 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10017
$5.95 plus 55<f postage
Lollipop Power
LOLLIPOP POWER is a women's liberation collective
that writes, illustrates, and publishes hooks for the
libeution ot voting ehilrben from sex siereotyped
behavior and role models
When Iflrow up*..
Most children’s books present a very limited perspec¬
tive on adult life: marriage and family for women,
and career success for men. These books convey an
image of family life which ignores the fact that
• many mothers work
• many fathers are nurturant
• some families have only one parent
• some children spend their days in child care
centers
• not all families are white and middle class
Sugar and Spice
and everything nice..
Even the best children's books often subtly reinforce
sex-stereotyped behavior and suburban lifestyles. For
children whose behavior or family life does not fit the
accepted patterns, these books are a constant re¬
proach.
Children and 'Books
Books are an important avenue through which child
ren develop images of themselves and the world. Most
of the children's books published today reinforce the
social expectations of our society by encouraging
boys to be independent, prankish, and aggressive and
girls to be docile and fastidious. Even the choices of
make believe for girls and boys are limited by sexual
stereotypes in current children's literature.
WE BELIEVE THAN AN IMPORTANT PREREQUI- |
SITE TO FULL HUMAN LIBERATION IS THE
ELIMINATION OF COERCIVE SOCIALIZATION
OF CHILDREN INTO SEXUALLY DEFINED
ROLES.
Liberating Literature
Lollipop Power
I
_ln 1969 a dozen or so women meeting as a consciousness-raising group initiated a course of action
which badly dents three myths fundamental to the American patriarchy: Women do not have organization
capacities. Bosses (preferably male) are necessary to organize work efforts involving several people and ma
tiple tasks. Advertising is necessary to create demand for a new kind of product.
This is a description of how a small group with no capital to speak of, no prior publishing skills, with®
advertising, working as a collective without hierarchy, have, in their spare time, produced, published and
sold over 20,000 copies of six anti-sexist children’s books within three years of starting LOLLIPOP POWEF
Inc. (Over 4,000 have been given free to childcare centers.)
In the fall of 1969, a c-r group meeting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, began to feel the need to move
from talk to action. Since sex-role stereotyping had been a subject of particular concern to the group-
which included mothers with small children as well as a number of school teachers and two sociologists—th
decided to put their efforts into writing and publishing children’s literature, a disaster area for feminists*
the time. “We envisioned the project entirely as a service to the women’s movement, not as an outreach ti
the mass public,” recalls one of the founding members of the collective. “Our concern at that time wasfd
families sharing our values, trying to bring up kids in a non-sexist way, without the materials that would
support these values.”
In the summer of 1970 the group incorporated as LOLLIPOP POWER-, a nonprofit educational organ*
non specializing in literature for children between the ages of two and eight. This last decision came abou
after members of the group met with the newly-formed FEMINIST PRESS in Baltimore and concluded*
informal agreement to “split the market,” LOLLIPOP POWER producing books for children under eight,
the FEMINIST PRESS concentrating on books for older children. Members contend that early incorpora-
tion, before a single story had been written, was an important launching dcvice-the “Inc.” made it easier
to raise funds.
FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH
As we went to press, we learned that
the following books are now available
from Lollipop Power:
JO, FLO, & YOLANDA ($1.50) The story
of triplets who reveal their individual¬
ity. Ages 3-7.
GROWN-UPS CRY TOO ($1.50) All of us
cry-when we are scared, hurt, sad, tired,
and sometimes when we are happy too—
for all ages.
CARLOTTA & THE SCIENTIST($1.75) A
penguin sidetracks to exciting adventure
on her way to gather fish for her husband
and baby. Ages 5-9.
THE MAGIC HAT($1.75) A myth which
explains how some toys become “girl
toys" and others “boy toys.”. Ages 5-9.
With $1,000 in capital raised from friends ant
tives, LOLLIPOP POWER published their first il
books. Limited funds and a desire to learn printj
prompted the collective to write and produce th<
book, entirely by themselves. “We did everything
making the plates (for a press at the local ‘Y’)top
ing, trimming, stapling, collating. Although they
longer print themselves, LOLLIPOP POWER feel
the original experience gave them an indispensab
sight into the technical aspects of production. Tl
second book was printed by a New York women
press collective in exchange for the labor of a L0L
POP member; subsequent books have been prodt
by a University (of North Carolina) graphics grot
although LOLLIPOP is now exploring a printing
tionship with a nearby feminist press.
Through the first few books the collective w
in a formless, structureless way. But the enthui
response and unexpectedly large demand for tl
anti-sexist books forced the women to confron
organizational problems that all growing wome
terpriscs have to deal with sooner or later: how
divide labor so that the shitwork does not fall t
or two members of the group, while at the sam
avoiding the hierarchy and elitism which seem i
company formal structure. By defining tasks ar
sharing them on a rotating basis, Lollipop Powt
worked out a mode of operating which they be
combines efficiency and responsibility with eqi
and true collectivity. Naomi answers correspom
Pat coordinates design, Paula handles the coller
finances, and so on. After several months theji
traded off. The women feel that this arrangemi
the advantages of first, ensuring that all the mt
tasks are shared, and that no woman feels excli
from the more creative work. Second, it prevei
cialization and the elitism this can cause by rec
that all women learn to perform all functions. 1
new members can more easily be absorbed intc
collective. “A new woman doesn’t have to han|
round the edges. Anyone can participate imme
and fully.” Manuscripts are evaluated and publ
decisions are made collectively by the group at
ings held once weekly. The group concedes tha
“sometimes the work goes slowly because we a
other commitments, but the collective method
us to share our strengths and continue to devcl
consciousness about the problems of females at
other oppressed groups.”
112
COLEEN THE QUESTION GIRL
by Arlie Russell Hochschild
with illustrations by Gail Asby
“Coleen was a little girl who loved to ask questions.
And the more questions she asked, the more she felt
like asking....” For children ages 6-10
$2.00 plus 40tf postage
FIREGIRL
by Gibson Rich
The story of a girl who likes fire engines.
For children ages 6-8.
$1.95 plus 40tf postage
COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS
ON CHILDREN’S BOOKS
by Corrine Lucido
Parents, teachers and librarians in Baltimore, Md.,
Westbury, N.Y., and Holyoke, Mass., have been meet¬
ing since the fall of 1972 in three workshops formed
to evaluate the quality of children’s books in local
schools and libraries. Feminist Press staff members,
paid through a grant from the Rockefeller Family
Fund, have organized the groups, planned curriculum
and brought together resources such as films, slide
shows and guest speakers. The workshops have
analyzed children’s children’s books for sex-role and
other stereotypes; produced their own slide shows il¬
lustrating views of good and poor children’s books;
and developed strategies to improve children’s books
in their own communities.
In COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS ON CHILDREN’S
BOOKS, Corrine Lucido, of The Feminist Press staff,
describes these workshops in three communities—
urban, suburban and small town. She discusses the
most effective ways to begin a workshop; procedures
for analyzing children’s books; workshop curriculum;
projects undertaken by participants; and guidelines
emerging from group projects as well as strategies
recommended for change.
$1.50 plus 20tf postage
The
Feminist
Press
The Feminist Press is a non-profit educational and
publishing corporation founded in 1970 to foster the
feminist cultural revolution by providing materials
strategic in altering what women learn. At present the
Press is engaged in a number of educational projects
including community workshops on children’s litera¬
ture and the publication of non-sexist children’s
books. (For a full description of the Feminist Press,
see COMMUNICATIONS.)
The Feminist Press publishes outstanding non-sexist
children’s literature, including the following books:
NOTHING BUT A DOG
by Bobbie Katz with pictures by Esther Gilman
A young girl imagines what it would be like to
have a dog. For children ages 4-8.
$1.50 plus 40 if postage
AMELIA EARHART STORYPACK NO. 1
A Feminist Press Pilot Project
“Exactly what is a non-sexist children’s story? For
the past several years we have been conducting a dia¬
logue directed to this question, investigating a variety
of feminist approaches to a liberating, new style of
children’s literature. The Amelia Earhart Storypack
series is an effort to extend this dialogue, an open in¬
vitation to feminists to participate. Our first Story¬
pack, in inexpensive format, presents an intriguing
collection of stories-in-progress, written from many
different styles of consciousness, taking exception to
sex-role stereotypes: among stories included are “The
Strange Hockett Family,” by Ann Rizzo, “Living
With Mommy,” by Beatrice Siegel, and “My Body
Feels Good,” by mothers of a Brooklyn daycare col¬
lective. Teachers, parents and librarians looking for
feminist alternatives in children’s literature will find
these provocative points of departure.”
$1.00 plus 15tf postage
CONSCIOUSNESS RAZORS
by Verne Moberg
One dozen incisive reality tests for the r
roles play in our own lives and the lives at
past, present and future.
$.20 each or ten for $1.00
(plus a stamped, self-addressed envelope)
A CHILD’S RIGHT TO EQUAL READING:
EXERCISES IN THE LIBERATION
OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS FROM THE LIMITATIO
OF SEX ROLE STEREOTYPES
by Verne Moberg
Proceeding on the premise that “All girls andt
are created equal,” this pamphlet outlines one pos
introductory session for a community workshop#:
children’s books. With effective steps of analysisb
examining stereotype patterns in children's books
plus speculations on the hazards and benefits invob
in recognizing—and changing-our roles.
$.35 (plus $.08 postage)
CHALLENGE TO BECOME A DOCTOR
by Leah Heyn
The story of Elisabeth Blackwell, one of the fit
women doctors in the United States. For child
over age 10.
$1.50 plus 40 4 postage.
A 40% discount is available to women’s
and bookstores on orders of five or more
Libraries receive 25% discount on ordersofl
more of the same titles and 10% on orders«
or more varied titles.
Order from:
THE FEMINIST PRESS
Box 334
Old Westbury, Long Island, New York
114
Joyful
World
Press
tflOPE GOES TO THE FARMER'S MARKET
lien and illustrated by Shirley Boccaccio
Shirley Boccaccio has created another delightful
nning story about Penelope and Peter and their
sds, the salamander and the raccoon. One day the
jfriends have no food or money left. They decide
ily their plane, which Penelope pilots, to the farm-
imarket, where they offer plane rides in exchange
pbod.
Ik story is imaginatively illustrated by the author
locombines photographs of the actual children
tl drawings..Since the children in this story arc
il“Certain technical difficulties inherent to chil-
bitiust be accepted. Clothes were lost, props were
token, hair was cut and teeth fell out during the
edition of this story. They also grew a little from
ginning to end.”
A truly joyous book, PENELOPE GOES TO THE
IRMER’S MARKET is “dedicated to the liberation
children and adults.”
PENELOPE AND THE MUSSELS
Written and illustrated by Shirley Boccaccio
PENELOPE AND THE MUSSELS is the story of
Penelope and Peter—a sister-brother team who live
with their friends, a raccoon and a salamander, be¬
cause they have no mother or father. One day the
children get bored with the standard meat and pota¬
toes meal and decide to set off to find some mussels
instead. Penelope pilots a plane to the beach, where
the four friends cook up a fine feast. (For children,
ages 4-9.)
Available from:
JOYFUL WORLD PRESS
468 Belvedere Street
San Francisco, California 94117
$ 2.00
ljj, they heard, noise, a riot had begi
icadoea arc marching!"shouted Som<
„ . J un
the avocadoea arc marching!'shouted Someone
Everyone turned to look with great Surprise
People could hardly believe their eyes
Great biq avocaJoes were marching in lines J&|
And all oj them were carrying Signs!
«p= stood uo tall and looked him in the eue
n is HO reason to trouble people such as 1 "
are jiving these Jarmors a marvelous time
8 you act as though vfe Were commif lino a crime
'glared at her and tipped back ids Hat ,
irte. I'm still the OFFICIAL and that is that!
airw you sau is useless you see,
uSar.plu will rave to come'with met
The OFFICIAL was so upset by whit he did see,
He forgot entirely about Penelope
What had made the avocadoes so mad?
Who Was guilty treating them So bad?
The marchers stopped where our friends
Then the One$ /’Vo cad or got up on a crafe ^ woe
The rest o? the group lowered their
While the chie? "began to read these
Spread from PENELOPE GOES TO THE FARMER'S MARKET
JOYFUL WORLD PRESS, 468 Belvedere Street, San Francisco, California 94117
$ 2.00
All
Of
Us,
Inc.
Limited resources, money/time, have restricted the
number of books for young children published by
feminist groups such as Lollipop Power, Joyful World
Press, the Women’s Press Collective in Oakland. Good
news comes from Oregon where five feminists have
started a collective committed to changing traditional
sex-role stereotyping by publishing books for pre¬
schoolers, and first and second graders.
ALL OF US is now accepting manuscripts for con¬
sideration. Criteria for stories arc that they be free
from racist, sexist, and class stereotyping, and that
they represent the plurality of lifestyles, family struc¬
tures, occupations and values existing in this society.
Available on request is a detailed description of the
kinds of children’s stories the collective would like to
publish.
ALL OF US will have three to five books available
by late fall, 1973. For a descriptive brochure and
price information, write to:
ALL OF US, INC.
175 South Broad Street
Monmouth, Oregon 97361
FEMINIST STORY CRITERIA
/. ... one parent families. .. families where
both parents are of the same sex, families with
five or more children, extended families. . . parents
or parent with adopted, foster, or physically or
mentally handicapped children and communal
families.
2. ... children who live part time with their
mother and part time with their father... families
moving from one situation to another, geograph¬
ically and/or emotionally... stories in which one
or both parents are in prison or unemployed.
3. We need girls who delight in adventure and
boys who are unafraid to express feelings.
4. ... cooperation, collective efforts, personal
worth of the individual, full development of chil¬
dren's creative potential, non-violence and con¬
cern for the environment.
from CRITERIA FOR STORIES,
ALL OF US, INC.
115
P.O. Box 3016, Stanford, California 94305
$1.00 each plus 15tf postage
New Seed Press
rJ h ^ EWSE c ED , PRESS is a 8 rou P who believe
that children s books, as well as children’s lives
r St ,};. free of prescribed ideas about how people
should live and what they should be. P P
Among their books is MARGO MAKES A
MESS, by Stickgold and Tibbey.
No thank you, but I want my mess to be
much bigger. Much, much bigger, the world’s
biggest mess, no less’! So Margo waved goodbye
and said, ‘I must work ’til I go to bed. I want my
mess to be so great that I must work ’til very
late!’” 7
MU’S VIEW, another NEW SEED Publication
by Jane Katims is about “A girl whose name was
Mu decided what she’d like to do. She said, I’ll
just find a way to make a wonderful day. My day
will have a big sun and then to please everyone
there’ll be some birds and a cloud a day to make
everyone proud.’”
SLEEPING BEAUTY-A Lesbian Fairy Tale
So Stephen and Lilith lived together in the royal castle
the Land and when the Queen and King died they became t
Queen and the Queen."
SLEEPING BEAUTY is ONE fairy tale that providesan;
ternative to the nuclear family model.
Available from:
SOJOURNER TRUTH PRESS
432 Moreland Avenue N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30307
50^ plus 20f postage for individual orders
45p for 10 or more, no charge for postage
ELEPHANT POEM COLORING BOOK
by Judy Grahn
“The trouble is that he’s an elephant with a multi-
millimcter trunk who believes the world is his jungle
and until he dies he grows. . . and grows. . . and grows!
We must be flies in the elephant’s nose. Ready to car¬
ry on in every town. . . Bottle flies, rock flies. . . and
fireflies in the elephant’s nose, ready to carry on till
he goes down.”
What a pity the author chose an elephant for an
otherwise marvelous metaphor in this children’s
story. The elephant is a gentle animal: it does not use
its bulk to harm other creatures. It is herbivorous,
eats grasses and greens. The elephant is not a sexist
animal, lives with love in an elephant family. Ele¬
phants even mourn their dead.
The ELEPHANT POEM COLORING BOOK,
written, illustrated and printed by members of the
Oakland Women’s Press Collective, is taken from the
collection EDWARD THE DYKE and Other Poems,
by Judy Grahn.
Available from:
WOMEN’S PRESS COLLECTIVE
5251 Broadway
Oakland, California 94618
$.85 for single copies
$.50 for bulk orders
SECRET BULLETIN
by Kao Sha
Distributed by:
GUOZI SHUDIAN
(China Publications Center)
P.O. Box 399
Peking, China
Or through:
CHINA BOOKS
95 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
35$! plus postage
In addition, the Foreign Lan¬
guage Press publishes other non¬
sexist books for children:
1) THE LITTLE DOCTOR
2) I AM ON DUTY TODAY
3) HELLO! HELLO! ARE YOU
THERE?
4) OBSERVATION POST 3
5) FLOWERS IN FULL BLOOM
------■ —m uv is a story ot a girl and boy wl
distribunn 8 secret leaflets in order “to tell the citizens o
J that ^ He , Pe °P le s , Llberation Army had crossed the
River and that Shanghai was soon to be liberated.”
It is narrated by the little boy, who finds that his «
ion, Hsiao-fen, through her practical know-how and co
sense, proves to be a better revolutionary than he is.
116
cial publishers have not been immune to
s revolution. Growing sensitivity to sex
typing has produced a few commercial chil-
ks which approach the high standards of
ist presses. The following list is not meant to
ive, but it includes some of the better books
to parents who care about raising their chil-
fwof sexism and racist values. “Classism” is
problem in commercial books—middle class
atsare the book buyers, after all.
IIMIESAT WORK
nMerriam
Science Experiments!)
/ You Can Eat |
JfX. by Vicki Cobb 3
Mommies at Work
SMfV by EVC M£RRIAM
Pictures by BENI MONTRESOR
u« mu
SUSPENSIONS. COLLOIDS. AND EMULSIONS
BOftMMI dXXlAO. Sir-MIMC lUVIEHO r«IIKI>%
U 9 UIP rooD .HO nil tvmmu imn
»*l.B CMC ESI HC » LKP.HO tVtPIHbID IH « UQ.HII
M.VONH.IU * .IA.IIIJ.I1 iXMH.lOH
URAWMUV OUMM . COOZIH CMIXMOH
CAHHOIIVDHATIS AND FATS
avocTk WLvnni tier uoh't isniiuin
HiCMMcnpH ronut
HAMMS.
T.noc.
CMU |U 4 V HOW m-MH »CT»
r.i*
hvt rict.iNc ooi oil.
■ITttB COAUJONO ... Minin I BOM . .1 >r> Mill
Available from:
J-B. LIPPINCOTT CO.
521 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
“The experiments in this book arc designed to get you
started being a scientist in your own kitchen.”
BOYS & GIRLS, GIRLS & BOYS
by Eve Mcrriam
“Sometimes Marvin dreams of being a zoo
keeper or a conductor, or an architect designing
in the sky.
These arc Marcia’s dreams too.
Andy and his friend Annie like to walk along
the beach at the water’s edge.
‘Finder’s keepers’, says Annie, ‘a starfish’!
‘Ugh’, says Andy, ‘it feels too gluppy’.
‘Finder’s keepers’, says Andy, ‘a horseshoe
crab shell’!
‘Ugh’, says Annie, ‘it’s much too prickly to
touch’.
‘Finder’s keepers’, they both say, ‘a moon
shell to hear the ocean’!”
In BOYS & GIRLS, GIRLS & BOYS, Marcia
and Marvin, Cathy and Chris, Lee B. and Lee G.,
and Annie and Andy all do many things that chil¬
dren want to do and dream of doing, but feel
they can’t because they arc either a girl or a boy.
Written by Eve Mcrriam and excitingly illus¬
trated by Harriet Sherman, BOYS & GIRLS,
GIRLS & BOYS is a model book. However, con¬
sidering the large market of commercial books
for children, it is unfortunate that a book like
BOYS & GIRLS, GIRLS & BOYS is the excep¬
tion rather than the standard.
tten in 1955, MOMMIES AT WORK is one
first books written about the working
■who loves her work and also loves her
n.
jobs that these Mommies have range from
litional bank teller, secretary and Sales-
1 , to the non-traditional TV producer, train
:tor, and scientist.
lie from:
:D KNOPF, INC.
si 50th Street
ork. New York 10022
>9 (hardbound)
Or:
.ASTIC BOOKS
Ivan Avenue
rood Cliffs, New ) ersey
(ty (paperback)
DR. SEUSS?
YES, EVEN DR. SEUSS
Seuss books outsell adult bestsellers, and exert
an incalculable influence on children’s thinking. In
the Seuss books, kids find plenty of entertainment,
learn nice lessons about interpersonal relations and
racial tolerance. They also find in the books, though,
a distorted male-supremacist view of life. The most
striking thing about Dr. Seuss'spresentation of
woman is that he hardly ever presents her at all.
The whole Seuss library includes only two
stories— “Gertrude McFuzz" and "The Glunk that
Got Thunk"—with a female as protagonist, and
none with a female human in that role. The stories,
each occupying a third of a book, amount to two
per cent of the Seuss material, and both portray
their protagonists unfavorably.
But Seuss carries his male exclusiveness far be¬
yond the key roles. In about eight of his books, he
keeps any female intruders from sneaking in, even
for "bit" parts in crowd scenes.
Seuss’s rule seems to be that every animal is a
"he" unless it performs a distinctively female bio¬
logical function or illustrates an undesirable
"feminine" trait. The monotonous repetition of
"he" reaches the point of insanity in IF I RAN
THE ZOO, when Seuss decides that even his hens
must be male.
In a sense, there is no "woman's place" in Dr.
Seuss's books, for they do not concede to her
even those menial but necessary tasks that most
male supremacists consider "women's work."
In three of his books, Seuss draws pictures of
expert cooks-always fat men with mustaches. But
no woman prepares a meal in his books, and they
give no hint that any woman can.
Seuss's assigning of traditional female roles to
males is NOT part of a commendable effort to
break down stereotyped sexual roles, for he never
gives a woman any of the useful roles traditionally
labeled "male." In the context of his books, the
assertion of male superiority even in "women's
work" carries the message that women are wholly
superfluous; nobody needs them at all.
Given the Seussian assumptions that it'saman's
world, in which women exist only by sufferance
and as satellites of men—what roles does Seuss give
his few women characters? Subordinate roles. A
considerable number of them are "bit players,"
like Sue who sews in FOX IN SOCKS.
In the thirty-three books exclusively by Seuss,
the ONE Y woman who has a job is the royal
laundress in BARTHOLOMEW AND THE
COBLECK. In M Y BOOK ABOUT ME, Seuss and
Roy McKie provide a page to collect autographs
of people in different occupations. They ask for
signatures of a mailMAN, a fire MAN, a market
MA N, a policeMA N and a deliveryMA N, driving
their point home with a picture of a MAN pur¬
suing each of the occupations. Except for the
laundress, therefore, the only "occupation" for
women in Seuss is that of housewife and mother.
Some of the best Dr. Seuss books are the ones
that recount childhood fantasies—imagination-
trips on a mind-blowing scale. That’s great in that
it encourages kids to be imaginative and creative.
But, as Seuss presents it, it applies only to boys.
His imaginative child is always a boy: Marco,
Morris McGurk, Gerald McGrew, Peter T. Hooper,
and so forth.
Girls, Seuss teaches, aren't smart enough to
imagine the way his boy characters do. In TO
THINK THAT I SAW IT ON MULBERR Y
STREET, he has Marco discard one of his day¬
dreams as too tame. (Anyone could come up with
that fantasy—why, "even jane" could dream that
one up!)
Even Jane!
And they wonder why little girls have identity
problems?
by J. Maddex
WOMEN'S PRESS, August, 1971
P.O. Box 562
Eugene, Oregon 97401
$3.00/12 issues
spreadfrom BOYS & GIRLS, GIRLS & BOYS Library edition $4.59 Paperback $1.65
published by HOLT,‘RINEHART, AND WINSTON, 383 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10017
PATIENCE AND SARAH
by Isabel Miller
PATIENCE AND SARAH is the story of the re¬
lationship between two young women who lived in
the frontier country of Connecticut in the early 19th
century. The story was suggested by the life of the
painter Mary Ann Willson and her “companion”
Miss Brundidge, who lived and farmed together for
many years on Red Mill Road, Greenville Town,
Greene County, New York. Published originally as
A PLACE FOR US by the Blccckcr Street Press
and written by a known woman novelist under an
assumed name, PATIENCE AND SARAH is a wel¬
come alternative to the stories teenagers read and
also presents a woman’s-eye view of the American
frontier.
From:
FAWCETT PUBLICATIONS
Fawcett Building
Greenwich, Connecticut 06830
95 4
GIRLS ARE EQUAL TOO by Dale Carlson
GIRLS ARE EQUAL TOO was written to dispel
myths that girls have been led to believe—such as
“women can’t be artists.” The first section of the
book, THE WAY IT IS, analyzes the current state
of women’s oppression (“Growing Up a Girl,” “Girls
and Boys,” “Women in college,” “Women and the
Arts,” “Women at Work,” “The Beautiful imbecile,”
“The Happy Housewife”). The next section, HOW
WE GOT THIS WAY, traces the origins of women’s
oppression (“Adam and Eve,” “The Bound Foot,”
“The Empty Mind,” “The Feminist Struggle,”
“Back to the Cave”).
In the final section, WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT
IT. the author offers strategies for survival in a
patriarchal society. With its humorous and lively
style, this book offers an excellent introduction to
feminism for teenage girls.
Decorations by Carol Nicklaus
“If Michelangelo had been a girl, her mother mim
have said, ‘You draw nicely, dear. Now wash the
shirts, give the baby his dinner, and sweep thekir
chen for me, there’s a good girl.’”
Available for $6.25 from ATHENEUM BOOKS, 122 East 42nd Street, New York, New York
118
"One thing that every girl senses, even if no one tells her, is that once the pleasures of
elementary school are over, we occupy the back of the bus in the educational system.
This Southern strategy is described by Mary McGrath [in the MIAMI HERALD, July 2,
1970|:
Once in a blue moon a girl learns, early in life, just exactly what it is to be a woman.
If she accepts the education, her life is immeasurably simpler from that day on.
Well, the moon was blue in a small southern town one day last week. All the girls
were moved to the back of the school bus because their presence, scattered among the
boys, made the lads so restless they caused trouble.
It may have had nothing to do with the ABC's, or even the so-called three R’s, but
it that little gambit wasn’t relevant education for women, / have never heard better.
It will do the little ladies good to learn early that their place is a respectable number
of places in back. It’s where they will spend most of their time, anyway. An added
bonus in the particular business was also acquiring the knowledge that gentlemen do
not get blamed for their own weaknesses, peccadilloes, or peculiarities while there is a
gal in the picture upon whom the onus can be shifted.
These kids were only grade school children, but they were subjected to higher edu¬
cation of the most revealing type, if they caught the lesson, it will make them not only
more accepting of a lot of future nonsense, but they will be sought after as perfect
matches for inconsequential males—of which there seems to be an overabundant supply
in every generation.
This single event may be a sign that educators are, at last, getting down to the busi¬
ness of teaching girls to be women with some sense of reality.
The way things are going these days this "Southern strategy" of female education is
liable to sweep the country. These girls will make wonderful wives for the imperfect
husbands that the same system will spawn. Of course, they won't be able to think their
way out of a paper bag, but that’s a real man’s dream of a real woman, any day!"
from THE YOUNG WOMAN’S GUIDE TO LIBERATION
THE YOUNG WOMAN’S GUIDE
TO LIBERATION
by Karen DeCrow
“Women are helpmates, in the house andouioif
- -- ^
We make pottery instead of becoming professknul L
artists. We join the League of Women Voters install
of entering political life. We raise money for the F
symphony instead of playing first violin.” THE F
YOUNG WOMAN’S GUIDE TO LIBERATIONS F
another book written for young women as an inwg 1
duction to the alternatives the women’s movemtis? 1
offers them. The second-class status of women in IP
education, employment, marriage, and the familjig* 1
well-documented with primary sources.
Available from:
PEGASUS
A Division of Bobbs-Merrill Co, hit)
4 West 58th Street 1 -
New York, New York 10012 1 &
$4.95
tr
One has only to skim those old
i nbvels
the tone of voice in which they
are written to divine that the
writer was meeting criticism, she
was saying this by way of aggres¬
sion, or that by way of concilia¬
tion. She was admit tir* that she
was "only a woman" or pro¬
testing that she was "asgood as
a man ."... And I thought of
all the women's novels that lie
scattered, like small pock-marked
apples in an orchard, about the
secondhand bookshops in Lon¬
don. It was the flaw in the centre
that had rotted them. She had
altered her values in deference
to the opinion of others.)
Virginia Woolf,
A Room of One’s Own
/
RAPHIC NOTEBOOK ON FEMINISM by Su Negrin
tawings, photographs, cartoons, songs, poems, and quotes portray glimpses of feminism throughout history:
i the Amazons to Emma Goldman, Rosa Luxemberg, and the modern women’s movement.
Available from:
TIMES CHANGE PRESS, Penwell Road, Washington, New Jersey 07882
$1.25
NEVER JAM TODAY
by Carole Bolton
ROM THE PEDESTAL
ed Writings in the History of American Feminism
iS. Kraditor, editor
luough primary sources, women in American
Dry speak out on the role of women in society,
reasons for male supremacy, and the tactics
nen should use to enter professions, get the vote,
achieve equality. Aileen Kraditor has selected
ous feminist statements which span three hundred
R of American history, including Elizabeth Cady
mon and Susan B. Anthony, the pro-suffragists;
ulotte Perkins Gilman on the “Economic Basis of
Woman Question”; and Alice Duer Miller, “Are
imen People?” Some anti-feminist writing is in-
ded, to snow what the opposition was thinking.
Tibbie from:
UADRANGLE BOOKS, INC.
! East Delaware Place
fogo, Illinois 60611
NEVER JAM TODAY, an excellent historical
novel for children, ages 10 and older, deals with the
life of a young suffragist, Maddy Franklin. In pursuing
her feminist goals she must overcome the antagonism
of her family and friends, reject her boyfriend who is
unable to accept her as an autonomous human being,
and she must even spend some time in jail. This book
is particularly good for a young woman to read today,
in the midst of the second feminist revolution.
Available from:
ATHENEUM
122 East 42nd Street
New York, New York
Reading for
Older Children
CENTURY OF STRUGGLE
The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States
by Eleanor Flexner
Although this book is written for adults and is
scholarly in its approach, CENTURY OF STRUGGLE
would be of great interest to women in high school
who want to know about the Women’s Rights Move¬
ment in the United States. Eleanor Flexner starts with
the position of American women up to 1800, and
then traces the growth of organized feminism from
the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, through the
emergence of a suffrage movement, to the hard-won
victory of the vote in 1920. She also devotes several
chapters to the changing position of women in Amer¬
ican society to the labor movement, industrial em¬
ployment, and education. This is important reading
which is practically over-looked in most high school
(and college) curricula.
Available from:
ATHENEUM
122 East 42nd Street
New York, New York
$3.95 (paperback)
1195(paperback)
$5.25 (hardbound)
.95 (paperback)
119
Women
Of
America
“They used to say: ‘The hand that rocks the cradle rules
the world’. Women, were they to make a bid for self-ful¬
fillment, had to be influential inconspicuously, whispering
their own thwarted ambitions into the ears of their sons
and their husbands.
“But there have always been some women who broke
through the restraints of their society to follow their incli¬
nation and talents. .. . WOMEN OF AMERICA, provides
. . . real-life examples of women who have led active and
purposeful lives and who have made major contributions
to society.”
The WOMEN OF AMERICA series examines the lives
of strong and independent women, many of whom have
never previously been presented as biographical role-model
material for young readers. Some of the dynamic feminists
included in the series are Ida Tarbcll, one of the first
muckrakers; Margaret Sanger, a pioneer in birth control
advocacy; and Mother Jones, a militant union organizer.
Perhaps the best example of feminist infiltration of
commercial publishing is TO THE BARRICADES: The
Anarchist Life of Emma Goldman by Alix Kates Shulman.
Shulman, one of the early members of Redstockings and
then of New York Radical Feminists, has written the
biography of Emma Goldman who “defended birth
control, feminism, free love, and draft resistance seventy
years ago. . . .”
Ideally suited for young people in the upper elemen¬
tary and junior high school years, these books will also
have strong appeal to high school readers.
WOMEN OF COURAGE
by Dorothy Nathan
An excellent collection of five biographies of
women who never allowed men to deny them
their right to pursue their goals. Women included
in the book are: Susan B. Anthony, Jane Addams,
Mary McLeod Bethune, Amelia Earhart, and Mar¬
garet Mead. (For children, ages 7-12.)
Available from:
RANDOM HOUSE
201 East 50th Street
New York, New York
154
NEIGHBOR TO THE WORLD:
The Story of Lillian Wald
by Irvin Block
THE STORY OF MARY CASSATT
by Robin McKown
IDATARBELL:
First of the Muckrakers
by Alice Fleming
TONGUE OF FLAME:
The Life of Lydia Maria Child
by Milton Meltzer
LABOR'S DEFIANT LADY:
The Story of Mother Jones
by Irving Werstein
SOMEBODY'S ANGEL CHILD:
The Story of Bessie Smith
by Carman Moore
MARGARET SANGER:
Pioneer of Birth Control
by Lawrence Lader & Milton Meltzer
PROBING THE UNKNOWN:
The Story of Dr. Florence Sabin
by Mary Kay Phelan
QUEEN OF THE POPULISTS:
The Story of Mary Elizabeth Lease
by Richard Stiller
SEA AND EARTH:
The Life of Rachel Carson
by Philip Sterline
THE SENATOR FROM MAINE:
Margaret Chase Smith
by Alice Fleming
TO THE BARRICADES:
The Anarchist Life of Emma Goldman
by Alix Kates Shulman
Available from:
THOMAS Y. CROWELL CO.
666 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
" (>\l K.N OK A MB RICA
First of the Muckrakei
by Alice Flcmhi
Illustrated with photograji
MARY McLEOD BETHUNE
by Ruby Radford
cMARY cMcLEOD
<BETHUNE
by Ruby L. Radford
illustrated by Lydia Rosier
MARY McLEOD BETHUNE is an inspirit
biography of a black woman who overcame!:
E oor family background to start a school wit
lack girls could have an education. Later inE
life, she “travelled around the United States,
speaking about and working for the rightsofHt
people, more freedom for women, and better!
ucation for everyone.” (For readers 7-9.)
Available from:
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
200 Madison Avenue
New York, New York
$3.39
120
$4.50 each
Other Titles
GENERATIONS OF DENIAL
by Kathryn Taylor
Most women have been lost from history—
GENERATIONS OF DENIAL tries to put
some of them back. This collection of seventy-
five short biographies is a handy reference
guide to unknown women throughout his¬
tory. Included are such women as Fanny
Wright, the firebrand reformist and free¬
thinker; Aphra Behn (1640-1689), the first
Englishwoman to earn her living as a writer;
and Louise Michel, anarchist and leader of
the Paris Commune of 1871.
Available from:
TIMES CHANGE PRESS
Penwell Road
Washington, New Jersey 07882
$1.35 (paperback)
Generations
of Denial
Riltliryii Taylor
A quote 'tom She ley Chisholm
am pa'liuilaily stiuik dy trie
numDOt ot aged men who 'epiesem
Amenta II seems we uie not taking
into consideration what is happening
in tins country today We are not
giving bright young people-who are
alien so much in touch with the times
a sutticient chance to break into
politics and be heard '
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM
by Susan Brownmiller
Shirley Chisholm has often stated that in
her career in politics she has faced more dis¬
crimination as a woman than she has as a
black. This biography is a good book for chil¬
dren who have oeen fed never-ending biog¬
raphies of upper-class, white males. (For
children, 8-12.)
Available from:
DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY
277 Park Avenue
New York, New York
$3.95
THEY NAMED ME
GERTRUDE STEIN
by Ellen Wilson
An interesting biography of Gertrude
Stein—beginning with her life as a little girl
in California and through her years in Europe
as a novelist, art collector, and philosopher.
The book is also the story of those whose
lives touched hers, including her brothers
Leo and Michael, Pablo Picasso, Henri Ma¬
tisse, and Alice B. Toklas. (For children,
ages 9-13).
Available from:
FARRAR, STRAUS, & GIROUX
19 Union Square West
New York, New York
$5.50
I Iicy Named Me
Gertrude Stein
11 1 nogn tphylyl II, v 11 ?/s <»1
STAND UP LUCY by Elizabeth Hall
An historical novel about a young suffragist.
Available from:
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO.
2 Park Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02107
$3.95
MOM, THE WOLF MAN, AND ME by Norma Klein
The narration of an eleven-year-old girl who lives
with her never-married mother.
Available from:
PANTHEON BOOKS
201 East 50th Street
New York, New York
$4.50
FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES
OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER
by E. L. Konigsburg
The adventures and discoveries of a girl who runs
away from home and spends a week in the Metro¬
politan Museum in New York City.
$5.25 (hardbound)
.95 (paperback)
GO UP THE ROAD by Evelyn Sibley Lampman
The story of migrant Chicano workers as seen
through the eyes of a twelve year old girl.
$5.50
Both books available from:
ATHENEUM BOOKS
122 East 42nd Street
New York. New York 10017
YOUNG AND FEMALE by Pat Ross
A collection of excerpts from the autobiographies
of eight American women—by one of the coordina¬
tors of LITTLE MISS MUFFET FIGHTS BACK.
Available from:
VINTAGE BOOKS
201 East 50th Street
New York, New York
$3.95
THE WORLD IS ROUND by Gertrude Stein
A poem for children written in the inimitable
Stein style.
Available from:
AVON BOOKS
959 Eighth Avenue
New York, New York
954
ELOISE by Kay Thompson
The shenanigans of an incorrigible six-year-old who
skitters, skitters, skitters through the Plaza Hotel.
Available from:
SIMON & SCHUSTER
630 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
$4.95
121
Breakaway
Dreakaway Catalog
A Free School For East Bay Women
Spring
1973
inga school! For most of us, when we think of
BREAKAWAY is an outstanding example of women taking learning into their own
hands. This Women’s Liberation School was originally started by a group of friends in the
San Francisco Women’s Movement who wanted to take their learning about themselves,
their oppression as women, and women’s history, further than the small consciousness-
raising group would allow. The School, which has now expanded into the Berkeley area,
and is going into its third year, provides a model to guide other women interested in ini¬
tiating their own learning institutions.
Since most of the women who launched the school had themselves been through the
oppressive environment of male-dominated schools or colleges, they agreed right off to
avoid getting entangled in a women’s studies program in a conventional campus setting.
The women also decided against affiliation with a “free” or “people’s” school, counter-
cultural institutions which abound in the Bay area. Counter-cultural notwithstanding,
these schools, being male-dominated, are permeated with sexism ranging from over con¬
descension to the more subtle “let me do it for you” variety. Instead, the women chose
to start a community school by, for, and about women. “The only way we can learn with¬
out intimidation, inhibition, and frustration, is from and with each other. Women must
have their own schools where they can meet together in a warm, supportive atmosphere
to share experiences and knowledge.”
A second reason the women decided to start their own school was their belief that
more freedom to innovate exists outside established institutions. A Women’s Liberation
School offered the opportunity not only to break away from sexist education, but to
break away from the orthodox modes of learning which have alienated so many women
from conventional institutions—intellectual one-upping, ego-tripping, teacher/pupil di¬
chotomies, smart/dumb labels. Women “drop-outs” were very much part of the “com¬
munity” BREAKAWAY wanted to reach.
that by the mere publication of a catalog, we had created a new institution.’
Vst organizational task is recruiting course leaders. Any woman may offer a BREAKAWAY course-with two provisos: that she be a feminist and that the material be ore-
XasinrtnT r° f V ' eW ’ WhCther ** 7'“ ' S or “Auto-mechanics,” and that the course confront the racial and class barriers that divide women Start-
3 women are oppressed minimizes vitiating debate and allows course to proceed from that minimal base. The BREAKAWAY organizing collective has
included women with varying political perspectives who have believed that to impose tighter ideological requirements would be counter-pro^uctivf divisive and
of women BREAKAWAY wants to reach Even with this screening, BREAKAWAY has had little difficulty in recruiting “convenors.” The first session
KAWAY in San Francisco consisted of thirteen offerings. Berkeley BREAKAWAY today lists twenty-five
ifc h tonlof, d nere, k RRFA K AWAVK 7T. ^ llfe ex P« len f/ ^d the course; and those who had been through C-R and who wished to concentrate
Iilf Est - BREAKAWAY responded to these differing needs by adding a raft of consciousness-raising courses to its “content” courses on art, women’s stud-
Sr/n aro,,n’ Trk women without prior C-R to take one of these courses before or concurrent with a content course. The consciousness-raising courses
1 nnLiral 8 / 3 ho . u . gh . ^ ese 5 an b ? arra nged through BREAKAWAY. The C-R courses integrate a specialized topic with the consciousness-raising technique: dcvelop-
!, political, and personal insights through connecting individual exnerienres nnrl nrpdira. ^
political, and personal insights through connecting individual experiences and predica-
ith sexism. C-R courses listed in a recent BREAKAWAY catalog included: “Women Over
“The Single Working Mother,” “Women With Small Babies,” “Women Who Are Coming
d “Professional Women.” Members of the Berkeley BREAKAWAY organizing collective
at this division of courses has increased the overall level of satisfaction felt by women in
tent and C-R courses, and they recommend this arrangement to other women planning a
school.
has not been a problem for BREAKAWAY. To avoid the hassles of finding, financing, and
i building, the decision was originally made to have women meet in each other’s homes.
WAY women note that learning in a comfortable, familiar environment has been condu-
omen relaxing and gaining self-confidence. On the other hand, BREAKAWAY recognizes
itages in having a building for a school, if by some chance, a building is available,
ngcan provide a place for a woman to feel comfortable outside the home; the build-
e identified as a woman’s place; and facilitate identification with the process of de¬
women’s studies.”
pable costs of running the School-producing the catalog, maintaining a telephone (cru-
oxing study materials-are met by charging a registration fee of S3.00 for each ten-week
laving this small working capital is considered vital, since it frees the women in the or-
collective from fund-raising and allows them, instead, to put all their energies into the
ked members of the present Berkeley BREAKAWAY collective what changes have been
:d during the course of three years’ operation. “Well, we have started to pay some tea-
irate, carpentry, and automechanics are far-and-away the most popular courses, and we
teachers of those courses S40 per session because they are carrying such heavy loads.”
icr change has been in the organization of the collective itself. There is within the women’s
nt a fear and distrust of leadership of any sort. To thwart the crystallization of an elite, the
organizing group decided to disband at the end of the first BREAKAWAY semester. Any
ng BREAKAWAY would have to be organized by a new group. For the sake of continuity
rth, Berkeley BREAKAWAY has tempered this decision. Structure has been introduced by
the essential organizing functions, and, as women elsewhere have done, sharing these
in a rotating basis. “This way we insure responsibility and efficiency without risking elitism.”
collective is an ongoing group, with about half experienced women and half new-the latter
1 from among women who have convened or taken BREAKAWAY courses. Experienced
s of the collective offer to women who want to join the collective a four-meeting, free
‘How to Organize Women’s Studies for Fun: the present collective will teach you all we
•out getting BREAKAWAY organized.”
: all signs point to an accelerating appetite among women for increased self-knowledge,
AWAY and Women’s Liberation schools like it can only continue to grow and flourish-
ig a keystone in the evolving women’s culture.
:information about BREAKAWAY can be found in: “San Francisco BREAKAWAY: Be-
Community Women’s Study Programs,” by Cathy Cade and Tanis Walters, published in the
r 1972 issue of LIBERA (Eshleman Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California
Jl. UU).
tley BREAKAWAY also has available a packet of information on how to start a women’s
mty school, including a sample catalog, a pamphlet describing how the BREAKAWAY col-
:unctions, and a pamplet, “Steps to Organize BREAKAWAY, a Free Women’s School.”
Write to:
BREAKAWAY
434 66th Street
Oakland, California 94609
50tf for postage and handling
123
124
Chicago Liberation School For Women
“ ‘What we don’t know we must learn; what we do know, we should teach each other’. Women in Chicago are learning to tell a distributor iroma
carburetor the clitoris from the vulva, good healthy food for survival from the plastic, often poisonous variety being sold off the shelves in super¬
markets Women are learning-or relearning-the theories of Marxism from a feminist perspective, how to get a divorce without a lawyer, how wc
can move with freedom and joy-together. And we’re learning why we never learned any or all of these things in the course of our lives.
“These revelations are all part of the Liberation School for Women, a project of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union. . . The positive vibes
arc hard to describe, but they’re very much present: the strength and solidarity that comes from a group of women learning about our bodies-gain-
ing knowledge that up to now we’ve been systematically denied; learning to accept-and even to LIKE ourselves even if we don’t fit into the Miss
America mold. We’ve struggled together under the hood of a car against the female inferiority complex in the presence of things mechanical. We vc
studied the American family as an institution and women’s within it, trying to use our own living situations as basic data. And we’ve turned many
women on to our movement, because for the first time they feel that our movement includes them, has something to offer them, and that perhaps
they have something to offer us.
“Planning for the School began in the fall of 1970 when a group of women from CWLU wanted to develop a program to respond to some of the
needs of the women’s movement in Chicago. The first need was to bring more women in contact with the ideas of women’s liberation through a
source other than the established media, giving these newly interested women an overview of the movement and their own possible role within it.
The second was the need for political education for the members of the Union and women in the women’s movement in general: wc saw the School
as a place to develop our analysis and strategy as well as to do research. Thirdly, the School was intended to provide an opportunity to learn skills,
both those which are necessary for survival but have been considered out of the sphere of the ‘woman’s role’ and/or those which are essential to
build our movement. ...
“We hope to sec participation in the School become a springboard for students to a deeper commitment for social change, a deeper commitment
to the movement and to the CWLU as part of that movement-Wc feel that we must involve each class in some kind of action project. One model
might be to involve people in Women and Their Bodies classes in pregnancy testing or abortion counseling; another may stem from the Prepared
Childbirth course, which offers a service otherwise unavailable to many women, raises consciousness about our oppression within the health care sys¬
tem and our lack of control over our own bodies, and offers the possibility of direct action closely related to the course content. In this case the
women in the class plan to demand that various clinics and hospitals start offering prepared childbirth courses. With this kind of action, the Libera¬
tion School will not be co-opted by institutions representing ways of life to which we are opposed but rather will challenge such institutions in
meaningful ways.
“Our goal is to create positive dissatisfaction in the partici
with their lives, not a dissatisfaction which grows silently wit
uation, to challenge it, to grow with other women to an unde
in WOMEN: JOURNAL OF LIBERATION
Vol. 2, No. 4
>ants in the Liberation School, a realization of the dissatisfaction many women feel
iin each isolated woman and sours her life, but one which leads her to question her sit¬
standing that sisterhood is powerful. The only given is that we will keep growing.”
Sexuality
The course on female sexuality
is a seminar discussing how we
as women feel about ourselves
as sexual beings in this society.
Topics to be covered include
body shame, self-hate, the
...litics o! orgasm, exclusive vs.
non-exclusive relationships,
lesbianism, bisexuality, hetero-
..pxuahi a ,ri elibacy. This
£ -mg is 1 nited to 15 people.
Call Naom "ibinstein 947-066L
Mao
Science Fiction
Science Fiction is a part oi
people's culture that is gene¬
rally unrecognized as useful
by literary critics 1 We would
like to examine Sci Fi, especially
looking at how it views women and
society. We hope to be able to do
some writing, either reviews of
sci fi or original sci fi. Class
will meet Wednesdays i :30.
Convenor : Chris Riddiough --
528-3626.
Gay Women
& Literature
In this course we will discuss
women weiters from a woman-
identified-woman's viewpoint.
We will examine, analyze, and
hopefully prove fallacious
traditional male-identilied
criticism and stereotyping of
the woman artist and her
subject matter. Fdriher
details: call Susan Kd • rds,
334-0631.
This course is an introductory course for women who
want to begin political study and analysis, through the
works of Chairman Mao. We will be reading two books:
Quotations From Chairman Mao ("Little Red Book")
and Four Essays on philosophy. Class will meet Sun.
afternoon or eve. , at the C. W. L. U. office. Call
convenors to register: Mary Ann and Virginia --929-
4883. Class size limited to 10.
3028 Greenmount Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
$4.00/4 issues
CHICAGO LIBERATION
SCHOOL FOR WOMEN
Registration is
$4.00 per course,
and childcare is
available. Contact
the Union for their
current schedule
of classes.
Write to:
LIBERATION
SCHOOL FOR WO'
852 West Bdr
Chicago, Illinois®
(312) 3484
BASIC how: repair
OUR BODIES/OURSELVES
MOWN AND THE LAW
INDOCHINA
LESBIANISM
TOWN IN THE UNITED STATES
RACISM IN EDUCATION
WOMEN, CLASS AND CONSCIOUSNESS
HIGi SCHOOL EQUIVIIANCY COURSES
childcare will always be available.
New York Warren's School
371 9th Street
Brooklyn, New York 11215
WHO WORK
forming a group of working women who
0 find solutions to the problems women
n the job. We plan to talk with each
Ibout our experiences at work and how
ave affected our personal lives and
res at home. We would also like to
it readings about the struggles of
working women--personal, political,
Jtorical accounts, in order to struc-
ed help our discussions. Some of the
loos ve would like to ask ourselves are:
What are the kinds of jobs women have
What strategies can we develop for
liing to change our working conditions
log at traditional unions, independents,
il caucuses, legal procedures, and
t ]ob actions).
How can we organize beyond simple
•unionism? What about control, personal
ty and human rights?
can we raise issues of sexism at
Ota? What concrete actions can we take?
Bow do our personal lives and our re-
•ships at home affect us at work?
What concrete support can we give to
ftnen's labor struggles?
|KX$ meets tentatively Tues. nights.
’
I
i
WOMEN & HEALTH . CARE
Women have long been denied proper medical
attention. We have not learned enough
about our bodies, and often what we have
been taught has not been true. We are of¬
fering a course on Women and Health Care
to gain greater understanding about our
bodies and to challenge the existing myths.
Knowing the facts about how our bodies work
helps us become more familiar with ourselves,
and learning the language of the medical
people makes doctors less mysterious and
frightening. Some of the goals of the course
are to share our experiences with one another,
look at the availability of good health
care in Madison and throughout the country —
to whom it is available, at what prices, are
we satisfied or dissatisfied and what can
we do to change the situation.
The topics we will discuss include:
physiology; reproduction; menstruation;
menopause; birth control; abortion;
sterilization; V.D., sexuality; and nu¬
trition. We will also discuss different
aspects of the medical profession, inclu¬
ding patient-doctor relationships, the drug
industries and show several films. The
first session will tentatively be held at
the Near East Side Health Clinic. 1133
Williamson Street, June 18, 7:30. All
women are invited to attend. For more
information call Helene. 251-1345.
MADISON WOMEN’S LIBERATION SCHOOL
Classes meet weekly. Call the Women’s Center for more information.
WOMEN’S CENTER, 836 East Johnson, Madison, Wisconsin 53703
(608) 255-7447
SOJOURNER TRUTH SCHOOL FOR WOMEN
Washington Area Women’s Center
1736 R Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 232-5145
“We see the SOJOURNER TRUTH SCHOOL as a place
where both professional and non-professional women can
share their skills and knowledge, and as a place where wom¬
en can develop their skills and then teach them to others.”
Women have long been denied recognition of the im¬
portance of what they are capable of doing. Thus many
became dependent on authority figures, be they car me¬
chanics, plumbers, professors, or realtors. With space and
time women will recognize and utilize their skills and share
them with other women, building self-determination for
and with each other. Types of courses currently offered at
the SOJOURNER TRUTH SCHOOL FOR WOMEN have
been skills techniques (auto mechanics, public speaking,
home repair, self-defense), visual media (silk-screening),
informational discussion groups (feminist workshop, wom¬
en in history) and strategy and tactics of the Women’s
Movement (organizing women in the workplace, feminist
socialism. For information on fees and schedules of classes,
call the Women’s Center.
WOMEN'S SCHOOL AT THE
MISSOURI WOMEN’S CENTER
5138 Tracy
Kansas City, Missouri 64110
(816)333-4155
Women activists will find that the WOMEN’S SCHOOL
in Kansas City offers courses on pressing issues in the
Women’s Movement. Call the Women’s Center to find out
when the next presentation of “The Many Faces of Op¬
pression” is scheduled. It is a multi-media exposure of the
connections between sexism and other forms of oppression,
using theater, role plays, skits and group participation to
explore the different structures of oppression and how
they interact in American society. The school has facilities
for child care and transportation can be provided, if ne¬
cessary. For information on fees and schedules, contact
the Women’s Center.
125
THE NOT SO HELPLESS FEMALE-
How to Change the World Even if You
Never Thought You Could: A Step-by-Step
Guide to Social Action
by Tish Sommers and Bulbul
“This is a book on doing something about those
things we feel are wrong. Generations of the passive
role have taken a toll, so that many of us feel more
helpless than we really are. For too long we’ve been
expected to watch and applaud ... or busy ourselves
with trivia .... Well, good riddance to all that.. ..”
This book teaches women how to organize for so¬
cial change. Starting with a section on “how to break
out of old patterns” of inaction, THE NOT SO HELP¬
LESS FEMALE proceeds to concrete suggestions for
“getting it all together”: from how to avoid traps of
volunteerism to how to write letters to senators.'to
how to hold a press conference and get Madison Ave¬
nue on your side. Women have enormous power, says
the author, if they learn to work together effectively.
Change is brought about by reversing positions,
i.e., by co-opting the system. “The premise is: the sys¬
tem is not monolithic. The establishment CAN be
moved; the system CAN be used. In the process of
shoving forward, all available hands are needed working
in unison, which itself lays the basis for some funda¬
mental restructuring of power relationships.”
Available from:
DAVID McKAY COMPANY
750 Third Avenue
New York, New York
won E N ’S
CENTER
SCHOOL
46 Pleasant St., Cambridge
Winter Term, 1973
A study and rap group, bil4hp|
will collectively main* pyqp
and Ifeeratlon, explore vhe I ■
be o ‘politico! iMbi*', vdfc,
blar IlfeWylea.
•oaw of the mythical rWteN*
nppwH to. We will deprawl
drawing upon our penenol egeb
ond reinforce our cone Won *•
recent I berated material. Will
women in the group mtyt sto dl
own writings (poetry, prea, eee.
Tim course it deiigned for lien
identifier henelf oi o Wen.
MARRIAGE A NO THE FAMILY
Time to be arranged
This coune will ottempt to oraly
ftitutiom of morriogo ond the lee
on our own experience end up
os well oi on reodingi. We *111
come to tome undenta
they ploy both in the
in our own everyday live,
hopefully, we con begin
positive woyi of dealing
theee lituotioni, port!
raipomfcillty fo, chil.
either now find ourwlve or
finding ounelvet.
COLLECTIVE CHILDCARE -2 p.m. THURSDAYS Jy-.f J
We will d be urn bringing children Into our lives os o ^Jtrfl
growing experience for both porents and nonporents.
We are mothen of young children. We ore women who / J
ore wording towards the freedom of ourselves, our chll- to
dren, and the world. We would like to shore our know- m ■ I
ledge and the high and difficult experiences of porem- 9 1
hood. Dbcumlon can be oround such subjects os preg¬
nancy, the problems of nevborm (theirs ond ours),
nutrition and food, discipline, nursing, raising a child without o fothrr,
ond , if there b one, whot that's oil obout. Also communol living; ploy
groups and childcare; travelling ond moving, sickness, heoling, iofsty.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON YWCA
4224 University Way, N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
(206) ME 2-4747
The YWCA holds rap groups for women to explore
their feelings. Topics for rap groups are “Woman
Know Thyself,” “Lesbian Know ThyselP' and "White
Feminists and Racism." Also available at the YWCA
arc classes which teach women new skills: “Women
and Videotape”— the use of video as a tool in the Wom¬
en’s Movement; and “Auto Mechanics for Women”
which concentrates on preventive care and basic main¬
tenance of the auto.
WOMEN’S ACTION TRAINING CENTER
2735 MacArthur Boulevard
Oakland, California 94602
(415) 531-5884
Tish Sommers, author of the NOT-SO-HELPLESS
FEMALE, leads classes on basic organizing for women
who wish to improve skills and understanding of social
action. The class plan builds a strategy for social change
for women: “getting organized,” “fighting the man,”
“building an organization,” “skills,” “fundraising,”
and “where do we go from here?” The WOMEN’S
ACTION TRAINING CENTER hopes to equip women
with the skills they need to combat the system. For
more information on schedules and fees, contact the
WOMEN’S ACTION TRAINING CENTER.
WESTSIDE WOMEN’S CENTER
LIBERATION SCHOOL
218 South Venice Boulevard
Venice, California 90291
(213) 823-4774
Courses for women's bodies, minds, and souls are
offered at the WESTSIDE WOMEN’S CENTER
LIBERATION SCHOOL. The Summer 1973session
included courses on sexuality, self-defense, and ex¬
ercise; non-sexist childrearing, VW repair, the politics
of welfare; and the meaning of “female.” Contact the
Women’s Center for their next schedule of classes and
locations. Fee is S3.00 for 8 classes.
126
“THE WOMEN’S SCHOOL is a collective effort of women interested in sharing their ideas, skills,
and experiences with their sisters. The school tries to provide a structure for the growth of our 1
Women’s Movement; we want to explore the problems of our own liberation, to learn about other
political and social struggles, and to reach out and build unity among women.” Registration is
$3.00. Child care will be arranged. For courses on subjects including Women’s History, Womenin
Literature, Childcare, Divorce and Marriage, or Sexuality, contact the Women’s Center School, j
SEXUMJTY MONDAY
Whot b our Mxuollty, ond why do foal to separated from It? Thb will
bo a d be too lor coune In which tho subject will bo our axpariancM ond
Moot about such topic* as how wo fool about our bod loo, relationship*
with men and with woman, our families' viowt of tax, ate. Wo will also
do o fow short rood logs and disc urn tho different woyt in which society
axplofo ond manipulate* our sexuality ond our view* of ourselves.
OUR BODIES - OU* SELVES THURSO AYS
Wo os woman hove boon taught vary little about tho
working* of our bodies, ond It b thb mystery that
keeps u* opprom H by tho mod Ice I system, our am-
players, our hu^and* ond lovers, and oureelve*.
Thb course b designed to be not only o way of get¬
ting Information btrf olio on examination of how we
got to be In this victimized predicament and whot to
do wfch thb Information now that we hove It. As port
of tho need to know our own bodies ond overcome our
own feors, we're looking forward to o session on self-
exom(notion. If tome of this sounds frightening to
you. It hos frightened oil of to. As women we hove
boon shaped by slmilor experiences that we ore now
struggling with, ond os sisters we hove tho potential
to change.
DIVORCE
WEDNESDAY
INTRODUCTORY MEETINGS for
woman who wont to moot ond folk
obout tho woman's movement ond the
Issues It dealt with. We will try to
sot up consciousness-raising groups
for anyone Interested. Sundays at 8.
LESBIAN LIBERATION MEETINGS
ore hold ovary Thursdoy ot 8 p.m. ot
tho Women's Center.
There will be four weekly meetings
on tho divorce low in Mossochussets,
designed to help women who ore
considering divorce.
These may be followed by four
further meetings on another aspect
of the tew .
WHO ARE THE WOMEN OF CAMBRIDGE? This group will meet in the
morning - doy to be discussed ot registration.
Thb Is not really a clots, but o reseorch project; the two of us who ore
storting it know no more than anyone else. It could turn into o continuing
project if It goes well. W# plan: I) to collect whotever statistics ond other
Information we con on the women of Cambridge (or some port of the city),
2) to interview individual women from different backgrounds. Among
other things, we will try to find out whot services women wont from the
Women's Center.
THE IMAGE OF WOMEN IN LITERATURE MOH
We will be reading poetry ond fiction from tho eighteenth centir/l
present. The exoct choice of texts will depend on the intorost*oil
clou, probably being chosen from the following: A Room of Ore'll
Middlomorch , Pride ond frojudtee , Anno K o renino , Mme. Bovw^
on<j Lovers, The House of M irtK , The Golden Notebook
Louise Bogon, Emily Dickenson, SyTvio Plofh, W.D, Snodgnw.l
cussing some of these books, we will consider the following quepio
• In whot way is o piece of ari o'reflection of the society that|
duces it?
• In whot woys does literature reinforce romantic myths obout*
ond how do we respond to those myths?
• Whot kind of relationship does the literature we ore reading I
our lives?
Wo will coordinate several meetings with the history of art cowr»,i
ing the imoges of women in the visual ond literary orts.
WRITING WORKSHOP - THURSDAY - POETRYW(
Workshop for those interested in The writing of postryffn
both poetry ond fiction, or ex- pression of the femaln
ploring other forms. We will em- ence. Women's poetry*
phosize mutual criticism ond sup- read ond discussed inch
port within the group; students ex- perlence" in poetry bid
peered to bring one piece of work sory beforehond.
every week, preferably with copies.
WOMEN’S CENTER SCI
46 Pleasant Street
Cambridge, Massachusett
(617) 661-9650
FTOORGANIZE A WOMEN’S
MION SCHOOL
altogether seven to eight women who will
lit themselves to five meetings and who
Offtake responsibility for a few minor tasks
fa some phoning.
\ttlhe first meeting make the following
tfalons:
Date and length of the session.
Date of registration.
Date of the first teachers' meeting,
i Decide whether teachers will be paid and how
' much.
Decide how much to charge for registration
for each course.
Decide which services should be paid for and
which the organizing group should do itself:
typing the catalog, printing the catalog, dis¬
tributing the catalog.
Decide on core courses, e.g., self-defense,
sexuality, health, the Women's Movement,
the family.
lecrult women to give courses. Post notices in
be Women's Center, make announcements in
be women's paper or newsletter, phone women
i ho might want to share their skills, giving the
We of the teachers' meeting.
If the teachers' meeting:
. Find out who plans to teach what.
: Get concrete course descriptions from the
teachers to put in the catalog.
Ask the teachers to have a meeting time,
name and phone number to be listed in the
catalog.
I the second meeting of the organizing group
le following tasks need to be volunteered for:
Three women should write the introduction
to the catalog.
, One woman should collect all the course des¬
criptions from teachers.
A woman should type the copy for the
catalog.
, A woman should get the copy to a printer
and arrange to get the catalog back in a rea-
■sorable amount of time.
A woman should find and rent space for
classes, like karate, that will need space out¬
side homes.
A woman should arrange for a childcare ex¬
change. Her number should be listed in the
catalog, and she will coordinate women who
sign up for childcare at registration.
then the catalog returns from the printer have
icollating party and get volunteers for the fol¬
ding jobs:
l To distribute the catalog to major collection
points: bulletin boards, bookstores, free cli¬
nics, other free schools, the public library, lo¬
cal college and university bulletin boards, etc.
Write a news release to be distributed to the
local women's papers, the underground press,
local newspapers, radio stations, stressing
time, date, fees, classes to be offered at
istration.
Me registration a social gathering, e.g., a pot-
l/ck, bring-your-own party at which women
giving courses will describe what the classes
'em be about. Arrange for at least two women
to collect money for course registration after
\fachers have presented their courses. Announce
the next meeting of the organizing collective.
Bet in touch with other women's
LS FOR ORGANIZING HINTS AND
ORMATION.
pled from THE BREAKAWAY PACKET
WOMEN’S COMMUNITY SCHOOL
“What we don’t know, we must learn; what we do
know, we should teach each other. The WOMEN’S
COMMUNITY SCHOOL works to create a woman-
controlled, open, supportive environment for learning
to take place among women. We try to offer courses
that will bring more women in contact with the ideas
of the Women’s Movement, continue the political ed¬
ucation of women active in the Movement, offer a
place to do serious research on questions relevant to
the Movement, and provide an opportunity to learn
skills that have been considered outside the sphere
of‘woman’s role.’ ” Courses are free. A donation
of S2.00 is requested from each woman to pay for
child care for any woman who needs it. The courses
include “Movement and Body Awareness,” “Survival
in a Sexist Society: Concrete Discussion and Tactics,”
and “Carpentry.”
c/o Feminist House
225 East Liberty
Room 203
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
(313) 763-4187
WOMEN'S INSTITUTE OF THE NORTHWEST
“Women are in transition from lives limited by tra¬
ditional patterns and cultural myths to new definitions
of themselves. The central purpose of the WOMEN’S
INSTITUTE is to explore and enhance these new def¬
initions .... Our major activities will center on re-ed¬
ucation and re-socialization, and our perspective will be
feminist.” The WOMEN’S INSTITUTE offers courses,
workshops, and group and individual counseling to
help women who are re-evaluating the effects of old
definitions on their lives. “Women and Society” is a
representative course offered by the Institute; it be¬
gins with an historical analysis of the Women’s Move¬
ment and then deals with women and the law, minor¬
ity women, health care for women, and female sexu¬
ality. “Our concern now is to . . . encourage new per¬
spectives for women.” Contact the WOMEN’S INSTI¬
TUTE for their current schedule of classes.
2102 N.E. 50th Street
Seattle, Washington 98105
A NEW KIND OF RAP GROUP FOR WOMEN: The Psycho¬
logy of Women's Oppression and Liberation.
Rapping, reading, writing. A radical approach
to feminist psychology, employing an analysis
of the effects of economic, social and political
conditions on the development of women.
Convener: Sue Kirk
Time: 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 25
Place: To be arranged, call 264-2377
ORGANIZING IN THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
Field experience in organizing services for
meeting basic needs, includina radical service
orientation and "consciousness-raising."
Resources...exploring availability; generating
new resources; learning to use established
resources without getting co-opted. Leadership
...leadership vs. elitism, collective decision¬
making, collective leadership. Particioants
will be encouraged to participate in various
feminist service-oriented activities.
Convener: Carol Rowell
Time: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 12
Place: 4521 Kensinqton
FEMALE MYTHOLOGY: Earth Mothers, Amazons,
Witches, Bitches—and You.
Women live with many sex archetypes: the
seductive Eve, the castrating bitch, the wise
mother, the sexless brain, the virain, the
tomboy, the man-killer...and on and on. To
understand the historic development of these
archetypes will be the purpose of the class.
To get behind these faces of the female, we will
explore prehistoric religion, mythology, anthro¬
pology—with reference to literature from the
Bible and Greek classics to the MCP novels of
today. Once the fragments are brouqht toqether,
we will explore the potentials of the Total
Female and our influence on the future.
Convener: Barbara Miles
Time: 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 11
Place: CWSS Storefront, 2020 Market
Instructor's fee: $10.00, if you have it.
Men welcome.
FEMINIST—FREE—YOU
“To learn the truth about themselves in an atmosphere of dignity and self-determination many minority
groups have found it necessary to seek education in their own liberation schools, just as many children of
the white ‘counter-culture’ seek it in free schools. They all found that token ‘studies programs’ within estab¬
lished institutions are just that: tokens still directed and ultimately determined by the needs and mores of
the dominant white, male-dominated, middle-class stratum of our society.
“Our experience as women has been the same, and the FEMINIST-FREE-YOU is our response to this
experience.... The FEMINIST-FREE-YOU is a liberation school of, for, and by women. Making women’s
ideas, creations, work and above all, needs, the focus of study and action is our reason for existence.”
As a response to the typical woman’s experience in education, FEMINIST-FREE-YOU offers a wide range
of courses for women, including the Rights of the Married Woman, Women in the Medical Arts, Women in
Prison and Parole, and Woman and Her Body.
An optional S3.00 enrollment fee helps pay for printing costs. After paying this fee, a woman can take
as many classes as she wishes. For scheduling information, contact the FEMINIST-FREE-UNIVERSITY.
908 F Street
San Diego, California 92101
(714)239-8355
127
Thur. 6:30-8:30 p.m. 8/4 wki
c/o EVERYWOMAN’S CENTER
Munson Hall
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts 01002
(413)545-0883
BACKPACKING AND HIKING w,d 7 9 P m 8 wk *
Anew M*u*oltf
Fouz evening leuiom lo learn skills, end lour elternoon or weekend hikei/beckpecks (lime to be decided bv peilicipinlil
Workshop will explore where to hike/beckpeck. how to find out. chooung terrain, reading topo mapi, uung a com pan,
basic first aid/emergencv/survival knowledge, clothing/packs/lood. lues, shelter. While getting outside in the beautiful Fall
weather we will consider the non polluting ecological use ol wilderness and the special "problems" ol women, il any
Ann e is a Hiking and Backpacking leader with the Appalecian Mountain Club. She has had special training in mountain
safety and winter survival, and has backpacked alone and with groups over much ol Hew England as well as Grand Canyon
and Yoeemite She recently participated in Outward Bound, one more experience to add to her many years ol exploring
the out of doort
BASIC HOME MAINTENANCE Tues. 9 11a.m. 4 wks
Priscilla Wnw
A workshop lo learn the basic care and repair of The systems of a home Basic how to of plumbing, electricity etc. ^
Demystifying the mechanisms around us and learning when to reach for the tool box. when to call the ''professional.”
Enrollment limited to 10.
Pnscills has run her own home for 30 years meeting emergencies as well as doing the daily care
OIVORCE : WHY? HOW? AND WHAT THEN? Mon. 7 9 p.m. 8 wk
Joanni Kimmin
An opportunity for women who are contemplating, in the process of getting, or just through a divorce to come ,Q 9* ,her
and share experiences and knowledge We can explore divorce law and procedures as well as support each other through
the process of finding new ways to live and be ourselves Participants may wish to continue the group on their own
Maximum enrollment 10 . ,
Joanm is an experienced group facilitator who will he doing para legal work next year She is in the process ot doing
her own divorce
ON BEING A WHITE WOMAN Thur. 7 9 p.m. 4 wks
Carole Camp and Joan Gods* 11
Any woman who is concerned with ending the oppression of both racism and sexism may find herself in a bind If
both have equal priority in our values how can we combJt institutions that would have us pnorti/e our struggle* This
will be explored m the workshop as well as discussing our personal identity as women and as white
Carole has previously facilitated workshops on institutional racism and bringing about change She presently is a coord
mator of Western Massachusetts Community Change. Inc. and the parent ol two children
Joan is a tumor high school teacher and has facilitated groups in personal growth and support
EFFECTS OF A RACIST EDUCATION ON OUR CHILDREN Thur. 7 9 p.m. Harts Oct. 26 4 wks
Carol* Camp and Sandy Eldar
Designed as a follow up workshop tu "On Suing A Whiiv Woman", this one will locus on identifying racism in the
school systems, how il eltecls our children, and learning the skills lo change Ihe schools II may be registered lor separately
or at the end ol ihe previous 4 week workshop on racism
Caro/e has facilitated workshops on institutional racism and is a coordinator o' Western Massachusetts Community
Change
Sandy works in an elementary sr hoot and is the parent ol three children
WHERE WOULD VOU GO IF YOU WERE GOING?
Elarta Nachwoman and Marsha Raradon
A poetry workshop(s) lot all of us. lo support and encourage both beginners (even if you've never shaieif you ctrs j
before! and more practiced writers We plan lo include discussion ot women poets in the new anthology Arsrrsg /•»
(Pocket 8ooks). dealing particularly with the issues of women's experience. Third World women, and a nnv lingag
culture. If enough women enroll, we hope to break into two groups reflecting the specific needs/desires ol indirdvis
with possible focuses on writing, reading, or analysis Enrollment limited to 30
Etana is a working poet committed to building a women 's culture She has been published in numerous small it
including The Berkshire Anthology under the name S P Wonder, anti has a novel and book ol poems about to tt
published
Marsha has participated m many poetry workshops INew Haven. Chicago, Columbus. NorthamptonI with InenOtve
"established" poets, but has learned the most Irom informal workshops and friends She will be published in thtteur.
edition of The Young American Poets.
WOMEN S FILM FESTIVAL
October 23-29
Globe Theatre, Northampton
A six day intensive study of women in film Course fee includes full admission to everything plus day care lindiw
semester credit for UMass studentsl Approximately 20 films will be shown, including ' A Very Curious Girl, 'kngw
Davis Portrait of a Revolutionary. 'Maedchen in Uniform. 'I Am Somebody. 'To Be Young Gifted and Black. 'Jrai
Janie Filmakers Liane Brandon. Sheila Page, and Ariel will shov* their films and lead workshops The weekend pares
Will be (tentatively! on political peispeclives in womens film and women as artists. Members of the Women's film
Co op. Which IS organizing the festival, will be available throughout the semester to women taking the festival ataecos
PROSTITUTION A POLITICAL NECESSITY? Thur. 7:30 9:30 p.m. ««
Carol* Thompson
How do we define prostitution? Are there simtlar situations in every woman's life that might be termed protlituter
marriage, job? We will be discussing this as well as the political implications; is prostitution the result ol a monogamous
capitalistic society? sexual deviation' is there a connection between prostitution and lesbianism? Enrollment lim.iedt:"
Carole IS presently involved in the Women s Studies Program at Sarah Lawrence College She has been a women inut
advocate in a socioleconomically deprived area in Central Massachusetts
THE WOMAN IN ART Wad 7-9 p.m.
Maradith Clapp Foley and Michel* Molyneux
A workshop to examine woman m art. both as artist and as subject Some of the areas we will examine through gw
discussion will be how is woman portrayed? has this changed over time? how many women are involved martindarr
problems do they face? who are the women currently involved in the field of art ? and has the women's movement aflect
art?
Meredith has been involved in art since she was a child. Now 22 years old she is married anil has a three year oH«m
Michele is an artist and helped start the area Independent Artists group
TAKING PEN IN HAND; WRITING FROM THE BEGINNING Tues 7 9 p.m. 8 wks
Sally O'Donnell and Kata Wennar
Would you like to regain the habit ol expressing yourself in written language? Unleash your ideas on the world'
Write good letters to the editor? Regain friendships lost because you haven't written? Write to your children o' vow-
In this workshop we will work together to express ourselves confidently and articulately-m short, to stop our hindi
from shaking when we take pen tn hand. Enrollment limited to 12.
Sally is 30. has a BA and two years teaching experience With a young family she has found her sell isolated to tins
where she was writing nothing more complicated than the weekly grocery list, end is trying to hnd a way out ol tut
predicament
Kate is a Ire*lance writer, working in non fiction narrative as well as fiction She recently has returned horn a rrr
a hall traveling and writing in Latin America, and is part of a support group ol women writers
WRITING FOR PERSONAL GROWTH Thur. 7 9 p.m. 8/4 wks
Kata Wennar
This workshop will explore the ways in which writing can help with personal growth and change As we shat tu
writing in the areas of autobiography, personal narrative, journal writing and dream recording, we will help etch oil*
with th* craft of writing and work together as a supportive group Through all this the emphasis will be both on it»»
the craft and getting each of ns to feel confident in our creativity. (For closet writers and others! Enrollment limn*
Kate is a freelance writer, working in non fiction narrative as well at fiction. She has recently returned from a yta
a halt of traveling and writing in Latin America, and is part of a women writers support group
Section 1: Tues. 7:30 9:30 p.m
Section 2: Wed. 7:30 9:30 p.m
1/4 wks
TAE KWAN DO
Lorraine BogarU
A workshop on one form of karate, learning th* physical skill and discussing its implications Emphasis w.li txon
physical conditioning, a variety of kicks, punches, stances, and desensitization to body contact and the receivingot«
Woman, hopefully, will begin to feel what physical power is like how to use it. how to acquire it, what it means ns
responsibility and pleasure. The two hour class involves at least an hour of strenuous working out The optional lo u
session is for advanced work and can be registered for separately or at the end of the eight week workshop
Lorraine has been taking Tea Kwen Do for three years and has her green belt. She believes that it is necessary on
to realistically come to terms with violence and attempt to integrate two natural tendencies the urge toward sen no
and the hopes for a peaceful way of life. She believes that when Tee Kwen Do becomes as natural as walking these
seemingly opposing tendencies will be integrated.
Grass Roots School For Women’s Studies
This is an alternate learning community in which women can fulfill their vocational, educational, and cultural needs by designing their own course
their own communities. The school is a pilot project in which women can use their untapped and underused talents by teaching their skills and sham
their knowledge with other women.
The Grass Roots School is non-profit and independent, with high teaching standards. Women should send their requests for courses to the address
below. If enough women are interested in taking the course, it will be set up in a hometown location, at specific times. Registration is now open for
courses, including the following:
HISTORY OF THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT
1 session
Speaker: PAT ENGLUND (actress, public speaker)
GYNECOLOGICAL HEALTH DIRECTIVES
Pertinent to women of all ages. Hormone therapy, diet, hygiene, sex,
exercise, menopause, cancer detection. Two 2'/2-hour sessions.
Instructor: MARY LOU SAPONE (Ob-Gyn Clinic, Danbury Hospital)
JOB CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING
Want a job? Change a job? Job direction? Create your own job?
Two 2-hour rap sessions
Leader: ETHEL CORY (BA Sociology, experienced vocational
counselor)
FUNCTIONAL LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Land considered as architectural or sculptural space. Plans designed for
outdoor rooms as functional as indoor space. Four 2-hour sessions.
Instructor: SELMA BUNKS (BA Biology, graduate Landscape Design,
NY Botanical Garden)
THE PERSONAL VOYAGE
Use of life experience as material for creative work. Discussion of other
women in the arts who have worked in this method.
Four 2-hour sessions
Instructor: VALERIE HARMS (BA English; writer, photographer; pub¬
lisher: CELEBRATION WITH ANAIS NIN; TEN WOMEN IN META¬
MORPHOSIS)
METAL, MASK & RITUAL SCULPTURE
Use of masks in exploring art & discovering ourselves.
Five 2-hour sessions
Instructor: SUZANNE BENTON (Masks for American Cultural Cem:
Theater, Jerusalem)
INCOME TAX PREPARATION
Learn how to make out tax forms—your own & other people’s. Simp/
explanation of all legal deductions. Four 2-hour sessions.
Instructor: RITA CHILDS (Charge Conn. H.R. Block office 1970;
teacher adult ed.; ten years bookkeeping experience)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on courses, fees, time, place:
ETHEL CORY, director
N.Y.C. (212) 473-4190, 260-2874
Scarsdale, N.Y.-(914) SC 3-7986 Croton, N.Y.-(914) 271-5711
Westport Conn.—(203) 226-3639 Stamford, Conn.-(203) 359-469J
Ridgefield, Conn.-(203) 748-5439 North Haven, Conn.-(203)2&.I
Or write, enclosing stamped, self-addressed envelope, to:
ETHEL CORY, 37 Washington Square West, New York, New York DC
or 21 Woods Grove Road, Westport Connecticut 06880.
p
i^lectrical, automotive and appliance repair, carpentry, plumbing and general fix-it-courses for women in these skills are
flourishing throughout the country. Women everywhere are eagerly educating themselves to deal with mechanical problems;
they are helping each other and helping themselves catch up on all those hours of “shop” they missed out on while they were
baking brownies in 8th grade home economics class.
PROJECT REPAIR in San Diego is just one of many programs which provides opportunities for women to gain these skills.
But unlike others, PROJECT REPAIR is more than just a fix-it course to help the housewife repair her percolator. From its in¬
ception in the summer of 1972, PROJECT REPAIR aimed at vocational training for women in the skilled trades. The initiative
came from a group of San Diego women intent on making it easier to do a simple home repair. They recognized in this urgent
local need an excellent opportunity for women with training to get good-paying work. They devised a plan for a full-scale vo¬
cational training program which they took in the form of a grant proposal to the Demonstration and Development Fund of
the San Diego United Way, an agency which in recent years has extended its funding to include not just the Boy Scouts and
the Red Cross, but social action groups as well.
In requesting $55,000 to get their project underway, the women cited as their goals:
1. “to provide VOCATIONALLY ORIENTED WOMEN with concentrated skills training in home repairs and maintenance...
2. “to develop a service delivery program including such vocational opportunities as on-job training, employment as handy-
women and possibly Home Repairs business.
3. “. . . to offer women ‘do-it-yourself level (for own home, not for career) training in home repair skills. . ..
4. “to provide .. . relevant knowledge/skills in estimating, scheduling, selection of equipment and materials, record keep¬
ing and billing, contractual agreements, ethical relationships, etc.”
With the $22,000 they ultimately received from United Way (!) PROJECT REPAIR hired a director, Joyce Nower, whose
first task it was to enlist support from the community, and above all, from the building and trades unions. “Without their sup¬
port, we couldn’t have gotten off the ground,” she confides. Strong opposition was expected from organized labor, always
alert to possible infringement on its territory. Such was not the case. Instead the San Diego unions were more than delighted
to support this women’s self-help effort (since their interest had shifted to heavy construction anyway). The building and
trades unions welcomed an opportunity to salvage their image, bruised by public criticism of the nigh cost and difficulty of
getting decent home repair.
In November, 1972, PROJECT REPAIR was able to begin its first session with eleven women looking to embark on new
careers. The only drawback to the initial success of the program was its failure to recruit more women. “We realized the need
to create our own process, as there are too few women who consider home repair as a serious vocational possibility. So, in ad¬
dition to our 12-week intensive vocational training course, we instituted 10-week do-it-yourself classes as a means of sparking
women’s interest in home repair, hoping that once they see they can do it, they will consider home repair as a career option.”
By March, 1973, PROJECT REPAIR had over 90 applications with more coming in all the time.
No woman who applies is turned away from PROJECT REPAIR; if the current session is filled, there’s always room in the
next one. Classes are held in a shop well-equipped with heavy machinery and tools for carpentry and construction as well as
model sinks and switches for learning plumbing and electrical repairs. Although PROJECT REPAIR still has to rely on using
some male instructors (carefully screened for their sensitivity and interest in teaching), new instructors and teacher aides are
recruited from the ranks of PROJECT REPAIR graduates.
In order to make the classes accessible to women of all economic groups, PROJECT REPAIR has developed a tuition guide
which allows each woman to set her own tuition according to her specific economic circumstances. For example, if a woman’s
adjusted household income is less than $291 per month (or $3500 per year), then it is recommended that she not pay any fee
at all; whereas if her adjusted income is $1250 per month (or $15,000 per year), her recommended tuition for a course held
once a week is $1.75 per hour or $52.50 for a 10-week course, $63.00 for a 12-week course.
Although the women who find their way to PROJECT REPAIR have come from a range of backgrounds and ages, the or¬
ganizers felt that REPAIR was not attracting enough young women just starting out on the job treadmill. To counter this
trend, they have now instituted a summer program which takes place at sites around the city selected for their geographic and
ethnic diveristy. Here on-the-spot classes are held for high school women taught by one PROJECT REPAIR instructor and
one teacher aide recruited from the neighborhood. These classes are supplemented by vocational counseling and visits to local
industry for a first-hand glimpse into career alternatives.
What lies ahead for PROJECT REPAIR? Plans for the future include branching out to offer extension courses for the city
Adult Education Program in the public schools and in conjunction with the Women’s Studies Program at the University of
California at San Diego. The most critical task, however, lies in furthering the job development program so that women really
can look forward to expanded opportunities after completing their training. Presently, PROJECT REPAIR apprentices women
to the Naval Air Rework Facility, where they can get several hours of shop experience per week. In addition, local companies
having affirmative action needs have discovered in PROJECT REPAIR an excellent resource of womanpower.
But the most significant impact of PROJECT REPAIR, and the similar
schools, clinics, courses springing up all over the United States, will only
be felt over the long term—as women unlearn passivity and dependence and
discover self-confidence, strength, self-reliance. We are only in the very be¬
ginning stages now, but it is this change in consciousness and self-image, the
hallmark of the new feminism, which will take us into cultural change dream¬
ed of only by the most radical founding mothers.
For more information, write to:
PROJECT REPAIR
2631 Reynard Way
San Diego, California 92103
(714) 295-5269
H.E.L.P
IGNITION SYSTEM 26
motivr rrp«» «(*•« FoOok tbetm
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boa in thn book with tht confidence
l!ui vou mU flo the job eaat>.
mopcmutiy. and accurately Happy
motor**'
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6. Posh dram .u*tr |«| «ito pipe III viMd
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7. While linurj handle | $ | pmh Mger fun
into pip* 111 «mblM»>mo-e.fraet,
DERAILLEUR 5, 10, and 15 Speed BICYCLE REPAIR $3.25
XYZYX
There are as yet no “fix-it” books written by fem¬
inists. Women have been too busy teaching each other
these skills at Women’s Centers and Liberation Schools
(although most women’s publications feature how-to
articles). In order that women who do not have access
to courses may immediately learn crucial survival skills,
we are listing fix-it publications which we feel are the
most useful, the least expensive, and easiest to obtain.
Consumer-minded fix-it books pictured below, are
published by the XYZYX Information Corporation
and may be ordered from XYZYX at:
2116 Vanowen Street
Canoga Park, California 91303
BICYCLE
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t- t
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2. L»* t <’» —<* peru ill
pomt (SI ■ fiw o* <«— (61
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/ KtopVce PB*d»r^b(*(«)l«
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M an (I I oa ran (?) (Page 551.
LADY CARPENTER ENTERPRISES
|-
WJSTIVE
RESEARCH
WESTS BOTH MEN AND
I0MEN POSSESS EQUAL
HUMBER OF HANDS
^Carpenter - is holding practical
Itftalive courses for beginners in
gliding and in home maintenance,
jineksihat will really teach you.
ton your idea you can
umplish it!
in always had the skill,
tan prove it.
Hardwire Store & Tool Boutique
Work clothes for sale
Gentlemen carpenters invited.r
Bonlescriptive brochure, phone or
out
ajcrHartwell. President
Imurpenter institute of
ilUHNC k HOME IMPROVEMENT. Inc.
w nth St. New York City loots
IMIJW4283
Goodbye to the myth that sexual gender impairs your ability,
your head, and your hands. Joyce Hartwell, the LADY CAR¬
PENTER, says there is no reason why women cannot learn to
wield a hammer and saw. She and her interior construction firm
have been doing major home improvements for over ten years.
As further proof, she has initiated a series of carpentry classes
for women at her workshop in New York City. In fifteen lessons,
“not for puttering, not meant as hobby,” women learn how to
build, panel, decorate a wall, customize a closet, and seal, stain,
varnish or paint a finished piece. Fifteen two hour lessons are
*150.00.
Contact:
LADY CARPENTER
ENTERPRISES
405 W. 37th Street
New York City
Available from:
WILLIAM MORROW & CO., INC.
105 Madison Avenue
New York City 10016
$9.95 (hardback)
THE FEMININE FIX-IT BOOK
by Kay B. Ward
Written by a woman for women, THE FEMININE
' FIX-IT BOOK takes the mystery out of tools and
Jhousehold repairs. In simple language, with accurate
11'iwings, Kay Ward has included step-by-step instruc¬
ts for hundreds of home projects, from simple elec-
siul repairs and minor plumbing work to major furn-
nre overhaul and outdoor maintenance.
THE FEMININE FIX-IT BOOK offers much val-
able advice; however, it is intended as an aid to
mmen in making necessary household repairs when
stir men are not around. So, if you don’t mind being
seated from time to time as a “feminine bit of fluff,"
It THE FEMININE FIX-IT BOOK can be helpful.
Unscrew the two screws from the switch-plate cover
and remove the cover. Do not do this before the
power is shut off.
3. Unscrew the two screws at the top and bottom
which hold the switch in position against the wall
and the switch box.
WAIL SWITCHES
It is actually a simple job to replace a defective wall
witch. The most important thing is to shut off the
pwi to that switch. If you don't do this it could kill
you!
II after that dire warning you’re still game to continue,
here’s what to do.
1. Shut off the power either by pulling the main
switch or by unscrewing the correct fuse. Be sure
you know it's the correct fuse.
2. As a double safety against a shock, you may want
to work with a rubber-handled screwdriver. If you
have them, wear sneakers. Never work in bare feet.
4. After pulling the switch carefully out of the box.
you will see that it is tethered by two wires. Unhook
these wires by loosening the terminal screws mounted
on the switch.
5. Hook these two wires to the new switch. Be
sure to hook the black wire to the brass-colored
terminal and the white or red wire to the silver-
colored terminal.
6. Bend the wires back into the switch box and re¬
place the screws which hold the switch on the wall.
7. Replace the switch plate.
In many newer houses, after you have removed
the switch you will see a third wire called a ground
wire in the switch box. This wire is frequently green
and is usually attached to the back of the switclj.
If this is true of your switch box check with your
hardware store on installation or check the instruc¬
tions on the packaging.
Available from:
GROSSET & DUNLAP
51 Madison Avenue
New York, New York
$5.95
131
THE TOOL BOOK: A PEOPLE’S CAR
REPAIR MANUAL
This is the best tool manual we have ever seen. It
will be of great help to the beginning craftswoman,
and enormously enjoyed by the expert. Although
it was written with automobile repairs in mind, this
booklet is indispensable for a knowledge and under¬
standing of most basic tools — fasteners, wrenches,
pliers, screwdrivers, hammers, chisels, files, hacksaws,
drills, fasteners.
Maybe the reason this booklet is so good is that it
is published by an anti-profit collective - the Dimwit
Automobile Repair Group in San Francisco. The
book is one chapter from a larger work-in-progress.
Other chapters will include HOW A CAR WORKS,
MAINTENANCE, TUNE-UP, and WOMEN AND
CARS! Dimwit hopes to publish them all in book
form by the beginning of 1974. They need help
to raise enough money to pay printing costs. Con¬
tributions of any size are welcome. And buy this
book! (See also their FIXING BRAKES)
THE TOOL BOOK is available from:
PEOPLE'S PRESS
968 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California 94110
(415)282-0856
Single copy 75£
10 or more 50^
a peoples car repair manual 75 C
THE TOOL BOOK
SCREW EXTRACTORS
Titov the
urwwttv-
with a. wrtuck,
or vtstr-yipV
Koic driMti) /
down, center of
skwtJ sfc?
1 -tWtiA
HAMMERS
HUt imj the
wY^nton*
arujk' man
thr <&-
kamintr.
1tit fact’
duncb) cmr
oUm wmeuj
an the
(knuujti m
face of the
UNCOOL
•l
THE
HANDYWOMAN’S
GUIDE—
to the Maintenance and
Repair of Small
Heat-Producing
Electrical Appliances
by Michael Squelia
Available from:
HENRY REGNERY COMPANY
114 Westlllinois Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
$3.95
132
NOTE DRAIN PLUG;
THIS TYPE IS Of TEN
CALLED A STOP-AND-
WASTE VALVE
SIMPLE PLUMBING REPAIRS—
For the Home and Farmstead
Jobs that homeowners can do with a few basic
tools include:
♦Repairing water faucets and valves
♦Repairing leaks in pipes and tanks
♦Thawing frozen pipes
♦Repairing water closets
♦Cleaning clogged drains
REFILL TUBE
VALVE
BOOT
DIRECTION
OF FLOW
Figure /.-Globe-type angle valve.
TRIP
LEVER
INTAKE
VALVE
SUPPLY
PIPE
FILLER
TUBE
OVERFLOW
CUT OFF VALVE
OUTLET INTO
CLOSET BOWL
CONNECT!*
LIFT WIRE
FLOAT
WATER LEVT
BRACKET II
GUIDE FOR U
BALL
TANK Blit
FLUSH VAW
FLUSH ELBOW, OMITTED!
CLOSE-COUPLED UNITS
Available from: SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D.C
i
WNG UP YOUR CAR
Have you ever been purposely overcharged by
auto mechanic? Or maybe you're not sure. It
i mon for a woman to pay more for service
to her car in light of the fact that she lacks
t knowledge. Most women never were offered
te opportunity to learn about cars as children or
^Igh school. It is important that women know
iximately how much certain repairs should
and also to know exactly what ought to be
•d. Briefly, this article concerns what is en-
in a tune-up and how much one should cost.
THE TUNE-UP
To begin with, the price for the average tune-up
lifers from car to car depending on whether it has
16, or 8 cylinders. An average price for these cars
ltf8,110, $12 respectively. This is only the price
it labor, not parts. When a car is tuned up: (l)the
lints of the car should be set-so that the spark
lug will fire at the right time. (2) the carburator
duld be adjusted so the air and gas mixture is
'ght. (3) the air filter and gas filter should be
kicked. (4) the antipollution valve on newer mo-
jsshould be checked. Also, the oil should be
kinged with a major tune-up. If, by any of these
Ms, there is an indication of faulty parts, they
lot ild be replaced and the price of the parts are
idtd to the original price of the tune-up. Some
mage prices are: (1) new points $4-5, (2) new
kigs range in price depending on how many cyl-
ders the car has. (4 cylinder—$8, 6 cylinder-
10.50,8 cylinders II). Prices for parts can all
t compared to prices given in car manuals that
mid be itrmost gas stations.
Because of new emission systems in newer cars,
me are one or two other filters that have to be
leaked, and jack up the base price.
A tune-up should be done every 8-10 thousand
lies and should always be done at a station that
lu visit regularly. It is wiser to deal with the same
-this eliminates chances of being over-
d. It Is also a good idea to remain with the
me station because they will know your car and
i better able to know its problems. It is impor-
nf to check the tread on your tires periodically.
Retires are wearing unevenly, this may indicate
tneed for a front end alignment, or having the
its balanced.
by Susan Sternfield
from HER-SELF, November, 1972
225 East Liberty
Ann Arbor, Michigan
$4.00/year
What to do
with your
bad car
An Action Manual lor Lemon Owners
H|h Nader/Lowell Dodge /Rail Hotchkiss
What
To Do
With Your
Bad Car
by Ralph Nader, Lowell Dodge,
and Ralf Hotchkiss
“If the dictionary wished to illustrate the
word ‘frustration’, it could not do better than
describe the feelings of a new car buyer who
has landed a lemon. His (sic.) wrath is exceed¬
ed only by his inability to redress his sizable
grievance or to have practical recourse against
the manufacturer and dealer in court.. ..
Pari I: How to Avoid Buying a Lemon
1. The Lemon
2. Nipping the Lemon in the Bud
3. How Your far Works
4. What Usually Goes Wrong
5. Tires: The Most IMect-Ridden Part
Pari II: What to Do When You Ciet a Lemon
h. Stating Your Case
7. Following-Up the Manufacturer's Response
X. Your Legal Rights
9. Last Resorts
II). The Leverage of Group Organization
Part III: There Is No Excuse for a Lemon
11. The Genesis of Your Lemon
12. Taming the Corporate Tiger
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Appendices, including business and home addresses
for major automobile executives, key to code marks
on tires, proposed Consumer's New Car Order Form
and New Car Warranty, checklists of precautions to
take when you order your car and w hat to do when
you pick up your new car. and more.
“For several years, 1 have been receiving
thousands of letters from angry motorists
who were sold lemons. Many of these letters contained details of the defects and the twisted unrespon¬
sive route that the buyer pursued to the dealer and then up the hierarchy of the auto company’s bureau¬
cracy. Only a few received justice. The rest were given the corporate straight arm. Anarchy, carefully
contrived by the auto industry, prevailed.
“Last year, it became obvious in reading through the torrent of lemon letters that the letter writers
were saying something greater and beyond their individual problems. They were saying that the law was
nonexistant or irrelevant or inaccessible to their pleas for receiving the automotive value that they paid
for. They were marketplace victims with neither rights nor remedies. Accordingly, with the aid of more
than 4000 letters from lemon owners, Lowell Dodge, Ralf Hotchkiss and I (Ralph Nader) have prepared
a set of materials that describes, first, how you may avoid the lemon experience and, failing that, how
best to get your defective vehicle fixed or replaced. There are no easy ways to achieve these objectives,
and this book does not pretend otherwise. What it does strive to do is to offer some hope to the em¬
battled car buyer, to challenge the legal profession to take a greater interest in these cases, and to push
for more basic reforms of the laws and remedies to protect the new car buyer.”
TABLE 1
Estimated Costs of Crash Repair
CRASH
SPEED
1969
Chevrolet
Impala
4-door
sedan
1969
Ford
Galaxie
4-door
sedan
1969
Plymouth
Fury I
4-door
sedan
1969
Ambassador
SST
4-door '
sedan
1970
Colkswat'en
1600
1970
Toyota
Corona
1970
Ford
Maverick
1970
American
Hornet
5 inph
Front
$ 187.15
$ 174.30
$ 1.34.35
$ 305.15
$ 120.25
$ 133.70
$ 153.10
$ 204.50
5 mph
Rear
195.80
173.70
1.34.40
352.55
64.45
69.30
204.75
193.85
10 mph
Front
665.80
485.00
644.15
814.90
322.35
410.94
427.35
508.40
10 mph
Front-Into-Rear
Front 162.30
Rear 347.95
218.70
266.75
310.80
138.20
281.25
314.60
156.75
71.45
129.51
176.06
235.60
214.20
328.75
261.45
Total 510.25
485.45
449.00
595.85
228.20
305.57
449.80
590.20
10 mph
Front- Into-Side
Front 137.10
Side 502.75
196.95
505.85
273.80
437.00
290.15
351.05
194.75
186.80
166.08
150.26
202.55
220,75
400.05
191.70
Total 639.85
702.80
710.80
641.20
381.55
316.34
423.30
591.75
TOTAL
$2288.85
$2021.25
$2072.70
$2709.65
$1116.80
SI 235.85
$1658.30
$2088.70
Available from GROSSMAN PUBLISHERS, 625 Madison Avenue, New York, New York
Royalties from the sale of this book go to further the work of the Center for Auto Safety
$2.95
HOW TO FIX YOUR BICYCLE
by Helen Garvy. Drawings by T. White
BUYING TIRES FOR YOUR CAR
Helen Garvy, the author, says: “Bikes are
basically simple machines and you should be
able to fix most anything that goes wrong with
your bike.” HOW TO FIX YOUR BICYCLE
is explained simply and clearly, and is fully
illustrated. There is information on both gen¬
eral care and major traumas. With HOW TO
FIX YOUR BICYCLE in hand, you will be
able to deal with any casualty that befalls
your bike—from a funky brake to a loose
ball bearing.
Available from:
SHIRE PRESS
62 Valley Street
San Francisco, California 94110
75 4
Buying tires for your car is a simple job, that is,
if you aren't the one buying them, if, however, you
find yourself with old, worn tires, and no spare,
it's time to do some replacing.
The first item of information which you must
have before going to buy tires is: wheel size. The
size of a car’s wheel is measured by the diameter
and width of the wheel rim. For instance, a wheel
size of "700-13" would mean that the width of the
tire is 7 inches (700 = 7 inches), and the diameter
of the rim is 13. A width of650 would be 6'A inches.
It is generally held that 4-ply tires are better
than 2-piy, and that radial-ply tires are superior to
cross-ply tires. If there is a question about buying
a belted tire as opposed to a tire without a belt,
take the belted tire. It may cost more, but a belted
tire gives you more mileage, and is better on wet
pavements. The belt helps the handling of the car.
A radial tire always has a belt.
Each tire should have a d.o.t. number on it.
This number allows you to find out which manu¬
facturer made your tire. This information is useful,
especially if you are dissatisfied with your present
tires, and do not wish to repeat history.
Before buying new tires, it is important to
check out your old ones. If you notice that the
present tires are wearing unevenly, it can be as¬
sumed that your new ones will do the same, if tires
wear on the edges, it may mean that the tire pres¬
sure is too low. You should raise the tire pressure
2-4 psi for better tire wear. Also, if the tires are
wearing unevenly, it"may mean that the wheels
need balancing. An unbalanced wheel takes much
potential mileage off of your tires. And lastly, don't
forget about that spare. You may need it one day!
by Belita Cowan
from HER-SELF, February, 1973
225 East Liberty
Ann Arbor, Michigan
$4.00/year
FIXING BRAKES: A CHAPTER FROM THE DIMWIT AUTO PRIMER
If you can imagine a car-repair manual written from a radical perspective with sensitivity to women,
and a sense of humor, this is it.
FIXING BRAKES is a chapter from the DIMWIT AUTO PRIMER. DIMWIT is a group of men and
women in San Francisco who are learning the maintenance and repair of cars. Their goal is to help
other people to work together to master “the Man’s technology.” The authors of FIXING BRAKES
encourage women to rely on themselves to tackle their car’s problems: “Cars aren’t as complicated as
they seem. . . . Depending on a man for help with your mechanical disasters sets you up to be ripped
off by gas stations or garages. Women can change all this. . . . Mechanical ability is accessible to any¬
one who tries to learn it.”
134
HERE IT IS FOLKS/
■me New super deluxe
AMERICAN IMPERIAL/
ALUMINUM FOR THE EKGIHt AND '
TRANCMKUON FROM SURINAM. HAITI.
l AND JAMAICA.
CHROME FOR ALLOYS AND TRIM FRM
TURKEY, SOUTH AFRICA AND nuurMft
TVNGSTfM FOR ALLOYS FROM aouvV
THAILAND, SOOTH KOREA. ANA BORN*.
TIN for allots from Indonesia,
MALAYA, BOLIVIA AND CONGO.
COPPER FOR THE ELECTRICAL SYTTH
FROM RHODESIA, CANADA AND CONM
RUBBER FOR TIRRS FROM MALM*
AND INDONESIA.
OIL FOR LUBRICATION AND FURL
FROM VENEZUELA AND HU MID CM
NOW BEFORE I
MENTION THE
PRICE, LET ME
TELL YOU
WHAT WENT ,
INTO THE \
MAKING 2.
OF THIS S
, AUTOMOBILE.'
WE USED TO Y A Mb I
■j RIP-OFF LOTS
( OF COPPER -
\ FROM CHILE BEFORE
THEY NATIONALIZED
IT. LATER. FOR THEM.
IT TAKES AMER1KAN INGENUITY AND KNOW-HOW
TO ORGANIZE THIS GLOBAL RIP-OFF AND
TURN IT INTO A FINE LOOKING AUTOMOBILE. /
SO WHEN YOU HEAR THE MELLOW SOUND /,
OF YOUR NEW AMERICAN IMPERIAL V-0, /'A
YOU CAN FEEL A WARM SENSE OF ( 1
PRIPE IN KNOWING WHY Y OUR SON y\
WED IN VIETNAM.
Available from:
PEOPLE’S PRESS
968 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California 94110
WHAT IS WOMEN’S STUDIES?
Women s studies is primarily a by-product of the Women's Liberation Movement. Groups of women
began to examine their status in society and.found many institutions, including colleges and universities
seriously wanting in their treatment of women. One of the ways colleges were found lacking was in the ’
manner intellectual knowledge is taught, studied, and researched.
Feminists who criticize the current status of intellectual knowledge question particularly the status
and treatment of women. Their perception is that knowledge, texts, research, and courses have two com¬
mon tailings. Frequently, coverage of women is not commensurate with her numbers and actual contri¬
butions. Or at times materials on women are stereotypic and/or biased against women.
"In summary, the field of women’s studies can be defined by three types of activities. First women’s
studies means learning more about women and bringing this knowledge to the classroom or publishing it
m scholarly journals. Second, work is being done to develop new ways of analyzing, approaching, and
arranging both new and old bodies of knowledge from a feminist perspective. The development of a fem¬
inist theoretical orientation, however, is still in the preliminary stages. Third, women’s studies proponents
a <inci behaviors " W>th ff/Mf women students in the h °pe of fostering changes in their attitudes
by Lora Robinson
WOMEN’S STUDIES, COURSES AND PROGRAMS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
FROM THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION WOMEN
HAVE MADE IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS
TO SOCIETY AND, UNDER THE HEEL OF
OPPRESSION WOMEN HAVE STRUGGLED FOR
FREEDOM. IN ASSERTING THE RIGHTS OF
WOMEN WE RECLAIM OUR HERITAGE.
THIS SERIES CANNOT REPRESENT THE FULL
EXTENT OF WOMENS HISTORY TOO MANY
WOMEN HAVE BEEN ERASED FROM THEIR
RIGHTFUL PLACE, TOO MANY HAVE BEEN
KEPT ILLITERATE, OR HAVE BEEN RIDICULED
INTO SILENCE, OR HAVE DIED IN CHILDBIRTH,
OR HAVE BEEN BURNED AT THE STARE.
THIS SERIES IS AN ATTEMPT TO PORTRAY
THE DIGNITY OF WOMEN WHO
SOUGHT AS INDIVIDUALS OR AS
PARTICIPANTS IN A MASS MOVEMENT
TO EXTEND THE HORIZONS OF WOMEN.
Write
women
back into
history
Women's Studies:
Courses and Programs
lor Higher Education
Lora H. Robinson
1973
1
WOMEN’S STUDIES:
Courses and Programs
for Higher Education
by Lora H. Robinson; ERIC Higher
Education Report No. 1, 1973
A forty-eight page booklet which describes
women’s studies courses and programs across
the country, and discusses the issues confronting
women who are setting up such programs. Rob¬
inson concludes with a first-rate bibliography
of the most recent and important works on
women’s studies.
Available from:
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
1 Dupont Circle
Suite 780
Washington, D.C. 20036
$2.00
KNOW, INC. PUBLICATIONS
FEMALE STUDIES I
by Sheila Tobias
September, 1970
Seventeen college course syllabi, including courses such
as “Women in Contemporary Culture,” at Kansas Univer¬
sity and “The Woman Writer and Feminine Mystique,” at
Douglass College. $2.00
FEMALE STUDIES II
by Florence Howe
December, 1970
Women’s studies grows! Sixty-five course designs and
reading lists edited by women’s studies pioneer, Florence
Howe. $4.00
FEMALE STUDIES III
by Florence Howe and Carol Ahlum
December, 1971
And grows! Fifty-four course designs and seventeen pro¬
grams are presented in the third volume of the series.
(See separate entry under Feminist Press.) $4.50
FEMALE STUDIES IV
by Elaine Showalter and Carol Ohmann
December, 1971
Twelve essays on teaching female studies.
$ 2.00
FEMALE STUDIES V
by Rae Lee Siporin
July, 1972
Proceedings of the Conference on Women and Educa¬
tion, A Feminist Perspective. Seventeen essays on women,
education, sexism, and female studies.
$4.50
“1 think we need a women’s history, but I also think it
will be impossible to create one without a radical trans¬
formation of the whole historical discipline and profes¬
sion—a radical feminist perspective on all of history. . . .
“To know that we need a history of women you need
only to try, as I have done, to find out about the situation
of women in various historical periods from the existing
materials. Take a sampling of textbooks, and look up
women in the index, for example. Or take some mono¬
graphs and try to find any analysis of women’s roles. Being
foiled here, you would go, as I have, to those works cate¬
gorized as ‘social history’ or to histories of manners. With
some fine exceptions, these discuss cuisine, costume, rec¬
reation, and women, sometimes in about that order of im¬
portance. These subjects are separated out from the real
meat of history—politics, diplomacy, and intellectual de¬
velopments—and treated, all to frequently, as oddities. Of¬
ten there is no analysis at all of the historical significance
of these social ‘trends’. . . .
“We need histories of many social phenomena for which
there are sources available, but of which historians have
not before seen the importance: a history of birth control,
of sexual reform movements, of child-raising, of women’s
work in their home, of courtship, but above all we need
histories of general economic political and cultural develop
ments from a feminist point of view. . . . The women’s lib¬
eration movement has produced some good work on the
economic function of women in modern capitalist society
as a reserve labor force, for example; we need to knowhow
and when this function emerged out of earlier economic
functions. We need a feminist analysis of Russian culture.
We need an anlysis of black slavery in the U.S. from the
points of view of black and white women. We need a fem¬
inist analysis of Stalinism. We need a history of the United
States from the point of view of women. In fact, we need
a history of civilization from a feminist point of view. . . .”
FEMALE STUDIES l-V are available from:
KNOW, Inc.
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
4 Add 15% for first class postage
Add 30% for third class postage
AMERICAN WOMEN AND
AMERICAN STUDIES
by Betty E. Chmaj
October, 1971
American Studies Association
Among the 595 departments included in the
study by the Modern Language Association Com¬
mission on Women in 1970, women were:
69% of all seniors planning graduate study in
foreign languages
65% of all seniors planning graduate study in
English
55% of all graduate students in modern
languages
55% of the M.A. 's who received degrees in the
last five years
31% of the PhD's who received degrees in the
last five years
33% of faculty full-time appointments
32% of full-time assistant professors
28% of full-time associate professors
18% of full-time professors
18% of faculty members teaching at least one
graduate course
7 0% of faculty members teaching graduate
studies in Masters' programs
8% of faculty teaching in departments with
PhD programs
A report on the status of women in American uni¬
versities, from graduate students to professors; and
the status of women in American Studies programs
throughout the country. AMERICAN WOMEN AND
AMERICAN STUDIES contains recommendations
for future action, course outlines in women’s studies,
and a collage of pieces on women and American
studies.
Available from:
KNOW, Inc.
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
Add 15% for third class postage
Add 30% for first class postage
WOMEN’S WORK AND
WOMEN’S STUDIES, 1971
by Kirsten Grimstad Drake, Dorothy
Marks, and Mary Wexford
An interdisciplinary bibliography of scholarly re¬
search and feminist activist projects, developed as a
project of the Barnard College Women’s Center.
“Unlike those bibliographies that simply seek to
stimulate further studies, we want to stimulate ac¬
tion as well. That is, identifying and understanding
the process of sex-role indoctrination and the forms
of sexual oppression quite naturally activates one’s
interest in eliminating them. Thus our scope broad¬
ened to encompass theory and practice in the interest
of igniting a livelier interchange between the two.”
Over 1400 entries plus index.
$4.25/paper
$7.00/cloth
WOMEN’S WORK AND
WOMEN’S STUDIES, 1972
by Kirsten Grimstad, Dorothy Marks,
Mary Wexford, Fanette Pollack,
Kathleen Graves, Dickie Ellis,
and Jean Thompson
Going to press, price information not available.
Both are available from:
KNOW, Inc.
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
Add 15% for third class postage
Add 30% for first class postage
Linda Gordon in “Towards A Feminist History”
FEMALE STUDIES V
FEMINIST PRESS PUBLICATIONS
GUIDE TO FEMALE STUDIES, No. 1
by Florence Howe and Carol Ahlum
October 1971
Lists over 600 courses with title, instructor, de¬
partment, school address. $1.00 plus 25/postage
(Also available from KNOW, Inc.)
GUIDE TO FEMALE STUDIES, No. 2
by Florence Howe and Carol Ahlum
October 1972
Sequel to Guide No. 1, over 500 additional colleg
high school, in-service, community and continuing
education courses. $1.00 plus 25/ postage
(Also available from KNOW, Inc.)
GUIDE TO FEMALE STUDIES, No. 3
April, 1973
A compilation of two previous volumes, plus ad¬
ditional material. $1.00 plus 25/ postage
FEMALE STUDIES VI
by Nancy Hoffman, Cynthia Secor,
and Adrian Tinsley
Essays, criticism, and program description abou
the practices of women’s studies on campuses in
1972. $2.50 plus 50/postage
WHO’S WHO AND WHERE
IN WOMEN’S STUDIES
edited by Jean Mangi
A directory of teachers in Women’s Studies, at
levels, by discipline and institution. $3.00 plus4
post*
WHY TEACH WOMEN?
by Florence Howe
A descriptive guide to strategics for changing tb
education of women in schools and colleges.
$1.50 plus 25/postap
WOMEN’S STUDIES NEWSLETTER
A quarterly publication which reports on worat
studies in the public schools and higher education
Subscription of $5.00 also includes the GUIDEST
CURRENT FEMALE STUDIES II and III.
All are available from:
THE FEMINIST PRESS
Box 344
Old Westbury
Long Island, New York IIS
Ida B. Wells
“I'D RATHER CO DOWN IN HISTORY AS Of I
LONE NECRO WHO DARED TO TELL THE
GOVERNMENT THAT IT HAD DONE A
DASTARDLY THINC THAN TO SAVE MYSKNlJ
BY TAKJNC BACK WHAT I HAVE SAID'-Wf
from: YOUNG SOCIALISTS ALLIANCE, J
P.O. 471 Cooper Station, New York, NewYorti
six posters ft
FEMINIST
STUDIES
Stirnam 1972 WOO
Will
THE SCHOOL'S ROLE IN THE SEX ROLE STEREOTYPING
OF GIRLS: A FEMINIST REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Betty Levy
ttXISM AND THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION
Carol Brown
THE SPERMATIC ECONOMY: A NINETEENTH CENTURY
VIEW OF SEXUALITY Ben Baiier-Benfleld
FIGHTING JOB DISCRIMINATION:
THREE FEDERAL APPROACHES Mary Eaalwood
MnArtkk
NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF VICTORIAN PROSTITUTION
Judith R. Walkowitz
ft*
IEP0RT FROM ISRAEL
Erica Harth
FEMINIST STUDIES
A scholarly journal begun in September, 1972.
Founded for the purpose of “encouraging analytic
responses to feminist issues and analyses that open
new areas of feminist research and critique. The edi¬
tors are committed to providing a forum for feminist
analysis, debate, and exchange.” The first issue of
FEMINIST STUDIES included “Sexism and the Rus¬
sell Sage Foundation” by Carol Brown and “The
School’s Role in the Sex Role Stereotyping of Girls,”
by Betty Levy. Edited by Ann Calderwood and others.
Available from:
FEMINIST STUDIES
417 Riverside Drive
New York, New York 10025
$6.00/year (quarterly)
$10.00/year, institutions
WOMEN AND LITERATURE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
An annotated bibliography of women writers and
poets and critics. This bibliography is a project of the
Women and Literature group of the Cambridgc-God-
dard Feminist Studies Program in 1971-1972. A re¬
vised and expanded edition (May, 1973) is available.
Send requests to:
3MEN: A Bibliography
Lucinda Cisler
Over 900 entries in such areas as Historical Studies;
unomics, Work, and Child Care; the Law and Poli-
>;Sociology and Social Commentary; Anthropol-
(,Religion, Philosophy, Psychology and Psychiatry;
land Sexuality; Reproduction and its Control; Lit-
Jure and Literary Criticism; Today’s Women’s
ivemcnt. Annotated.
lilable from:
ICINDA CISLER
). Box 240
netarium Station
wYork, New York 10024
WOMEN AND LITERATURE
c/o Ann Kautzmann
5 Upland Road
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140
75 4
WOMEN’S STUDIES:
An Interdisciplinary Journal
Wendy Martin started this journal to expand the
opportunities for scholarly writing on women’s studies
in the humanities and social sciences. Includes reviews
of books, films, poetry, and fiction. Recent articles
have included: “A Review of Sexism in American His¬
torical Writing,” and “Victorian Feminism and the
Nineteenth-Century Novel.”
504 eac h
5.funds & prepaid orders only
OMEN’S STUDIES ABSTRACTS
An indispensable quarterly publication that ab-
icts articles on women and the Women’s Movement
the following areas: education, sex characteristics
^differences, employment, society and government,
luality, abortion, childbirth, the family, and mental
physical health. Indexed. Edited by Sara Stauffer
railable from:
OMEN'S STUDIES ABSTRACTS
0. Box 1
ash, New York 14543
7.50/year (quarterly)
10.00 to libraries
5,00 to students
Available from:
WOMEN’S STUDIES
Gordon and Breach
Science Publishers, Inc.
440 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10016
$10.00 (2 issues/volume)
$29.00, institutions
FICTIONAL WOMEN
Since there are few women (in fact, no women)
in American fiction whose lives are self-actualizing
(i.e., who have identities which are not totally de¬
pendent on men), we will attempt to analyze the
social, economic, and literary reasons why women
are presented as passive creatures rather than hu¬
man beings who lead challenging or even risk-taking
lives, in our discussion, we will contrast the lives of
fictional heroines with the lives of Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, Fanny Wright, Amelia Earhart, Margaret
Fuller and other twentieth-century counterparts in
an effort to determine why, ever since the first
best-seller was written by Susanna Rowson in
1798, A merican fiction has not reflected the lives
of women as they really are or could be.
by Wendy Martin
from a preface to a women’s studies syllabus called
THE FEMINIST MYSTIQUE
IN AMERICAN FICTION
HOW HARVARD RULES WOMEN
“The relation of Harvard to its women is similar to
that of the missionary to his heathen. And your feel¬
ings, if you’re a woman who has made it to America’s
loftiest and oldest bastion of intellect and the ruling
class, are often similar to those of the heathen im¬
ported for cultural development to imperialist shores—
a mixture of gratitude, awe, doubt that you’re worth
the honor, and sometimes, dimly or blazingly, re¬
sentment that you’re considered inferior. Everywhere
around you, whether you’re a student or an em¬
ployee, are subtle testimonies to your biological ob¬
trusiveness. Those sober-suited gentlemen who, with
scholarly purpose and carefully-averted eyes, sidestep
you in the shadowy corridors of the Widener stacks,
those men younger and older who, as you enter the
Widener reading room, inspect your legs as you pass
to your seat; or who, in Holyoke offices, inspect your
legs as you pass to your desk; all of the masculine
Worthies on the conglomerate Harvard faculties, with
their mild manners, their green bookbags, their after-
dinner-sherrv gentility and their government affilia¬
tions, overwhelm you with the sense that your woman¬
hood is never neutral, but always provocative—of in¬
tellectual opprobrium, of patronage humorous or
curt, of sexual appraisal, of sexual advance. So that
your sexuality at Harvard, as in society at large, is made
for you an ever-present, a gnawing thing, to be dealt
with in whatever way you can. Few people realize that
some women at Harvard live in the fear that it may
some day be discovered that they ARE women; that
the human fact of their biological makeup even exists!
In fact ALL women students and faculty are forced by
the structure of the curriculum and by the content of
scholarship to neuter their minds and their work.”
Available from:
THE NEW UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE
622 West Diversey Parkway
Room 403a
Chicago, Illinois 60614
75 4
Lucretia Mott
"THE QUESTION IS ASKED WHAT DOES
WOMAN WANT MORE THAN SHE ENIOYS?
I ANSWER, SHE ASKS NOTHING AS FAVOR.
BUT AS RIGHT... SHE IS SEEKINC NOT TO BE
GOVERNED BY LAWS. IN THE MAKINC OF
WHICH SHE HAS NO VOICE.' -1849
Available from:YOUNG SOCIALISTS ALLIANCE,
P.O. 471 Cooper Station, New York, New York 10003
six posters for $2.00
137
Grants
For Women
When a woman decides to go back to school, she is
faced with the dilemma of finding sources to pay for
her education. There are some grants and fellowships
available for women for this purpose.
RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE FELLOWSHIP
The RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE offers grants to
women who want to do research or return to college
on a part-time basis. The money can be used for a
woman’s own expenses—household help, childcare,
etc.—or can be used to help pay for costs relating
more specifically to her work.
Contact:
THE RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE
3 James Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
SORORIA ALUMNAE SCHOLARSHIPS
The SORORIA ALUMNAE gives loans and scholar¬
ships to “mature” women wishing to complete their
education and also provides low-cost, year-round
residence, grants.
Contact:
THE SORORIA ALUMNAE
Millie Bohall
University of Washington
1603 N.E. Ravenna Boulevard
Spokane, Washington 98105
WELLESLEY COLLEGE FELLOWSHIPS
WELLESLEY COLLEGE offers financial help to
women who have graduated from college; some grants
are restricted to WELLESLEY COLLEGE graduates,
most are not.
For information, write:
STEVENS FELLOWSHIP COMMITTEE
Wellesley College
Wellesley, Massachusetts 02181
AAUW RESOURCES
The AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVER¬
SITY WOMEN offers fellowships for graduate and
post-doctoral work and also publishes a “Selected
List of Professional Training Programs and Intern¬
ships” which is periodically updated and available
from them for 25 i.
Contact:
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF
UNIVERSITY WOMEN
2401 Virginia Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF DEANS
AND COUNSELORS GRANT
For women who have decided to pursue a degree
in personnel, guidance, and counseling work, the
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN DEANS
AND COUNSELORS makes available a yearly sum
of money.
Write:
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN
DEANS AND COUNSELORS
1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
DANFORTH GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS
The DANFORTH FOUNDATION awards fellow¬
ships which are designed specifically for a woman who
wants to become a teacher on the college or secon¬
dary school level, but whose education has been in¬
terrupted or postponed for at least three years.
For eligibility and application information, write:
DANFORTH FOUNDATION
Director, Graduate Fellowships for Women
222 South Central Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri 63105
138
Continuing Education Publication
The following publications have information on various continuing education programs for the woman
who has decided to go back to school.
WOMEN’S HIGHER AND
CONTINUING EDUCATION:
An Annotated Bibliography with
Selected References on Related
Aspects of Women’s Lives
Available from:
COLLEGE ENTRANCE
EXAMINATION BOARD
Publications Order Office
Box 592
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
$1.50
Other sources of money which are not geared spe¬
cifically to women, might prove very helpful:
MEDICAL SCHOOL FELLOWSHIPS
The NATIONAL MEDICAL FELLOWSHIP COM¬
MITTEE gives grants to medical students. They are
especially anxious to support minority students who
would like to begin medical school.
Contact:
NATIONAL MEDICAL
FELLOWSHIP COMMITTEE
3935 Elm Street
Downers Grove, Illinois 60515
(312)971-0471
CONTINUING EDUCATION
PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
FOR WOMEN, Pamphlet 10
Available from:
THE WOMEN’S BUREAU
U.S. Department of Labor
Washington, D.C. 20402
104
THE PUBLICATIONS OF
THE COMMITTEE ON CONTINUING
EDUCATION FOR WOMEN
Available from:
ADULT EDUCATION ASS0CIATI
1225-19th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
THE NEW YORK TIMES GUIDE TO
CONTINUING EDUCATION IN AMER
Edited by Frances Coombs Thomson
Prepared by The College Entrance
Examination Board
FOR ADULTS WHO WOULD LOVE
TO PICK UP THEIR EDUCATION
WHERE THEY LEFT OFF...
or start again in the right direction ...no matter
how long ago they graduated,or got marrted,or
got a job, or got drafted, or just quit school.
EbeXeUr Jlork (times
GUIDE TO
CONTINUING
EDUCATION
M AMERICA
Pruparod by the COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMINATION BOND
Franc** Coomb* Thornton, •dltor
■ Which aocradltad collagoa and
•choola will taach you what
B wanl to laarn.
Ich onaa ara naar to whara
e lva or work.
h on— hava cl—i— that
IN your work achadula and
family achadula.
■ What raqulramanta you have to
meat (aomatimaa non# at all).
■ Mow much you have to pay
(aomatimaa nothing).
■ Howtogatcoiitgaorafl*
the thing* you’ve learned »o
you left achoO.
■ Exactly what to do H you MM
I Exactly what to do it you Ma
a hly^achool equivalency
■ Whara to atudy fo> •
or cartiticat# to upgrad* joa
■ How to avoid ’'diploma a**
If you need a correapondMM
achooL
Available from:
QUADRANGLE BOC
10 East 53rd Street
New York, New York
$4.95/paperback
$ 12.50/hardbound
AWARE INTERNATIONAL:
Association for Women's Active
Return To Education
SCIENCE GRANTS
The NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES pub¬
lishes a “selected list of major fellowship opportuni¬
ties and aid to advanced education.”
Write:
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Washington, D.C.
RHODES REPORT
The RHODES REPORT, a bi-monthly newsletter,
lists some of the available fellowships, grants, and
career vacancies.
Subscriptions available:
THE RHODES REPORT
Educational Service Bureau
1835 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
$ 15.00/year
AWARE was started in 1965 to encourage*
to continue their education and, in particular,::
older women in overcoming the problems they t
returning to school. Now AWARE has severalca
projects underway. The AWARE Advisory Cense
sists women who want to continue their educate
through counseling, workshops, referrals, audit
brary of resource materials. The Advisory Centei
located at the YWCA in Santa Monica, 2019-1*:
Street. AWARE has a scholarship fund forwoas
and also puts out a bulletin, THE MINERVAQl
TERLY, with news of AWARE chapters. AWAIi
aims at establishing chapters in each of the fife
states. For information on how to start an Alii
chapter, or how to apply for scholarship, coats!
AWARE.
AWARE
5820 Wilshire BoulevK
Suite 605
Los Angeles, Californi)
(213) WE 3-8507
1
:MINIST RESEARCH CENTER
len’s Room
£hanning Way
Irteley, California 94704
415) 845-1953
Vhit is feminist research?
“Feminist research involves understanding what-
siweare studying in our separate disciplines (so-
•V isychology, education, etc.) from the per-
Ktive of our own insights as women, an oppressed
pip in an affluent society. We see some of the ways
ntmethodology, data and conclusions are distorted
ntraditional biases. Therefore, we try to make clear
aourown research who we are, how we approach
aresearch problem, and our own perspective. We
apectour work to add new dimensions to traditional
search.”
I What is the FEMINIST RESEARCH CENTER?
“We are feminists who do research about women
ion other topics which we approach from a feminist
jerspective. We work both inside and outside of uni-
eniries. We range from holders of Ph.D’s to high
dool diplomas. We all see a need for women getting
lather to share our skills, support one another in
^research, and develop ways in which we can make
it results of our work public.
“Our purpose is to establish a supportive institu¬
te in which women researchers can work together,
lit Center can serve women who are not in other in¬
anitions and women who feel alienated from those
iey are now in.”
The following services are available from the
Crater:
Feminist research study groups where women can
discuss problems related to their research;
A file of feminist researchers and their fields of
competence;
A file of research papers and bibliographies;
A speakers’ bureau.
THE HALLS OF ACADEME
From the Women s Caucus, Political Science
Department, University of Chicago-
"Several of our professors have made these
mments-some of them in jest—without rea¬
ding how damaging comments like these are to
tmman's image of herself as a scholar:
" 7 know you're competent and your the-
sisadvisor knows you 're competent. The ques¬
tion in our minds is are you RE ALL Y SERIOUS
shout what you're doing'. "
" ‘The admissions committee didn't do
their job. There's not one good-looking girl in
the entering class'."
" ‘Have you thought about journalism? /
know a lot of women journalists who do very
veil'."
" 'No pretty girls ever come to talk to me'."
“ jane Jacob's book, THE DEA TH AND
LIFE OF GREA T AMERICAN Cl TIES is the
only decent book I've ever read written by a
man’."
" ‘Any girl who gets this far has got to be
okook'."
" 7 hear I 'm supposed to stop looking at
you as a sex object'."
" ‘We expect women who come here to be
competent, good students but we don't expect
them to be brilliant or original'."
" 'Student: ‘No, I wouldn 't stop teaching
i ill had children. I plan to work all my life.'
\ Professor: ‘But of course you'll stop work when
you have children. You 'll have to'."
"Professor to student looking for a job:
'You have no business looking for work with a
\ child that age'."
from SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL
Women’s Studies
NO MORE TEACHERS’ DIRTY LOOKS
Feminist studies is ideally suited for break¬
ing the artificial separation between theory and
practice, learning and being. If what we are
teaching really means all women are sisters,
then we must teach it in a classroom environ¬
ment where competition is minimized and co¬
operation is stressed and rewarded....
Faculty members who work in an inter¬
disciplinary Feminist Studies program can con¬
tribute to breaking down the artificial hier¬
archies and vertical slots of the usual academic
structure.
by Florence Howe,
ON THE TEACHING AND ORGANIZATION
OF FEMINIST STUDIES,
unpublished paper, 1971
Alverno College
Alverno College—a small Catholic liberal arts school
for women situated in the nether regions of southside
Milwaukee. What does this school have that gladdens the
hearts and minds of feminists everywhere, at least those
few who have heard of it? Is it that the college president
is a member of the National Organization for Women?
Is it that Alverno has a Research Center on Women that
1) houses a collection of over 1200 books, 30 feminist
periodicals, audiotapes, and videotapes, 2) is sponsoring
a series of videotape interviews with Wisconsin suffra¬
gists and 3) has sponsored three major conferences on
women? Is it perhaps that Alverno offers child care ser¬
vices for students and faculty at only $.50 per hour? Or
is it Alverno’s model women’s studies program?
Actually Alverno College, a pioneer in the field of
Women’s Studies, sponsoring the first Midwest Confer¬
ence on Women’s Studies in October, 1971, has no
Women’s Studies program. “It does little good,” Al¬
verno asserts, “to teach one non-sexist course in family
sociology, if the students will be subjected to five tra¬
ditional courses in sociology as well.” Instead it has a
Women’s Studies curriculum—the only one of its kind.
How did little, parochial, Midwestern Alverno ac¬
complish this unprecedented feat? The answer might lie
in the fact that Alverno is administered entirely by
women—and not just by any women who have been
allowed to succeed by kow-towing to male standards,
but rather by a group of extraordinary and highly
independent nuns, who because their order is financially
independent, take orders from nobody. Thus where
women at other schools encounter insurmountable road¬
blocks and obstinacy from male faculty, administrators
and trustees in getting just one measly women’s studies
course in the curriculum, at Alverno initiatives for such
courses come from the office of the college president!
In the fall of 1971, Alverno conducted a two-day Fac¬
ulty Institute on the “Education of Women,” “to eval¬
uate how they (the faculty) were making their courses
specifically relevant to the education of women and how
they could supplement or revise their materials or teach¬
ing methods to make them so.” Each faculty member
had to examine and overhaul each course for content,
language methodology, concepts, class activities which
re fleeted an awareness of women students’ needs.
(e.g., in the course “The Principles of the Organ,” the
instructor must strive to thoroughly familiarize the
students with the works of the great women organists
of the past and present.) In each case this involves not
only accurately reflecting the contributions women have
made throughout history to various disciplines and
fields, but actually COMPENSATING FOR THE NEG¬
LECT women have suffered at the hands of traditional,
male-identified historians.
If Alverno College is feminist in theory, it is none the
less so in practice. The following statement, made at the
MASTERS PROGRAMS
IN WOMEN’S STUDIES
The women's movement has exerted enough in¬
fluence on the educational establishment to have
created four Masters of Arts programs in Women's
Studies in American universities and colleges. We
believe this is just the beginning.
THE CAMBRIDGE-GODDARD SCHOOL
FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Offers an M.A. in Feminist Studies
Write: 1878 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Offers an M.A. in Special Studies in
Women’s Studies
Write: Continuing Education for Women
2029 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE
Offers an M.A. in Women’s History
Write: Bronxville, New York 10708
SAN FRANCISCO STATE COLLEGE
Offers an M.A. in Women’s Studies
Write: Women's Studies Committee
San Francisco, California 94132
Midwest Conference, exemplifies the College’s position:
“Women’s Studies should be a means of political devel¬
opment. Most people do one thing in their courses and
another in their lives. One way of achieving academic
relevance is to connect the political issues to the theory.
Women’s studies in political science, for example, should
not teach only the academic study of women politicians
or women in the discipline but should teach the nature
and mechanics of the political system and how women
can use that system to change their lives.
We learn best if we connect our study with our own
activities and interests and there are field projects that
can work very well in Women’s Studies courses. Some
projects for Women’s Studies courses might be: setting
up a child care center, interviewing housewives about
their needs and wants, researching who is on policy¬
making boards and where funds come from to enable
us to learn about and struggle for our rights.”
As long as “prestigeous” women’s schools like Bryn
Mawr. Smith, Barnard. Wellesley continue to be dom¬
inated by men in their faculties, trustees, and even ad¬
ministrative offices, it shouldn’t come as any surprise
that the major breakthroughs in women’s education
have come instead from a small Catholic women’s col¬
lege. Innovations such as these can come only from in¬
dependent women.
“Practical experience should be used as a teaching
tool. We need not get all our material out of books; we
can get much of what we need out of our lives, recog¬
nizing that sharing personal experience is often political.
Professionals must do consciousness-raising themselves—
we are women and as women we'must understand our
own socialization.
The following materials are available from the RE¬
SEARCH CENTER ON WOMEN:
“Women in Public Life in Wisconsin” SI.00
“Conference of Women Theologians” $1.00
“Midwest Conference on Women’s Studies” $1.00
Report on the Faculty Institute,
“The Education of Women” .25
Audio Visual aids in the form of tapes, slides, videotapes,
games and kits may be rented through the RESEARCH
CENTER ON WOMEN. A complete listing of these ma¬
terials and rental fees will be quoted upon request.
Address inquiries to:
KATHLEEN CASEY GIGL
Alverno College
Research Center on Women
3401 S. 39th Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53215
(414) 671-5400 13Q
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
* 334 of the Center’s periodicals are available on
microfilm. If your local public, college, university
library does not have HERSTORY periodical mi¬
crofilms (over 60 do), urge them to purchase them
from Bell and Howell Wooster,Ohio .Roy¬
alties from sales support the Library, while wom¬
en's history is made more widely available.
($550 for over twenty rolls)
* Write foundations, corporations, and public agen¬
cies, urging them to make tax-deductible contri¬
butions to the Library.
* Volunteer to work in the Library (at least ten
hours a week), to help index and microfilm irre¬
placeable materials.
* The FRIENDS OF THE WOMEN’S HISTORY
LIBRARY campaign nationally for donations to
meet operating costs.) oin them. Memberships are:
$5.00/Studcnts
$ 10 . 00 /lndividual
$25.00/Special
$50.00/Sustaining
$ 100.00/Sponsor
$1000.00/Lifetimc
* Make a personal donation.
All checks payable to:
WOMEN’S HISTORY RESEARCH CENTER
2325 Oak Street
Berkeley, California 94708
■Mr* flMlkU - •
•tit •«
cotratyoadaace «o order Mtarlal.
■AilDMflt *»d tuaplt#•. Wotk lai cotr«»po*a»»«» m
.SiET cataloging. a«d .h.l.tng it. '
.mi I. by pbon. or -It. n>. («(-t ot tK. Mtatlal -bo*
King. P»«» «*• *••**•. •'
I) fealty • J-10 br»./*b.
J) Taps. • 10-20 hr »./«»».
I) block Wo»«" 10-40 hr»./«h.
4) Cay Vo»a* - 10-JO hr *./•*•
» Oilcan* - >-10 hr»./-4.
*> Haifa mar lean —an J-10 hra./«*.
J) Aslan Wo-.n • I0-J0 hr*./■*.
g) So.l.t Vonan - I0-J0 hrs./-h.
«) JnC.rtro.na fra.. - 10-40 hr../«*.
10) ioo». - I$-40 hrs./«h.
11) Fa»pM#« a-Theses - 10-JO hr*./»h.
|J) (i.ai|rounC frai* 4 Periodical. -
10-40 hrs./«h.
D) Abortion 4 Othar Baalth
10-40 bra./*.
|4) lap* 4 Othar Lana
10-40 bra./«h.
l») Wonan'. Ha»#l*ttara. "«>
papara 4 Journal* 10-40
!•> Hualc - 10-40 hra./uh.
IJ) Art - 10-20 hra./uh.
18 ) flln - 10-20 hra./a*.
18) Children and Child.an'a
Literature 10-40 bre./«*.
20) V«wn'a Studl.a Conraa
Out 1lnaa 4 glbllographla*
20-40 hra./uh.
tea. work (a.g. raadlnt nauapapara. typing l«*tara) can ba dona
.1 hone. w. ne.ily naod: lull-IIM fundr.laarai a publicity
director, a racrulta. ot voluniaar.i an oltlca nanagar i a
raiaroma llbr.ri™. an orda. nanagar lor our tuanty publication,
(do*, daposll •, ate.), t.laphen. p.rt-ll^
nail slut tarsi snd .c.vang.r* lor auppllaa.
hooka, and drivers ot the nail, aaroklng and atalf on dally
rounda.
•gorry positions not paid. V. didn't gat tba funding ua'vu
bean seeking for tvo years, so ua can only be open to active,
dedicated donor* ot tin*, nonay. and/or supplies.
■ Ask tor.
Carolyn. ■*!•" or Laura
WOMEN S HISTORY RESEARCH CENTER. INC.
2325 Oak Street. Berkeley. California 94708
(4151 524-7772
Women’s History
Research Center
If you have ever read a feminist publication, whether MS., DYKES AND
GORGONS, FEMINIST STUDIES, or the Anarcho-Feminist SIREN, you prob¬
ably observed the notation: “This publication is on file at the International
Women’s Archive, 2325 Oak Street, Berkeley, California.” If your curiosity was
aroused, read further. This sentence is linked to one of the most remarkable in¬
stitutions generated by the Women’s Movement.
The Archive is part of a library that is nothing less than the most complete
repository of the books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, journals, posters,
letters, dissertations, manifestos, tapes, newspaper clippings, which document
the genesis and growth of the second feminist movement. This stupendous col¬
lection is the product of the vision and dedication of a remarkable woman,
Laura X, who began to collect the materials in the early sixties.
Laura’s collection originated with a now-famous incident. In 1968, a male
professor at Berkeley casually asked a female colleague whom Laura was helping
prepare a Women’s Studies course: “Oh, is there enough about women to fill a
quarter course?” Enraged, Laura put out a pamphlet, “Women in World His¬
tory,” which triggered a flood of “information, experiences, energy,” from
women all over the country. “The overwhelming response was from women
whose rage at being robbed of our roots and our community had triggered oft
the need to cry out that it was all a lie, we’ve always been here, and always will
be, only OUR WAY THIS TIME.”
Since Laura X’s appeal coincided with a period of rapid expansion in the
Women’s Movement, materials documenting its progess began to pour in. How¬
ever, demonstrating the wealth of materials available on women and the Wom¬
en’s Movement is one thing; classifying, indexing, cataloging, and storing in a
retrievable manner is a different matter entirely-the difference, in fact, between
a personal collection and a library. As the Movement burgeoned, so did the col¬
lection of materials filling Laura X’s house. Very soon the cost of the opera¬
tion far exceeded Laura’s personal budget. Since this was the period in which
“Women’s Lib” was seen as a humorous fad (not even a marginal social devel¬
opment!), opportunities for funding from foundations or public agencies were
remote. With the characteristic resourcefulness of Movement women, Laura X in¬
corporated the Library as a non-profit, tax-exempt institution. This move made
it easier to solicit money donations—now tax-deductible—from individuals. But
even more helpful, it allowed the Library to tap indirectly into public funds.
As a non-profit educational institution, the Library qualified for Federal
Work-Study money. Under this program, individual women at colleges and uni¬
versities could work at the Library for up to fifteen hours a week, receive
credit from their institutions, and have eighty percent of their wages paid
by the Federal government. Over four years, more than 400 women who could
not attord “volunteerism” have had the opportunity to participate in
building the Center. By 1973, private donations and work-study salaries had
raised the Library’s budget to $100,000.
Severe cutbacks in Federal educational funding are now seriously threatening the Li¬
brary’s continuance. Already understaffed, and desperately short of space, the Library
has been forced to close its doors to the public. Access is by appointment only-and you
have to have a pretty good reason to get an appointment. We felt exceptionally privileged,
therefore, to be allowed to visit the Library.
Wc knocked on the door of a smallish modern house overlooking the University of
Berkeley, and were admitted after a rather Fierce voice had demanded to know if we had
an appointment. Once inside, the impressions immediately conveyed are of dedicated ac¬
tivity-half a dozen or so women working away-and of an immense overflow. Every con¬
ceivable space is used for the storage of books and documents. The fireplace is filled, as
are the kitchen cabinets, window sills, hallways. It’s quite a squeeze moving from room to
room. Laura X’s bedroom is recognizable only by the bed, now holding several cartons of
clipping Files. On the way to the bathroom, a voice emanating from behind several boxes
of documents cautions against tripping over “Women and Fascism.”
Louise, a work-study drama student from Antioch with a beautifully resonant voice,
conducted us on a guided tour of the Library.
“These are our books .. . well over 2.000 titles, shelved by subject matter, although
we catalog them by author and title as well. They are all donated by the publishers, since
we don’t have funds to buy them.
“Of course, most of the time when people come to the Library, they come to use the
clipping Files that we have. The collection is just in the process of being moved to a new
location nearbv Twenty women will be working here this summer on indexing the clip¬
pings, and we just don’t have the space here for that, as you can see. Wc have roughly two
thousand Files of clippings, catalogued from A through R. Each alphabet heading is the
general category the clipping would fall under. There are hundreds of sub-headings con¬
tained under each alphabet heading. For instance, the alphabet heading A represents
‘Women in Countries’. The subject categories would include women in ethnic groups, c.g.,
Asian women (A278); Native American Women (A464); and women in various countries,
e.g., Romanian women (A888). The information is contained in flyers, leaflets, pamphlets,
graphics, magazine and newspaper articles from the mass media, and the women s alterna¬
tive media. Information is both contemporary and historical in origin. An individual
woman, now dead, is filed under B, ‘Women in History’-e.g., Rosa Luxembourg (B42).
Other subject categories include ‘Projects and Services’. ‘Protests and Events’, ‘Women s
Fiction and Works’, ‘Women in Roles’. Laura compiled the last one herself. It has infor¬
mation on women in their stereotyped roles. For instance, women as gossips, women as
bitches, women as fishwives, women as wives, women in classical literary roles—Cassan¬
dra. Desdemona, Ophelia.
140
of our biggest jobs at the moment is to index
[files. We’ve been very limited in staff, and this
down the work. The way we have gotten
als indexed is that we have certain women
istaffwork on a specific subject. For instance,
iman who is a pre-med work-study student
i all women’s health issues. All material related
goes directly to her, then she indexes it: on
I is entered the author, name of article, source,
t,small blurb describing it, cross-references...
"Vow this is the Archives room. Here we keep
dsand loggings of all the Library’s correspon-
:with women’s centers and organizations all
i the country and abroad.
"Here are the oral archives. We have about 200
on all aspects of women’s lives. It’s a very diverse
ion. A lot have been made by Laura. Here’s a
w.'Laura and Godard Scream at Each Other’. We
intinterviews with women like Anais Nin, Fanny
I*Hamer, a Texas working girl, a prostitute, Rox-
tat Dunbar. Here’s Marge Piercy reading her poems.
Sere are tapes on ‘Political Positions on Sex’ (with
bKoedt, Lila Karp, Kate Millett, Roxanne Dun-
r!;‘Women’s Liberation in Paris’; ‘Up Against the
toss, Down in the Valley’.
"Here are the women’s press publications. We have
ascriptions to over 300 women’s periodicals and
arsletters. (We have actually indexed over 550.) We
itoget three copies of all feminist material: one
uhe general file, two for the clipping files. We also
bscribe to over 200 male press publications, be-
use we like to keep on file information ABOUT the
men’s Movement, both sides of the coin, so to
til....
“And this is where we keep the really large pamph-
3.The smaller ones are filed in the back room.
This is Laura’s bedroom.
"This is the backroom, where we have filed the
aller pamphlets, women’s position papers, gay
men's materials, poetry, literature. Over in those
tesby the door are the ‘special issues’. Sometimes
:male press will come out with a ‘women’s lib and
a’issue-so we get it, and file it back here for
jple who are interested.
“Here’s the bathroom, if you can get to it.
“And that’s the tour.”
Hie Library is the only complete archive of ma¬
ids of the Women’s Movement, and, also, the only
mplete source of information ABOUT the Women’s
jtment. In short, it is a priceless and irreplaceable
sural resource. If anyone had assembled a compar-
kcollection of materials on a topic of interest to
j.say the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s,
scan bet that by now it would be housed in a spa¬
cious, air-conditioned facility, with all the appurte¬
nances of a modern archive, built with a grant from
the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for
the Humanities, or some individual sugar-daddy like
Norton Simon or the Uris Brothers. The seriousness
with which the male establishment views women’s
history can be measured against the fact that the Cen¬
ter has not as yet received a penny from public agen¬
cies or foundations, not even a small grant to cover
the cost of microfilming highly impermanent news¬
print materials. Several colleges and universities have
made overtures to the Library-probably sensing how
such a collection could boost student enrollment. But
the terms offered have the usual strings attached,
boiling down to an unacceptable transfer of control.
Do we have to belabor, at this point, the necessity
for women to retain this resource in their own keep¬
ing? The only way that we are going to do so, is if we
take the responsibility to insure the Library’s survival-
more than its survival: its enlargement and consolida¬
tion. Since it is unlikely that male priorities and val¬
ues are going to change before the paper which re¬
cords the Movement’s history disintegrates, this
means giving tangible support-time and money—here
and now.
The publications of the WOMEN’S HISTORY
RESEARCH CENTER include the following:
THE CATALOG: THE COMPLETE CATALOG, 200 PP. UP TO MARCH, 1971, IS AVAILABLE FOR
116.00 TO INDIVIDUAL WOMEN, WHICH INCLUDES POSTAGE AND HANDLING, AND $20.00 TO
INSTITUTIONS, ORGANIZATIONS AND GROUPS. PARTS OF THE CATALOG ARE AVAILABLE
SEPARATELY TO INDIVIDUAL WOMEN ONLY: INDEX AS OF J ULY, 1969, $1; PACKET OF ACTION
PR0|ECTS AS OF SEPTEMBER, 1969, $5. ADDENDA TO INDEX AS OF JANUARY, 1970, $2; AND
ADDENDA TO INDEX AS OF MARCH, 1971, $7.
CATALOG SECTIONS, (COMPLETE TO DATES BELOW): INDIVIDUAL INSTITUTIONS,
WOMEN ONLY MEN, GROUPS
PRICES
Directory of Women's Periodicals: Journals, Newspapers and Newsletters
(20 pp. 8/71)
$3.00
$ 10.00
Women's Studies Courses, Indexed by Topic (63 pp. 5/73)
3.00
5.00
Bibliographies on Women, Indexed by Topic (10 pp. 5/73)
2.00
2.00
Tape Archive Index (Audio Tapes Only)
1.20
2.00
Supplement (1972) from Oral Herstory Project
3.00
4.00
Directory of Films by and/or About Women (75 pp. 12/72)
3.00
5.Q Qr
Female Artists Past and Present (41 pps listing 11 /72)
3.00
4.00
National Organization for Women Newsletter Directory (4 pp. 9/71)
3.00
3.00
Xerox pages (8V6 x 14) of our Index Cards on Rape (83 pp. 5/73)
40.00
40.00
Xerox pages (8VS x 14) of our Index Cards on Prostitution (40 pp. 5/73)
25.00
25.00
ALSO AVAILABLE:
Synopsis of Women in World History (1969)
1.20
2.00
SPAZM, the Library’s Newsletter (Apr.-Dec. 1969, 30 issues)
Single issues 70 4
15.00
20.00
A list of Gay Women's Periodicals (1973) 254 plus a self-addressed stamped envelope
Women's Songbook, currently out of print. Donations needed for a second printing.
Emergency xerox copies $5.00. Eventual price of reprints $3.00.
A LISTING OF OTHER MAJOR
COLLECTIONS OF ORIGINAL
MATERIALS ON WOMEN:
1. BARNARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
New York, New York 10027
The Overbury Collection of 1,900 volumes, in¬
cluding unique editions of books by American women
writers, in addition to related manuscripts and letters.
2. BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Copley Square
Boston, Massachusetts 02117
The Galatea Collection, assembled during the first
feminist movement by Thomas Westworth Higginson,
includes about 5,000 volumes on “women’s place in
history.”
3. BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN'S
FOUNDATION LIBRARY
2012 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Contemporary materials on women in American
society.
4. FRIENDS HISTORICAL LIBRARY
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081
The works of 19th-century feminist, Lucretia
Mott are housed here.
5. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Washington, D.C. 20540
The LIBRARY OF CONGRESS contains the
works of Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt,
in addition to a collection of materials of the Na¬
tional American Woman Suffrage Association.
6. THE NATIONAL WOMAN’S
PARTY LIBRARY
144 Constitution Avenue, N.E.
Washington, D.C.
An assorted collection of about 3,000 volumes
on women.
7. THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Special Collections
The Research Libraries
Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
New York, New York 10017
The most notable women’s collections contained
in the New York special collections are those of fem¬
inists Emma Goldman, Carrie Chapman Catt and
Elizabeth Oakes Smith.
8. THE SCHLESINGER LIBRARY
Radcliffe College
3 James Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
This is the largest collection of historical mate-
rials—books, pamphlets, private papers-on Ameri¬
can women.
9. SCRIPPS COLLEGE LIBRARY
Claremont, California 91711
Houses the MacPherson Collection of books by or
about significant women, with an emphasis on women
in California and the West.
10. THE SOPHIA SMITH COLLECTION
Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts 01060
Started in 1865, the SOPHIA SMITH COLLEC¬
TION is one of the principle archives of women’s
history in the United States. The Collection em¬
phasizes social and humanitarian movements in
the 19th century, population control, and world
feminist action.
11. RUDOLPH MATAS MEDICAL LIBRARY
Tulane University
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
Elizabeth Bass Collection on women in medicine.
12. THOMAS F. HOLGATE LIBRARY
Bennett College
Greensboro, North Carolina 27420
Materials on Afro-American women.
FROM:
WOMEN’S HISTORY RESEARCH CENTER, 2325 Oak Street, Berkeley, California 94708 524-7772
141
THE SOURCE LIBRARY OF
THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
Women Out Of Herstory
Edited by Ann Forfreedom
"/ am concentrating on the past and on herstory because we must learn what we have been and
where and when. Real changes in woman's status require profound changes in our world view. We
need not manufacture our past, we need only rediscover it and translate its meanings. Otherwise, we
will simply give up hope and agree with men that throughout our past we have always been slaves,
and that what HAS been determines what CAN or WILL be. Eventually we may be able to combine
her-story and his-story to re-create what has always been our-story."
CONTENTS
PAGE
Acknowledgment!
WHY HERSTORY’ An Introductlon-Ann Fotlteedom
I. IN THE BEGINNING
.15
"The Liberated Muse"(Excerpts)-Linda Elden. eta! .
.27
Thz Mitzterchkl ind Th«ii Fill-Ann Forlreedom.
.29
II. AFTER THE FALL
II. A. THE RISE OF SEXISM
Pandora.
.42
.43
. 44
Secrets of Genesis (Patriarchy Overcomes the Matriarchy)
Bernice Mitchell.
.45
Tlie Rue of Min: TIk Orlglni of Womin'i OppteWon
One View-Bit bin Mehihof ind Shelle Cronin .
The Mile Power Hierarchy-Helen Vlclry. TO
HUtoiy: Some Technique! of Suppteuing Henlory
-Ann Forfreedom.89
The Inviubic Womin. The Hutoriin 11 Profenlonil Meglclen
- Dolorei Barracano Schmidt........ 91
Appendix 1 . ........ • • -'80
Appendix 2 . 101
II. B. WOMEN IN MALE HISTORY ANDCULTURE
Commenli-Kaie Milletl. '°2
•'Sappho Said IC'-Mariha Hudaon. 103
Wltchei Ai Women’! Hidden HUIory-Chlcego Coven.104
'•Wltchei"-line.\.10’
Force of Woman In Mediaeval Economic ind Social Ufe
- Mary Beard .108
QueenChrtiilna-LauraMurre . ......128
Women tn rhe French Revolution: The Thirteenth Btumaire of
Olympe de Gougea. With Noteion Ftench Amazon Battalion!
-SmachcdelJacquei... '31
The Women’! Right! Movement in the Ftench Revolution
-Elizabeth Race.W
"The Vow for Anne Hutchinson”-Alta ..100
The Hidden HUtory of the Female -Martha Alkini.161
The Suffrage Movement in Wcilern Europe-Ann Forfreedom.188
Forgotten Women-Gayle Louie. 197
Did You Know That ... ? -Compiled by Ann Forfreedom.202
Among the Milling: Women In Science, Revolution, and War
-Ann Forfreedom.205
III. REBELLION .
Preface .21 4
Newi Item -Lrm Ahkek . 215
PAST.
Femrniit Movement!Through the Agei 2IT
Remark!:
Mary Wollitonecrifl.224
Abigail Adam! . 226
France! Wright. 22T
Margaret Fuller.22T
Sojoumet Truth... 228
Victoria Woodhull .. 229
Chhvhiiung .231
Emmeline Pankhural .
...AND PRES ENT
Goodbye to All That-Robln Morgan
Redilockingi Manifeito (excerpt!).
Manifeito of the New York Radical Femtniit!(excerpti) 242
The Wltchei’ Chant: I Am With All Women (excerpt!) 243
HERSTORY BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. GENERALLY AVAILABLE.244
II. RARE HERSTOR1CAL DOCUMENTS AND BOOKS
(Available from Source Book Preu).252
III ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES .254
IV. FEMINIST PUBLICATIONS (that publiih hentoricil
material often) ... 254
Loa Angelei Femlnlit Center! .255
When Ann Forfreedom, herstory editor and one of
the founders of EVERYWOMAN (a once-great, now,
unfortunately, defunct publication) embarked upon
her herstory project in 1970, she had in mind a pam¬
phlet to be published by EVERYWOMAN. One and
one half years and muen research later, she had a
herstory anthology of several hundred pages: a col¬
lection of writings on our feminist heritage which
BEGINS to fill the vast knowledge gaps left by cen¬
turies of male historical neglect and bias. The project
had clearly gotten beyond the range of EVERY-
WOMAN’s capacity to publish it.
With reluctance, Forfreedom turned to commer-
The “Source Library of the Women’s Movement”
is a comprehensive collection of basic source ma¬
terials on feminist history. The series contains the
principal works of major leaders of the British and
American feminist movements. It also includes early
documents showing the cultural context out of which
the women’s movement arose . .. early feminist and
anti-feminist tracts . . . works on women’s rights for
higher education and entry into the professions . . .
noteworthy collections of relevant documents such
as letters, eyewitness reports, legal rulings, news
photographs. The volumes may be ordered indivi¬
dually, as a complete set, or in special sets.
Well-known feminist scholars make up the edi¬
torial board, including: Annette Baxter, Gerda
Lerner, Kate Millett, and Alice Rossi.
Among the volumes in the “Source Library of the
Women’s Movement” are such significant works as:
Elizabeth Blackwell, PIONEER WORK IN OPENING
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION TO WOMEN ($12.50)
Margaret Fuller, WOMAN IN THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY AND KINDRED PAPERS RELATING
TO THE SPHERE, CONDITION, AND DUTIES OF
WOMEN ($15.00)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, THE HOME, ITS WORK,
AND INFLUENCE ($13.00)
Emmeline Pankhurst, MY OWN STORY ($16.50)
Mary Wollstonecraft, A VINDICATION OF THE
RIGHTS OF WOMEN ($18.00)
Special sets are available in areas of interest, such
as “Women’s Struggle for Social and Political Euual-
ity in the United States,” “Women’s Intellectual
Potential,” “Women in the Home,” “Women in the
Labor Force,” and “Women and Marriage.” The
entire set of forty-five volumes is available for
$785.00. Although these editions are too expensive
for women to purchase themselves, women should
request their libraries and schools to purchase these
volumes for their use.
For further information, write to:
THE SOURCE BOOK PRESS
Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
300 Pike Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
cial sources, where she was met with conflicting
responses—all of which show how the dominant pa¬
triarchal culture regards women’s history as utterly
marginal: “There’s no market for women’s books;
it’s all just a fad,” (a phrase which has only recently
been muted by the cash register response to OUR
BODIES OURSELVES) or “You can’t compete with
SEXUAL POLITICS (that is to say, women’s books
are women’s books, whether they’re about women
and politics or women in history or women and race
car driving—it’s all the same)—a classic case of male
prejudice blinding business acumen. At the time
publishers made this response, there were 54 Wom¬
en’s Studies courses being taught around the country
—increasing to 600 by 1972—all in search of sources.
Not one to be obstructed by the poor judgment
of others, Forfreedom set about the task of publish¬
ing the book herself. She sought out a typesetter and
a printer, in both cases male counter-cultural outfits
sympathetic to women’s causes, who were willing to
do the bulk of the work on credit.
The book is now in its second printing; after the
first printing of 1,000 sold out in nine months, with¬
out the help of a commercial distribution system.
Rejection by conventional publishers, which might
otherwise have been a roadblock, has served ulti¬
mately to advance the expansion of feminist culture.
Forfreedom benefited personally by the greater in¬
volvement and control over the publishing of her
book, but an even greater impact has been the con¬
fidence she has inspired in other women to follow
her example.
Available from:
ANN FORFREEDOM
P.O.Box 25514
Los Angeles, California 90025
Feminist History
Research Project
"In the early years of this century, they marched for the right to vote. They struck for high,
and decent working conditions. They spoke out for birth control and child welfare and better ho
They opposed the war. And they waged countless lonely battles for careers that were closed to
For all this they were ridiculed, cursed and beaten, jailed and fired from their jobs.
"Yet historians barely noticed their presence, hardly heard their voices. For they were worn,
to them history was blind, to them history was deaf.
"Now most of them are dead. Their pain and passions are largely forgotten, their thoughtsa
ideals mostly unrecorded. They have become part of the silent centuries in which women hadr.
history because women had no historians."
The pilot undertaking of the FEMINIST HIS'
RESEARCH PROJECT, developed by feminist
searchers Ann Forfreedom and Sherna Gluck, v,
the gathering of oral histories of surviving suffra
and historical documents of the period 1910-19
Though the initial project is based in SouthernC
fornia, the FEMINIST HISTORY RESEARCH
PROJECT hopes to catalyze similar projects else
where. To finance this work, the FEMINISTHI!
TORY RESEARCH PROJECT is soliciting taxd
ductable donations. (A detailed budget is availah
on request.) With the success of the pilot project
the organizers hope to facilitate foundation fund
for the establishment of a feminist research instir
$3.50 each plus 50 <( postage
WWxratOrcpwjtcn (orVAmett presents d M^lt-Mecka DocuTvntaty
Our North American
FOREMOTHERS
Th»Haborul09arvalion hy Women pm«nts a Doomnlaty
dor North American
FOREMOTHERS
Available from NOW York Boutique,
47 East 19th Street, New York, N.Y.,
12.00 each.
HERE ARE THE WOMEN POETS?
"Lastyear at PS 61 in New York City I taught
third-through-sixth grade students poems by
Fe, Donne, Shakespeare, Herrick, Whitman,
Him Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, John
'bery, and Federico Garcia Lorca. For several
t before, I had been teaching poetry writing
bmany of these children, and they liked it so
i ch I thought there must be a way to help them
band enjoy great poetry by adults." (Kenneth
(h in the N. Y. RE VIEW OF BOOKS, Septem-
r20, 1973.)
Mr. Koch’s statement leads to one or all of the
wing conclusions:
I. Women are not adults.
2 Women do not write poetry.
I Women who have written poetry, certainly
have not written any great poetry.
Ever heard of Sappho, Emily Dickenson, Ger-
' be Stein, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Gabriel la
vtti, Marianne Moore, Muriel Ruykeyser, Eliz-
■b Barrett, Edith Sitwell, Mr. Koch?
THE WOMEN’S HISTORY SLIDE SHOW
OUR NORTH AMERICAN FOREMOTHERS
Produced and Written by Anne Grant
Listen my children,
And you shall hear
The Midnight Ride
Of Sybil Luddington
Who is Sybil Luddington? During the Revolutionary
War, Sybil Luddington outdistanced Paul Revere in her ride
to alert the countryside to the burning of Danbury, Con¬
necticut by the British. The fact that she and most other
women are omitted from the history books is the reason
why Anne Grant decided to research women’s role through¬
out American history. The former education coordinator
for the National Organization for Women, Grant has com¬
piled photographs and information about hundreds of
women whose achievements have shaped American history.
With the information she gathered, Anne Grant pro¬
duced and wrote OUR NORTH AMERICAN FORE¬
MOTHERS, a 90-minute slide and tape show. Part of the
show includes the women who are always nominally men¬
tioned in history books-Amelia Earhart, Susan B. Anthony,
Clara Barton, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Much of OUR NORTH
AMERICAN FOREMOTHERS is devoted to a study of wo¬
men in American history, who unfortunately are not known
to the average American. What history text book has
ever mentioned Esther Hobart Morris, the Justice of the
Peace who was instrumental in securing the vote for Wyo¬
ming women before the 19th Amendment was passed? What
American history class discusses Ann Ella Carroll, the mili¬
tary theorist who planned the Tennessee campaign which
won the Civil War in the West? Why don’t students study
Rose Schneiderman, the labor leader who founded the
Women’s Trade Union League?
Why are these important women omitted from American
history? According to Anne Grant, it is because men write
history and immortalize the actions of other men-not of
women. Also, men have always put a stop to “uppity wom¬
en” who were too threatening to them. Elizabeth Blackwell
is used in OUR NORTH AMERICAN FOREMOTHERS as
an example of men’s fear of competition from women. Af¬
ter Blackwell was graduated at the top of her class from
Geneva Medical College (the only school that would admit
women), the school began refusing admission to women.
This magnificent slide show has been presented to nu¬
merous women’s groups across the country. It is no longer
being rented as a slide show, but is now being made into a
film to be distributed in late 1974 by Rugoff Theatres, 595
Madison Avenue, New York City. It will appear in book
form next spring and will be published by Harper & Row,
10 East 53rd Street, New York City.
In order to receive information as soon as either medium is
ready, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to:
ANNE GRANT
617 49th Street
Brooklyn, New York 11220
The SLIDE SHOW is a by-product of a course
project at the Cambridge-Goddard School for so¬
cial change, one of the four schools in America to
offer a master’s degree in Women’s Studies (see
listing). About 600 slides portray the lives of ave¬
rage women at different times in history, particu¬
larly emphasizing the work they did and the con¬
ditions under which they did it. The show consists
of sections which can be shown together or inde¬
pendently on: Medieval England, 17th and 19th
Centuries in England, and a concluding section
entitled “Women in Revolt” which shows the ways
in which women have fought against their oppres¬
sion. Each section is about twenty-five minutes in
length. The script which accompanies the slides is
read aloud.
Send requests for prices and shipping to:
WOMEN’S HISTORY SLIDE SHOW
Feminist Studies Program
Cambridge-Goddard Graduate School
5 Upland Road
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140
THE WOMEN’S HERITAGE ALMANAC
“September 6: Born on this date in 1795,
Frances Wright, a maverick in every sense of the
word. She was the first famous speaker for wom¬
en s rights in America and nearly put an end to
the subject in polite society. She happened to
advocate most of the theories that the later fem¬
inists felt bound to repudiate. Her experiment
in communal living, free love and the whole
scene, aroused the fury of society. No novelty,
particularly a sexual one, can be tolerated be¬
fore the mass of opinion has come to recognize
the truth of its existence. Salute to an individual,
a woman at that.”
This is one of the more than 300 descrip¬
tions of women lost from history that appears
in THE WOMEN’S HERITAGE ALMANAC.
The ALMANAC is the first feminist product of
WOMEN’S HERITAGE SERIES, INC., the first
all-woman corporation in herstory dedicated
exclusively to the production of materials by
women for the feminist movement. This is a
fantastic collection of all the wopien who have
been written out of history by male Historians.
The ALMANAC is beautifully illustrated with
hotographs and graphics of women making
istory: Nelly Bly on her round the world trip;
Gertrude Enderle, the first woman to swim the
English Channel; Bernadette Devlin, Ireland’s
‘Man of the Year’ for 1969.
Women can also learn about their lost her¬
story through WOMEN’S HERITAGE’S Famous
Feminist pamphlet series. All are beautifully
bound, with rare photos of the women and im¬
portant events of their time. Three biographies
are available: Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
and Lucy Stone.
WOMEN’S HERITAGE SERIES, INC., 1167 HiPoint Street, Los Angeles, California 90035
Almanac: $2.00 + 24tf postage / Each booklet: $1.00 + 2Si postage
143
Interview with the Washington, D.C. Rape Crisis Center
Q: How would you evaluate your program now
list you’ve been in operation a full year?
A: We’ve had a lot of changes in our outlook,
lien we first began last summer, we put a very large
emphasis on the counseling and giving women emo¬
tional support. We realized that this had a lot of class¬
ic and racist implications because it was mainly
middle and upper-middle class white women who
were in need of heavy emotional support. Lower-
dass, poor, and black women were more interested in
jetting basic information on what to expect from the
police and the hospitals, and about getting V.D. and
pregnancy testing.
Q: Why is this? Is it that black women accept rape
tsamore inevitable part of their experience?
A: They’ve had to take hard knocks all their lives.
Getting raped is just another hard knock. Middle-class
women, on the other hand, are not used to being at¬
tacked, and they are much more freaked out by it. If
iwoman calls up who needs that sort of emotional
inpport, we can give it to her, but that is no longer
or major emphasis.
Other services we provide are giving the woman
information on what to expect from the hospitals and
olice, if she decides to report the rape. We can ac-
ompany her to the hospitaland throughout the police
procedures, and we check to make sure that the medi¬
cal examination form is filled out properly. The only
time we’re not allowed to be with her is when she
jives her final statement a day later, to the sex squad
(in Washington, D.C., the branch of the police that
investigates reports of sexual offense).
Q: Is she questioned by the police before she gets
to the sex squad?
A: Let me give you a rundown on what happens. If
a woman reports to the police that she has been raped
in her apartment, for example, two uniformed pre¬
cinct officers arrive on the scene. They are supposed
to ask preliminary questions to find out briefly what
took place, which way the assailant left, and get a
description so that they can put out a look-out broad¬
cast. However, they’ve been known to ask really de¬
meaning questions like: “How many orgasms did you
have? Did you enjoy it? What did he take off first?
Tell me all about it, Sweetie. Want to come up to my
apartment later tonight?”
Another thing the precinct officers are supposed
to do is to determine whether or not a rape may have
taken place. If a sexual offense may ■have taken place,
they are supposed to call the sex squad immediately.
However, many police officers have a very stereo¬
typed view of what a rape victim’s reactions are; they
expect her to be very hysterical. When they see a
woman who is calm, and many women are calm after
rape because they are in a state of shock, the police
are less likely to believe that a rape took place. And
unless a woman is adamant about the fact that she has
been raped and that she wants to prosecute, they may
never call the sex squad. They simply determine that
a sexual offense never took place. And even if they do
determine that a sexual offense may have taken place
and they call the sex squad, before the sex squad ar¬
rives, several other precinct officers may respond to
the call. And she is asked the same skeptical questions
again by another group of precinct officers.
DISARM RAPISTS
by Cell 16 2 Brewer Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
17 x 21” 75^ postage included
After the sex squad arrives and the preliminary
questions are completed, everyone goes off to the
D.C. General Hospital. There are long waits—one or
two hours. Usually the woman is alone or else she is
questioned by a sex squad detective in a crowded hall¬
way in the middle of the emergency room in front of
fifteen or twenty people. We have even had reports of
sex squad officers openly intimidating women and
threatening to arrest them for falsification of charges
if they are lying. In Virginia, a woman was questioned
by the sex squad while she was being given a pelvic
examination. . . . What happens at the hospital is that
you are seen by an intern who is the lowest on the
totem pole of the hospital hierarchy and who knows
nothing about giving a good pelvic exam.
Q: You don’t even see a gynecologist?
A: You’re lucky if you do. And even if you do,
that person isn’t going to take off a day’s worth of
pay to come down and testify six months later. Either
way you’re fucked over. Anyway, the intern, either
out of ignorance or not wanting to testify, fudges the
report. There is a box on the report that says, “area
of the vagina has been traumatized,” and they mark
“no” or they don’t note all the bruises that are pre¬
sent. So, one of the services we provide is making
sure the medical report is properly filled out.
The next day, the woman goes down to the sex
squad to give a complete detailed statement. When it
comes down to whether they are really going to try
and catch the guy, it depends on who the rapist is. If
he’s white and upper-middle class, forget it. They fig¬
ure that the chances of getting a conviction in court
wouldn’t be that good. The guy would offer a defense
of consent and that would be very hard to disprove.
The woman would have to put her whole past sexual
history up for viewing. If it’s a boyfriend, the police
are pretty leary again, because of the consent issue,
law’ " y ° Ur husband ra P es y° u ’ that ’ s not against the
However, if the guy is black or lower class, they
are a lot more likely to pursue it, especially if you’re
a white woman.
In the court proceeding, to prove rape, you
have to prove that you were penetrated, that you did
not consent, and that force was used against you. This
causes a lot of problems, because the guy will simply
say, “sure we had intercourse, but she consented.”
And then it’s up to the victim to prove that she didn’t.
The defense attorney can ask all sorts of questions,
like: “Haven’t you been living with a man? And if you
were consenting with one man, isn’t it possible to as¬
sume that you were consenting with the defendant,
too?” You can forget it if you’re a prostitute. They
see rape as a sexual act rather than an act of power,
and because of that, if you consented at any other
time in your life, then, of course, you want it every
time.
Q: What is your role in the court procedure?
A: We go to court with the woman and offer her
any support we can.
Q: Do you refer her to lawyers?
A: Yes, we have good access to free lawyers. There
is a woman who is an assistant U.S. District Attorney
who has done a lot of work with us. She is chairing a
D.C. Task Force on Rape which has representatives
from the police, D.A.’s office, Women’s Legal Defense
Fund, D.C. Commission on the Status of Women, and
the Rape Crisis Center. This committee is trying to do
more in the way of reform—trying to get changes in
the police, hospital, and court procedures.
Q: What has been your impact on the police and
hospitals?
A: We’ve been able to make some impact, especially
through the Task Force, as far as making recommen¬
dations to change procedures. These are all merely
reform types of things, but they do make it easier for
rape victims.
0: Do you find that if you accompany a rape
victim, the case is treated more seriously by the
authorities?
A: Yes. When we first started, we wouldn’t say
that we were members of the Rape Crisis Center—we
would simply say that we were friends of the victim.
So now, whenever a woman comes in with a friend,
they assume that she is from the Crisis Center, even
if she’s really not, and they behave very nicely.
continued
Q: That’s a marvelous tactic. You weren’t meaning
for that to happen, were you?
A: No. It was just an unintended side effect that
they would later think that all these “friends” were
really a huge squadron of women rape counselors out
there.
Q: How do you think convicted rapists should be
dealt with in terms of court sentencing?
A: There’s a big problem here. Juries are not willing
to convict a man if he will be sentenced to life. . . or
probably, even twenty-five years. ... I would like to
see the sentences shorter, but mandatory.
Q: How long a term?
A: Five years, three years. .. Anything to get the
guy off the streets for some period of time.
Q: What do you feel about a repeating offender?
A: The sentence should definitely go up. But that’s
a problem, too. The way the law works now the
woman’s whole past history can be brought up. But
if the guy has been acquitted on ten previous charges
of rape, that cannot be brought up on the ground that
it might prejudice the jury. .. which means that you
have a lot of repeating rapists who are getting off con¬
sistently. . . time and time again.
Q: What about women fighting back? Do you offer
self-defense courses?
A: Yes, we have three sections. One is given by a
woman who teaches a combination of judo, karate,
and street-fighting techniques. She also teaches a
course for women who want to taech self-defense.
Then there is a man with a black belt who gives free
lessons to women, as well as lessons for women who
want to teach. We organize them about once every
three or four months.
Q: How would you evaluate the success of these
classes in terms of equipping women to deal with
crisis situations?
A: No matter how much karate or self-defense you
know, it’s not worth shit if you don’t have the mind¬
set to use it. What we try to do is politicize the
women. Middle-class women, especially, are very a-
fraid of being aggressive. We try to break that down
and make a woman realize that if someone is fucking
her over, she has the right to hit him back—just
enough so that she can get out of the situation and
run. If you’re taking self-defense, then you have a
better chance of developing the mind-set to deal with
a situation of attack. Even if you don’t remember
everything, you will at least remember one important
thing that will help you get out of the situation. And
at the very least, self-defense makes you think about
the possibility of being attacked—you’re a lot more
aware and alert and in control of the situation.
Q: What is your attitude toward women carrying
weapons?
A: I’m in favor of it, but I prefer self-defense my¬
self, because your weapon is your body-which can’t
be taken away from you and used against you. If a
woman is going to carry a weapon, she can legally car¬
ry anything that she would be using on a day-to-day
basis, like a steel-toothed comb, a corkscrew, or a
lemon-juice squirter.
Q: According to the FBI statistics, incidents of
raped increased last year by 35% nationally. In our
precinct, the Upper West Side of Manhattan, rape in¬
creased by 101% last year. Do you think that men are
raping women more, or do you think that women
are simply reporting it more?
how to start a
rape crisis
center
wash. dx.
august 1972
HOW TO START A RAPE CRISIS CENTER
This booklet was written by Washington, D.C.
women to provide other women with the nitty-gritty
information they need to organize a center to combat
rape. The manual includes basic factual material
which women need to know in helping a rape victim,
such as legal information and medical facts on rape.
There is detailed instruction on how to run an emer¬
gency phone service for counseling both women who
nave just been raped and women who want to discuss
their feelings about a past rape. The appendix con¬
tains a sample hospital form, a form used to solicit
project participants, a bibliography, and a history of
the D.C. Rape Crisis Center.
The goal of the Center is self-help for women:
“Self-help is seen as advisable, since it returns to
the woman power over her life—something she
lost to some extent when she was raped.”
Available from:
THE RAPE CENTER WOMEN
P.O.Box 21005
Kalorama Street Station
Washington, D.C. 20009
THE RAPE CRISIS CENTER:
Taking the Blinders Off
The Rape Crisis Center ... operates out of a
small house in D.C. where several of the staff
people live. The first floor houses the business
office and a counseling area. There are rooms on
the second floor where women can spend the night
if they're uncomfortable staying alone after a rape.
The Crisis Center collective, working with other
women, tackles the institutions that hold the rape
victim responsible for the most frequently com¬
mitted violent crime in America. The Legal coun¬
seling Project of the Women's Legal Defence Fund
will provide legal services to rape victims. Women
psychologists have worked with the Center staff to
develop a counseling approach that respects the
dignity of the rape victim without the sexist as¬
sumptions of psychology that add mind-fuck to
the physical rape.
The Center's phone, 333-RAPE, is staffed 24
hours a day. Frequently women call just to talk
over their experiences with another woman, since
no one seemed to understand at the time. One of
their first calls was from a woman who was raped
15 years ago and had never told anyone about it
until she contacted the Crisis Center. The Center
coordinates group discussions among rape victims
several times a week and stresses the importance
of women talking to one another and not feeling
isolated in that experience.
D.C. hospitals are watched closely by women at
the Center so they can tell women which hospitals
to avoid.... The women at the Center had a better
grasp of the information women need following a
rape than any of the five doctors I spoke with in
hospital emergency rooms....
Onka Dekkers
in OFF OUR BACKS, September 1972
Subscriptions available from:
OFF OUR BACKS
1346 Connecticut Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
$5.00/twelve issues
A: Probably both. But rape is definitely i
Q: Why?
A: Once again, men have defined our sex
us. Before, they definedius as private beings who
the private property of foen. Now, they see us u
public property of all men. If a woman wearsac®
tain type of clothing, thev regard her as liberated
and something they can fuck at will. They don’t
see it as rape.
Q: Do you think men are antagonized by the
creasing boldness and self-confidence women are
playing, as they walk down the street, for exa
A: I think it’s that women are more available:
instance, they are hitching more, going home
living alone, leading autonomous lifestyles.
Q: Do you think that the more women assume
independence, the more this will either frighten
threaten men, because of their sense of the loss
control they have over women’s lives?
A: Sure, it’s a way of saying the streets are for
men after 6:00 P.M. It’s to their advantage to keep
women isolated from each other.
liningiJ
Q: What about the future of the Rape Crisis
Center?
A: We started off as a local service, where no* j
see ourselves as functioning as both a local
a national clearing house for Rape Crisis Centers. ]
We’re trying to raise the awareness of women all
as to what rape is.
Q: What are you doing in terms of beco
tional clearing house?
A: First of all, we put out “How to Start
Crisis Center,” and also a newsletter. Also, we’ve,
been doing a lot of national media work. We weit|
mentioned in TIME. There’s also going to bean
article coming out in GLAMOUR that we wrote
how to start a Rape Crisis Center. We were also'
viewed by them.
Q: What do you think has been your impact
women?
A: I think we’ve had a tremendous impact H
speaking engagements. That’s where we get most
our funding. We’ve been speaking at universities
now we’re going to women at their work pla
talking to secretaries during them lunch breaks.
Q: How do you communicate that rape isapo!|
cal issue?
A: One of the basic points is having women
that rape is not a sexual act, but is an actofpoJ
terror, and aggression by a man against a womu.1
is not an individual, isolated incident, but somellg
that happens all over—all the time. It has a lot
with the way men are in power in this society!*
how they keep women down.
For information, write to:
RAPE CRISIS CENTER
P.O. Box 21005
Washington, D.C. 20009
RAPE CRISIS CENTER NEWSLE1
Washington D.C.
As the oldest active Rape Crisis Center, II
D.C. receives frequent requests for informad
women involved in similar enterprises elsi
gets national news about anti-rape activitie
put, plus their own substantial speaking exp
and media contact, has led the D.C. won
lish a bi-monthly newsletter for the anti-rcp
ment. The NEWSLETTER provides newsof^
established anti-rape groups around the co
of legal, medical, and law enforcement dew
bearing on rape-, bibliographical informatioi
as articles of interest to women involved ini
activities. Articles in recent issues includ
to Those Closest to Rape Victims,” “A f
ference Format,” “Dealing with the Polio
For subscription inform
RAPE CRISIS CENTER
P.O. Box 21005
Washington D.C. 20009
$1.50 plus 20tf postage
imen Organized
Against Rape
| A telephone rings in a large, spacious hospital
imfurnishcd with several cots, two desks, and
■jlitned by colorful wall posters. One of three
®n in the room answers the phone, puts on a
a smock, and leaves for the emergency room,
"tea rape victim has just been admitted.
Since May, 1973 perhaps the most significant
menagainst-rape effort in the country has been
Airway in Philadelphia. The very unique feature of
Men Organized Against Rape (WOAR) is that un-
tother volunteer anti-rape groups, it has its head¬
ers IN Philadelphia General Hospital, the insti-
ion to which all rape victims who report the crime
taken for medical examination. When a rape vic-
isbrought to the hospital, the WOAR room is
nediately notified, and a counsellor (available on
tenty-four hour basis) joins the victim to give her
never help she needs. The WOAR women are thus
lie unprecedented position of being able to reach
lie women in Philadelphia who have been raped
report it. In addition, women who fear the de¬
wing and humiliating treatment that usually goes
k reporting a rape, can phone WOAR at a number
up for counselling treatment or just plain rapping.
I WOAR counsellor is trained to provide a rape
imwith emotional support, to deal with distraught
lives and friends, to insure that the proper medi-
procedures arc followed humanely and decently,
iplain what is happening to the woman (a high
portion of rape victims in Philadelphia are women
er fifteen who have never before had a pelvic ex-
nation). She also prepares the woman for the or-
of police questioning which usually follows,
eviclimsare invited to join a consciousness-
ng group-offered for teenage victims, adult vic-
iand parents of teenage victims-which deals with
psychological after-effects of the trauma and the
►political dimensions of rape. In the event (rare,
Kwherc) that the rapist is caught, charged, and
ightto trial, WOAR women prepare the victim
:ne court proceedings and accompany her to the
WOAR believes, with other anti-rape groups,
ibe presence of a large body of women in the
iroom serves notice on the predominantly male
itis, judges, and jurors that the rape victim is not
,alone, alienated. Although the active member-
ofWOAR is sixty to seventy women at any
“ time, the group has a mailing list of nearly
[-hundred. Informed by the District Attorney’s
:tof the trial dates and dates of sentencing,
IRcan mobilize a hefty contingent of women to
tesent at court.
owdid the Philadelphia women get into the heart
(system, which elsewhere is largely uncoopera-
xeven hostile toward anti-rape groups?
lAugust, 1970 Philadelphia women, outraged at
reatment rape victims received at the hands of
(.hospitals, and courts, began to collect signa-
iof women who were interested in starting a
[Crisis Center. By November 150 women had
id together to form Women Organized Against
(.Advised by a woman physician working with
», WOAR decided to take a different route from
taken by existing anti-rape groups. “It was ob¬
is to us that hotlines and crisis centers which work
tide the system would reach mostly middleclass
movement women. We felt we had to be available
loorand Third World women who are particularly
Krablc to rape, and who are the women most
tsed by medical and legal agents of the patriarchy.”
illustrate this point, a WOAR woman pointed to
D.C. Crisis Center located in a predominantly
ckneighborhood, in a predominantly black city,
ertthe majority of rape victims are black, but
ere the Crisis Center has had difficulty in reaching
:i women. Starting from the assumption that the
bofrape counselors should be available to as
us women as possible, the group decided to aim
sitting up headquarters in Philadelphia General
ispital where they could reach all women reporting
fn. in addition to those women who might call
t service voluntarily.
g WOMEN UNITE AND RESIST
by The Feminists 120 Liberty Street New York City 10006 23 X 29” $2.00
WOAR talked to a woman district attorney, a well-
known woman judge, women members of the Phila¬
delphia City Council, several well-known black wom¬
en. They described and documented the existing
treatment of rape victims and the urgent need to
correct the situation. These women agreed to serve
on the board of directors of WOAR and to give their
full support to the group’s effort to gain access to
Philadelphia General Hospital. As a spokeswoman
said, with such backing, with women supporters in
each key institution, it was difficult for the police,
the hospital, the D.A.’s office, to resist pressure to
cooperate. “After all, whatever they felt privately,
how could the male authorities tell this group of
women doctors, lawyers, judges, civic leaders, that
they were against the improved treatment of rape
victims?”
What has WOAR learned since Mayl ? In three
months WOAR counselled over 300 rape victims,
from an eighteen-month baby girl to an 85-year-old
woman. Ninety percent of the victims reporting
rapes are black. Sixty percent of the victims are girls
under sixteen. Over thirty percent of the victims had
been physically beaten and assaulted in addition to
being raped.
What has been their impact? Undeniably improve
treatment of the victim by the hospital—and WOAR
feels, a better chance of conviction with their watch¬
dogging the collection of evidence. Although they
feel that police treatment of victims leaves much to
be desired, WOAR sees the beginning of change. “It
isn’t out of the goodness of their hearts. They coop¬
erate because they see that we are actually helpful to
them. We cut down their waiting time at the hospital.
The fact that we calm and reassure the victim enables
her to remember better what happened and give a
more coherent statement. We also use guerrilla tactics
as a check on police excesses. We use the system
against itself by bringing incidents of maltreatment
to the D.A.’s attention. And we are in a position to
build up a pattern of behavior—against Detective So-
and-So who is repeatedly reported by victims to be
insulting or piggish-so that the particular guy is
removed.”
WOAR sees the crucial battlefront as public con¬
sciousness, and after counseling, gives priority to edu¬
cational and publicity activities. “Counseling stops
the immediate bleeding. But we also have to put a
stop to the aggression.” Women from WOAR present
programs and talks to high school students, com¬
munity groups, professional associations. (Currently
the entire WOAR chest comes from speaking engage¬
ments and donations.) They work to maintain con¬
stant coverage of their activities against rape on
radio, TV, in newspapers, magazines. Much energy is
given to pressing for legislative changes in existing
rape laws, which continue to see the woman as the
criminal and the rapist as the victim. WOAR is in¬
censed that the newly-written Pennsylvania Penal
Code (“this is 1973, right?”) requires the judge to
instruct the jury in a rape case to weigh the evidence
of the woman with extra care, since the emotional
disturbance caused by the incident may have affected
her testimony. “It’s the same old bullshit. They used
to instruct the jury that the woman might be lying
(presumably, to get the man). Now it’s emotional dis¬
turbance. Of course, you’re not emotionally disturbed
if you are held up and shot in a robbery.”
Women interested in joining Philadelphia WOAR
to help continue and win the struggle against the in¬
stitutions which help condone and perpetuate rape
should write to:
WOAR
P.O. Box 17374
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19105
(215)823-7997 1 AT7
Bay Area Women Against Rape
A little over a year ago a thirteen-year-old girl was
raped at school. For nearly six hours, while she was
questioned by the school authorities, police, and med¬
ically examined at a hospital, she was prevented from
seeing her parents. This incident, plus rising anger at
the treatment of the growing number of rape victims,
galvanized women in the Bay area to form Bay Area
Women Against Rape (BAWAR, pronounced “Bay-
war”).
BA WAR provides rape counseling services, emer-
ency support, escort services to police and hospitals
y women advocates, and basic legal and medical in¬
formation concerning rape. A woman can call a cen¬
tral number and be placed in contact with an advocate
from BAWAR, who will listen to her situation and
offer support and assistance in whatever she decides
to do.
BAWAR operates entirely on a volunteer basis,
and is in need of more women to serve as advocates,
as well as funds. If you need help, want to help, need
more information or would like to contribute, call
BAWAR’s 24-hour answering service at Council-
woman Loni Hancock’s office: (415) 841-0370.
BAWAR has put together a packet of materials on
rape which we recommend as an excellent supplement
to STOP RAPE and FREEDOM FROM RAPE (see
further in this section). The packet includes the fol¬
lowing pamphlets:
1. Safety tactics: be safe at home, be safe in your
car, be safe in the street, weapons (what’s legal/illegal,
safe and easy to carry)
2. What to do if you are raped
3. If you have to hitchhike. . . .
4. V.D. Health tips (California Medical Association)
5. Health services for women in Berkeley and
Oakland.
6. Treating young victims of sexual assault. (Writ¬
ten by a male doctor, the medical information in this
article for other doctors is very valuable—but the sex¬
ist attitude has to be read to be believed.)
7. A Memorandum from the Berkeley Chief of
Police instructing officers to allow a friend or rape
advocate to be present during police interrogation of
the rape victim. (Very useful to women in communi¬
ties where the police will not permit rape counselors
to remain with the victim.)
Available from:
BAY AREA WOMEN AGAINST RAPE 2490 Channing Way, Room 209
Berkeley, California 94704 $1.00 plus 15^ postage
RAPE-MEDICAL AND
LEGAL INFORMATION
by Women Against Rape-Cambridge/Boston Ara
“We recommend that if raped you FIRST GOTO
A HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM. There are sc.
eral reasons for this. First, your medical needs ate
most important (having bruises and possible preg¬
nancy and VD attended to). Generally, the hospital
staff will be more considerate of you and your feel
ings than the leering, interrogating police. Going to
the hospital first will give you time to collect your
thoughts, calm down, and seek psychological helpi
you feel you need it. Then you will be in a better;
ition to make decisions about reporting the rape
and/or filing a complaint with the police."
The Women Against Rape of the Cambridge
(Mass.) Rape Crisis Center nave published RAPE-
MEDICAL AND LEGAL INFORMATION. They!
fer advice on hospital care and payment (in Massa¬
chusetts the Victims of Violent Crimes Act legaBt
makes the state responsible for the medical bills®
rape victim—if she has reported the rape), repotta;
the rape to the police, and pressing charges againc
the assailant. Since many of the women of Woma
Against Rape have been rape victims themselves®
know someone who has been raped, they have in¬
cluded all possible necessary information in this
pamphlet.
Available from:
WOMEN’S CENTER
46 Pleasant Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts021
25 4 plus 15tf postage
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AIN'T I A WOMAN, April 30, 1971 P.O. Box 1169, Iowa City, Iowa $5.00/year
Iowa City Rape Crisis Centers
In establishing a Rape Crisis Line, women in Iowa
City obtained from local hospital and police authori¬
ties excellent detailed descriptions of the required
medical steps in:
i) the medical examination (“Technical Diagnosis of
Suspected Rape”) and
b) the police examination (“Procedural Guidelines for
Investigating Complaints of Sexual Attacks and the
Obtaining and Preservation of Evidence”).
Both are consistent with the legal requirements of
most states, and would be useful to women elsewhere
planning crisis centers or hotlines. Two nuggets of in¬
formation from the police document of the sort that
could be helpful: “Examination of clothing under ul¬
traviolet light facilitates the finding of seminal fluids
which appear fluorescent.” “A second (physical) ex¬
amination should be carried out 48 hours later, when
bruises may show more easily.”
The Iowa City women have also written up an ex¬
tremely instructive interview with a high police offi¬
cial, In response to the women’s queries, the official
tries to explain that questions which sound demean¬
ing to rape victims are really attempts to get evidence
which is required by the law to convict an accused
rapist. Police will ask the victim questions about her
“moral background” which will come across as in¬
sulting and callous. For example, “has the victim ever
accepted money before?”—particularly important if
there are no signs of force, (!!!) or “how far did she
go along voluntarily?” However, according to the of¬
ficial, these will be asked, not to harass the woman,
but since she will be asked the same questions in the
courtroom, “we’ve got to ascertain wnat evidence
may be presented in the rebuttal.”
The document is ammunition not only for women
working to change the laws that allow such question¬
ing, but who wish to have policeWOMEN do the ques¬
tioning—in the presence of rape counselors.
For information about these pamphlets, write to:
IOWA CITY CRISIS LINE
c/o The Women’s Center
3 East Market Street
Iowa City, Iowa 52240
VICTIM-PRECIPITATED RAPE
Cases are also common where the issue is
"victim-precipitated rape." The theory is that the
male interpreted the woman's behavior as a direct
invitation for sex. The woman who invites her
date "up for a drink " or accepts a ride with a male
friend is thus seen as teasing; she is not raped but
seduced—in the grand manner of Casanova, or
Marlon Brando doing his tango in Paris. Victim-
precipitated rape is the equivalent of victim-
precipitated robbery; bank tellers shouldn't have
so much money just over the window, it only
teases the people to rob it.
Coleman McCarthy
WASHINGTON POST, September 8,1973
Librarians use a reference volume listing 63,500
subjects of old and new books; it has 16 book
titles on rapid reading and 22 on rare animals but
not one on rape.
"Annie Get Your Gun” poster
Available from: TREE TOAD GRAPHICS 2406 Grant Street Berkeley, California 94703
ISj, plus 50£ postage black on blue 12 X 18”
RAPE: CHICAGO 1972
3,562 rapes reported
833 arrests made
204 indictments
23 charged pleaded guilty
8 found guilty and sentenced
Chicago Crime Commission, 1972.
CHICAGO WOMEN AGAINST RAPE
C-WAR is a group of women who are trying to
make rape a public issue through education. C-WAR
grew out of a conference in 1972 co-sponsored by the
Chicago YWCA. Several women who had attended the
conference started a media “blitz” on rape, speaking
out on talk shows, in public engagements, on high
school and college campuses. C-WAR offer’s a speak¬
er’s course for women who would like to start a
similar rape speak-out project.
C-WAR itself does no rape crisis counseling, al¬
though women who staff the Northside and South-
side hotlines are active in the group.
One of the main concerns of C-WAR is that ALL
current rape laws be repealed and that rape be in¬
cluded under assault charges. An immediate demand
is that a feminist prosecutor try all rape cases in Chi¬
cago. C-WAR also publicizes the attitudes of the
police in dealing with rape victims. The group has un¬
covered the instruction of the Chicago police training
manual that “the first thing to do is to determine if
the woman (who reports the rape) is lying.”
The women in C-WAR feel that every woman must
be equipped with the skills to defend herself against
rape. Members of C-WAR teach classes in self-defense;
C-WAR offers referrals to women in the Chicago area
looking for instruction in streetfighting and the mar¬
tial arts (karate, judo, taekwon do; and C-WAR in¬
cludes a self-defense demonstration in their speaking
presentations. But the C-WAR women emphasize that
although a woman can learn to defend herself to some
degree, the answer to the growing menace of rape lies
in attacking the attitudes and values that perpetuate it.
For information, write to:
CHICAGO WOMEN AGAINST RAPE
Loop YWCA
37 South Wabash
Chicago, Illinois 60657
(312) 372-6600
What to expect from
the police
OUR COMMUNITY SETS UP
AND ALLOWS THE CONDITIONS
THAT NURTURE RAPE BY...
Police officers, by and large, are male. Their
views, like those of other men. have been shaped
by the society In which they live. It Is quite possi¬
ble that If a policeman was raised in a typical Am¬
erican home, he developed a value system that typ-
llfles women as gentle, quiet, and sweet. He pro¬
bably believes that women would do best to stay at
home In the evening unless accompanied by a husband
or proper escort.
What happens If a woman reports that she was raped
while walking alone at night or after coming out of
a bar alone? The policeman (consciously or uncon¬
sciously) makes a value Judgement about "what kind"
of a woman she Is. If she Is outspoken, Independent,
and/or "promiscuous" she Is likely to be judged "that
kind”, and therefore was probably "asking for it”.
The rape. In effect, is her just desert. No real crime
has been committed.
Policemen are just as susceptible as other members
of our society to myths or mistaken attitudes about
rape--one of them being that a woman could enjoy the
experience. For example, a high ranking official
in the amw arbor police department told two women
Interviewers that "If a woman has a knife at her
throat she might as well relax and enjoy It."
To complicate matters still further, male police
officers often have a very difficult time while dealing
with female criminal suspects. Male officers cannot
search the women, and there hove been Instances of a
woman shooting and killing police officers with a wea¬
pon which she had concealed in her clothing. This
makes most officers (perhaps understandably) defen¬
sive and suspicious when dealing with women suspects.
There seems to be an unfortunate carry-over of this
method of approach toward rape victims, however.
If the policeman Is confronted with a crying, hys¬
terical woman, and he does not know how to deal with
her, he often simply reverts to the way he does know
how to react to women: brusquely, abruptly, and sus¬
piciously.
For example, a high ranking
Ann Arbor police official told
two women interviewers that
“If a woman has a knife at her
throat die might as well relax
and eniou it”.
A third facet of the situation which makes police
behavior less than Ideal Is the very nature of the
crime: sex. The proper procedure after a rape has
been reported would be for the officers called to the
scene to get the briefest possible description of the
offense and to concentrate on the description of the
offender and his direction of departure. Later, at the
station, after the suspect has been apprehended, a de¬
tective should ask any necessary question conceminq
the exact details of the rape. In order to obtain In¬
formation to turn over to the prosecuting attorney to
use In the trial. All too often, however, women have
reported Instances where the Initial questions of the
officers concerned the exact details of the rape, with
« tlans such as ”Mow long were you on the floor?"
t verbal response did you make during the rape?"
•How much prior sexual experience have you had?"
These questions clearly have little to do with appre¬
hending the rapist. They have more to do with human cur¬
iosity, or with satisfying the officer's vicarious sex¬
ual urges. While the police are filling out their form
in slow longhand as to whether the rapist had a climax,
etc., he is rapidly getting further and further away.
Some of the questions asked bv the officers for their
initial report will be repeated by the investiqatlng de¬
tective the next day. Practically all will be asked
again by the prosecutor. One reason for this repetitious
ordeal is the law enforcement bureaucracy—different
people handle the search for the suspect, the initial
Interview of the woman victim, the search for evidence,
and the trial. The other reason for repeated telling is
to check up on the victim's story. She is, as a rule,
less believed than the victim of any other crime.
Northere in the present se¬
quence of male officer to
male detective to male
prosecutor does it occur to
anyone that a rtoman rtho
has just been raped may not
rtarn to tell the story to an¬
other strange male-
What can be done about these glaring Injustices for
the rape victim? The only solution, in the lonq run, is
the altering of societal attitudes regarding women, the
crime of rape, and its victims,
In a more Immediate sense some first steps can be
taken now. The very first would be to train the present
officers in each convrtunity to deal as humanely and as
effectively as possible with rape victims. In some
forces today the training for handling rapes is limited
to a ten minute explanation to rookies concerning the
correct way to fill out the report form.
Hand-in-hand with this in-house training should go
an Immediate and sincere effort by all departments to
recruit qualified women as officers and detectives.
Once enough women are on the force so that at least one
policewoman can be on duty at the station 24 hours a day
(as well as bemq out on patrol on all shifts), these off¬
icers should automatically be assigned to the rape cases.
Nowhere in the present sequence of male officer to male
detective to male prosecutor does there seem to be a
thought given to the possibility that a woman who has
just been raped by a man may have difficulty In relating
the story to a total stranger who is also a man. In
cities where it is feasible a rape squad should be set
up to Investigate these offenses. The members of the
squad should be female, and should be trained to do all
the necessary police tasks. In a situation like this
the victim would no longer have to be passed from person
to person to get everything done on her case.
The goal of the police involvement In a rape case
should be the apprehension, identification, and prepar¬
ation for prosecution of the rapist. This should be done
with the least possible added trauma to the victim. At
present, most police forces are a very lonq wav from
this goal.
from FREEDOM FROM RAPE
ANN ARBOR WOMEN'S CRISIS CENTER
1 .
2 .
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8 .
9.
10 .
Perpetuating the myths
Failing to teach women how to defend them¬
selves physically and emotionally
Refusing to change the laws concerning rape
Perpetuating a husband's right to rape his wife
Combining and confusing sex and hostility
Not providing sufficient inexpensive, good men¬
tal health care for all
Refusing women their right to control their
own lives
Teaching young women to be passive
Teaching young men to be aggressive
Not listening to women who have been raped
from FREEDOM FROM RAPE
ANN ARBOR WOMEN’S CRISIS CENTER
306 N. Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108
(313) 761-WISE
On May 21, 1973, the Ann Arbor City Council
voted to provide the WOMEN’S CRISIS CENTER OF
ANN ARBOR with $1700. The funds enable the all¬
volunteer agency, located in the basement of a local
church, to provide women with crisis assistance cov¬
ering a wide range of problems: suicide, problem
pregnancy, emergency housing, as well as emotional
counseling and practical assistance to rape victims.
Part of this unique grant, $500, was earmarked fot
the Center’s publication of 20,000 copies of a 16-pagc
booklet designed to alert women to the problem of
rape. FREEDOM FROM RAPE was initiated primar¬
ily in response to local needs and is being distributed
free of charge to Ann Arbor residents. But, in addi¬
tion to its local information, the booklet contains
articles that arc helpful and informative for women
everywhere: practical suggestions on combatting raw,
what to expect from the police, how to get medical
aid, what happens in criminal trials and civil suits as
well as articles on the rape laws, myths about rape
and one woman’ speak-out on rape. This booklet,
which is obtainable by mail for $.25 (bulk orders of
50 or more cost $.1 5 each), should be read by all
women to arm themselves against rape.
Order FREEDOM FROM RAPE from:
ANN ARBOR WOMEN’S CRISIS CENTER
306 N. Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108
The F.B.I. tells us that crimes of vio¬
lence are on the rise in our country. The
leader of this rise is forcible rape. From
41,890 in 1971 to 46,497 in 1972, the
jump in reported rapes was 11%-THE
HIGHEST OF ANY VIOLENT CRIME.
This is horrifying when criminologists
also estimate that only 1 out of 10 rapes
is reported. Considering this, we realize
that one rape occurs in this country
every minute.
from FREEDOM FROM RAPE
FORCIBLE RAPE
PERCENT CHANGE
o Ue
1966
1969
1970
>w \brk Women’s Anti-Rape Squad
[litNew York Women’s Anti-Rape Group gr ew out of the Rape Spcakout organized by NEW YORK
AL FEMINISTS in 1970. The thrust of the group’s work has been toward changing legislation which
:s rape victims, ending the mistreatment of women by police, hospitals, courts and public opinion,
iging women’s own consciousness by getting them to see rape as a political act-an act of power and
’rused by men to keep women subservient to and dependent on men.
| This is their record of success to date: '
'They have successfully pressured New York State legislators to change the most outrageous rape legis-
lation in the country. New York’s corroborative requirement previously demanded a witness to the
rape to secure conviction; now the victim just has to be beaten up. cut, or bruised. The N.Y. Anti-Rape
C ipis currently working on repealing this corroborative provisionThey do not believe that a man
the right to rape a woman who does not struggle enough to be physically damaged-particularly
when he is six-four, weighs 200 pounds and is holding a gun or a knife over her.
'They have forced New York City’s Police Department to set up a special sex crime unit, HEADED
AND STAFFED by women officers, to whom women now report rapes by calling 577-RAPE.
•They have caused the Mayor to form an inter-agency city task force to co-ordinate public and private
efforts to create “more sensitive and compassionate” procedures for handling sexual assault cases, and
set up a program under which reluctant victims would be encouraged to report assaults and for treating
victims of assaults. b
The group meets Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. at the WOMEN’S CENTER, 243 West 20th Street, New York
if York.
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Wednesday. March 10.1977
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4ut.m« Mi K I Reddi. immrd
an. i-na th. mnfophona. aaaunng
** |«*mh| that everything eia un
l*» imuoi An all famala aecuntv
trek). kubdued lha madan
ea iham until lha police armed
* (all i.infldani that lha ron
•<"•* «oi ba bothered again
• ** m mala 'intent Rharago't
. N.tua reapaci tai aduratmr
aeman and man
»• <t> ir rout I to dafama a
-- 'an in
• Mu yuM>< irintportatmn *«•
history of W.*TR.
Wxnen Agalmtf ape
LoCb independent
Kuadi f:rmad
WIT: HaR «formed on
tonal Woman » Day
•• hfi Cmatyano tap. renter* «p<
»P * matot etttaa
low annual com an non B-
g« national dnve lot an*
dafania for soma*
KIMOU
■ »jen.-| ..f MAR
wtfdefen- Khool
Fun soman police,
wooer .n Ve» Haven
Sstond innual cony
»AR become* ■
Damandi feta
■t iraaapocuitr." In- •
aa afid data
•» rt »AR gau IS0.0O- ,
gtam for raaaann
•» I*' KC * AR iporeorad iudr*
talc offica nationali.
V *'I Third annua) convent—
J00 iociU land rap* Beg.-
fmt fo' mutual 'tape-
in education tn -hool*
d *TJ Foace depu foam all fan
aia tap. dmamn. « !"
CUN
4 *AR formi a man • au>
*it»0
- M 1 **R candidatat breom*
tu.oc r Watt. Madiaon
•ofl Dayton
r »•' iwmitonai WomaniCon
fdteca oa the Eradicatin'
afRapa. mFira
at d’» Fault inaual coaanuion
. J» ilraiagt fo
Sm tMrtioni
V. ISOO.OOO govt g,«nt i.
■ARiMeiaRthebiliieit.'
Conmittaa
- I** VAR etaa gotamorahip
rOdgoa W«ovin enc
* '• «W local chap • pox
*** Rale of rap. rad wear
IWonr S7! by FBI fig
fifU anauai convent—
in SESSION
• oman warml* welcomed lha WAR
trprraanuii.at with than Annual Worn
ana Day Farad. Tha parade ipoiwored
b\ lha S her ago Homam Day Coalition
•" **«» «*> th* fatmniat candidata fo.
Mayor. Ma Tryna Wynn Foeaa A hun
drad thouaaod chaanng. waving, ugn
carrying soman marc had through lha
doentoen Mraau The event >aa con
dudad eiih a Woman i Day Rally in
Gram Park In attendance at tha rally
• aa our naely appointed Suprama
Court iudga tha Honourable Judy
Shulnght
Tha She*ago Moment Coalition i*
also providing free food and lodging
for tha 2.500 woman
from WAR locaia all act
Women Against Rape
(W.A.R.)- grows
Ma Wanda Live. a
paaaanutiia from
of lha
By Helen Hgpiwatei
Yeeterday aflarnoon lha Woman
Againat Rapa convention ipontomd a
paaaf diuuteion ba'u^n Sanatoram
Kama Yoaa|» a«n N V |, Polka Chief
•« I M. Mfoag of Saw Hasao. and P»of
Bm Proud of tha Woman* Studies Dept
at lha Unis, of Chicago The top- >aa
"Why the phenomenal grooih of WAR
aiaco (WIT
Tha panelt*u agrsM that fact
on wata mainly raaponalbla (I. i ha
natng frequency of rape in tha We.
)2i The iiapiituda and callOMMaa of
polka and courta in dealing with rape
• -time, 13• Tha rapid growth of worn
•aa liberation com. ounnsm tided bi
Jhe media, although oftan despite it
“■ “ I act the condition* that pre
I^PoUc. Chief «m Strong
fcUrk woman ut hat
B.l figure*
Jhat rape had
Cooyr.flh.
a hard
• hat hap
mtan lewed
pent, but powi
Momphm Tam
kctlsa
Mi Fulmigh
•ration and awutrrre art the
the high incraaae in the ufety of
rn today She fa«U that women_
get over their fear of fighting and o'
hurting aomeone aa they laarn aer-dr
fanae technique* WAR iponaon dam
■ '« «h*tf aelf-deferae method ipa.
Mlty da*gnad for women The rouna
ii now mandatorv lot gtrli in fra.
tuie*
There ace •rirral things * •om*>
.an do the Mid ~to help prevan
• rape ' Fmt of alt an. ihouldn t b.
embamiMd to look t>»hind her .1 ih.
977 D» Wo
ihinka iha *• b
■ lomeonc. * might pul I
•alka the
'i handi
a pock
_ • carry meral thing. .
whkh •rsS^^fcoutd be aery ef ,
fectlra In rarPtl^^^^ptat-knii
ting naadk*. hat |
a a waur plant Of*
• or rtnaga/
Kulmlght than ttpUmed
Li° “** kfkihkt »n attack
» woman t
round"!
lataly grab onr of hV
hand bonding them back a
hu handi away If • woman ■ being
hetd from bahmd. aha ihould tr> to
kick hat captor i knee with he. hee'
Than th» thoukd %tumi> hard un h.
•rutap Thv mot .ulnrrahi. pt.,r.
atm f.u are (hr r»r. .rndpipv
«>tar plan. <""• *|< .nm. *nd in
rayi tha
i» ba able
Ilka me'
— .— — -aa up to
to demonainu body
•be might me on me If I
attack I aald it
to play the part
.. . capiat
'took a practical i la nee. and
to dtlliar punch#*, chop*
blow* haal of palm bio..
-- poke* and kick*, blocking an
ly attacka with Mry a flinch
Whan I mw that aha really knew her
ituft I became nirtoue to tea wha<
would do with more than plav
full punch#. My na.i lung, had
tng makabaltair about it And a
"A"'" report .lined
ths gr.iuni*
d noth
Me Strong pointed out that worn
an could not look to lha police or lha
courta foe protection cither Police
man look vicarioua ptseaure in wm
mg rape report., often eubfarUng th.
woman to a more dahumanUlng and
repulaire a.partarxa tha a tha rapt it
•alf They .fun eaumad that th.
woman wu lying unlam aha wm m
tbly tniured
Sana to rasa Yonn talked about hai
ripatUiKt at a young lawyer before
WAR anatad whan lha Uwt again*<
rapa and lha court* ware not much
protection rithac Rapa waa tha only
crime where tha rlctim waa put on
UUI Mala |udgss and attorn.yi often
bat laved that a woman out atone ai
night wa* "aakin| for It" But would
they My that a man out alone ai
night wm 'aahing for it” if ha ware
robbed' San Yonn feat. that. "Thu
•ooety aspect* woman to look aai
ualty attractive to man and train* man
woman foa than own gratlflca
Thu*, "protocatton” uaad m a
k tn lha defame of a re pul in a
[•aw u inaicuMbW
i Proud eaptainad that whan
liberation movement da
I responsibility and equal
k »msn m aoclaty. that m
(hi for any woman to go
1 day or ought Worn
•tucked rapa m a
•a way that mala-run
t ied the myth that •
■M both hunted by
men Prof Proud
umming up ipeach
[‘Millions of woman
new feeling ol
refused to submit
olareble and won
[ They took lha mat
. WAR wm
is an
Rapa Squad
t ant.rap# iquada pop
uaoualy In lau 1971 In
i CKy. Detroit, and Albu
Tha squad wm actually an
walk, or drive, by four to
f woman roaming than neighbor
1 atreat* They watched for aua
>ua man. and listened foe scream*
P and other aourvda of trouble Whan tha
•quad mat a woman walkli* alone It
either drove, or walked with her Later
•ome aquada started informal teal am
vlCM lot woman
Aft*, lha founding of WAR one of
tha flrti protects by local WAR chap
tare wm aeiung up a network of anti
rapa aquadi throughout thalr city
Each squad woman raretvad aatf-def
•nee training
Moat of tha aquada now in large
ctiraa are made up of black and brown
•oman becauM non-white woman are
raped more than white woman
BareuM lha poltre and the court*
•are ineffective in keeping replsu off
lha street*, and bacaure many woman
afraid of police humiliation, refused
to report rape*, tome ajuadi itartad
tackling lha rapau directly Since
moat man rapa In thalr own netgh
borhood*. and are often known to tha
victim, tha aquad. along with neigh
horhood women, caught, triad, and
sen lanced known raptate In thalr own
•ay
Today WAR", ami rape aquada art
a common aght on dark etty street.
Due to thalr courage and determine
lion rapa occun at a fifth the rale o
1971 Ai iMt Shacago i women car -
lha qi-iat of an evening wall
• G-aph.ci Con.cl.v. c/o Chicago Womans Liberal ion Union KiOB,i.,m Chicago 606 5 •
A RAPE CONFERENCE FORMAT
First Day
/. Counseling Rape Victims
A. What can a counseling situation achieve
B. What are the reactions typically associated
with rape victims
C. What are the problems the victim may face
(from) - hospitals, police, courts.... fam¬
ily and friends
D. How might those relating to the victim (fam¬
ily, friends, husband, boyfriend) be helped
in dealing with their own feelings and in ....
providing positive help to the victim
E. What assumptions might counselors have
about rape, e.g., the victim's having a 'vic¬
tim’s personality', the victim's acquiescence
being considered as accepting or wanting the
attach ....
//. Preventing Rapes
A. Getting information about dangerous situa¬
tions to women without alienating them
B. How the woman without self-defense can
protect herself
C. Encouraging self-defense courses for women-
in high school and college physical education
courses and in adult education programs....
Second Day
/. What Rape Means to Women
A. What is rape
B. How does rape affect all women
C. How does a rape affect a rape victim ....
II. Legal Aspects of Rape
A. What is the law
B. What are the local police procedures in in¬
vestigating a rape
C. What are the problems in prosecuting a rape.
What questions can a woman be expected to
be asked during a trial
D. What kinds of police and legal reforms have
been adopted, and what other ones are being
pushed
Hi- Medical Aspects of Rape
A. The victim's needs
B. Medical evidence that is necessary or useful
in prosecuting rape cases
C. What are local emergency room procedures
D. Reforms in hospital treatment that are being
adopted or proposed
E. What type, and where is medical treatment
available to a woman who does not wish to
report a rape ....
IV. Where From Here
A. What would be better done locally, what
would be better done statewide
B. Local women decide on needs for commun¬
ity education and counseling/What needs to
be done/How is energy to be distributed be¬
tween the two activities/Who is going to be
responsible for what
From:
RAPE CRISIS CENTER NEWSLETTER,
March-April, ’73
P.O. Box 21005
Washington, D.C. 20009
151
MYTH vs. TRUTH
RAPE COUNSELING SERVICES
The following is a list of rape counseling services
which are now in operation. Most rape hotlines and
crisis centers provide either all or some of the fol¬
lowing:
1. Emergency telephone hotline for referrals, emo¬
tional support, accompaniment to the hospital,
police or doctor, emergency housing..
2. Information and classes on rape prevention.
3. Organization of public awareness campaigns to
:ment ofr:
improve police and hospital treatment of rape
victims.
4. Speakers on rape and anti-rape tactics.
5. Resources for public commissions and task forces
on rape.
6. Legislative lobbying to change rape laws.
Ann Arbor Crisis Center (313)
Baltimore Rape Counseling (301)
Bay Area Women Against Rape (415)
Cambridge Women Against Rape (617)
761-WISE
366-6475
841-0370
492-RAPE
Chapel Hill Women’s
Assault Line
Assault Line (919)
Chicago Rape Crisis Center (N.)(312)
(S.) (312)
Iowa City Hotline (319)
Los Angeles Hotline (213)
Madison Rape Crisis Center (608)
Minneapolis Rape Crisis Center (612)
New York Women Against Rape (212)
Philadelphia Women
Against Rape (215)
Phoenix Hotline (602)
929-7177
728-1920
667-1929
3384800
823-4774
251-RAPE
374-4357
675-7720
842-1427
965-3348
965-6708
San Diego Rape Crisis Center
Seattle Rape Relief
University City, Missouri
Rape Center
Washington D.C.
Rape Crisis Center
Ypsilanti Rape Relief
(714) 239-RAPE
(206) 632-4747
(314) 727-2727
(202) 333-RAPE
(313) 485-3222
GROUPS IN THE PLANNING STAGES
Albuquerque, N.M.
Anchorage, Alaska
Kansas City, Missouri
Sacramento, California
Tallahassee, Florida
Contact Women’s Center
1824 Los Lomos
Albuquerque, N.M. 87106
(505)277-3716
Contact Women’s Liberation
732 “O” Street, No. 3
Contact the Women’s Center
5138 Tracy
Contact the Women's Center
1221 20th Street
Contact the Women’t Center
Florida State University
152
MYTH
Any woman who resists rape will probably be killed.
TRUTH
Few rapists are murderers. Many rapists score as better
adjusted than control groups on psychological exams.
MYTH
The rapist is a sex-starved deviant.
TRUTH
The rapist is 17 to 30 years, happily married, and scores
normal on psychological exams.
MYTH
The woman who gets raped asks for it by her dress and
behavior.
TRUTH
Most rapes (53% to 90%) are planned in advance 82% of
the victims have a good reputation. Nice girls DO get
raped.
FACT
Over 40.000 rapes are reported annually. The FBI esti¬
mates these as only 10% of actual rapes. This means over
400.000 rapes annually or a rape every minute and a half.
CONCLUSION
YOU CAN BE RAPED
THE FRONTAL ATTACK
The best parts of his anatomy to aim for are the eyes and
• Smash his nose with your head or use an upward
blow with the palm of your hand.
• Kick upward at his knee cap.
• Chop at his throat (especially his Adam's apple) or
across his nose with the side of your hand.
Once you break away, leave immediately as rapidly as
possible.
WOMEN’S LAW or HOW TO STOP RAPE
Additional copies from The Women’s Center
1824 Las Lomas, N.E., University of New
Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106
New and exclusively ours in N.Y.!
A dual-purpose flashlight
and animal repellent device
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The "Guardian" dog
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canister of a non-lethal / /
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It is accurate up to 15 feet
—the chemical is sprayed '
directly where the light-
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Madison Av»„ 45 th SL, New York, N.Y.; Short Hitls, N. J.
POLICE: THE SECOND RAPE
A woman in Berkeley said of her interrogation
by police after her rape that "the rape ms prob
ably the least traumatic event of the whole even¬
ing. If I’m ever raped again... I wouldn't reponl
to the police because of all the degradation."
Yet another rape victim makes the following
point in the August, 1973 issue of MS. in the let¬
ters column:
"Women should report all rapes to the police
Currently, only about one out of ten rapes is re¬
ported, mostly because of embarrassment and
fear. No matter how bad the police are, reporting
all rapes is the only way to have rape recogniiei
by everyone as the large, serious problem that it i
and to get more legal action against it. Every wm
an owes it to her sisters to report a rape, if it wil
perhaps take a rapist off the street before helm
another woman....
"All women should know what to expect frml
the police. Do not expect sympathy: policemen
are MEN first. Expect to be questioned like a
criminal ....
"If your case gets to court, that’s a whole otm
story .. .. Expect everyone, including your best
friends, to urge you to drop it all along the line,
but DO NOT give in. Dropping a case is condom
the rape." I
LET’S BRING BACK
SAFETY ON THE STREETS
A National Call For a Women’s Crusade
For Safety on the Streets (S.O.S.)
“Freedom from fear is a fundamental righto!
every human being . .. yet accidents and assiib
occurring on our streets and....
“A pervasive fear is becoming a major problto
contemporary life. Because of a deep concern for
safety level of our communities, the execution
mittee of the Women’s Conference of the Nitioa
Safety Council, representing some 30 to 50 milk
women, announces a national call for a womei'i
crusade for Safety On the Streets (S.O.S.)
“CHANGE BEGINS WITH CARING ENOl
Any woman who is concerned about the probk
safety on the streets need not feel isolated orb
As an individual she can initiate action, or, thre
club or community group, she can initiate actk
suggested in the following steps.”
Available from:
WOMEN’S DEPARTMENT
National Safety Council
425 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611
Report Of The Washington, D.C. Task Force On Rape
. That another woman said the defendant raped her and that the defendant claimed consent-should be
tissible when the defendant again claims consent to a charge of rape.
'Host prosecutors believe that a trial judge would now exclude such evidence, despite its probative value,
eathe rule that evidence of other crimes by a defendant should not be admitted at his trial for a different
re....
'/&(/ when a woman is tried for murder for poisoning her child, the fact that another of her children also
tty poison at an earlier time is admissible to negate a defense that the child was poisoned by accident.
it is possible that one child would accidentally poison herself, it is highly improbable that two children
iksame household would do so at different times. So too, whereas it is possible that one woman would con-
tto intercourse with a defendant and then claim rape, it is highly improbable that two women would do so in
i ntdion with the same defendant.
7he importance of such testimony should not be discounted. A good number of rapists always claim consent
ilhetna becomes a swearing contest between the defendant and the complaining witness, with the comp/ain-
™ history being paraded before the jury, and without the jury's learning of prior instances when the de-
bunt hos claimed consent to a charge of rape.
The fact that three other women, unknown to onf another, also have reported being raped by the defendant
m, when questioned by the police, he has claimed consent in each instance, is intensely revealing as to the
wood of the defendant s story that the complaining witness consented."
"A person who is faced with the threat of physical harm and who must make a snap decision as to how to
lis in a no-win situation. If she resists, she faces physical harm, the degree of which is unknown. If the actor
mens to slap her, how does she know whether he will escalate into beating her, choking her, or even killing
’If she does not resist but submits out of fear, she has no 'proof that the threat was of death or grave bodily
n, or even that there was any threat at all. The underlying assumption seems to be that any woman worthy
he protection of the law would defend her virtue by at least undergoing a significant degree of physical harm
n ‘giving in'. Subjecting a person to any harm whatsoever should be an outrage both to the victim and to
dy.
In robbery, it is understood that an underlying element of the offense is that property was taken from the
imagainst the victim’s will, without the victim's consent. However, there is no requirement that the prosecu-
prove that the force or threats used produced fear of 'death or grave bodily harm'. The fact that the defen-
I USED fear to acquire the property is sufficient. The implication seems to be that the law grants more pro-
ion to property than to the person. ...
'Noperson should be required by law to make a choice between being injured and being able to prove a
gt of rape. Behavior producing submission out of actual fear of any harm whatsoever should be sufficient to
titute rape ...."
emendations
The standard of proof for ‘forcible rape' should not require that the victim's fear have been reasonable or
the fear have been of death or grave bodily harm, but only that her submission was achieved by the use of
f or the threat of force which put her in actual fear of physical harm. The crime of rape should also encom-
the following:
1) threats of harm against another person, such as a friend or relative of the victim.
2) threats of kidnapping.
3) substantially impairing the victim’s power to appraise or control her conduct by administering an intox¬
icant or drug without her knowledge or consent.
4) engaging the victim in sexual intercourse with the knowledge that she is mentally incapable of under¬
standing the nature of the conduct (e.g., because of mental illness or mental retardation).
5) engaging the victim in sexual intercourse with the knowledge that she is unaware that a sexual act is
being committed (e.g., fully or partially unconscious victim; doctor's examining table trickery).
6) the use of threats other than of physical harm, such as economic coercion or blackmail.
1) A related problem is sexual intercourse between a person in official custody or detained against her will
in a hospital, prison or other institution and a person who has supervisory or disciplinary authority over
her. While it is possible that such intercourse is truly a product of free will on the part of the inmate
there is a strong likelihood that subtle if not overt coercion is present. Thus an absolute prohibition is
justified...."
w
met women all over the United States who are
deeply angered at the complicity of this society in
aiding and abetting the growing number of rapists.
The dirty secret is out in the open everywhere: male-
made and male-administered rape laws punish the
victim and aid the criminal. Many women are chan¬
neling this anger into learning the martial arts; others
have taken it upon themselves to help protect women
from rapists on the loose by posting detailed descrip¬
tions of rapists and their modus operandi in places
frequented by women. There are even rumors that
women are carrying out extra-legal “retaliation.”
Women in Washington, D.C., a city with one of the
highest (and climbing) rape rates in the nation, de¬
cided to make a frontal attack on the processes of
government and the institutions which perpetuate
the maltreatment of rape victims. Through strong and
insistent pressure, feminists persuaded the City Coun¬
cil’s Committee on Public Safety to appoint a task
force to investigate and offer solutions to the prob¬
lems encountered in the “administration of justice
relating to rape.” The Task Force’s recommendations
were to serve as a framework for public hearings on
rape (held in September, 1973), which in turn would
generate specific proposals to be presented to both
Houses of the United States Congress for imple¬
mentation.
There have not been many official task forces like
this one. It consisted of five women—an assistant
U.S. district attorney, an assistant Corporation coun¬
sel, a representative of the Washington D.C. Rape
Crisis Center, a representative of the Women’s Legal
Defense Fund, a member of the D.C. Commission on
the Status of Women—and one man, representing the
police. This extraordinary composition goes a long
way in explaining the extremely progressive recom¬
mendations made by the Task Force. The sixty-page
Report is a model in the lucid, no-nonsense way in
which it cuts through the myths, half-truths,
realities, and social taboos underpinning the treat¬
ment of rape and rape victims. If the recommenda¬
tions are accepted by the Congressional Committees
on the District of Columbia, and there is no reason
to believe that they will not be, the Task Force will
have made a major contribution to reversing the
discouraging, demeaning, humiliating treatment re¬
ceived by a woman who is raped and attempts to see
her aggressor brought to justice.
continued on next page
In addition to the obvious and expected recom¬
mendations (e.g., “The police should not threaten or
demean a rape victim”; or, “Every effort should be
made to hire more qualified female police officers”
to deal with sex offences), here are some of the more
“radical” recommendations:
* A pamphlet explaining police, hospital and court
procedures should be given to all rape victims.
* Five to ten specially-trained, publicly paid gyne¬
cologists should be on call to do all examinations
of rape victims.
* The standard of proof for forcible rape should
not require that the victim’s fear have been
reasonable or that the fear have been of death or
grave bodily harm, but only that her submission
was achieved by the use of force which put her
in actual fear of physical harm.
* The penalty for the crime of rape should be
lowered to bring it into line with penalties for
other crimes of violence.
* Prior instances where a defendant has claimed
consent to a charge of rape should be admissible
where he raises a defense of consent to a charge
of rape.
We recommend that any woman or group of
women interested in mounting a similar effort in
their cities or states should obtain a copy of the
report and a copy of the September hearings held by
the District of Columbia City Council. The Report of
the Task Force is available free from:
MS. ROBIN COFFER
District of Columbia City Council
City Hall
14th and E Streets, N.W.
Room 507
Washington, D.C.
The report of the hearings may be
obtained free from:
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COMMITTEE
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20515
VIOLENCE AS AMOUR
In the Tremble case, Crim. No. 886-71 the trial
transcript shows that the complainant testified
that at 1:40 a.m. the defendant had accosted her,
a lone woman, who was a stranger to him, immedi¬
ately after she had entered her car parked on a
public street. With his trousers down around his
hips and his penis exposed and erect, he opened
her car door, then pushed her back down on the
seat and got on top of her. His legs and privates
were in contact with her body at the time. She
forced him out of the car but he got his knee back
inside the car door and struggled with the com¬
plainant until he was able to grab her wrist and
wrench her from the auto. He then continued to
struggle with her until she screamed, apparently
frightening him into releasing her and fleeing from
the scene. The defendant claimed he was elsewhere
at the time of the assault.... The defendant was
found guilty of robbery of the complainant's
purse and assault with intent to commit rape. The
Court of Appeals REVERSED THE CONVICTION
OF ASS A UL T WITH A TTEMPT TO COMMIT
RAPE on grounds that there was not sufficient
evidence to go to the jury, stating:
“That there was an assault is beyond question.
That the appellant while sexually exposed lay
above and reached beyond the woman on the
automobile seat and seized her purse was es¬
tablished. That while so acting he may have
found some sexual self-gratification may be
assumed. That he hoped he might arouse her
desire or that she might somehow consent to
his going further can, for the present purposes,
be taken for granted. But there is no evidence
that he intended by force and violence and
against the woman’s consent to achieve
penetration.’’. / p. 1274/
Washington, D.C.
REPORT OF TASK FORCE ON RAPE
HOW TO SET UP A TASK FORCE ONI
A Task Force is reformist. Task Force-typer
mendations, even if implemented, will not stopt
Only drastic changes in ideas and values will dol
But, this is one way at least to ease the pain now]
curred by women AFTER they have been raped.]
1. Marshal the evidence which documen
maltreatment of victims by police, I
courts. (Gather personal testimony fit
women in your area if you can.) Present]
this-along with the D.C. Report-toi
woman council member or legislative rep]
resentativc. (Seeing the latter are in <
supply, you might have to find a “syn
thetic” man.)
2. Get prominent women (and men)-p
sionals, community leaders, etc.-tol
your request for the formation of a I
task force on rape.
3. Have ready the names of women who)
trust (feminists, preferably) to recon
for membership on the task force. Fedi
women in the D.A.’s office, hospitals,!
-where these exist- to recommend asij
resentatives of those institutions. Menfi
bureaucratic agencies have been found|
notoriously defensive about their agei
treatment of women. Alternatively, be
prepared to recommend sympathetic n
4. If you want to secure real changes, try#
that the task force is kept small—it is
to raise the consciousness of sympatl
men in small groups.
5. Insist that the majority be women.The]
arguments are self-evident.
6. Try to see that the mandate of the t
includes reporting SPECIFIC recon
tions to the City Council, Legislature,^
not just generalized sentimentalities. !
THE EC
ROAD FLARES
The laws of many states require motorists to carry road flares in
their vehicles, so that, in the event of a break-down on a dark road,
they can signal for help and prevent other vehicles from colliding with
the disabled one.
We think it is an excellent idea for women to observe this law-to
carry road flares in their cars, especially when driving alone.
The road flare works quite simply: it is a 12-inch match-like tube
covered with paper with a tab. Pulling the tab removes the paper cover¬
ing the head in one easy stroke. This exposes the cap, which is removed,
allowing the match-like head to be struck on any scratchy surface to
ignite it. The flare has a 1 ‘/ 2 -inch spike on the bottom so that it can be
stuck into the ground. The flares are highly inflammable and should be
kept out of the reach of children. Also, read the instructions very
carefully, and perhaps practice using it, before being caught in an
emergency situation. Flares cost 20d to 30 i each, and are obtainable
from most hardware or auto-supply stores.
154
: THE ALL-AMERICAN CRIME
Susan Griffin
Magazine, September, 1971
In the spectrum of male behavior, rape, the per-
combination of sex and violence, is the penulti-
act. Erotic pleasure cannot be separated from
, and in our culture male eroticism is wedded
er. Not only should a man be taller and strong-
ma female in the perfect love-match, but he
also demonstrate his superior strength in ges-
of dominance which are perceived as amorous.
the law attempts to make a clear division be-
rape and sexual intercourse, in fact the courts
it difficult to distinguish between a case where
decision to copulate was mutual and where a man
:ed himself upon his partner. . . .
"According to the double standard, a woman who
lad sexual intercourse out of wedlock cannot be
Rape is'not only a crime of aggression against
body; it is a transgression against chastity as de-
by men. When a woman is forced into a sexual
nship, she has, according to the male ethos,
violated. But she is also defiled if she does not
according to the double standard, bv main-
her chastity, or confining her sexual activities
monogamous relationship.”
Ibis was the first, and is still the best, statement
swing the political implications of rape.
[tints are available from:
IENDSOF MALATESTA
I. Box 72
Iwell Station
ffalo. New York 14222
HOMAN’S PLACE
il Broadway
Hand, California 94618
25 *
oah's Ark, Inc. for Ramparts, 1971
RAPE
by Eve Norman
In her first book, Eve Norman attempts to answer
questions about rape which concern all women, and
at the same time, to dispel the myths about rape
which have been reinforced by the media. Is rape a
sexual act brought upon the victim by her own se¬
ductiveness? Are all rapists mentally ill? What are the
attitudes of the police, the hospitals, the courts, and
why were these attitudes developed? Why do so few
rape victims report the crime? Eve Norman believes:
“The crime of rape has no parallel. It is the ONLY
crime in which the victim is treated like a criminal by
the police, the hospitals, the courts.” The author is
the first state coordinator of California’s National
Organization for Women. She is also one of the foun¬
ders of the recently-formed Los Angeles Commision
on Rape.
Available from:
WOLLSTONECRAFT INCORPORATED
9107 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, California 90210
VIOLENCE AND THE
MASCULINE MYSTIQUE
by Lucy Komisar
“The ultimate proof of manhood is in sexual vio¬
lence. Even the language of sex is a lexicon that des¬
cribes the power of men over women. Men are ag¬
gressive as they take or make women, showing their
potency (power) in the conquest. Women, on the
other hand, submit and surrender, allowing them¬
selves to be violated and possessed. Havelock Ellis de¬
clares the basic sado-masochism of such a concept to
be certainly normal. ... He says: In men it is possible
to trace a tendency to inflict pain on the women they
love. It is still easier to trace in women a delight in
experiencing physical pain when it is inflicted by a
lover and an eagerness to accept subjection to his will.
Chivalry was an early example of the worship of mas¬
culine violence tied in with sexual dominance. Then
and later, duels were fought to protect the honor of
women and wars waged to uphold the honor of
states. In the latter endeavor, the women were raped
instead of honored. Both traditions have been proud¬
ly continued, and in both the women have been ob¬
jects to conquer and to parade as the validation of
someone’s manhood: THEY HAVE NO HONOR
OF THEIR OWN.”
Available from:
KNOW, INC.
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
25* plus 5* postage
FIVE REASONS AND EIGHTEEN WAYS
TO IMPROVE YOUR STREET LIGHTING
Available from:
STREET AND HIGHWAY SAFETY
LIGHTING BUREAU
Department R
110 E. 59th Street
New York, New York 10022
Fewer than 10 copies free
Self-Defense For Hitchhiking
When you are hitchhiking, be pre¬
pared. Don't get ingo a car with
sore than one male. Look them
over. Carry your comb or your keys
ready in your hand. A key jabbed
in his eye or a comb scraped
across the ear, throat or eye is
a good defense.
If he grabs your leg or groin,
don't bother to push away his
hands. Either grab his little
finger and yank it back to break
it or jab him in the eyes: Using
your first two fingers as prongs.
Bend your middle finger so there
will be equal contact and with a
quick snake-like motion of your
forearm jab him in the eyes.
Don't waste your energy in useless Another defense is the knuckle,
ways like beating on his chest or punch to the neck. Curl the first
trying to wriggle free from a bear two joints of your fingers down so
hug. When you get into the car, that the third section of your
lighf up a cigarette. It is a fingers makes a flat surface with
useful weapon. If you get into the back of your hand. Drive your
trouble, put your cigarette out in knuckles into your attacker's
his face. wind pipe. Or drive the palm of
your hand up into his nose.
From: AIN’T I A WOMAN. Vol. I. No. 14. P.O. Box 1169, Iowa City, Iowa 52240, $5/year
1 55
“The feelings of fear, guilt, shame and anxiety have caused us to shroud rape in secrecy
as if it were something we wanted or catised to happen to ourselves. It is time for women
to understand themselves, recognize the enemy and move out to STOP RAPE. It is toward
this goal that this Handbook has been written.”
Available from:
WOMEN AGAINST RAPE 18121 Patton Detroit, Michigan 48219 $1.00
WHAT TO DO IF YOU’VE BEEN RAPED
1. GO IMMEDIATELY TO A
HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM.
You need time to calm down, seek support,a-:
think about reporting the rape before you face
police. If there is a Rape Crisis Center or Rape
Hotline in your area, call the women there to ac¬
company you or to talk to you.
Your medical concerns are:
* Body injury and trauma.
♦The possibility of pregnancy. Sometimes a
high dosage of estrogen or DES is administered
routinely to a rape victim at a hospital. Be aware
of your options! There is some evidence to indicate
that this drug may induce vaginal cancer. Menstnu
extraction or abortion may be preferable to you
rather than taking this risk. For more informatioa
on the dangers of this drug, see the article onDE:
in the Health Section.
* VD prevention. Penicillin can be administer
if you are not allergic to it, but follow-up is
essential.
* A pelvic exam. A pelvic exam is necessary is
only for treatment of your injuries, but also for
collecting the medical evidence (such as spermir
your vagina) for prosecution.
2. SHOULD YOU DECIDE TO PROSECUTE,
YOU MUST CALL THE POLICE IMMEDIATE!.
You will probably have to tell the story mam
times to unsympathetic male police. This is the
only way that the rapist can be caught and pre¬
vented from attacking other women, even you,
again.
3. RAPE IS UGLY. WOMEN HAVE CONFUSI'
FEELINGS OF GUILT AND HORROR ABOUT
Try to express your anger and talk about it
with other supportive women who can help you
dealing with this experience.
YOUR FRIENDLY RAPIST
"Allowing a male friend into your home who
turns violent and rapes you cannot be prosecuted
in court. In the eyes of the court, allowing the
male into your home implies consent for him to
have sexual intercourse with you. The courts ap¬
parently see that opening your front door to a man
means that the vagina is opened to his penis. As
brash and boorish as these conclusions may sound,
we must understand that they constitute the
thinking of the society and the courts, not of wom¬
en. It is no chance of fate that one man can visit
another in his home, have an argument where the
visitor beats up the other man and the beaten man
can charge his former friend with assault. Yet a
woman who has been raped in her home by a for¬
mer male friend need not press charges because
NO COURT will believe she didn’t consent."
from STOP RAPE
THE ANTI-RAPE SQUAD, OR
REINSTATING THE EVENING WALK
"There is a way to reclaim our civil liberties and
avoid the danger of being alone; a way to avoid the
enfeeblement of having a protector; a way to pro¬
vide support for other women. Groups of women
(4-8) are not hassled by men on the streets. The
man who calls 'chick'or ‘babe’ to a woman alone
hurries by a group of women. Rape most common¬
ly occurs when a woman is alone and the male
knows he can overpower her. Four to eight women
together out for an evening walk (patrol) will not
be threatened by individual men waiting to prey
on one woman. These four to eight women can
break into smaller groups of two to three and walk
through blocks in their neighborhood and can do
much more than enjoy the exercise and freedom
of the evening walk. They can make the streets
safe for other women. ”
from STOP RAPE
156
Heel of Palm Blow — flex your wrist, stretch fingers back,
tuck thumb in (always do this, so that you don't acciden-
ally catch your thumb on something-ouch again). Striking
surface is that nice strong bone called the heel of the palm.
Hit him under the chin, hard, or on the end of his nose, a
blow which can be fatal if delivered with enough force.
(Fig. 9)
IF ATTACKED
“If attacked on the street and you do make it
up to a porch of a lighted house-remember, you
are not dropping in for a visit, if no one comes to
the door immediately—do not stand there and
politely ring the door bell again-BREAK THE
GLASS.
“If you find yourself in danger in an apartment
building-yell FIRE, not HELP. In an elevator,
press the emergency button.
"Always ask servicemen (deliverymen, phone
company, gas or electric, etc.) for identification.
If still skeptical, ask for his superior’s name and
make a quick phone call. LEAVE HIM WAITING
OUTSIDE.
"If the door bell rings at night, and you are
alone, call out in a loud voice: “Sit still, John, I’ll
get it.”
RAPE AND FEMININITY
"The image of femininity has also served toh
women at the mercy of men. By thinking olou¬
selves as fragile, delicate creatures we learn lot,
pass any of the things we could learn for our on
physical self-defense. And we have been encov-
aged to dress to fit the fragile image which Im
us with shoes we can barely hobble in, no lessu
with, skirts that either tangle at the ankles orr.
too tight for moving fast, handbags and all hint,
of trappings to prevent movement, in addition ,«
are taught that our only value is as a sexual oit:<
and we are expected to dress accordingly and it
are accused of being enticing. These kinds of da
ing not only support the image of delicacy and
sexual objectification, but actually prevent »«*i
from being able to run, kick or move with ivte
ever self-defense measure the situation calls for
when being approached by a rapist. ”
from STOP RAF!
b. A comb, brush, key or pencil can be an elftcn
weapon. (See Fig. 1) Or dig the teeth of your comb r
your fingernails) into his face.
from STOP RAPE
WOMEN’S MARTIAL ARTS UNION
(EAST COAST)
(212) 873-0206
"Oppressed peoples often believe that their op¬
pressors are invulnerable. As long as this situation
persists with women in regard to men, we will be
easy victims of rape, assault and psychological
abuse. This situation WILL persist as long as we
rely on men for our sole protection and fail to ac¬
cept the responsibility for our own defense."
In response to the rising violence against wom¬
en, increasing numbers of women have turned to
some form of self-defense or one of the martial arts.
In order to catalyze interest of women in the martial
arts, as well as to give support to women who are
trying to combat sexism within their dojos, women
in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and
Washington, D.C. have joined forces to form the
WOMEN’S MARTIAL ARTS UNION. As their cur¬
rent projects, the women are sharing self-defense tech¬
niques taken from all of the martial arts, in order to
arrive at the most suitable and effective set to deal
with situations of violence that women often encoun¬
ter. Furthermore, by using role-playing techniques
(e.g., one woman plays the role of a woman trying to
sit in the park, while another woman plays the role of
a man pursuing her from one bench to another), they
have been able to develop effective verbal and physi¬
cal responses to concrete situations.
THE WOMEN’S MARTIAL ARTS UNION has also
been addressing itself to the severe problem of sexism
in the dojos. Until recently, women were totally ex¬
cluded from any participation in the martial arts. But
the male instructors in tne Oriental martial arts were
not above seeing the profit to be made in women’s
needs to defend themselves. Now that they have been
able to infiltrate this Oriental bastion of male domina¬
tion, they are pinched and cuddled and laughed at.
Often the women are only allowed to work out. As
soon as the sparring begins, the women must get
dressed and leave. THE WOMEN’S MARTIAL ARTS
UNION is attempting to combat these sexist indigni¬
ties, both in the dojos and at the tournaments, as
well as to offer assistance to beginners in helping
them locate a less-sexist school. For this purpose,
they have drawn up referral lists based on their own
personal experiences.
157
Feminist Karate Union
When Py Bateman organized her first karate session
awomen in the fall of 1971, each of the fifteen
romen who signed up did so because they had been
sacked by men. Since that time Py’s classes have be-
wne so popular that she has had as many as 130 stu-
itnts enroll for one session. Psychotherapists are now
sen referring women patients to her classes as a meth-
d of getting them to recognize their anger and substi-
ate it for guilt. What began as one aspect of a wom-
s's survival program organized by the University of
klhington Women’s Commission has mushroomed
othat the Union has purchased a storefront where
uses are held. For a very minimal fee, any woman
om age seven on up can work out as often as she
rishes each week. To meet the increasing demand,
ike Union has begun offering training sessions for as-
astant instructors.
What is the reason for this success? As Py explains
it,there are two reasons. Women are insulted by the
Itraeaning treatment they receive from male instruc¬
ts, They also feel a sense of awkwardness in training
fleir bodies and in acting out physical aggressiveness.
Feminist-oriented classes tailor instruction to worn-
L’s specific self-defense needs. The drills practiced
in class are not just for body and reflex conditioning,
iut also to prepare women for concrete situations
they might encounter. For example, what to do if
there’s a strange man waiting for you in your bed¬
room when you get home. “O.K. Now let’s practise
the jab to his eyes.”
As male instructors never deal with this ambiva¬
lence, many women drop out, believing that they are
somehow deficient. To counteract this, Py holds con¬
sciousness-raising sessions at the beginning of each
meeting and whenever the class undertakes a new or
difficult physical action. Airing feelings of fear and
awkwardness diminishes those feelings. Each woman
discovers that she is not alone in her experience,
building a sense of solidarity in the class that speeds
the pace of learning.
As the women become more proficient, they enter
mixed tournaments to fight against men. Py feels
that women who have been trained initially in a fem¬
inist school are more self-confident, more skilled, and
ultimately more successful in fighting than women
who are trained exclusively in male dojos. But if fem¬
inist-taught classes are not available, any training is
better than none. What is important is that women
learn to defend themselves. “Rape will only stop,”
Py believes, “when it becomes dangerous for a man
to attack a woman.”
On the question of whether women should join an
all-woman or a coeducational class, the Union states:
“On the one hand, many women feel less inhibited
and are free from male chauvinism and sex-role stereo¬
typing. A women’s class, moreover, may be specifi¬
cally geared to women’s self-defense needs. (Women’s
bodies, and therefore vulnerabilities, are certainly
different from men’s. Women also tend to fear vio¬
lence and have ambivalent feelings about being rough.
Often, women need the encouragement to express
their aggression that only women teachers are pre¬
pared to give.) Women’s classes can offer women the
opportunities to talk and discuss their fears.
“On the other hand, the advantage of a coed class
is that women will learn to deal with men as they
would have to on the street. In a mixed class, women
can confront their fears of men. Women also get a
chance to see that men too can be clumsy and lack
confidence at first. . . .
“It is a long struggle to change mentally to stand
up for ourselves—in physical confrontations in our
jobs and in our relationships. We need to get over
certain ideas about non-violence which keep us de¬
pendent on men whom we allow and expect to be
violent for us. We need to become acquainted with
our physical and mental resources; we need to get
used to feeling a little pain. We need to learn to be¬
lieve in ourselves. Most important of all, we need to
feel that we are worth defending.”
701 N. 76th Street
Seattle, Washington 98103
SELF-DEFENSE FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN:
A Physical Education Course
by Bruce Tegner and Alice McGrath
“If you are confronted by more than one adversary,
your only chance of survival is to apply the defense
actions with all the apparent courage you can muster.
Two men who attempt to attack a single woman or
girl arc even more cowardly and perverse than a single
attacker. That means that they are even less open to
reason and your only alternative is to fly into action
with your full strength. Rely on kicking as your prin¬
ciple defense. Avoid coming within their fist range,
if you can. If you are already within close range, de¬
pend on your finger stabbing into the eyes and throat.
Behave as though you mean to win and your chance
of success is very good.”
This book provides instructions for self-defense in
the home, in elevators, walking alone on streets, etc.
The simple, practical approach shows effective tech¬
niques which anyone can learn. This is not ceremonial
warrior arts, or contest karate, it is practical self-
defense for real people in real-life situations of
emergency.
Available from:
SELF-DEFENSE fo>
GIRLS & women:
A PHYSICAL EDUCATION COURSE
by BRUCE TEGNER l ALICE McGRATH
“...offtrj a simple, effective, highly intelligent approach to...
self-defense.. Highly practical in every respect, the book can be
used with equal benefit by teacher, student and ordinary Jean
Doe..."
SCHOLASTIC COACH
THOR PUBLISHING COMPANY
Box 1782
Ventura, California 93001
A 16mm film, based on the book, SELF-DEFENSE
FOR GIRLS, is available from:
BFA EDUCATIONAL MEDIA
2211 Michigan Avenue
Santa Monica, California 90404
SUBMITTING TO FEAR
"I have now talked to 62 women who have been
raped by strangers. The details of rape vary, but
the pattern of nearly all rapes is remarkably the
same and our society treats the victims in a con¬
sistent way... Women threatened with rape almost
never scream or fight back, nearly always succumb,
and rarely report the crime... The rapist's job is
easy. He is almost never convicted. (One woman
said) 7 had no confidence in my ability to defend
myself. / knew I'd miss. Then / knew he'd kill me.'
A number of women said they knew they should
kick them in the groin, but most said they just
couldn’t do that. They would involuntarily cover
their mouths with their hands in revulsion when
they contemplated such a violent act. Women are
simply not brought up to hurt others violently.
They are brought up to feel fear and terror when
attempting to cope with an aggressive male who is
clearly bigger and stronger than they are."
SELF-DEFENSE FOR WOMEN
by Jerrold N. Offstein, Third Degree Black Belt
and Teaching Specialist, Stanford University
“According to our research in 100% of the cases
in which the woman SUCCESSFULLY REPELLED
or ESCAPED FROM the assault, there was one core-
mon element: RESISTANCE by the attacked worms
whether it was the making of noise or physical re- I
sistance or a combination of the two. NO ONE that I
we could find got free by compliance with the at- I
tacker. . . .
“It is imperative that you understand that it islet
or anxiety that causes him to assault you and notra
lust or the full moon. We will concentrate the MA¬
JORITY of our energy in this course on capitalizing
on this knowledge.
“THE YELL: You have a very powerful weapon;
use against your assailant. This weapon is noise. Nois
in this course will be manifested in the fashion both
most effective and the least likely to fail you: A
YELL. ...
“It should be clear. . . that this yell is a WEAPON.!
You, your attacker and every other human being is I
born with, and will die with, two fears: the fear of
loud noises and the fear of falling. To utilize these
fears that he already has, combined with the greatly-
increased likelihood that your yell or yells will attract
attention and enhance the probability of getting
third-party assistance against the assailant makes its
mastery very worthwhile. . . .
“When confronted with a potentially-threatenuij
situation your body will produce and inject into you:
bloodstream large amounts of adrenalin. The oxygen
you breathe in after a loud, lung-clearing yell will ad
as a catalyst with this bodily stimulant and briefly
give you more speed with which to RUN AWAY
from your attacker. . . .
“We are most emphatic on this point. In a threat¬
ening situation the defensive tool most likely to alio*
you to escape unharmed is a LOUD YELL. We knw
how effective a yell can be from statistical studies:is
one study, 60% of all assaults on women that were
successfully repelled were repelled all or in part bv a
loud, clear, sharp YELL!”
This advice is taken from Jerrold Offstein's SELF
DEFENSE FOR WOMEN, a manual which maintain)
that with the proper psychological and physiological
tools, any woman can learn how to defend herself
against a sexual assault. Offstein’s book offers specc’t
diagrammed information that teaches women tactics
and techniques that “will give women the freedoms
go where they wish and when they wish.”
Available from:
NATIONAL PRESS BOOK:
850 Hanson Way
Palo Alto, California 943CH I
$1.95 |
158
Price information on request
([VISED, ENLARGED EDITION
SELF-DEFENSE
FOR WOMEN:
A SIMPLE METHOD
by BRUCE TEGNER & ALICE McGRATH
TEN EASY LESSONS—
A PRACTICAL HOME STUDY COURSE
SAFE • EFFECTIVE • MODERN
SELF-DEFENSE FOR WOMEN:
A Simple Method
by Bruce Tegner and Alice McGrath
Self-defense should be compared with life-saving
and first-aid, rather than with a sport. Though judo is
asport, self-defense is not! You learn sports in the
hope and expectation that you will use that skill
constantly and continuously throughout your life—
for health and for pleasure. First aid, life-saving and
self-defense should be learned in the hope that they
will never be used, but will be available if the emer¬
gency need arise.
Self-defense, if viewed as an emergency training
procedure, is valid in communities with low rates of
street violence, just as first-aid instruction and life¬
saving training are valid in communities with good
safety records. None of these need be based on
substantial occurrence of the emergency situation,
but only on the possibility of the emergency.
WHY NOT )UST RUN AWAY?
Those who advocate running away as a woman’s
only defense are not correct. There are situations
from which you cannot run away and there are times
when running might trigger a potential attack.
Women cannot ordinarily run as fast as a man.
Unless you have a head start and a safe place to go to,
you might be more vulnerable running than by turn¬
ing to face the threat.
If you are cornered, you can’t run. The techniques
of self-defense are for use in the emergency in which
you cannot avoid, run away from, or talk your way
out of a physical encounter. Running away, if you
can, is more sensible than fighting. Whenever possible
you should run away.
SF.LF-DEFENSE NERVE CENTERS
AND PRESSURE POINTS
by Bruce Tegner
A practical guide to most effective weaponless
ilf-defense without vicious or violent techniques;
explains myths of “deadly” blows.
“Students and teachers of unarmed fighting will
find much valuable material in this attractive book.”
. -SCHOLASTIC COACH
From:
THOR PUBLISHING COMPANY
P.O.Box 1782
Ventura, California 93001
DEFENSE TACTICS
FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
by Bruce Tegner
A complete course of weaponless self-defense and
control emphasizing the least possible use of force
combined with greatest safety for the officer. Tech¬
niques are simple and appropriate to modern con¬
cepts of police work. The book is intended for use as
a police science manual, as an academy training text
and for individuals in law enforcement and related
professions. The method is effective, ethical, humane.
From:
THOR PUBLISHING COMPANY
P.O. Box 1782
Ventura, California 93001
$1.95
STICK FIGHTING: SELF-DEFENSE
by Bruce Tegner
Self-defense for special situations, utilizing cane,
umbrella, hand stick, etc. Defenses for blind and
disabled, using cane, crutches. Street defense for men
and women.
From:
THOR PUBLISHING COMPANY
P.O. Box 1782
Ventura, California 93001
$1.95
ON GUARD-PROTECT YOURSELF
AGAINST THE CRIMINAL
64-page booklet by Bernard Gavzen.
Available from:
HAMMOND, INC.
515 Valley Street
Maplewood, New Jersey 07040
$1.25
IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU
(16mm, sound, color, 27 min.)
Features Policewoman Jeanne Bray in precautions
women can take to avoid assault at home, in car, on
street.
Available from:
FILM LIBRARY
National Rifle Association
43 West 61st Street
New York, New York 10023
Free
ONE GLOW OF HOPE
(16mm, optional sound, color, 27 min.)
Demonstrates effectiveness of community action
in reducing street accidents and assaults through im¬
proved lighting.
Available from:
MODERN TALKING PICTURE SERVICE
2323 New Hyde Park Road
New Hyde Park, Long Island, New York 11040
Free on loan
SAFETY ON THE STREETS, MANUAL
OF SAFE PROCEDURES FOR WOMEN
Includes methods of protection against assault and
accident. No. 029.01.
Available from:
WOMEN’S DEPARTMENT
National Safety Council
425 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611
254
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159
Better Jobs for Women
A sizable hunk of the United States’ income comes from taxes paid by 32,000,000 women who make up 38 percent of the American
work force. As most feminists know, the majority of American working women are confined to dead-end, menial jobs: secretarial, sales,
clerical, waitressing, the lowest-paying production line jobs, household employment. Half of all employed women earn less than S4.457.
Women with college degrees earn about the same as men with grade school education. Earnings of women with high school education
don’t begin to compare with those of men with the same amount of schooling. Compare the average salary of a typist with the salary of
the IBM man who repairs the machines she works on.
The majority of women who need to work have been barred from the far more lucrative skilled trades and crafts and forced into doing
the shitwork of the economy. They have been excluded by the most potent, insidious barrier of all—the inculcation of values—cultural
brainwashing—which has women believe that as physically weak, helpless, dependent creatures they are UNABLE to do work requiring
some degree of physical strength, manual dexterity, and perhaps involving physical risks. They are culturally conditioned to accept myths
which effectively restrict their choice of occupation. The skilled trades and crafts have been eliminated for women as job avenues simply
because they have learned to believe that they are frail, inept, and need to be protected; while it is men who have physical strength,
worldliness, and mechanical ability. An even more potent control is the idea they are conditioned to hold that such work will “defem -
inize” them, that is, make them unattractive to men. Any woman who does make it through these obstacles, and can survive scorn, ridi¬
cule, and hostility, then meets with the criticism that she is taking the bread from the mouths of dependent wives and children. That
myth is easily dealt with: a wife’s earnings often lift a family above poverty level; and moreover, forty percent of all employed women
are themselves heads of households. Of course, all myths are suspended in time of national need. Take World War II, when Rosy the
Riveter, Winnie the Welder, Bonnie the Boilermaker were heaped with much praise.
To their anger, the growing number of women who have junked existing work stereotypes to find jobs that are more fulfilling and pay
more than waiting on men or typing their letters, are finding themselves still locked out of traditionally male occupations. Most of the
skilled trades are tightly controlled by unions, whose white male hierarchies are no more interested in letting women than blacks share
their goodies. (Incidentally, there are 4,000 women union members, typically clustered in the lowest-paying, least skilled categories oc¬
cupational.) Plain old-fashioned sexist discrimination keeps women out of those trades whose training programs are controlled by busi¬
ness and industry, for example telephone repair and maintenance. Until a couple of years ago, any woman applying to Ma Bell for a
position as telephone linewoman would simply have been laughed out of the employment office.
Many working women will get satisfaction from knowing that some of their hard-earned tax dollars are now being used to finance a
project which is specifically dedicated to helping women gain access to the higher-paying skilled trades and crafts. BETTER JOBS FOR
WOMEN, sponsored jointly by the YWCA of Metropolitan Denver and the United States Department of Labor, is using a S60,000 an-
nually-renewable grant to assist women who want to apply for apprenticeship or apprentice-like positions that offer definite training
programs in the skilled trades and crafts leading to salary raises, promotions, and fringe benefits.
There are two routes to becoming a card-carrying journey woman. First, a woman can gain entry into a union’s apprenticeship
program-where she is paid handsomely while she learns a skill such as carpentry, plumbing, bricklaying, roofing. Or, she can get accepted
into an industrial training program to learn for example, drillpress operating, instrument calibration, radio and television repair, forklift
operating, upholstering.
Sandra Carruthers and Dorothy Hoskins of BETTER JOBS FOR WOMEN, both formerly in trade occupations themselves, work on
several fronts to open up the skilled trades to women. They reconnoiter the local unions, familiarize themselves with the kind of entry
tests into various apprenticeship programs, keep informed on apprenticeship openings. They work to establish rapport with the unions,
putting a softsell on officials to make places available for women; or, where applicable, use anti-discrimination legislation to pressure un-
receptive unions to open up. They prepare women for the tests and interviews which determine entry into training programs. (Women
usually score at the top in written tests. For example, two of the women taking the Carpenter Apprentice test scored 92.4 out of 100.
Curiously, even when women have scored well in written tests, they are frequently eliminated as unfit for the training program in oral
examinations given by union—male—personnel.) BETTER JOBS scouts local industries to find training programs with places for women—
especially those whose Federal government contracts make them vulnerable to affirmative action. The two women put in a good deal of
energy working to dispel the antipathy of union officials and businessmen toward women working in the skilled trades through personal
meetings, speaking engagements, media coverage of women whom BETTER JOBS has helped into the trades. Diminutive Sandra Carruth¬
ers herself formerly a drillpress operator, is a walking refutation of the nonsense that only big, brawny men can perform skilled industrial
labor.
In their second contract year, BETTER JOBS has placed thirty-five women in skilled trades and craft training programs—all of which,
to repeat the point, pay good money during the apprenticeship. Seven of these thirty-five women are in registered union apprenticeship
programs, including a thirty-year-old divorced mother of three (as an operating engineer, that is, a driver of heavy equipment such as
earth movers, dump trucks, steamrollers), a nineteen-year-old machinist apprentice, and a twenty-one-year-old woman who was initiated
into the industrial plumbing union in February, 1973, THE FIRST WOMAN PLUMBER EVER IN THE UNITED STATES. The women
in these apprenticeship programs are earning an average of $3.70 per hour, with the potential to advance to $6.00 to $9.00 per hour, with
fringe benefits additional.
BETTER JOBS FOR WOMEN has had no difficulty in recruiting women-the bottleneck is in placing those who apply. There are
eighteen women who have passed the test to get accepted on waiting lists for apprenticeship programs: three for bricklaying, seven for
carpentry, three for cabinet-making, two for painting, one for electrical work, one for publishing, one for printing. These women are
provided with transitional employment in work related to the trade they will be entering. For example, a woman on the bricklaying list
is currently in pre-apprenticeship training setting concrete blocks at the construction site of a new supermarket-at $3.40 per hour.
Placements have not been confined to union apprenticeships. Eighteen women have been placed in industrial training, including fork¬
lift operating, trucking, cement-finishing, plastic injection moulding, and drillpress operating. BETTER JOBS has placed the first tele¬
phone repairwoman and the first woman “fr amedame” with Mountain Bell. Another 115 women have applied for entry into apprentice¬
ship fields. Thirty-five are already in some stage of the application for apprenticeship in tool-and-dye making, printer compositing, sing¬
painting, construction, carpentry.
For all those doubting Thomases, the current retention rate is eighty percent. Only seven women have dropped out of training pro¬
grams, three terminated because of company slowdown. These are committed and highly-motivated women. The woman who made it
onto the waiting list of the electrician apprenticeship program was one of 840 applicants for twenty-five openings. Four women applied.
Who are these women breaking so dramatically out of the gilded cage?
* 28% are heads of households with one or more dependents. 24% are married with children (one woman has six children). 26% are
black. 22% are Chicana. 4% are Asian. 48% are white. Their average age is twenty-five.
The total number of women placed by BETTER JOBS in skilled trades may look small. But the very existence of this program—not
to say its success-is one of the most revolutionary outgrowths of the Women’s Movement. It marks the beginning of the end of women’s
imprisonment in menial, alienating, underpaid work. (No unequal pay for equal work in the unions). It serves notice on those who
would perpetuate the stereoty pes of weak, passive, helpless women whose place is in the home and in the office tending to men’s needs.
It signals the beginning of women’s claim to exercise full and free personhood.
There are regional offices of the Labor Department’s Bureau of Apprenticeship Training in several parts of the country. We urge
women to pressure these offices, as well as the Department of Labor directly, for the establishment and funding of programs like
BETTER JOBS FOR WOMEN.
For more information, write to:
BETTER JOBS FOR WOMEN YWCA of Metropolitan Denver 1545 Tremount Place Denver, Colorado 80202 (303)244-4180
BETTER JOBS FOR WOMEN YWCA of Metropolitan Denver Occupational Listing
Appliance repair
Auto body repair
Auto Mechanic
Baker
Bicycle repair
Bookbinder
Brace maker
Bricklayer
Busdriver
Cabinet maker-millman
Carpenter
Carpet layer
Cement finisher
Clock & Watch repair
Computer mechanic
Cook
Copying machine repair
Dental laboratory technician
Dental plate maker
Draftsman
Dry wall finisher
Duplicating machine repair
Electrician
Electronic assembly
Electroplaters
Engineering aide
Film developer
Fire fighter
Forklift operator
"Frame Dame"
Glass installer, home
Glass installer, auto
Instrument calibration
Jewelry repair
Lather
Lens grinder
Locksmith
Machinist
Maintenance repair
Meat cutter
Metal polisher and buffer
Meter reader
Optical technical
Orthodonic appliance technician
Orthopedic appliance technician
Operating engineer
(heavy equipment driver)
Painter-auto
Painter—home
Plumber
Plastics molder or assembly
Policewoman
Printer (offset)
Radio—TV repair
Roofer
Security guard
Sheet metal worker
Shoe repair
Sign and Pictorial Painter
Telephone installer
Telephone repair
Tile setter
Tool and dye maker
Tool grinder
Truck driver
Typewriter repair
Upholsterer, auto
Upholsterer, furniture
Welder
Warehouse-shipping & packing
Advocates for Women
“Economic power is the foundation for all other power. . ..” In order to help women achieve this power and
mm to grips with their own ability to survive economically,” Del Goetz, Barbara Ashley Phillips, and Marilyn
itl formed ADVOCATES FOR WOMEN in 1971.
ADVOCATES FOR WOMEN, the first economic development center for women in the country, is a non-profit
pnization run by over a hundred volunteers. Services are divided organizationally into an employment center, a
slit center, a business development center, an information center which directs women to other women’s organi-
[ionsand social service agencies, a resource center to help women find programs for training, and an Affirmative
lion center which actively pressures employers to hire women and to improve salaries, training programs, and
sge benefits for all women employees.
"ADVOCATES FOR WOMEN cannot significantly change the level of employment in the labor market. It can,
never, promote the needed change in attitudes and the placement of women in what were formerly ‘men’s jobs’,
is is what ADVOCATES intends to do.”
In line with this goal, the group works to place women in non-traditional jobs that often pay much more than
andard ‘female’jobs—skilled trades and crafts, transportation work, firefighting, deck-working and the like.
ADVOCATES FOR WOMEN has published a SAN FRANCISCO WOMEN’S BUSINESS DIRECTORY, listing
omen in all fields and occupations. ADVOCATES hopes that the Directory will improve the economic status of
omen by suggesting that women “simply patronize those establishments owned and operated by women.”
iSSOCIATION OF
EMINIST CONSULTANTS
Cost of the Directory is $2.50,
which includes postage and handling.
For information, write to:
An association of independent feminist employ-
eniand management consultants whose aim is to
sprove the economic and social status of women, is
ailable to government, educational, and non-profit
pnizations for professional management consul-
lion.
Members in the Association must have demon-
rated expertise in feminist counseling and must also
ive demonstrated activist involvement in the fem-
istmovement. Included among the membership of
zAssociation are Wilma Scott Heide, Betsy Hogan,
net LaRouchc, and Ann Scott.
irmore information about the services offered,
itact:
ADVOCATES FOR WOMEN
564 Market Street
Suite 218
San Francisco, California 94104
(415)989-5449
NNIFER S. MACLEOD
>ordinator Pro Tem
CanoeBrook Drive
inceton Junction, New Jersey 08550
09) 799-0378
AREER PLANNING CENTER
S23 South La Cienega
as Angeles, California
13) 272-6633
The CAREER PLANNING CENTER offers a
minist approach to vocational counseling, job
fetrals, career planning, and resume-writing,
unding for these job services is sponsored by
veral non-profit women’s groups.
WOMEN PREFER WORK
Six out of 10 women would work even if they
could receive the same amount by staying at home,
a major new survey on women reveals.
The Bureau of Advertising of the American
Newspaper Publishers Association made public
the results of the survey last week at the 61st
annual convention of the National Retail Mer¬
chants Association in New York. The study was
based on interviews with 1,000 women, of whom
661 were currently employed. The interviewing
was done by Response Analysis Corp. of Prince¬
ton, N.j.
Some 82 percent of those interviewed agreed
with the statement: "Working makes me a more
interesting person. "Some of the other reasons
advanced for wanting to work were: "I want to
be more independent" (36percent); "I want to
do something worthwhile" (35percent); "/ like
to learn new things" (35 percent).
Relatively few women offered negative rea¬
sons for wanting to work. Sixteen percent, how¬
ever, did feet they were "bored with housework, "
14 percent were "too lonely at home." Among
48 percent of the women interviewed, the big¬
gest problem associated with working was time.
But paradoxically, working women engaged in
social activities more often than their non-work¬
ing sisters. According to the Bureau of Adver¬
tising, there were 31.2 million working women
in 1970, compared with 12.8 million in 1940.
Between 1960 and 1970, when the total popula¬
tion of the U.S. grew 7 6 percent, the number of
working women increased by 35 percent.
from HER SELF, June, 1973
CAREER COUNSELING FOR WOMEN
755 New York Avenue
Huntington, Long Island, New York
(516) 421-1948
A new low-cost counseling service by feminist
professionals for women who want to work but
are not sure what they want to do.
CATALYST
National Headquarters
6 East 82nd Street
New York, New York 10028
(212) 628-2200
Founded in Westchester, New York, in 1962 to
help college-educated women find meaningful part or
full-time work, CATALYST has become a national
non-profit network of employment services. The ba¬
sis of CATALYST’S program is that traditional work
patterns and schedules are outdated and impractical
and “that skilled valuable work in all sectors of the
nation’s economy can and should be recast and re¬
structured into a variety of part-time positions to
the benefit of both women and employers.”
Although CATALYST serves all college-educated
women, including those who choose not to have chil¬
dren, women who use the service generally want to
combine family and career responsibilities. CATA¬
LYST enables a woman to work on a part-time ba¬
sis while her children are young and increase her
work hours as they grow up.
A woman who registers at CATALYST fills out a
questionnaire assessing her skills, interests, and avail¬
ability. This information is then published in a na¬
tionwide QUARTERLY REPORT, which also lists
job openings, training programs, and educational op¬
portunities. The QUARTERLY REPORT is available
free to CATALYST-registered women, interested
employers, educators, and resource groups. Through
this service a woman can also participate in a partner¬
ship registry with other women in her geographic
area who are seeking a partner to share a full-time job.
A catalyst is an agent of change. Over the past ten
years, in interviewing hundreds of women, employers,
and educators, CATALYST has not only changed the
status of women, but has also changed the attitude
of many employers toward women and work.
EVE (Employment, Volunteering, Employment)
Kean Building
Newark State College
Newark, New Jersey
(201) 527-2210
EVE offers women from the central New
Jersey area free group counseling plus vocational
aptitude tests and special workshops on career
planning.
FLEXIBLE CAREERS
Susan Schwerin, coordinator
Loop Center YWCA
37 South Wabash
Chicago, Illinois
(312) 288-2353
FLEXIBLE CAREERS specializes in informa¬
tion on flexibly-scheduled employment, educa¬
tion, and training programs in the Chicago area.
The services include affirmative action informa¬
tion, job referrals, and a talent bank.
163
:kand white poster available for $2.00 from:
iTTLE NOW, 5508 South Orcas, Seattle, Wash. 98118
MAYOR’S TALENT SEARCH
Almost every major American city runs a Mayor’s
Talent Search. The goal of the Searcn is to find qual¬
ified people (primarily women) to fill positions in
city agencies and government work. All positions are
middle-management level or higher and offer lucrative
salaries. The Talent Search is run as a clearing-house
for both resumes from qualified applicants and job
orders from perspective employers.
For more information, contact the Mayor’s Office
in your city.
CENTER
mvnui nvuomwt cmna
© For: SELF-DISCOVERY
©For: INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING
© For: STUDENTS
©For: WOMEN JOB-SEARCHERS
© For: WOMEN ON THEIR
OWN AGAIN
© For: TALENT BANK
Call
EA 9-0600
THE INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT CENTER offers
classes in six categories. Each focuses on special skills and ser¬
vices for women:
1) Self-discovery classes allow women to evaluate them¬
selves and work toward establishing a realistic set of career
goals. For a six-week period, two-hour weekly sessions are
held and are followed by an hour of private counseling.
2) For a woman who can’t attend group counseling, or for
someone who prefers to work on a more individual basis,
a woman can work out career decisions with a professional
employment counselor in individual sessions.
3) Classes are held for women students in high school and
college who are beginning to make career plans and who
are starting to question the stereotyped roles of women in
society.
4) The how-to’s of searching for a job—writing a resume,
taking tests, and handling job interviews—are all covered in
the Job Search course.
5) Women who have recently been widowed, divorced, or
who are seriously considering divorce will find the Woman-
On-Her-Way-*-Again seminar practical in dealing with the
problems of their lives.
6) The I.D. Talent Bank is a clearing house for women
seeking upper level postions; the center matches up
women with employers who have requested workers with
certain skills.
For class schedules and fee information, write or phone:
THE I.D. CENTER
310-15th East
Seattle, Washington 98112
(206) 329-0600
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN
47 East 19th Street
New York, New York
HIGHER EDUCATION
RESOURCE CENTER (HERS)
The HIGHER EDUCATION RESOURCE SER¬
VICE, funded by the Ford Foundation, is a nation¬
wide clearinghouse for openings in faculty and ad¬
ministrative positions. By working with women’s
caucuses and committees, HERS attempts to match
candidates with openings and recommends highly
qualified individuals who might otherwise not come
to the attention of a department chairperson.
Candidates may register by sending a resume and
a statement of their needs and preferences.
Contact:
HERS-HIGHER EDUCATION
RESOURCE CENTER
c/o Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island 02912
(401)863-2197
WORK
1,220 corporations required by the SEC to list
the names and salaries of any officers and directors
earning more than $30,000 last year came up with
6,500 who filled this requirement. Of these 11
were women; seven were married to or the moth¬
ers of the owners; one was the niece (Mala) of
Helena Rubinstein. Only one woman started her
own business, and only two women worked their
way up (and one got there by being the “private”
secretary to the big man). Only one woman, Cath¬
erine Cleary, worked her way up through the
ranks.
Twenty-three women who got their Master’s
Degrees in Business from Harvard last year were,
at last notice, still looking for jobs.
“The Los Angeles Times” has an executive
dining room which seats 500. The only woman
allowed to use it is Dorothy Chandler, owner of
the “Times.”
The Economic Club of New York will not al¬
low women to become members or even to attend
dinners and speeches, although women own a high
percentage of the stocks in this country.
Surplus labor value. This is the amount of
money you make for your boss. If you are paid
$2.50 an hour to make a product your boss can
sell for $5, and the materials, marketing and over¬
head
from MOMMA, Vol 6, 1 June
INDIVIDUAL RESOURCES
60 East 12th Street
New York, New York 10003
A non-profit employment referral service vidk
a talent bank of information about women oil
backgrounds, skills, and training, with or with*
experience, in all jobs. They refer appropriately
qualified candidates to companies, universities,
and government agencies.
MQRE
Gramercy Park Hotel
2 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10010
(212) 674-4090
Offers mini- and regular workshops, lecture
and other sources for “women who want Mott
M(j)RE’s services include vocational guidance t
career reorientation. Scholarships available to
help defray costs.
button available for 25 if from:
KNOW, Inc.
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
NASSAU COUNTY VOCATIONAL
CENTER FOR WOMEN
33 Willis Avenue
Mineola, New York 11501
(516) 535-4646
An information and referral service which d
rects women to appropriate organizations for i
titude test, refresher courses, and job placemen
NEW ENVIRONMENT FOR
WOMEN ASSOCIATES
44 Bertwell Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02173
(617) 862-0663
NEW ENVIRONMENT FOR WOMENusei
group counseling techniques to help women tt
plore career opportunities in business and indiSj
OPTIONS—Career Workshops for Women
333 Central Park West
New York, New York 10025
(212) 663-0970
OPTIONS helps women deal with dis<
tion, stereotyping, and work relationships fro* |
a feminist perspective. In addition to its r _
counseling service, OPTIONS offers a crash
course in vocational choices.
IPTIONS FOR WOMEN
119 Germantown Avenue
hiladelphia, Pennsylvania 19118
215) CH 2-4955
“People ask, ‘What do you do?’ and you answer,
I'm just a housewife’. You’re constantly reminded:
™’re nothing.” Vicki Kramer and Marcia Kleiman
tgan OPTIONS FOR WOMEN in 1970 as a counsel-
;g service for women dissatisfied with their lives and
ssearch of new directions. Now the services of
TOONS FOR WOMEN, a non-profit and tax-exempt
pncy, have grown to include group counseling, a
insulting service for employers, job placement, and
sturing on employment.
OPTIONS FOR WOMEN is particularly interested
3helping women discover their hidden job skills,
liter years of being “just a housewife,” many women
:ive little confidence in what they can offer an em-
fcyer. To help a woman find a vocational field, she
tasked to list all her activities and interests. Manag¬
ua family budget has probably given a woman
iookkeeping skills; running club meetings has most
ilely given her general organizational ability.
OPTIONS also tries to change employers’ attitudes
ward employing women. Often a degree require-
aent for a job is unnecessary, when volunteer expe-
ience would be equally valuable background. Em¬
ployers must be educated that nine-to-five scheduling
mt always convenient for working mothers.
OPTIONS believes that more flexible scheduling
vould offer benefits to both employer and employee.
There’s still tremendous resistance by many com¬
pany officials to scheduling shorter hours for women,”
uplains Vicki Kramer. “It’s a gut reaction to think¬
ing their wives might dare to go out and do a job
imilar to theirs on a part-time basis.”
If a woman accepts a job that OPTIONS FOR
10MEN finds for her, she pays a fee based on a per-
centage of her first year’s salary.
SPOKESWOMAN
S464 South Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60615
Every issue of SPOKESWOMAN carries listings
if professional job openings in all parts of the
wintry.
$7.00/year for individuals
112.00/year for institutions
DIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
iuidance and Testing Center
hapel Hill, North Carolina
A vocational service with career guidance
railable to all women in the Chapel Hill area.
iASHINGTON OPPORTUNITIES
OR WOMEN
111 20th Street, N.W.
lashington, D.C.
102) 872-8095
A free, drop-in service with counseling by
lined volunteers, OPPORTUNITIES FOR
I0MEN has branches in Providence, Richmond,
altimore, Atlanta, Boston, and White River
fiction, Vermont.
IE-WOMEN EMPLOYABLE
Getting a job, changing careers, or starting a busi-
fu-WOMEN EMPLOYABLE hold job raps, on a
ninthly basis in addition tc their workshop program
ith mini-classes on magazine-writing, marketing
nail crafts, and practical journalism.
or more information, contact:
(OMEN EMPLOYABLE
o Ethel Cory
;1 Washington Square West
«w York, New York 10011
112) 260-2874
Women’s Opportunities Center
“We encourage women to discover opportunities and to follow a prgram of self-development and education,”
said a former director of the WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITIES CENTER at the University of California Extension at
Irvine, California.
The counselors at WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITIES CENTER, a free vocational and educational counseling service,
eel that in addition to consciousness-raising, it is important to give women concrete suggestions and information
about all possible career options. Mere “horizon-widening just isn’t sufficient impetus to spring women from their
often depressing domesticity. They need more information and more individual propelling.”
A woman who comes to the Center is given a volunteer advisor who talks with her, finds out about her interests
and skills, and then offers her suggestions for possible jobs, educational programs, or volunteer activities.
Sometimes the woman needs more training to improve her skills or more education to achieve her goals. In other
cases the advisors suggest careers that the woman might never have considered for herself-either because she felt in¬
adequate or because she was affected by society’s pigeonholing of careers and jobs for women.
If the woman needs more advice, she is given an appointment with one of the three professional counselors who
will help her work out a course of action. Both advisors and counselors take into account a woman’s interests at¬
titudes, and personality in guiding her, but WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITIES CENTER is a “self-generating program
where a woman makes her own decisions.” ore
The WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITIES CENTER directs women to community and state colleges, in addition to the
Irvine University Extension, a program where people can return to school without a total commitment to a full aca¬
demic program. The University Extension offers courses, seminars, and workshops-many of which are of specific
interest to women. ^
Th riM* n - er ‘ S "? t l tseIf a P employment center, but many women have found jobs through its services. Their re¬
cent attiliation with the nationwide CATALYST will allow the women at WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITIES CENTER
to inform women about job openings, and as a result, will expand the fine services that the Center already offers.
For information, write to:
> X
Available from: HUMBOLDT WOMEN ARTISTS
P.O. Box 428
Areata, California 95521
WOMEN’S EDUCATIONAL
AND INDUSTRIAL UNION
264 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
(617) 536-5651
A visitor to the WOMEN’S EDUCATIONAL AND
INDUSTRIAL UNION in Boston would find a quite
different atmosphere than in any of the other “Em¬
ployment Agencies” on Boylston Street. In 1877,
long before other feminist counseling services got un¬
der way, the Union was helping women find meaning¬
ful work. This is an employment service that has never
viewed women merely as fodder for the typing pools.
What’s special about the WOMEN’S EDUCA¬
TIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION is the indivi¬
dual attention given to women who come to the of¬
fice; the staff is genuinely concerned with the needs
of each woman who wants counseling and they’re
willing to gjve all the time necessary to help a woman
find part-time or full-time jobs suited to her indivi¬
dual skills. This is one of the few agencies that will
help house-bound women find work that can be
done at home.
A placement fee of one week’s salary, substantially
lower than fees demanded by other professional agen¬
cies, keeps the office going. Any woman in the
greater Boston area who wants to change her employ¬
ment status should most definitely begin at the Union.
WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITIES CENTER
Computer Science Building
Room 468
University of California Extension
Irvine, California 92664
(714) 833-7128
WOMEN’S TRAINING AND
RESOURCES CORPORATION
142 High Street
Portland, Maine 14101
(207) 772-5482
WOMEN’S TRAINING AND RESOURCES COR¬
PORATION, a corporation owned and operated by
professional women, does consulting in all areas re¬
lated to equal employment for women. (WTRC re¬
cently assisted in the organization of THE HUMAN
EMPLOYMENT RESOURCES PLACEMENT
AGENCY in Portland, Maine.) A staff or women
trained in management, data systems, personnel pol¬
icy, psychology, and law is available for consultation
on task analysis, employment legislation, and Affirm¬
ative Action programs. The Women’s Management
Intern Program, a special project of WTRC, seeks to
place women as staff assistants to high level officials
as a way of gaining on-the-job experience.
A related service of the WOMEN’S TRAINING
AND RESOURCE CORPORATION is a series of
workshops for working women called “Breaking
Barriers Through Speech.” In programs ranging from
three days to one week, professional women learn to
develop verbal communication skills through video¬
taping and small group work. These workshops, in¬
cluding instruction and program materials, cost
$195.00 for the three-day session and $245.00 for
the week-long session. Women whose ambition it is
to succeed within the system should contact WTRC
for further information.
165
HOW BAD IT IS . . .
1. Women make up at least half of the membership in 26 unions but represent only
4.7 percent of all union leadership positions. (From U.S. NEWS & WORLD
REPORT, November, 1972.)
2. An estimated 35 women held major elective or appointive posts in national
unions in 1970.
3. There are no women on the 35-member executive board of the AFL—CIO.
4. There are no female heads of "International” unions.
5. Women comprise 21% of all union members, up from 18% in 1958.
6. There has been a gain of female union membership totaling 342,000 in two
years. Needless to say the gain in leadership positions has not been paralleling
this rise.
7. Less than one-fifth of men but 63 percent of all working women are clerical, ser¬
vice or sales workers. THESE JOBS ARE AT THE LOWER END OF THE PAY
SCALE.
from UNION W.A.G.E., March/April 1973
Our Purpose and Goals
UNION WOMEN'S ALLIANCE TO GAIN EQUALITY (UNION WAGE) IS A POLITICALLY NON¬
PARTISAN ORGANIZATION OF WOMEN TRADE UNIONISTS ORGANIZED TO FIGHT DISCRIMI¬
NATION ON THE JOB, IN UNIONS. AND IN SOCIETY. We are dedicated to achieving equal rights, equal
pay. and equal opportunities for women workers. Over 33 million working women endure double discrimi¬
nation and exploitation: as women and as workers. Most carry the burden of two jobs: at work and then at
home. Such is the pattern for most of California's 3 million women workers.
Women workers constitute 40% of the work force but their pay averages 59 cents to the dollar paid to men
workers for full-time work. Only one woman out of five is organized into a union; and women workers are
clustered in the low-paying jobs of society: clerical, service, manufacturing, and the "women's work" of
nursing, teaching, housekeeping, etc. Trade unions are dominated by male leadership and largely ignore the
needs of women workers.
UNION WAGE WILL FIGHT FOR:
1. Equal pay for equal work and equal opportunities, with jobs for all.
2. Stronger efforts for affirmative action programs for better-paying jobs.
3. Encouraging unionizing efforts to organize working women.
4. Urging women unionists to take leadership roles and greater responsibilities.
5. Raising special demands on behalf of women workers, e.g., paid maternity leaves with no loss of
seniority and adequate maternity medical coverage.
6. Child care facilities; employer and government supported; parent-staff controlled.
7. Improvement and extension of state protective legislation to all workers.
8. Interpretation of the Equal Rights Amendment to extend labor standards covering one sex to the other
sex.
9. Minimum wage of $3 an hour guaranteed to all workers.
10. Work week of 35 hours or less at 40 hours' pay with double pay for overtime.
UNION WOMEN'S ALLIANCE TO GAIN EQUALITY (UNION WAGE), organized by women trade union¬
ists to fight sex discrimination on the job, in unions, and in society ... and to achieve equal rights, equal
pay, and equal opportunities.
TO: Union WAGE. 2137 Oregon St.. Berkeley. Ca. 94705
□ I want to join and receive the bi-monthly newspaper: $5 per year.
□ I want to subscribe to your bi-monthly newspaper: $2 per year.
□ Sustaining subscription: $5 per year.
O Institutional and organization subscription: $5 a year.
□ I want to be an associate member (men only) and receive the bi-monthly newspaper: S5 a year.
’ Name
Union j,jj
__
City
m
mam
166
Does the Women’s Movement address the needs of Amer¬
ica’s 33 million working women? Many have said that it
does not, but few feminists who have voiced such criticism
have been known to do anything significant about it. On In¬
ternational Women’s Day, March 8, 1971, the Bay Area
National Organization for Women held a conference at the
University of California which discussed such topics as di¬
vorce and alimony, property rights, the tyranny of cosme¬
tics, women in the professions. In indignation at this
patently middle-class bias, a group of prominent union
women convened a workshop which addressed itself to the
problems working women face on the job. From this work¬
shop, which turned out to be one of the most popular at
the conference, grew UNION W.A.G.E. (WOMEN’S AS¬
SOCIATION TO GAIN EQUALITY)-at first just a handful
of women who had attended the workshop, today more
than 200 members in the Bay area and an estimated 500 to
1000 members and subscribers nationally.
One of the main activities of the organization has been
to extend the California protective laws so that men and
women are equally protected. Secondly, the organization
aims to educate women as to the special working conditions
they face so that they can organize AROUND these condi¬
tions. Monthly meetings feature speakers discussing such
topics as “What every working woman should know about
parliamentary procedure”; “Sweatshops in San Francisco’s
Chinatown: 1973”; “Women papermill workers”; “The
Union of Clerical Employees: How it came from nowhere
to become a leading union.”
In addition to its organizational activities, UNION
W.A.G.E. publishes the only newspaper in the Women’s
Movement that concerns itself exclusively with the needs
of women workers. The paper focuses on articles and news
of striking women, legal and legislative developments, union
activities of note to women, vignettes from working wom¬
en’s history, and portraits of labor heroines. This paper is a
powerful antidote to the largely middle-class-oriented
women’s media.
10 UNIONS
WITH THE MOST
WOMEN MEMBERS
Number of Women-
As P*fc*ntin
Total of All UxJm
Mention
i.
Ladies' Garment Workers
353,870
80%
2.
Clothing Workers
289,500
75%
3.
Electrical Workers (IBEW)
276,510
30%
4.
Teamsters
255,000
14%
5.
Communications Workers
231,860
55%
6.
Automobile Workers
193,130
13%
7.
Service Employes
152,250
35%
8. State and County Employes
146,680
33%
9.
Steelworkers
120,000
10%
10.
Electrical Workers (IUE)
105,000
35%
Some*: U S Labor Dopl.
MYTHS DEBUNKED
ABOUT WORKING WOMEN
Women are not absent more frequently, nor do
they switch jobs more often than men. They do
not work just for "pin money." They don’t take
jobs away from men and women don't fall apart
in crises any more than men.
A recent study by the federal government deals
with these and other myths which make it difficult
for women to achieve equality in the work place.
The study points up few significant differences be¬
tween the sexes on work issues.
Women are absent from work an average of 5.2
-days per year while men miss 5.1 days, an insignifi¬
cant difference. Single women and women over
60 are absent less frequently than men. Most
women are trapped into low-skill jobs where ab¬
senteeism is high for both sexes.
On job switching, the Dept, of Labor says
women may change jobs slightly more often than
men, but men are more likely to change occu¬
pations.
The common notion is that women work only
for luxuries, but of more than 37 million working
women in 1968, 17 percent were either widowed,
divorced or separated and 23 percent were single.
That adds up to 40 percent of working women
who worked as the sole support of themselves or
a family. An additional 8 percent had husbands
making between $3,000 and $7,000 per year.
Another harmful myth is that women prefer
men as supervisors while men don’t want to work
for women. A recent government survey shows
that women usually have no preference and that
most men who complain about women supervisors
have never worked for one.
UNION W.A.G.E., May/June, 1973
CHANGE:
^Working Woman’s Newspaper
It is appropriate that a newspaper which advocates
dunge in women’s work should be written by women
wrking together in a new way. CHANGE is written
collectively. Two women work on each article, and
ler it is written, the authors present the article to
(group. The group criticizes the article on struc¬
ture, phrasing, and politics. In this way, the article is
tot written from the perspective of just one woman,
but is the product of collective work.
Articles in CHANGE deal with ongoing work
jles and political questions. Articles reveal the
itation of working women: in sexist hiring prac-
s, unhealthy working conditions, and employers’
onizing attitudes. The policies of specific “wage-
vedriving” companies are exposed.
CHANGE is distributed free in downtown San
Frtncisco where large numbers of women work. “We
band them out as women go in, in the morning, so
that they can pass them around and discuss them at
Aeir offices.” This guarantees that CHANGE really
fts to working women to raise their consciousness
tbout working conditions. Because the paper is given
cut free, most of the money for the paper comes
from the $5 to $15 that each woman on the staff
tontributes to each issue.
Currently, the CHANGE staff is working on a
booklet about working women, with articles on the
»le of women in capitalist society, unions, organizing
»the job, sexuality, the nuclear family, division of
abor, working mothers, and racism and sexism as
Ibey effect women in their workplace.
Subscriptions to the newspaper are available from:
CHANGE
58 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California 94110
$2.00/year
$5.00/institutions
(HANGE comes out once every six to
sht weeks.
TEN FACTS ON WOMEN WORKERS
7. Nine out of ten girls will work at some time in their lives.
2. Most women work because of economic need. Nearly two-thirds of all
women workers are single, divorced, widowed or separated, or have hus¬
bands whose earnings are less than $7,000 a year.
3. Half of all women 18 to 64 years of age are workers.
4. Labor force participation is highest among women 18 to 24 to 54 years of
age; the median age of women workers is 38 years.
5. The number of working mothers (women with children under 18) has in¬
creased more than eightfold since 1940. They now number 12.7 million,,
an increase of 3.9 million in the last decade.
6. The 4.4 million working mothers with children under 6 in 1972 had 5.6
million children under 6; the estimated number of licensed day care slots
is 905,000.
7. Women workers are concentrated in low-paying dead-end jobs. Asa result,
the average woman worker earns about three-fifths of what a man does,
even when both work full-time year round.
8. It is frequently the wife’s earnings which raise a family out of poverty. In
husband-wife families, 13 percent have incomes below $4,000 if the wife
does not work; 4 percent when she does.
9. Of the workers not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 40
percent are women. Fifty-seven percent of all black women workers are
not covered by FLSA; the comparable percentage for white women is 22
percent.
10. The average woman worker is as well educated as the average man worker.
Both men and women have completed a median of 12.4 years of schooling.
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Department of Labor
MEDIAN WAGE OR SALARY INCOME IN 1970, BY RACE AND SEX
All workers
Year-round
full-time
workers
Total
Minority
White
Women
Men
Women
Men
$3,785
$7,939
$5,403
$9,104
3,285
5,485
4,674
6,598
3,870
8,254
5,490
9,373
from "Facts on Women Workers of Minority Races’
Women’s Bureau
U.S. Department of Labor
WOMEN AND WORK
WOMEN AND WORK is a new publication, a
monthly news bulletin of the United States Depart¬
ment of Labor. WOMEN AND WORK keeps women
up-to-date on legislation in Washington as “sex bar¬
riers to ‘men’s jobs’ come tumbling down.” It con¬
tains news on equal employment opportunities; new
career options for women; women and the law; and
fair employment practices. Publications which con¬
tain articles on working women are highlighted.
WOMEN AND WORK is distributed to the news
media and those educational, business, and organiza¬
tion officials concerned with women and employment.
Single copies are available free by writing:
WOMEN AND WORK
Shelley Nopper, Editor
U.S. Department of Labor
Room 2138
14th and Constitution Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20210
THE UNION SKELETON
'7 have a great bone to pick with the organized
labor movement in this country. In my opinion
they are the greatest offenders as far as discrimina¬
tion against women is concerned. Today women in
every walk of life have bigger positions than they
have in organized labor. There isn't a woman on
the AFL-CIO Council-only 31 men."
This was the harsh judgment of Bessie Hillman,
Vice President of the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers of America, at a conference on "Problems
of Working Women" held in june, 1961-over ten
years ago. And there still isn’t a woman on the top
AFL-CIO committee and only a few in the top
ranks of unions.
Bessie Hillman, who helped to found the A CWA,
noted at that conference that women are shop
stewardesses, or business agents, or educational
directors, but they are rarely in policy-making
positions. Her advice to the women at the con¬
ference remains valid today:
"It's your job to participate in every activ¬
ity, to rise in your union, to be responsible leaders,
to get into those offices and jobs which will fit
you for higher positions. But you are to get these,
not because you are women, but because you have
shown that you can do the job. You have got to
do it, and / know you will."
UNION W.A.G.E., July/August, 1972
167
Everything a
Woman Needs
to Know to
Get Paid W hat
She's Mor th
Caroline Bird
author ul Horn Ivm*It
THE TIME HAS COME
FOR ORGANIZATION!
To the editor:
just a few thoughts on how to make the older
women's liberation movement more potent....
i think o.w.l. groups should definitely start a
letter-writing campaign against the premature age
limits for women on all the best opportunities for
training for good jobs: Danforth White House Fel¬
lowships, National Urban Fellows (ages 24-39),
Coro Fellows, etc. The usual limit is up to 35—
which suits men's living styles fine; but few wom¬
en, unless they never became mothers, can meet
that deadline. / doubt that those who set these
limits EVER considered that men's lifestyles differ
from women’s, or that the given set-up precludes
most women from applying even if otherwise qual¬
ified. Perhaps women should apply anyway and be
turned down.
A similar letter-writing campaign should be
conducted against any scholarships/fellowships-
offered by colleges, universities and private groups—
that limit the opportunities to men, and to child-
free women.
We simply have to break open more opportun¬
ities for women.
from PRIME TIME, April, 1973
EVERYTHING A WOMAN NEEDS TO
KNOW TO GET PAID WHAT SHE’S WORTH
by Caroline Bird
“This book is for women who work, and 33 million
of them do. This book is for women who want to be
paid what they are worth. Most women work for less.
“It is not a book to help women decide whether
they should work, or whether they should choose to
be full-time housewives and mothers. It is for those
women who have made the choice, who are—or will
be—working at some kind of paid employment, and
who want to earn money commensurate with their
abilities.
“They are tired of being asked why they want to
work. Nobody ever asks a man his reason for working.
“They are tired of being told that they can’t ex-
ect to earn as much as a man because they don’t
ave a family to support. Most of them do. No one
ever suggests to a single man, or to a man with a
working wife, that he should be satisfied with less
money than a man who is the sole support of a large
family.
“They don’t need any more advice on how to care
for their children or households when they do work.
Nobody ever asks a man about his housekeeping
arrangements.
“This is not a book about how to succeed on the
job. There is a world of literature about getting into
and up out of good jobs, and anyone who hasn’t
delved into this ‘success’ literature should take a look
at what the students of getting ahead say about how
to write a resume, how to put your best foot forward
in a job interview, how to come out with flying col¬
ors in a performance review, how and when to ask
for a raise, how to win the cooperation of fellow
employees, and how, generally, any human being of
any sex ought to behave on the job. There is a re¬
source section at the back of the book that lists some
of that literature. . ..”
In question and answer form, Caroline Bird, author
of BORN FEMALE, describes the tactics and ap¬
proaches hundreds of women have used in specific
job situations. EVERYTHING A WOMAN NEEDS
TO KNOW tells a woman literally everything she
needs to know on the job: it offers rebuttals of all
the myths male bosses feed women employees, it
shows women the way out of the typing pool, and
insists that women demand what they are worth. Bird
offers legal guidelines on discrimination and details
action proceeedings a woman can take against an
offending boss. The invaluable Resource Section of
this book provides comprehensive listings of counsel¬
ing centers, roster lists, and bibliographies.
Available from:
DAVID McKAY COMPANY
750 Third Avenue
New York, New York
$8.95
special issue on women
The Bureaucrat
A new public policy journal. The Bureaucrat, pre¬
sents an interesting and informative issue on 'T/Vomen
in Government". This issue examines the Federal
Government's policy regarding women employees.
Contributors include persons knowledgeable in the
field of Federal personnel management. Authors are
employees of the Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare, the Office of Management and Budget,
the White House staff, the Department of Transpor-
tation, the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the De¬
partment of State, and the Federal Aviation
Administration.
Multiple copies are available
at a discount rate.
1-24 copies $2.CO
25-300 copies $1.75
over 300 copies $1.50
Send order to:
The Bureaucrat
P.O. Box 664
Washington, D.C. 20044
When Was the Last Time an American
Journalist Wrote About the Happy,Smiling'
Black Miners in South Africa?
... .It has been five years since a major league
ball was stitched in the continental United Stales
Before Spalding reached an agreement with Haitian
industrialist Harry Tippenhauer, the sewing was
done in Puerto Rico. Now every ball purchased by
the National and American leagues has been sewn
in his Port-au-Prince plant.
For that matter, the cheerful Haitians are keep¬
ing most American baseball manufacturers in
stitches. With 10 factories employing about 3, 000
workers, they have almost sewn up the business
In a country with an unemployment rate of about
45%, stitching is a bona fide boon to the economy
"Bonjour, nous avons des visites," Rolf Tippet
hauer calls out to the pretty black women seated
at the long tables before the balls ofyarn that m,
soon become home runs. Rolf manages the Port-au
Prince plant for his father Harry. "Bonjour," the
women reply with apparent affection.
Outside, on a rutted rocky road, old women k
tattered clothes cook over open fires. The basein\
girls are neat and dean in fresh dark green skirts
and tight green blouses with the PM of Precision
Manufacturing stitched on the pockets. They m
with amazing speed, arms flailing outward like
breaststrokers, sewing as many as 260,000 base¬
balls in a month. There is no air conditioning, bu\
large overhead fans blow down on them as theyst
in rectangles of sunlight created by slits in the tin
roof. They seem content, even happy, with this
monotonous work. The swiftest among them am
earn $35 to $50 every two weeks, a handsome
income by Haitian standards.
from SPORTS ILLUSTRATED,
August 27,1973
DIRECTORY OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS
DIRECTORY OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS is de¬
signed as a “yellow pages” for women. The listings
will include women in the arts, education, industry,
science, and the professions. This annual publicatij
published as a non-profit project by public relation
counselor Peg Smith, provides advertising as well a
listings of women in business.
Full information can be obtained from:
DIRECTORY OF WOMEN
IN BUSINESS
764 Charming
Ferndale, Michigan 48220
168
CHART E.-WOMEN’S SHARE IN
PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL WORK
HAS DECLINED
Although the number of women employed in profes¬
sional and technical occupations has almost tripled since
1940, women are a smaller proportion of all professional
and technical workers today than they were before World
War II. Women represented 37 percent of all professional
and technical workers in 1969 as compared with 45 percent
in 1940. In contrast, the proportion of women among all
workers increased from 26 to 37percent over the same
period.
CHART C.-THE EARNINGS GAP
BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN
REMAINS WIDE
(Median Wage or Salary Income of Year-
Round Full-Time Workers, by Sex, 1957-68)
In 1957 the median earnings of year-round full¬
time women workers were 64 percent of those of
men. By 1966 the proportion had dropped to 58
percent, where it remained in 1967and 1968. The
earnings gap amounted to more than $3,000 in
1968, when the median earnings of year-round
full-time women and men workers were $4,457
and $7,664, respectively.
These charts, three of twelve, are
reproduced from UNDERUTILIZATION
OF WOMEN WORKERS.
Available from:
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Workplace Standards Administration
U.S. Department of Labor
Washington, D.C. 20210
Individual copies free
MEDIAN EARNIN6S
1957 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968
IttNI
60 ■
CHART B.-WOMEN ARE
3 TIMES AS LIKELY AS
MEN TO EARN LESS
THAN $5,000 FOR YEAR-
ROUND FULL-TIME
WORK
(Year-Round Full-Time
Workers, by Total Money
Earnings and Sex, 1968)
About 3 out of 5 women but
only 1 out of 5 men who worked
year-round full-time in 1968had
earnings of less than $5,000.
Moreover, 20 percent of the
women but only 8 percent of
men earned less than $3,000. At
the upper end of the earnings
scale, only 3 percent of the
women but 28 percent of the
men who worked year-round
full-time had earnings of
$10,000 or more.
Occupationally women are more disadvantaged, compared with men, than they were 30 years ago.
In 1940 they held 45 percent of all professional and technical positions, in 1969 they held only 37
percent of such jobs. This deterioration in their role in career fields relative to men has occurred
despite the increase in women’s share of total employment over the same period. On the other hand,
the proportion of women among all service workers (except private household) has increased since
1940-rising from 40 to 59 percent.
UNDERUTILIZATION OF WOMEN WORKERS
Women’s Bureau
U.S. Department of Labor
MIDWEST ACADEMY
Women have been powerless for too long. Al¬
though they are the backbone of many organizations,
doing the office work, the phone work, and the door-
to-door work, too often they have been excluded
from positions of decision-making. The MIDWEST
ACADEMY was initiated to provide women with the
tools they need in the struggle for rights and power.
The Academy emphasizes training for implement¬
ing social change. Each session focuses on direct ac¬
tion organizing and leadership skills based on expe¬
rience in community organization, the Women’s
Movement, and the labor movement. Training is in
three major areas. “Principles of Organization” deals
with how to assess the needs of constituents, how to
devise strategy, choose tactics, and plan action. “The
Political Science of Organization” puts women’s
struggles in the context of the economic system in
which we work. The roles of class, sex, race, and the
history of social movements in America are consid¬
ered. In the third area, “The Skills of Organization,”
women learn the technical know-how to raise funds,
utilize the media, and research issues.
Participants in the first two week session of the
Academy, held in June, 1973, were from a variety of
organizations, including NOW, Movement for Eco¬
nomic Justice, Communication Workers of America,
National Education Association, Common Cause, the
Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, Abortion Task
Force, The American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees, and Women Employed.
The courses offered in this session were extremely
varied, drawing upon the diverse experience of the
trainers.
An integral part of the training at the MIDWEST
ACADEMY is participation in demonstrations and
local community organization’s meetings. For more
information on further sessions of the MIDWEST
ACADEMY, contact Heather Booth, Director.
MIDWEST ACADEMY
600 West Fullerton
Chicago, Illinois 60614
(312)935-4100
THE GAP WIDENS
Salaries of women workers are not only lower
than those of men, but the gap between them Is
widening as well, the head of the Labor Deport¬
ment’s Women's Bureau warned.
Outlining a "grim picture" of the latest Feden
statistics dealing with the incomes of minority
groups, Mrs. Elizabeth Duncan Koontz said that i
woman working full time in 1970 made only 57
percent of a man's income, down from 64 percea
in 1955.
"Women with one to three years college educa
tion had lower incomes in 1971 than men who
had completed only eight years of school, "she
said in citing another example.
In the years since those cited by Mrs. Koonti,
increasing attention has been given to equalizing
the salaries of men and women, and it is not
known if this "pay gap" has been narrowed in
1972.
Mrs. Koontz said that "only 7 percent of the
fully employed women but 40 percent of the me,
earned $ 10,000 or more in 1970. An alarming
45 percent of women but only 14 percent of met
earned less than $5,000.
Mrs. Koontz's paper, "Myth and Reality in thi
Employment of Women," came at a time when
she herself may be seeking employment. As with
most other high Federal officials, she was asked
to submit her resignation as a Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Labor almost two months ago byth
Nixon Administration. To date, she has not been
among those officials in the Labor Department
yzho have been designated as being retained.
"The 1970 full-time year-round wage or salary
income figures put white men at a median of
$9,373, followed by minority men at $6,598.
Next came white women at $5,490, and finally
at the bottom, minority women at $4,674."
from N.Y. TIMES, December, 1972
Reprinted from UNION W.A.G.E.,
January/February, 1973
BREAKTHROUGH:
Women into Management
by Rosalind Loring and Theodora Wells
“Through the 60’s we have moved steadily to¬
wards an awareness of the needs and rights of minor¬
ity groups in America. The Civil Rights movement has
brought slow, but steady improvement for those in
our society ‘who have been left behind’. To be white
and college educated would seem a blessing beyond a
doubt. Yet, if one is a woman, white or ethnic mi¬
nority, the facts do not bear this out.
“Although many signs point to change in the-near
future the scene has been grim. As of March, 1969,
among working women who had completed four
years of college, 19 percent were employed in non¬
professional jobs: clerical, sales, operative or service.
The average annual income of women college grad¬
uates was $8,156, compared to men graduates at
$13,264 in 1970. Women college graduates average
less earnings than men with 1-3 years of high school
education ($8,514).-U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
LABOR
Available from:
WOMEN’S HERITAGE SERIES
838 15th Street
Santa Monica, California
$1.50
“As Shirley Chisholm told her fellow Congress¬
men, ‘More than half the population of the United
States is female. But women occupy only 2 percent
of the managerial positions. They have not even
reached tokenism yet.’ ”
Rosalind Loring and Theodora Wells have docu¬
mented the almost total exclusion of women in man¬
agerial roles and have given concrete action proposals
in discussing recruitment, training, and promotion
procedures. In addition, BREAKTHROUGH:
WOMEN INTO MANAGEMENT includes excellent
guidelines for evaluating affirmative action plans as
well as a very comprehensive bibliography.
Available from:
VAN NOSTRAND REINHOLD COMPANY
450 West 33rd Street
New York, New York 10001
$7.95
Poster available for $2.00 from: JOYFUL WORLD
468 Belvedere Street, San Francisco, California
Know Tour Rights
Feel Mf rov/er
I'^If you know your employer is violating state
(forcing you to work overtime for no pay, etc)
can file a complaint with the Labor Commiss-
, who will .investigate and speak with your
Jwloyer. If you subsequently lose your job, you
grounds for collecting unemployment. If your
koloyer continues these practices after being
Jartacted you have good cause to quit your job and
,ect unemployment.
)A high percentage of all appeals of decisions
granted. The referees are not employed by HRD
are very open to granting appeals. If your
it appeal is denied you can then appeal to an
ils board. Always appeal any decision you think)
have been unfair.
If you are not hired for a job and feel you
being discriminated against as a woman, you
file a complaint with the Fair Employment
Practices commission. Don't ever let yourself be
Milled out of doing this by the employer. Ask the
jitate employment office for their address.
Unemployment discriminates against women by
iifying them in low paying, rapid turn-over,
lial service jobs and refusing to reclassify you
a more challenging job catagory even if you
ify for one. If you can't get reclassified,
jou may have to get a doctor's support for a
jhysical or psychological reason why you can't do
enial jobs.
"I was classified as a waitress from my claim
t«o years ago. When I filed a new claim as a sec¬
retary (I have three years college training and
Nd worked as a secretary for a year) I was order-
rd to again find work as a waitress. I insisted
Diat my new classification and job preference was
a a secretary and was again refused reclassifi¬
cation. In order to avoid waitressing I am claim¬
ing a valid back injury...”
” I was classified in a job catagory that was
mt available in my rural area - but said I was
liUing and anxious to seek work in tne city where
1 was not overqualified. I said that I traveled to
« city to look for work each week, and that way
stayed on unemployment for eight months.”
(2Slf you move, file for unemployment in your
ewstate. The money for your claim comes from
pur old state so your new home state has no vest¬
ed interest in giving you trouble about your claim)
Bead your rule book and know what to tell them
jefore you go in for an interview: know that you
lust say that you have transportation, that you
lust say you will seek work, that you will lose
i week's check if you let them know you were
sick one day...
(^)Know the rules, use them to get what, you wanij
demand your rights, de persistant. Red tape and
long drawn out cases are used to discourage you,
to dissipate yourenergy and your anqei.
Thp cards are stacked against you - it's uc
to you to reshuffle them.
)MEN IN THE WORK FORCE
velopment and Field Testing
Curriculum Materials
Louise Vetter and Barbara Sethney
"Recognition of the importance of vocational
lining for young women is a relatively new idea. In
:past, educators and counselors frequently at-
S ted to set girls on the ‘right road’ toward wife-
and motherhood, or else simply ignored them,
wever, in the last thirty years a great many changes
retaken place. Now, more than one third of the
rk force consists of women workers and the aver-
■ ‘work life expectancy’ for each working woman is
enty-five years (Women’s Bureau, 1969). With over
My million women in the work force in 1970 (U.S.
ipartment of Labor, 1971), some change in the
ider, kirche, kuche’ (children, church, kitchen) ap-
oach to vocational planning for girls and women is
Heated.”
The Center for Vocational and Technical Education
(Ohio State University has developed a curriculum
lit entitled “Planning Ahead for the World of Work”
rich is designed to aid secondary school girls in
airing career plans and vocational choices. The study
dudes various materials, audio-visual aids, socio-
amas, and evaluations to be used in programs for
rls from the seventh grade on.
ailable from:
IE CENTER FOR VOCATIONAL
,10 TECHNICAL EDUCATION
it Ohio State University
160 Kenny Road $ nn
tombus, Ohio 43210 *
HOW TO LOOK AT YOUR PLANT
It’s possible that your work place is hazardous to
your health. This booklet tells you how you and your
sister/fellow employees can “be your own inspectors”
and check out your work place for hidden dangers. At
one fluorescent lamp plant, for example the women
workers had been required to give urine samples to
the company’s medical staff for testing. The women
were not told why the tests were given or what the
results were. Finally, when the women started asking
questions they discovered that the mercury in the
lamp-making machines was dangerous. Because of
poor ventilation, the air was heavy with mercury
fumes. The women figured out that the urine tests
were being used to monitor the amount of mercury in
their bodies. They found out that many of the
workers had dangerously high levels of mercury in
their urine. The company made some changes in their
policies after pressure from the employees; but no
efforts would have been made toward eliminating the
hazards had not the women pressed the company for
changes.
The booklet suggests ways workers can pressure
companies to make their plants safe: by organizing
workers and using the law and contract clauses.
Workers have a right to safe working conditions, and
must demand that they be changed if they are not
safe.
To obtain this pamphlet, write to:
INDUSTRIAL HEALTH
AND SAFETY PROJECT
Urban Planning Aid
639 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
The unemployment burden is heaviest on
women. The government’s data for 1972 showed
an average adult male jobless rate of 4.5%, but the
female rate was 7.2%. For black women, this was
10.6%. Moreover, the bottom has dropped out of
fields into which women are channeled. In 1973
there will be 104,000 new teaching graduates not
finding work. 35% of the nation's women work
full time; their earnings are, on the average, 60%
of men’s wages for the same labor. Under the law,
a working woman may not take a tax deduction
for child care, although a working mate who em¬
ploys a housekeeper to tend motherless children
receives such a benefit (CIVIL LIBERTIES No.
284, 1972, p. 2).
A U.S. Dept, of Labor bulletin refers to teen¬
agers, adult women and part-time workers as "sec¬
ondary workers." Unemployment among these
"minority groups" who in fact constitute a major
part of the work force is even considered a "healthy
check"on inflation.
if you are white, over twenty-one, but under
thirty-five, with a good education and skills, you
will probably find a job—but not one that makes
much use of your education or skills. Women sci¬
entists (only 10% of the scientific labor force)
have a jobless rate 2'A times that of men scientists.
Despite the fact that 13 million women are
working and more than 90% of all women work
during their lifetimes, work patterns are based on
the lifestyle of men who work year round at a 40-
hour a week job until they are 65. The woman
who voluntarily "separates" from the work force
for a few years to raise a family is further penal¬
ized by having to re-enter (if she can) at the lowest
skill and work pay.
But statistics do not even begin to tell the
whole story. The situation is actually much worse
than the figures indicate because they do not re¬
flect so<aiied "hidden employment"or under¬
employment. Housewives and older women who
have simply "given up" looking for work because
jobhunting seemed hopeless, are not even counted
among the unemployed.
in a shrinking labor market, with more and
more jobs being automated, employers and even
unions ding blindly to the old 40-hour week.
Training women in specialized fields and profes¬
sions will help allow them to compete for jobs, but
it will not increase the number of jobs available.
from HER-SELF, February, 1973
UNEMPLOYMENT HANDBOOK
by the Unemployed Mothers
Organizing Committee
“Many people who are unemployed don’t know
the laws or what is expected of them in order to col¬
lect unemployment benefits. Often the people in the
Department of Employment Security treat workers
with suspicion, as if it was their fault for being un¬
employed. It is almost as if it was their own money
they were giving away. This harassment and insulting
treatment has the result of discouraging many deserv¬
ing workers from even applying for benefits.
“Furthermore the laws are very vague and unfair
and keep many people from collecting benefits. These
laws contain many clauses and sentences ‘that are
never explained to workers anywhere or at any time.’ ”
The UNEMPLOYMENT HANDBOOK, although
geared primarily to the laws and customs of New
Hampshire, explains many of the procedures that
must be followed in most states in order to collect
benefits. This handbook deals with applying for bene¬
fits, finding work, and appealing decisions, and it is
especially worthwhile for women, as women are al¬
ways among the first workers to be laid off.
Available from:
UNEMPLOYED WORKERS
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 401
Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801
(603) 436-8082
Donation requested to help cover
postage and handling
WANTED BY THE LAW: WOMEN
Ninety-six-and-a-half percent of all the lawyers in
this country are male. Women are realizing that it is
male legislators who are passing the laws which con¬
trol women’s lives. “It is male legislators who pass
laws giving all control of marital property to men. It
is male judges who in effect condone putting rape
victims on trial to facilitate acquittal of rapists. It is
male administrators who insist that the homes of
welfare mothers be searched at night without war¬
rants, and it is a male judiciary that upholds this prac¬
tice. It is male lawyers who fail to pursue women’s
issues because they consider them frivolous.”
Wanted
by the law:
WOMEN
For these reasons, many women are turning to the
practice of law as a means of achieving women’s
rights. THE BOALT HALL WOMEN’S ASSOCIA¬
TION of the Law School at Berkeley has written a
series of three pamphlets to help women who are
considering studying law. These pamphlets are writ¬
ten by feminists who see women lawyers as a much
needed force in this country, and are unique as re¬
cruitment material for women who are choosing a
career.
The first pamphlet contains general information
on law as a career: what a lawyer does, different
areas of law practice, what law school is like, how
women get started in practice as lawyers. The second
pamphlet provides practical information on becom¬
ing a lawyer: what kind of women become lawyers,
how to take the law school admission test, how to
cope with the application, recommendations, money
problems, etc. A third pamphlet is also available for
women who are interested in attending law school in
California. Detailed information about all thirty-five
law schools in this state are contained in this
pamphlet.
Pamphlets are available from:
THE BOALT HALL
WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION
School of Law
Boalt Hall
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720
50^/each
SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS
RECRUITING BOOKLETS
"The total number of women engineers and scien¬
tists did not rise significantly between 1950 and
1960; and women hold only a small proportion (2%)
of the positions as engineers, technicians (other than
medical and dental), and scientists, despite the nu¬
merous job openings created by the tremendous
interest in research and development ."
Women’s Bureau
U.S. Department of Labor
Analyzing these statistics and realizing that no
part of the female anatomy prevents a woman from
becoming a skilled engineer, the SOCIETY OF
WOMEN ENGINEERS publishes recruiting informa¬
tion in order to encourage women to enter the field.
The booklets stress the good job outlook in engineer¬
ing and also remind women that the pay is quite high,
because the field has been dominated by men.
Available from:
SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS
United Engineering Center
Room 305
345 East 47th Street
New York, New York 10017
(212) PL 2-6800
THE MYTH AND THE REALITY
Women are out Hi more than male workers;
they cost the company more.
A recent Public Health Service study shows
little difference in the absentee rate due to illness
or injury: 5.9 days a year for women compared
with 5.0 for men.
Women don't work as long or as regularly as
their male co-workers; their training is costly and
largely wasted.
Studies on labor turnover indicate that net dif¬
ferences for men and women are generally small.
In manufacturing industries the 1968 rates of ac¬
cessions per 100 employees were 4.4 for men and
5.3 for women; the respective separation rates
were 4.4 and 5.2.
Women should stick to "women’s jobs" and
shouldn't compete for "men's jobs."
Jobs, with extremely rare exceptions, arc sex¬
less. Tradition rather than job content has led to
labeling certain jobs as women’s and others as
men's. In measuring 22 inherent aptitudes and
knowledge areas, a research laboratory found that
there is no sex difference in 14, women excel in
6, and men excel in 2.
WOMEN’S CAUCUSES AND COMMITTEES
IN PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Updated listings of the Women’s Caucuses within
the various professional associations are published in
WOMEN TODAY, a publication of Today Publica¬
tions and News Service.
Some of these caucuses publicize jobs for women
in their fields, others do research on women, and still
others award grants to deserving women.
A complete listing of these caucuses is available from:
WOMEN TODAY
Executive, Editing and
Circulation Offices
National Press Building
Washington, D.C. 20004
FACING DOWN THE MAN
by Nancy Henley
“(This paper is dedicated to the Executive Com¬
mittee of the Board of Directors of the American
Psychological Association, without whose opposite
it might never have been written.)
“Students, women, workers, blacks, and others
now organizing in our country to fight oppression,
sooner or later get into a closed-doors showdown
with The Man. The Man has had years of experience
When taking seats, infiltrate.
Take every other seat so they can’t sit together!
confer; the exception to this is that your spokes-
erson should have one of you sitting next to lino
im. Not only can they not confer, but this destre
any feelings of solidarity they might have. (Pigsda
like each other, and are fighting for one or twotco
mon values they have left, so they have little solide
ity.) You are more together than they are, and sin:
apart can’t destroy your solidarity.
Break down all the status indicators.
Don’t let them call you by first name whileei-
pecting to be called mister, or put their armsaroia
your shoulders, etc. Call them by first name; toed
them; rearrange furniture in their conference roos
Be late for the meeting. Look for little things that
put you down, and destroy them.”
For twenty-three more dynamite tips, write to:
KNOW
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
15tf plus 5<f postage and handlit
172
$ 15.00/year
COUNSELING GIRLS AND
WOMEN OVER THE LIFE SPAN
by Esther Matthews
Failure to grant women and girls equal opportun-
Hes in terms of job training, educational programs,
occupational entrance, advancement, and pay creates
were economic hardship, even poverty, for many
»men and for many families dependent in whole or
iipart on a woman’s earnings.
U.S. Department of Labor
In 1970 the American Personnel and Guidance
Association devoted their annual conference to
COUNSELING GIRLS AND WOMEN. The papers
»hich were presented at the Conference have been
collected by Esther Matthews in COUNSELING
GIRLS AND WOMEN OVER THE LIFE SPAN.
Matthews, a professor of Education at the University
of Oregon, has written an introductory piece about
tlie stages of development of the human life cycle.
This sets the tone for the papers which discuss guid-
mce for young girls in schools and also for older
women who may have been subjected to sexist coun-
iding. Matthews has included good bibliographical
ind reference material in the back of the book.
Available from:
NATIONAL VOCATIONAL
GUIDANCE ASSOCIATION
Publication Sales
1607 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
$2.50
UNION WOMEN
GETTING IT TOGETHER
"/ tMnk when union women disassociate them¬
selves from ‘women's liberation’ it is caused by
misunderstanding, ” said Mary Lou Hennessy, as¬
sistant director of research for the American Fed¬
eration of State, County and Municipal Employ¬
ees (A FSCME) and a member of NOW.
"/ do think changes are beginning to come
about in organized labor as a result of the wom¬
en’s rights movement. Their concerns and those of
trade-union women are the same in the workplace:
child care, equal pay, hiring practices, promotional
opportunities, "she said. During the last year,
unions that have held women’s conferences include
the state AFL-CIOs in Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkan¬
sas, California and Iowa, the United Auto Workers;
the Teamsters; the Communications Workers; the
Union of Electrical Workers; the American Feder¬
ation of Teachers; and the American Newspaper
Guild.
There is a United Union Women’s Caucus in
Chicago and a national Union Women’s Alliance to
Gain Equality (Union W.A.G.E.).
Among the objectives of Union W.A.G.E. are:
- equal pay for equal work and equal oppor¬
tunity, with jobs for all;
- stronger efforts for affirmative action pro¬
grams f or better paying jobs;
- encouraging unionizing efforts to organize
working women;
- urging women unionists to take leadership
roles and greater responsibilities;
- raising demands such as paid maternity leaves
with no loss of seniority and adequate maternity
medical coverage;
- establishing child care facilities that are em¬
ployer and government supported and parent-staff
controlled;
- improving and extending state protect, ve
legislation to all workers;
- ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment
contingent upon extending the state protective
laws to all workers;
- guaranteed minimum wage of $3.00/hour;
- work week of 35 hours or less at 40 hours'
pay, with double pay for overtime.
from OFF OUR BACKS, January, 1973
Back to Work
HOW TO GO TO WORK WHEN
YOUR HUSBAND IS AGAINST IT,
YOUR CHILDREN AREN’T OLD ENOUGH
AND THERE’S NOTHING
YOU CAN DO ANYHOW
by Felice N. Schwartz, Margaret H. Schifter and
Susan S. Gillotti of CATALYST
With three strikes already against you, you need
some help. Three women from the staff of
CATALYST (see entry in this section) have compiled
HOW TO GO TO WORK. . . . They have dedicated
their book to women who are “the nation’s richest
untapped source of brainpower”: those college-edu¬
cated women who have been locked into their roles
as homemakers. The book contains vital information
for women who would like to combine domestic
routines with challenging jobs.
ilOvV i ( ^
to work wfk
your hi-. ?■
ls.again it
senary ole- •
enough,
And there’s
nothing you can
do anyhow
Felice N. Schwartz, Margaret H. Schifter
and Susan S.Gillott. of CATAIYST
The authors help women deal with their ambivalent
feelings about returning to work. As the title indicates,
they admit that family and responsibilities may con¬
flict with a woman’s career goals. “There are a host of
complications, but you can manage. Because you are
somebody.”
Supportive advice is offered on how you can de¬
termine what kind of job environment is right for
you, how to write a resume, how to set up an inter¬
view, and how to persuade skeptical empk>yers. Also
included are profiles of eight women who have suc¬
cessfully found the right iob for their talents and
energies and have resolved their difficulties with their
husbands and families.
The second half of the book is a complete
Baedeker of over fifty professions, from accounting
to writing. This section describes the feel of each job,
how to obtain training, where the openings are, and
what obstacles to expect in each field. Part-time
possibilities are also assessed.
Available from:
SIMON AND SCHUSTER
630 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10020
$8.95 (hardback)
WOMEN’S BUREAU PUBLICATIONS
The Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of
Labor puts out a wide variety of publications on the
participation of women in the labor force.
The Career Opportunities for Women series
includes:
Why Not Be-
An Engineer? No. 41,1971.
An Optometrist? No. 42,1968.
A Medical Technologist? No. 44,1971.
A Public Relations Worker? No. 46, 1970.
A Technical Writer? No. 47, 1971.
A Personnel Specialist? No. 48, 1968.
An Urban Planner? No. 49, 1970.
Each career pamphlet is available for $ .10.
JOBFINDING TECHNIQUES FOR MATURE
WOMEN-gives advice on job hunting, the job inter¬
view, preparing a resume. No. 11, 1970 30<f
HELP IMPROVE VOCATIONAL EDUCATION FOR
WOMEN AND GIRLS IN YOUR COMMUNITY-
explains how a community can benefit from the 1968
amendments to equalize and improve vocational
education opportunity. December, 1970 lOtf
GET CREDIT FOR WHAT YOU KNOW-indicates
how to obtain high school equivalency or college
credits without “returning to school,” and notes that
this may be of special interest to women wishing to
improve their opportunities for better jobs. Lists
sources of information for preparing and taking qual¬
ifying examinations. 1971 20tf
CALLING ALL WOMEN IN FEDERAL SERVICE-
designed to assist women Federal employees and appli¬
cants in efforts to advance their careers. No. 53,1972
Many other publications are available from the
Women’s Bureau. Write to:
THE SUPERINTENDENT
OF DOCUMENTS
U.S. Government
Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402
WISCONSIN WOMEN
IN APPRENTICESHIP
How can women learn to be carpenters, printers,
meat cutters? Women are finding that a handy way to
combine learning skills and earning money is the ap¬
prentice system. While a woman is an apprentice, her
employer pays for her work, and finances her educa¬
tion as well. After she has completed her apprentice¬
ship, she is assured a good iob: she is experienced and
has already demonstrated her skill on the job.
In this pamphlet, eight Wisconsin women describe
their decisions to learn new skills as apprentices. One
woman, a mother of three, completed her high school
education and went on to night classes in drafting and
blueprint reading to become a skilled carpenter.
Another became the first central office telephone re-
pairwoman in Wisconsin. A third woman combined
her artistic talents with training at a Milwaukee print¬
ing company and applied for a job in lithographic
stripping. She got the job, and worked for six months
before she was accepted by the union, Lithographers
and Photoengravers International. Now she looks
forward to getting her iourneyperson’s card: “With
that, you can go anywhere you want and you will be
accepted for your skill rather than your gender.”
To find out more about apprenticeship in their
own parts of the country, women should contact their
school counselors, their state apprenticeship agencies,
their local Employment Service offices, and U.S. De¬
partment of Labor, Women’s Bureau, in Washington
D.C. 20210. g ’
The pamphlet WISCONSIN WOMEN IN
APPRENTICESHIP is available from:
STATE OF WISCONSIN
Department of Industry, Labor,
and Human Relations
Division of Apprenticeship
and Training
Madison, Wisconsin
173
Feminist Federal Credit Union
W hat is a credit union? A credit union is a state or federally chartered non-profit savings and loan cooperative run by and for its members. Membership ini
credit union is open to people who share a “common bond,” based usually on employment, but also on occupation, residence or association. The credit union is
unique among financial institutions in that a union grants credit to its members on the basis of this “common bond,” i.e., on the assumption that members know
each other well enough to grant credit on the basis of a person’s character rather than on the collateral that banks and loan companies require. The credit union
further distinguishes itself from other savings and loan institutions in tha it is non-profit and it is democratically controlled by its members. The membership
elects a board of directors (seven people) which governs and supervises the union and a credit committee (three people) which approves loans.
Although they exist throughout the country, you may never have heard of a credit union, particularly if you live in an area where the influence of banking in¬
terests prevails. Or perhaps you’ve heard of credit unions for Italian Americans or for medical technologists or for Drummond Aircraft employees. But have you
ever heard of a Feminist Credit Union?
The FEMINIST FEDERAL CREDIT UNION of Detroit, chartered in August, 1973, is the first of its kind. In the finest tradition of the credit union move¬
ment, the Union seeks to “demystify the financial system and extend credit to those who have the hardest time getting credit at other lending institutions.”
The FEMINIST FEDERAL CREDIT UNION was initiated by a group of resourceful Detroit feminists in an unparalled effort to make money work for
women—not for uranium mines in South Africa or for banana trees in Guatemala.
“The field of money and finance is male-dominated, mystifying, and outrageously discriminatory against women. It is not enough merely to pressure that
male-controlled system into throwing us crumbs of credit. We want financial control of our lives. . . .
“We need a women’s credit union in order to support each other in our attempts to free ourselves to lead more independent, healthier lives. We formed con¬
sciousness-raising groups to support each other emotionally and to help us understand the changes we were making in our lives, we formed self-help clinics to help
us understand and have control of our bodies. Forming a women’s credit union is a continuation of this process of mutual support.
“As individuals and as women’s groups we need money to make new ideas realities. But we want to be able to borrow money where we can be honest about
why we want it, whether it be for an abortion, a divorce, a vacation or a printing press. We refuse to be hassled any longer by the sexist assumptions built into tht
FEMINIST FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
c/o Women’s Resource Center
18700 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48203
(313) 892-7160
K FOR A WOMAN-
t ndbook for a Corporate Suffragette
Marilyn Patel
“One in every seven Americans is a shareowner
American business. Of adult shareowners 49.9%
iwomen. 50.1% are men. The percentages of
omen and men shareholders have always been
tirly equally divided since the Fust New York
lock Exchange stockholder census was taken in
152....” But 99.999% of corporate business
ilicies are determined by men, who control cor-
rate management.
“Two million of AT&T’s three million share-
ilders are women, AT&T sports a host of di-
Klors on its Board. Not one is a woman. General
loiors, General Electric, U.S. Steel, Ford, Stan-
ud Oil of New Jersey, and nearly any other blue
lip company you can name have among their
fockholaers large numbers of women, but hardly
woman director to be found. The Boards of
hectors of the FORTUNE “500” resemble an
xestuous intercorporate family with white males
emitting corporate polygamy in the name of
ee enterprise.”
Marilyn Patel, under the auspices of the NOW
tockholder Action Program, has written a book-
ito instruct women on their rights and powers
(shareholders and to guide them in using these
flwers to change corporate structure and policies.
Isa course of action against discriminatory prac-
ices, Patel suggests that women actively exercise
ieir rights in shareholding activities. She describes
iow women shareholders can attend annual meet-
igs, put forth shareholder resolutions, and vote
:ir shares for women nominees. Women are also
fetructed how to inspect records of the corpora-
bnand bring suit where the directors have acted
tkgally. Available from:
NATIONAL NOW
1957 East 73rd Street
CHicago, Illinois 60649
(OMEN’S CREDIT ALERT
Credit discrimination is a very sexist business; it is
sed on the assumption that a woman is nothing
ithout control of a husband’s pursestrings. Stores
rill refuse to grant credit to a woman for a variety of
asons: if she is divorced or separated; if she tries to
ae her credit on her own references without her
sband’s co-signature; if she marries, and wishes to
(p her own credit. The California Public Interest
(search Group has chosen women’s credit as one of
iprojects. CALPIRG is in the process of document-
[discrimination in this area to take action to bring
Mt solutions. If you feel you have been discrimi-
:ed against in obtaining credit, send a description
the specifics of your case to CALPIRG.
,ifyou want information to help mount a similar
fort in your own area, write to:
OMEN’S CREDIT ALERT
lifornia Public Interest Research Group
60 India Street
"Diego, California 92109
14)236-1509
Women and Credit
Has your credit card been issued to “Mrs. Marvin Gardens?” WOMEN AND CREDIT, a manual compiled by NOW,
points out: “A wife who uses her husband’s first name has no identity of her own in the credit community. Only one per¬
son could carry a card issued to “Mary Gardens,” whether the name is preceded by Miss, Ms. or Mrs. But a succession of
Marvin’s wives could be called “Mrs. Marvin Gardens” because each is no more than an appendage of Marvin.
“A woman whose credit cards are issued in her husband’s first name is probably unaware that if she ever has a real need
for credit it is likely to be during a crisis period, e.g., immediately after a change in marital status or during a period of
extraordinary expense. It is during these ‘crisis’ periods that a woman is least likely to be able to obtain credit as a new
applicant.”
This manual outlines the ways in which women are discriminated against in the granting of credit. According to this
manual, these unfair practices are based upon the presumptions that 1) all women are likely to become pregnant; 2) preg¬
nancy will lead automatically to termination of employment; 3) women do not have the common sense necessary to know *
when to incur debts in relation to prospective motherhood and unemployment. This reasoning, of course, is patently
absurd. But women are nevertheless routinely denied credit because they are women.
The NOW WOMEN AND CREDIT booklet details action plans for women to combat these discriminatory patriarchal
practices. First there is the “Self-Help” action: individual, extra-legal steps that the woman can take herself. These involve
writing letters to creditors and credit bureaus citing the fact
that the woman has been discriminated against in violation
of The Fair Credit Reporting Act. General information on
the policies of bank-related financial transactions is pro¬
vided so that women can write detailed and informed let¬
ters to bank officials should they be rejected for loans or
credit.
The second type of action women can take involves es¬
tablishing a credit project. This is a task for a group of
women who collect data on discrimination, monitor such
data, and research all relevant local, state and federal laws.
Since discriminatory policies are fostered by lack of educa¬
tion about the status of women and credit, such a project
can expose these policies and ultimately eliminate them.
The appendix of this manual contains sample forms and
questionnaires for initiating such a project-inquiries to be
made of department stores, banks that sponsor credit cards,
mortgage brokers, etc. As the manual points out, “Equal
access to money is a prerequisite to attaining a meaningful
role in the business and financial community, and women
must demand that creditors provide financial services on a
non-discriminatory basis.” This manual will enable women
to make their demands heard.
Available from:
NATIONAL NOW
1957 East 73rd Street
Chicago, Illinois 60649
$3.00/members
$5.00/non-members
Women’s Bank
Women have always known that the “friend” that
customers were supposed to have at their local bank
was never intended to include them. And women who
have worked in banks have never had to be reminded
that they have the lowest-paying, lowest-prestige jobs.
(A recent study of 18 banks in 6 major cities shows
that women hold 73% of all clerical positions and
only 15% of all managerial positions.)
However, by the beginning of 1974, the FIRST
WOMEN’S BANK AND TRUST COMPANY will be
open in midtown Manhattan and will reverse the dis¬
crimination women have faced as employees and as
bank customers. According to Eileen Preiss, the co¬
ordinator of the bank project, “special consideration
will be given to lend money to women and to put
women in high level positions.”
The bank, the first and only feminist bank in the
country, will, of course, have a woman president.
Capitalization will be three to four million dollars,
75% of which has already been raised.
In addition to offering full banking services, the
FIRST WOMEN’S BANK AND TRUST COMPANY
will have a full-time staff consultant to advise women
on starting their own businesses. The bank will also
house a library and will offer courses on investment
and money management.
In addition to regular banking hours, the bank will
be open evenings and Saturdays at its new office at
111 East 57th Street.
The board of directors of the FIRST WOMEN’S
BANK AND TRUST COMPANY hope that their bank
will serve as an example for other banks to stop their
discriminatory practices against women. The bank has
already received notice from dozens of businesses
run by both women and men) of intention to trans-
er funds from their banks to the FIRST WOMEN’S
BANK AND TRUST COMPANY.
i
(Editors’ note: The staff of the NEW WOMAN'S
S UR VIVAL CATALOG is proud to announce that
it intends to deposit its monies in the FIRST
WOMEN'S BA NK A ND TRUST COM PA N Y.)
FIRST WOMEN’S BANK
AND TRUST COMPANY
c/o Eileen Preiss
1501 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
(212)564-3200
YOUR FAIR SHARE
OF REVENUE SHARING
A Community Guide to General Revenue
Sharing, Implications and Actions
For a copy and information, write:
MOVEMENT FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE
1609 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 462-4200
HOW TO HANDLE
THE CREDIT BUREAU
A credit bureau is a business which collects
and/or keeps on file information about your credit
transactions over a period of years, if a company
turns down your credit application because of a
bad credit bureau report, it must give you the
name and address of the bureau. The same holds
true for an insurance company that rejects your
application or an employer who refuses to hire you
because of a bad credit report. A fter rejection, the
bureau must disclose to you the nature and sub¬
stance of all information. They do not have to tell
you the sources of their information and they do
not actually have to let you "see"your file.... if
there are items that need correcting in your file,
the bureau must reinvestigate this information, it
must delete any information found inaccurate or
unverifiable. It must send notice of the deletion to
any or all those who received your report in the
previous six months, in the event of a dispute with
a merchant, you have the right to put in the file a
statement of 100 words giving your side of the
argument.
from Women in Transition SURVIVAL MANUAL
175
Mr., I<d Rather
Do It Myself
Mother Courage Restaurant
c
VJcldom is a woman more acutely aware of her second-class citizenship than when she
goes to a restaurant “unescorted” by a man. If she does, she knows she risks being treated
with condescension by the maitre d’ and/or waiters; stared and leered at by waiters and
diners (male, naturally); hassled for an I.D. to prove her drinking age, even though she is
thirty-three and looks it; being “joined” by uninvited males who regard any single women
out by themselves as fair game; and insulted if she asks an intruder to take his unwanted
attentions elsewhere. Two women together fare little better.
This is just another one of the subtle, but powerful ploys used by men to discourage
women from exerting independence—on a par with street harassment and violence which
is meant to remind women that the world outside the home belongs to men, especially
after dark. “What is a nice girl like you doing out alone (sans male) by yourself”
To dispel any lingering notion that the discomfort she experiences in such situationsij
a product of paranoia, a woman need only visit the country’s first feminist restaurant.
MO I HER COURAGE, owned, operated, staffed, and mostly patronized by feminists, not
only serves superlative food at reasonable prices, but provides a congenial and hassle-free
environment unlike any we encountered in 13,000 miles of travel across the country.
It is possible that the dearth of feminist restaurants results from women avoiding work
associated with one of the more oppressive roles into which they have traditionally been
locked. Even for Jill Ward, a management-consultant, and Dolores Alexander, a journalist,
it was not so much food and cooking which lured them into starting MOTHER COURAGE
in April, 1972, as the idea of creating a social mileu where women could get together over .
good food, where THEY would set the tone, not male waiters, owners, customers-a place
badly needed by the New York feminist community. Both women were also looking for
ways of making a living outside the male-dominated business world which, as committed
feminists, they were finding increasingly intolerable and oppressive. They have succeeded
in both respects. After a very tough first year, they are beginning to see the light finan¬
cially; and MOTHER COURAGE is THE gathering place for New York Movement wom¬
en. On any evening of the week the restaurant is alive and buzzing. You are as likely to
find Movement “heavies” as you arc regulars; New York Radical Feminists, as NOW
women; Lesbian Feminist Liberation caucusing, as the Modern Language Association’s
Commission on the Status of Women dining out. Women drop in from all over the coun¬
try, bringing news of the Movement from their communities. Feminists from Finland, 1
Brazil, England, France, Denmark, Italy, have found their way to MOTHER COURAGE
via the grapevine. But although this is a feminist institution-ANY woman who wants a J
good meal in a friendly place without getting hassled will love MOTHER COURAGE. '
We have already pointed out that most of
the 38.3 million women who make up the full¬
time labor force of America do boring, alienat¬
ing work. Many men, too, are locked into de¬
meaning and dehumanizing jobs. But,
1. Men are paid more than women, even
when they do the same work.
2. Men have promotional opportunities that
women do not have.
3. Men do not have to put up with the in¬
credible sexual objectification and sexist
treatment which so often makes the
working environment a misery for women.
Many women who develop feminist con¬
sciousness find working for and with men in¬
creasingly intolerable, and are abandoning male-
dominated work situtations to start their own
women-controlled enterprises. Listed below is
a tiny sampling of women—over and above
those whose work is described in other sec¬
tions—who have found that determination and
hard work enable them to survive in ways which
are intrinsically satisfying and which free them
from the suffocation of mate control.
The idea for the restaurant was actually conceived on the Long Island Expressway at
three o’clock one morning, when Jill was driving back to a weekend place from an ap¬
pointment in the city. She recalls being starved, and not finding anything open, thinking
about food. Food led to restaurants, and “it was right then that I thought how great it
would be to have a women’s restaurant.” Jill discussed the idea with Dolores, and three
weeks later, in September, 1971, they decided to go ahead, and immediately started to
look for a premises.
Opening a restaurant in New York requires considerable capitalization. Jill and Do¬
lores figured it would take a minimum of $10,000, which they probably would not re¬
cover for two or three years. They had $3,000 in personal savings; the question was how
to raise the remaining $7,000. Banks are notoriously discriminative toward women in
their credit policies. Without collateral, that route is hopeless. Convinced that they could
make a go of the kind of restaurant they had in mind, the women wrote up a five-page
prospectus describing their concept, the reasons they felt a women’s restaurant was
needed, and their confidence in the financial prospects of such a venture. They circulated
125 copies to friends in the Women’s Movement asking for loans of any amount on which they
would pay fifteen percent interest. Within the space of a month, thirty-seven people had sub¬
scribed $6,500 in amounts ranging from twenty-five dollars to one thousand. “Women res¬
ponded so well, we were actually turning the money away by the time we hit our target. This is
an incredibly good way for women to raise capital for their own ventures. We are surprised
more women in the Movement haven’t tried it. There must be any number of projects which
could be financed this way—and not just businesses: women’s clinics, art galleries, perhaps even
things like books.”
By December, 1971, a lease had been signed for 342 West 11th Street, on the western edge
of Greenwich Village. It took five months to turn what had been Bennie’s Luncheonette two
years previously into MOTHER COURAGE. With occasional help from friends and Jill’s father,
the two women removed the ceiling, laid a new floor, exposed the brick walls, rewired the
place, put in new pipes, installed the kitchen and bathroom. In April, the restaurant opened
with three dishes on the menu: spaghetti and meat balls, chili, and a daily special. Today
MOTHER COURAGE offers seventeen dishes from Chicken Kiev to Shrimp Tempura, including
several vegetarian delights for the feminists who are turning away from slaughtered food products.
Nearly two years after opening, Jill and Dolores are seeing confirmed their original confi¬
dence in the restaurant’s viability. Success has brought some changes. The originally heavily
feminist clientele has been somewhat diluted—particularly after a very favorable notice in
NEW YORK magazine brought in more men dining out with their wives and women friends.
Jill and Dolores point out that the publicity has also brought in more Movement women from
suburbs outside the city, from New Jersey, Westchester, Long Island. The balance is still very
much on the side of the feminists, who constitute a good sixty percent of the diners on any
given evening. And, if there are more men, this is one restaurant where men know their place.
What advice would the owners of MOTHER COURAGE give other women who are thinking
of starting a restaurant? “Count on at least three years before you can make a profit. Don’t
start undercapitalized. Before going into business get as much advice as possible: talk to other
women who have restaurants; go to city agencies like the Small Business Association. Get a
feminist lawyer, accountant, and insurance agent. But, above all, DO IT!”
What are their own thoughts on having opened a feminist restaurant? “Thank God the first
year is over. The biggest lesson we learned is that nothing-nothing good-comes easy. But we
are very satisfied with the choice we have made. We really see the best chances for personal
fulfillment AND revolutionary change in women getting going their own enterprises and insti¬
tutions. In the man’s world, as far as women are concerned, the trend will be tokenism for
years to come. And you can bet that not many feminists are going to be among these tokens.
Of course, we still have to live in and deal with that world. You know, MOTHER COURAGE is
a character in a Brecht play who endures and survives the Thirty Years’ War by dealing with
both sides. Obviouslv, to survive we all have to compromise to some degree. The trick is to at¬
tain one’s values with minimum compromise. That’s what we are trying to do.” And they are
doing it very successfully.
MOTHER COURAGE is open every evening from 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m.
MOTHER COURAGE
342 West 11th Street
New York, New York
SKRIMP
£R',tKi
0 tc r sra.oqa.Norr
QRoileO Sc’L/T
Country Women
75
w
Whether we are thinking about rural life of the pre-urban 1/ \ z'
era or modern, mechanized farms, or the new back-to-the-earth 'tyx /-n /
hippies homesteads, the word country woman evokes the IvAv^ ‘ /
farmer’s wife. Country life means the farmer on his thresher, / /
his wife baking bread; the farmer roofing the barn, his wife ■Ssh'" 5 / /
collecting eggs; the farmer slaughtering hogs, his wife weeding IK\ / 4
the garden; the farmer fixing the pump, his wife sewing f) / ‘'V M
clothes; the farmer ploughing, his wife putting up preserves. 7\K~'sj>,/Tk^k
These stereotyped images, embodying romanticized male A~<
yearnings, have never entirely reflected reality. The farmer’s V/ ^ - ' - _
wife HAS cooked, baked, grown the garden, made and mended (TTTTTTT/
clothes, tended the children, washed the dishes, cleaned the \ c~ J 1 i ~f j
house. But she has also played a large role in working the farm: /j\^TTT7^/\
loading hogs, castrating goats, delivering calves, helping build a ] ./S
shed, driving the tractor or bull-dozer. It has never been as \ V V v \
uncommon as imagined for women to “man” the large ma- \ \
chinery of the modern farm. Like all working women, the f
country woman has simply carried a double burden. She has Jv JaJT \
had to be wife, mother, AND farmer. _ J / V'N \
Recent years have seen a back-to-the-earth exodus by iff / \
younger Americans who reject the materialism and artificiality "(V yO )( O-/
of life in an urban/industrial culture. By a fascinating irony, ^
just at the time when women have begun to challenge sexist l
stereotyping and are struggling to break free of oppressive roles \ ML//
and images, this new rural counter-culture has resurrected the \ \ fOi°\
romanticized version of the country woman as the farmer’s /3jf\ 1 ) Kio)
domestic helpmeet. Unfortunately, this time the stereotype is yU \ feU ///My J
a true reflection of reality. On the new hippie homestead the f\ V ) JkYh, (((h>-c/ /
woman’s place IS in the home. Anyone who doubts this need V7\ 1 fr vXxw/N (f
only check the literature written by and for the new rural im- \y / PI \\()j I
migrants. Publications like EARTH MOTHER NEWS, COM- Y / \o\ lM\ j/oj
MUNITIES, THE WHOLE EARTH CATALOG, THE NEW / \VQ> WsW
EARTH CATALOG, insofar as they treat women at all, rele- l l
gate them to glorified earth mother status. (Several country V \ ..
communes are known to ban contraceptives as interfering with -
the “natural” rhythms of life—a new version of “keep ’em
barefoot and pregnant.”) City women transplanted to the -
country do work hard: cooking macrobiotic rice, baking
granola cookies, sewing granny dresses, washing dishes and -
dirty socks with biodegradable soap in water they have brought What do chauvinist farmers :
from the well, tending men and babies. They work hard, but animat HUSBANDRY. Women
they are encouraged to remain frail, mechanically inept, and seen as an urge to fulfill our me
dependent for survival and protection on their “old men.” zie, in his book GOA T HUSBA
As far as women are concerned, the new country culture has dependence of character which
merely transferred to the country the tyranny of urban and ing goats and fewer women kee
suburban sex roles—with a vengeance. that it is mainly women who "l
But, the exodus from the cities to the land has also included of the best dairy goats, and a w
women who, singly, or with other women, have chosen home- velopment of the American La
steading as a way of life. These women farmers, invisible in the l ^ e Sept. 1972 issue of THE SI
dominant or counter-culture, are like their city sisters, rebel- 9' r I Y r ' te f t0 as ^ s ^ e can con:
ling against values and institutions which narrow and stunt and Beck, D. V.M. He says that she ,
limit their freedom to grown, push their limits, create their- come her small size through ing
own woman-space. And they are beingjoined by women on loving animals and desiring to v
collectives, communes, homesteads who are tired of being the sometimes two different situati
farmers’ wives. In fact, the rebellion has gone so far in some The Farmer's Wife is praised
places, that women have rid their farms of men and are con- woman is made to stay in h
tinuing as feminist enterprises. You may not yet have heard or each other more things than thi
read: “The farmer, she_” If you haven’t, get ready for magazine convinces you to star.
some changes.
COUNTRY WOMEN, one of the most significant manifes-_
tations of the new Women’s Movement, reflects the growing
number of women who see themselves as farmers in their own
right, forging new lifestyles as WOMEN on the land. COUN¬
TRY WOMEN is the clearest indication that women on the
land are asserting their independence and autonomy against the very threatening flank attack mounted by
hippie men. The new male dominance won’t be long in eroding when this magazine gets into the hands of the
“old ladies.”
The magazine is published by a collective of feminists in northern California who themselves farm singly,
with other women, or with men. The first issue describes the aims of the paper:
COUNTRY WOMEN begins as a vision of sharing. Many of us are moving to the country into a whole new
environment and learning how to survive-and at the same time beginning to explore ourselves critically and
deeply as WOMEN. We are learning new skills, discovering our discontent, getting high with women, struggling
NOT to be bound by roles or fears. We see COUNTR Y WOMEN as a feminist country survival manual and a
creative journal. It is for women living with women, with men, and alone, for women who live in the country
already, and for women who want to move out of the cities. We need to learn all that women can do in the
country and learn to break out of oppressive roles and images. We need to reach out of our kola lion from one
another, to know that we aren 't alone, that we aren 't crazy, that there is a lot of love and strength and growing
to share. COUNTR Y WOMEN can bring us together....
T7\
if fry
SlvX '.<> //YT-
/AW
What do chauvinist farmers say when we do, perchance, dare to invade their field of
animal HUSBANDR Y. Women's interest in breeding and raising productive livestock is
seen as an urge to fulfill our maternal instincts and is not taken seriously. David Macken¬
zie, in his book GOAT HUSBA NDR Y, describes the British A Ipine goat as having "an in¬
dependence of character which would be better appreciated if there were more men farm¬
ing goats and fewer women keeping them as pets." But the reality in the United States is
that it is mainly women who "farm" goats, women who are the largest breeders of some
of the best dairy goats, and a woman, Eula Fay Frey, who was responsible for the de¬
velopment of the American La Mancha, a hardy, high-producing, new breed of goat. In
the Sept. 1972 issue of THE SHEPHERD magazine (the sheep trade journal), a young
girl writes to ask if she can consider becoming a veterinarian. Her answer is from C. C.
Beck, D. V.M. He says that she is certainly academically capable, and can probably over¬
come her small size through ingenuity, but there is another problem. "Again, / repeat,
loving animals and desiring to work with them and administer to their health needs are
sometimes two different situations, at least for women."
The Farmer’s Wife is praised and the woman farmer is sneered at. And once again
the woman is made to stay in her place. But if country women get together and teach
each other more things than their granola recipes and if reading about sheep in this
magazine convinces you to start YOUR own flock, then it will change.
from COUNTRY WOMEN
178
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Each issue has regular columns plus articles about a central topic. Themes have covered “Consciousness-Rais¬
ing,” “Living with Children in the Country,” “Women and Art,” “Work and Money,” “Homesteading,” “Liv¬
ing Alternatives: communal, collective, alone, with or without men and children.” Forthcoming themes will
focus on “Buying Land,” “Running a Small Farm,” “The Women’s Movement in the Country.” Regular ar¬
ticles include gardening (Winter Gardens, Planting the Perennial, Hotbeds, Pruning Trees, Watering); raising
animals (goat breeding and keeping, sheep health care, lambing, veterinary information, buying goats, trim¬
ming hooves); how to build and use tools (roll roofing, wood splitting, chain saws, two-women hand saws,
fencing, pole-framing, simple siding, electrical wiring, non-electrical lights); food (pickling and preserving,
living off the ocean, hunting, cooking and eating wild mushrooms, what to do with apples-picking, storing,
cooking, preserving—making cheese, killing and dressing fowl, milk products—how to make butter, yogurt,
sour cream, ice cream); country skills (wood cookstoves, free wood, carding and spinning, quilting, weaving);
articles on women’s health, and reviews of women’s literature.
Most articles, and almost always the how-to articles, are illustrated with indescribably beautiful graphics.
(One of our hardest editorial tasks was deciding which graphics to include in the catalog.) In fact, we do not
hesitate to recommend this magazine as the handsomest publication in the Women’s Movement. COUNTRY
WOMEN can only be described in superlatives. We would be selling the magazine short if we presented it
simply as one of the “how-to” genre. Photographs, drawings, poetry, introspective explorations, journal ex¬
tracts, work as brilliantly as the how-to graphics-in this instance to show the texture of life of these new
country women, their evolving consciousness, the frustrations and joys of learning and discovery, the painful¬
ness of some changes. Of course all country women, and country-bound women must subscribe to the mag¬
azine. We would also recommend it to all those women in cities and suburbs who have ever harbored an urge
to live on the land. We suspect you might turn up on the “contact” page after reading a few issues. We feel
sure that those of us who do not feel the need to live in the country will find pleasure in reading COUNTRY
WOMEN.
For subscriptions, write to
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COUNTRYWOMEN
P.O. Box 51
Albion, California 95410
$7.00/12 issues
Single issues/60^
Bulk rates and consignment
sales to stores.
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THE LAMMAS
Two-and-a-half years ago Leslie worked at the jobs into which so many
women in this society are channeled: waitressing and typing. Finally, she could
no longer stand being treated like a “cross between a trained animal and an un¬
trained child.” Using books borrowed from the public library, she began to teach
herself silversmithing. Judy worked as the only woman technician in a laboratory
where everyone else was afraid of the rats. After three years of coddling the men
she trained to become her superiors, she called it quits. She worked a stint in
leather before teaming up with Leslie to work with silver.
The women named their business LAMMAS after an English medieval festival
commemorating the blessing of bread from the first grain harvest, a lucky day,
on which gifts of silver were given. At first LAMMAS made enough jewelry to
sell every Saturday via a vendor’s license on Georgetown and downtown Wash¬
ington, D.C. streetcorners. This brought in just enough to eat, but they were free
and unbossed. Soon a friend volunteered, for a small commission, to market
LAMMAS jewelry to local stores. The exquisite quality of their designs and craft-
womenship resulted in steady orders not only from stores in Washington, but all
along the East Coast. “We now make enough to live quite comfortably. We work
about fifty hours a week—maybe two hours one day, twelve hours the next.”
LAMMAS, in fact, have become so successful, that they are looking for other
women who share their values, to train to work with them in silver; and they
have opened a shop in Washington to serve as a retail outlet for their own silver-
work and a variety of craftwork made by other women artisans.
Judy and Leslie still feel that one of the most satisfying aspects of their changed lifestyle is not having to hassle with men. “We’d rather
lose a sale than put up with any shit. That is what our sales reps do, too—tell obnoxious men to fuck oft” The other reward is the sense of
helping to build a feminist culture: “We are still part of a capitalist system. But we’re also beginning to build alternatives. We only work with
women we really care about, who are our friends, so there is respect and love in our business.”
WOMEN’S RINGS
When in Washington, D.C., visit LAMMAS ARTS & CRAFTS, 321 7th Street, S.E. The jewelry pictured here from the LAMMAS bro¬
chure is all sterling silver. All of the prices listed are wholesale, and the suggested retail price is double the cost. A $30.00 minimum order is
required. When ordering, specify size range of rings; pierced or non-pierced-earrings; small, medium, or large bracelets; and small or large
eks for delivery. All LAMMAS orders are sent by insured parcel post.
chokers. Allow 2-3 week
Write for the complete brochure, or send orders to:
LAMMAS
Box 8957
Washington, D.C. 20003
(202)544-7613
SISTERSILVER
Chicago
M’Lou Brubacher broke out of economic dependency on the patriarchy with five dollars worth of tools, twenty feet of coppa
wire at five cents a foot, and a free course in art metal jewelry at a Chicago city trades school.
M’Lou has been making a living for three years now by making silver jewelry with predominantly feminist motifs. Her workii
beautiful and unique. But that’s not all that distinguishes her as a silversmith. M’Lou decided to kick capitalism as well as sexism
when she started making money off her work. The first system M’Lou adopted as a means of selling products to women withoul
ripping them off, was to leave the price decision to the customers themselves. She set a minimum price for a given piece based on
the cost of the materials, say two dollars, and set a ceiling five times that amount. She then invited people to say what they felt
they could afford. “They just hated doing that. They didn’t even try to deal with the problem of their earning power vis a vis mine.
1 couldn’t stand the hassle.” So M’Lou has switched to a system of payment based explicitly on the earning power of the customw.
Each of the pendants featured here, one of SISTERSILVER’s
most popular items, costs $5.35 in materials. You pay the
cost of the materials plus a sum based on what you make at
your work per hour. That is, you and M’Lou exchange labor
power. Another example of feminist ingenuity! If you make
this much per hour . . . you pay:
1.50 or less
$5.35
$2.00
$6.35
$2.50
$7.35
S3.00
$8.35
$3.50
$9.35
$4.00
$10.35
$4.00
$11.35
$5.00 or more _
$12.35
180
SISTERSILVER specializes in custom work, rings, brace¬
lets, pendants—especially rings. “But please, no sexist,
racist, or religious symbolism.” SISTERSILVER constitutes
only one part of M’Lou’s earning power. She is a musician
of no mean talent, playing autoharp, five-string banjo, and
flute. She performs her own songs as well as traditional
Appalachian women’s music.
SISTERSILVER
c/o M’Lou Brubacher
836 West Newport Street
Chicago, Illinois 60657
IRIS STAINED GLASS
L. ARTHUR, CLOTHES
Three years ago, Laura and Moregan, fed up with
clothes made to fit a male fantasy of women, com¬
bined their feminist consciousness, their clothing
needs, their sewing and designing skills, and started
creating new styles by, for, and about women
concerned with our liberation. They make clothes
for themselves and their friends. Tweeds, linens,
leather, corduroy and velvets, their clothes are
durable, tailored, elegant or sensual to taste: suits,
overalls, jackets and shirts; and clothes for our
homes: cushions, drapes and upholstery.
L. ARTHUR
346 East 9th Street
New York, New York
(212) 254-0659
Debby English
Kate Winter
Jennifer Woodul
We are three women who are living together in Albuquerque. After
looking for jobs when we first came here from Washington, D.C., in Oc¬
tober 1972, we started thinking about alternatives to the available work,
especially the possibility of starting a business together. Kate had some
experience in working with stained glass, and shared those skills with Deb¬
by and Jennifer. Soon all of us had gained facility in the various processes
involved in making objects with stained glass, and by practicing, experi¬
menting, and sharing our new discoveries, we were able to design and pro¬
duce a number of lamps and candle chimneys. We were accepted for, and
showed our work in the New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair in Summer,
1973, and hoped to launch our business there. That hope proved to be too
optimistic, and we found that at this stage, our glass workshop alone will
not pay the rent.
Currently, we are all working at other jobs and selling through local
craft shops, by mail order, and through Lammas in Washington, D.C. We
hope to show again next year at the state fair, and we expect that as more
of our pieces are bought and used in homes, our business will grow by
word of mouth. At this point, we aren’t sure whether the direction we
want to take is to establish a local retail shop—similar to Lammas—or to
continue to work out of our home workshop, filling custom orders and
selling through other retailers.
The range of objects we are producing has expanded quite a lot since
we began working together. Our first, and still primary, interest was in
lights of various kinds, both electric and candle. We have since made
panels, planters and terrariums, hanging ornaments, and boxes. We’re
about to try a mosaic using bits of glass instead of tile. We feel that we
have the skill to handle special orders of the customer’s design, or to de¬
sign to fit a customer’s needs.
Our lights and other objects are made with full antique and opalescent
glass, using copper foil rather than lead canc to join the glass pieces. The
metal can be finished either as polished copper or as antiqued copper,
which has a tarnished, almost black appearance. Our table lamps and
candle chimneys, and some terrariums, are made with solid walnut bases-
we do the woodworking. Bases are oil finished.
The line drawings illustrate a few of the lights and a planter.
The largest hanging lamp is fashioned on the principle of the geodesic
dome. The one shown is composed of 155 triangles of glass and is 16” in
diameter. Price, $150.
The “cube” is a small table lamp, intended more as decoration than il¬
lumination. The shade is a five-sided cube about 5” on each edge, open at
the bottom, and fitted to a walnut base 1V4” high. Price varies with the
complexity of the panel design; the range is $45-60. The lamp shown, $45.
The candle chimney is a three-paneled glass sleeve, open at the top and
bottom, which fits onto a triangular walnut base. Each panel is 3Vi” x 9V4”;
the base is l‘A” high. A beeswax dripless candle in a coordinated color is
supplied with each chimney, and additional candles can be ordered at 60rf
each. Price of the chimney varies with the complexity of the panel design:
patterns 1-4 below, and others of similar complexity, $25; patterns 5, 6,
and 7 (illustrated), and similarly complex panels, $35.
The planter is of clear glass, six-sided, with a '/*" plate glass
bottom. Three sides have large open areas through which a trailing plant
can be trained. Each panel is 3Vi” x 9'A". Price, $35. An eight-sided ver¬
sion with the same size panels, $45.
The colors and patterns of glass are impossible to convey accurately in
words, and this naturally presents a problem in ordering our work by mail.
For the less expensive items, such as candle chimneys, give us a range of
-I- possibilities, such as “blues and greens.” For custom work, such as
the dome and carriage lamp, send us color samples or a more detailed
description like “white, with deep blue-green,” and we will send sample
chips, of the glass we propose to use for your approval before the work is
done. If you have a design of your own, whether for a lamp, transom,
window, sidelight—whatever—we’d love to see it and give you an estimate.
Write us at 808 Dakota S.E., Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108.
HAND WROUGHT STERLING SILVER. Come see us at the Washington Square Art Show, Waverly Place off 6th
telephone (212) 777-3607 for an appointment. DIANA DAVIES & KAY VAN DEURS, SILVERSMITHS
Avenue, every Spring and Fall. Or,
181
Liberation Enterprises
“Rose Fontanella and Stephanie Marcus have formed LIBERATION ENTERPRISES with the belief that our
products will give women the opportunity to express the spirit of the women’s movement. We also hope that these
nems will serve as consciousness-raisers, by making the feminist spirit more visible. We earn our livings and support
children as commercial artists in advertising and magazines, and are active participants in the women’s liberation
movement. We, and other feminists have designed or made most of our merchandise.”
LIBERATION ENTERPRISES is, like Susan Sojourner’s FIRST THINGS FIRST, a retail mail-order business,
except that instead of books, Marcus and Fontanella market feminist products. By buying wholesale, and selling via
their catalog, LIBERATION ENTERPRISES make available the products of individual craftswomen to thousands of
women in a nation-wide market-effecting a critical breakthrough in distribution. In little under two years the two
Brnnlclvn (pminKfc hwo ktiilr „n I!-.* -in r\nr\ ur. i i* i r i . , J r
------- --—— - 6 “ .11 uumuuuun. in uiue unaer two years tne tv
Brooklyn feminists have built up a mailing list of over 10,000. We believe a good part of the rapid success of ven
tures like T.IRFR ATiriM CMTCDDDICCC . —C _.L _ r. _L . __ i i i r \ .
• i..—-“i* “ “'“‘*'“6 wc ucneve a gooa parr or tne rapid success ot ven¬
tures like LIBERATION ENTERPRISES comes from the fact that women, when they buy feminist products, want
to know that they are not being taken by male rip-off outfits, but are buying women-made and women-marketed
goods. Even in business, feminists are building a supportive network of institutions which enables them to bypass
male-led economy increasingly. Feminists like Fontanella and Marcus are able to place small inexpensive advertise¬
ments in the women’s media, including organizational newsletters which will only accept advertising from bona fide
feminists, such as NOW’s “Financing the Revolution,” with its 30,000 circulation. This is just as well, since some
feminist products seem too strong for male advertising managers. New York’s “liberal” weekly newspaper, THE
VILLAGE VOICE, refused to carry an ad for LIBER-
1
Susan B. LIVES!
Note Cards
Cl 04
All-occasion note cards
printed Red on Grey
textured paper. 1 Oozen
cards.
ATION ENTERPRISES’ best-selling item—the all¬
purpose apron shown here.
Fontanella and Marcus originally invested about
$3,000 in personal savings to get LIBERATION go¬
ing. They were advised by businessmen that a mini¬
mum capitalization would be in the range of $10,000.
They have both retained their “outside” jobs, to al¬
low full re-investment of all profits in LIBERATION
ENTERPRISES. Both women feel that with the
Women’s Movement growing so rapidly—generating a
supply of talented craftswomen and a strong demand
for their products—they will be able to give full time
to LIBERATION ENTERPRISES within two years.
Another example of the power of sisterhood!
For LIBERATION ENTERPRISES’ 1973 Fall Cata¬
log, write to:
LIBERATION ENTERPRISES
General Delivery
General Post Office
Brooklyn, New York 11202
Charm
(J-I4)
Pendant
(J-12)
Womankind Blossoming
It. Blue petals, white symbol,
red center, on black background.
Outlined and lettered in gold.
specify pierced:
nor>-pierce«
SHIPPING AND
INSURANCE
CHART
Total (or M«rchandi»«
Shipping y
Sub Total
:>
N. V. State Tax
(Residents only)
>
| Total Amount Enclosed ^
7
Women's
Liberation
l W °" e &wer
ECIUAL
EQUAL
PAYS
work!
SUPPORT YOUR
LOCAL FEMINISTS
WOMENH
ARE PEOPuf
CHILDREN
ARC PEOPLE
tdr* KlosJC
B&atfS GW 08
^ tfpGA Y
Total Number _
@ 35t each
quantity rales* Ibt each |
Total Cost B I_I
GULCH STICKERS:
A Woman’s Co-op
If you’ve ever seen beautiful fluorescent bumper
stickers proclaiming “A Woman’s Place Is in the
World,” “Women Are People,” or “Sisterhood is Pow¬
erful,” there’s a chance they were made by GULCH
STICKERS. GULCH STICKERS is a women’s co-op
in Hinesburg, Vermont, which makes bumper stickers,
decals, and gummed stickers for slapping on offen¬
sive places.
After labor and other expenses are paid, the
women divide up any remaining money, based on
how much work each has done. Their stickers help
women promote feminist ideas—in the most unex¬
pected places—and buying them helps support fem¬
inists who are working together in a new and un¬
usual way.
If you can’t wait to receive a catalogue, you can
order a large bumper sticker for 50^ and gummed
stickers with “This Exploits Women,” for 2 i each.
GULCH STICKERS, Box 34, Hinesburg, Vermont 05461
504 each
or 100 for 204 each
Free our Sisters
Free Qvrs«lv«s
SISTERHOOD
IS POWERFUL
STOP RAPE!
r<4 * 6 UUK _
a woman’s pj_a.ce
is in me world p
FREE ABORTION
ON DEMAND
'ipK&M/W/BB/A
Total Nonet*
& SOt each
Or ^ , jfm
quantity rat<s* 20f«*
Total Cost C
35 4 each
or 100 for 16tf each
BURKE’S TV
THE SUCCESS STORY OF A
TWO-WOMAN REPAIR BUSINESS
The Burke sisters are trail blazers. Even at a time when
women are entering a host of hitherto “male” fields, it is
still surprising to find two women running their own TV
repair business.
BURKE’S TV, on the Jericho Turnpike in Westbury,
Long Island, has been a successful business for the past 12
years. Muriel and Kathi do all their work in a home work¬
shop, and are respected as fine technicians by hundreds of
repeat customers, both male and female.
When women express surprise and admiration, Muriel,
the older and most experienced sister, tells them that “most
women could do it too” if they have some modicum of
mechanical aptitude.
In telling me her story, Muriel revealed that she had a
good deal more than a modicum of mechanical ability as
well as an extraordinary drive toward independence. She
was always talented in art—“Since I was six years old I was
always drawing something”—but in her secret heart Muriel
wanted to be an engineer.
After a job as a commercial artist for a furniture com¬
pany, she finally had her chance at an engineeering job-
complete with private secretary. But this was not enough.
“I finally made it, only to find out after a few years that I
was still a restless soul, not happy being confined to one
desk, one office, one monotony. I realized something was
driving me on. . . . Was I seeking freedom for my soul?
Away from domineering bosses, or something I didn’t
understand? I came to the conclusion that in order to find
freedom for myself I must open my own business, which 1
did.”
Muriel formed her own kitchen modernization and con¬
tracting firm and was herself responsible for all architectural
drafting and estimating costs for plumbing, electricity, car¬
pentry and decorating. Unfortunately this promising ven¬
ture was interrupted by family circumstances.
Muriel gave birth to a premature son, and during the five
months he was kept in an incubator, her husband became
ill and passed away. She had to give up her business, and for
the next eight years, in order to raise her son alone, she ran
a nursery school for working mothers.
“During my nursery school years,” Muriel says, “I avidly
studied radio and TV repair at night. This would be my new
business—back to electronics on my own.” Eventually she
contacted her sister Kathi, who had been in radio repair for
many years, and together they formed BURKE’S TV.
Today, these two women in their 40’s are swamped with
business; they are thinking of starting an electronics school;
and Muriel is writing a how-to-do-it column for a local
newspaper.
Muriel Burke will gladly answer any questions about going
into electronics. Write her c/o BURKE’S TV, 977, Jericho
Turnpike, Woodbury, New York 11797.
from PRIME TIME, March 1973
232 East 6th Street, Apt. 5c, New York, New York 10003
$5.00iyear (monthly)
The man
over there says that women
need to be helped into carriages
and lifted over ditches, and to have
the best place everywhere.
Nobody ever helps me into
carriages or over puddles
or gives me
the best place...
Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted and
gathered into barns, and no man could head me
...and ain't I a woman?
I could work as much and eat as much as a man—
when I could get it—and bear the lash as well
...and ain't I a woman?
I have borne thirteen children, and seen most of 'em
sold into slavery, and when I cried out
with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me
...and ain't I a woman? --
GREYFALCON HOUSE
When the SOJOURNER TRUTH poster (reproduced here) first appeared several years
ago at women’s meetings and conferences it was an instant hit. In subsequent years Ann
Grifalconi, the maker of SOJOURNER TRUTH, has supplied the Women’s Movement with
posters, notecards, children’s books, and, in partnership with Frances Ross, has produced
an extraordinary multi-media educational kit on the Women’s Movement, THE
SILENCED MAJORITY, for use in high schools and colleges (see CHILDREN). To do all
these things, Grifalconi has her own company, GREYFALCON HOUSE, as well as being
an executive of the all-women MEDIA PLUS PRODUCTIONS.
SOJOURNER TRUTH is available as a poster, red and blue (23” by 34”), $3.00 each
plus 50d postage. Special discounts are available on bulk orders.
Women Working
For further information about GREYFALCON products, write to:
GREYFALCON HOUSE
60 Riverside Drive
New York, New York 10024
Two beliefs dearest to the hearts of male supremacists are that
tomen cannot do heavy labor, and that women cannot run a suc-
sssful business. WOMEN WORKING, a contracting company that
loes carpentry, roofing, painting, plastering, custom remodeling and
■efurbishing of houses, explodes both these patriarchal myths at
race. WOMEN WORKING has had so much demand for its work
ihat the three-woman team is now facing that inevitable dilemma
ither successful women’s enterprises have had to face: whether to
:emain a small, informal, company working on a flexible schedule
&om one job to the next; or to expand, formalize, get a contracting
Scense, get more work and money, and in the process perhaps lose some of the control over work and time that motivated them, at least in part, to go into
business for themselves in the first place.
Much of the demand for the WOMEN WORKING team has come from other women. “Women know that when they hire us, they don’t have to worry
ibout being raped or molested. They also know that we won’t mess up their houses the way male painters do, breaking things and getting paint on the
arpet. They feel equally comfortable with us around, or going out and leaving the house in our care.”
But WOMEN WORKING does not restrict itself to small jobs. Through subcontracting, they have been able to bid successfully on major jobs, such as
aiming in the Albuquerque public school system and the University of New Mexico. They are able to expand operations to include large or specialized
sbs by maintaining a roster of local women whom they recruit on an ad hoc basis.
During their first year in business, WOMEN WORKING operated as a co-operative, deciding collectively how much work should be done by whom for
row long. Given the free-form nature of their work, the women found this method inefficient and cumbersome. Male chauvinists hold your smirks. The
tomen came up with an ingenious system in which the person who gets the job heads the job: makes cost estimates, buys materials, figures out work
diedules. This does mean that someone is “boss” on each job; but the boss rotates—which is a far cry from the rigid hierarchies without which men seem
unable to organize work.
. . . . , . , , . . . .. . cc . . , WOMEN WORKING
Are we beginning to convince the sceptics of the revolutionary implications of feminism? p q g QX ^3
Corrales, New Mexico 87048
(505) 898-3601
HOW TO FILE A COMPLAINT
AGAINST UNLAWFUL
JOB DISCRIMINATION
V. „(/
DISCRIMINATION IS UNLAWFUL
Discrimination in employment because of race,
color, religion, sex, or national origin, is prohibited
under Title VII of the Civil Rights Law. The Equal Em¬
ployment Opportunity Commission will act on charges
of discrimination in employment committed by em¬
ployers, labor organizations state and private employ¬
ment agencies and labor-management apprenticeship
programs.
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO COMPLAIN IF:
* Employer refuses to hire you when you are qualified for a job opening.
* Employer refuses to let you file application, but accepts others.
* Union or employment agency refuses to refer you to job opening.
* Union refuses to accept you into membership.
* You are fired or laid off without cause.
* You are passed over for promotion for which you are qualified.
* You are paid less than others for comparable work.
* You are placed in segregated seniority line.
* You are left out of training or apprenticeship programs.
AND ...
* The reason for any of these acts is your race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
* You have a right to complain if the employer provides racially segregated lunch¬
rooms, locker rooms, rest rooms, recreation facilities.
CHARGE OF DISCRIMINATION
(If you havo a complaint fill In thl* form and mail it to tha Equal Thi* form it to be used only to file a charge of diecrimlnatton baaed
Employment Opportunity Commiaalon'a Regional Office In your on RACE. COLOR. RELIGION, SEX. or NATIONAL ORIGIN,
tree. In moat caaea, a charge muat be filed with the EEOC within
a specified time after the discriminatory act took place. IT IS
THEREFORE IMPORTANT TO FILE YOUR CHARGE AS SOON AS Cae File No.
POSSIBLE. *--
(PLEASE PRINT OR TYPE)
1 Your Name (Mr.. Mra., Mlaa)
Indicate
Street Address_
City_
Phone Number
Zip Code
2 WAS THE DISCRIMINATION BECAUSE OF: (Please check one)
Race or Color □ Religious Creed □ National Origin □ Sax □
S Who discriminated against you? Give the name and address of the employer, labor organization, employment egency and/or apprentice¬
ship committee. If more than one, list all.
Name__ _ ___ ___
Street address __ __ _ __
Crt Y --State _ Zip Code _
AND (other parties if any)_
4 Have you filed this charge with a state or local government agency?
Yes □ When
S If your charge Is against a company or a union, how many employees or members?
t The most recent date on which this discrimination took place: Month
Under 25 □ Over 25 □
7 Explain what unfair thing was done to you. How were other persons treated differently? (Use extra sheet If necessary.)
11 swear or affirm that I have read the above charge and that It Is true to the best of my knowledge, Information and belief.
(S%n your name)
Subecribed and sworn to before me this
HR Is difficult for you to get a Notary Public to sign this, sign your own name and mail to the Regional Office. The Commission will help you
to get the form sworn to.
AFTER A JOB DISCRIMINATION
COMPLAINT HAS BEEN FILED. . .
* The Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission will review your charge and con¬
tact you by mail or in person.
* The Commission investigates your
charge and if it finds it is justified, the Com¬
mission tries by conciliation to end the
discrimination.
* If the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission fails, you may take your com¬
plaint to court.
For further information about filing a
complaint against unlawful job dis¬
crimination and/or to receive general
guidelines, contact:
U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION
Office of the General Counsel
1800 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20506
185
FORM EEOC-9 (REV. 7-SS)
ALL THE PIGS ARE MORE EQUAL
"In 1971, a milestone was passed all but unno¬
ticed. For the first time, more than half of the
married women in the United States worked in
paid jobs for at least part of the year.
The fact, only recently published, was cited
over and over again by witnesses before the
joint Economic Committee of Congress in July '73
And so was another statistic from the Census
Bureau: three-quarters of all the women who
work for pay either have no husband or a hus¬
band whose income is under $ 7,000 a year....
Witness after witness charged that the Fed¬
eral Government itself overtly discriminates
against some women and fails to enforce its
own anti-discrimination laws on behalf of
others:
*Only 48 percent of the back pay that has
been found to be owed to women because of
violations of the Equal Pay Act has ever been
paid; partly because courts have sometimes re¬
duced the awards, but mostly for reasons
government officials could not explain.
*On the average, women live six years
longer than men. But the insurance industry
charges women for life insurance as if they only
life three years longer.
*Savings and loan associations and other
mortgage tenders generally refuse to count even
part of a married woman’s income when con¬
sidering a home mortgage. The theory is that
the wife might get pregnant or, for other reasons,
decide to quit work, leaving her husband un¬
able to meet the monthly payments. The fear is
not supported-in fact, it is contradicted-by
studies of mortgage delinquency.
*The Office of Federal Contract Compliance
which is supposed to make sure that Government
contractors do not discriminate against women or
minorities, has no women in professional posi¬
tions in any of its field offices.
*Auto insurers often refuse to sell colli¬
sion insurance to divorced women, not because
they have higher accident rates-they don’t-
but because the companies believe, without any
factual evidence, that juries will vote against
divorcees in accident cases.
*The Armed Forces require women re¬
cruits to be better educated, on the average, than
men, and to score higher on various tests. But
once they are in the service, women get fewer
promotions and less specialized training.
*The tax laws discriminate against the
working couple, when compared with a one-
income family with the same income, or when
compared with two single persons with the
same combined income.
*Unemployment compensation cannot
be paid to pregnant women in most states,
even if they are laid off for reasons unrelated
to the pregnancy, and are still willing and
able to work....
The most impressive statistic produced at the
hearing was cited by Herbert Stein, Chairman of
the President’s Council of Economic Advisors.
Stein said that women on the average earn only
80 percent as much as men, even after adjust¬
ments are made for women's shorter lifetime
work experience, among other factors. The 20
percent differential—more, according to most
studies-is evidence of pure discrimination, all wit¬
nesses who touched on the subject agreed....."
THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 29,1973
BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY DISCRIMINATION KIT by the National Organization for Women
F '! e - a , SeX D,scr ' m,natio " Complaint? Any individual or group representing one or more individuals can
mere y b t y . describm J the discrimination or by presenting a documentation. A complaint on an
alleged act of discrimination must be filed within 180 days.
The Business and Industry Compliance and Enforcement Task Force of NOW has prepared a kit which takes
the mystery out of filing a job discrimination complaint. It provides you with:
1. A fact sheet on the Office of Federal Contract Compliance-the agency which administers the govern-
ments program for insuring equal employment among Federal contractors and on Federally-assisted
construction projects. 7
2. NOW’s summary of federal laws prohibiting discrimination and implementing regulations.
3. A complaint dope sheet-who can file a complaint, what is a class action, what form do you make the
complaint, what is a pattern complaint, what is an individual complaint.
3. Sample complaint letters for individual and pattern complaints.
4. Follow-through advice.
5. Addresses for headquarters offices of individual contract compliance agencies.
6. OFCC Sex Discrimination Guidelines.
7. HEW Contract Compliance Review Guide,
and more. For this invaluable tool, write to:
For this invaluable tool, write to:
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN, 1957 East 73rd Street, Chicago, Illinois 60649
WHERE TO FILE A COMPLAINT
Where you met Wages t.
discrimination EEOC Hours OFCC* MCAD
Union- X
Employment Agency X
State or local gov't X
State Employment Service X
University X
Public School X
Private Employer
With 6+ employeer
With 15+ employees X
With 25+ employees X
With Federal contracts
X
Hospital & Non-profit
Institutions
Professional X
Non-professional X
Federal Government
X X
X
X X
X X
X XX
X X
X
X
X X
X XX
X XX
X XX
U.S. Civil Service Commission
SEX DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT:
What to Know About It, What to Do About It
by the Equal Economic Opportunity Task Force of the
Eastern Massachusetts Chapter of NOW
fide comS X S £ e ri a fi| db00k “"'T " itt y* ritt y i: how to know whether you have a bon;
tide complaint, where to file your complaint, which agency to file with, where to get assistance with
your complaint. Included with the Handbook is an outstanding special feature insert-a set of guide¬
lines on questions to be used in evaluating affirmative actions plans (e.g., Who in your company has
the overall responsibility for reporting on and monitoring Affirmative Action Plans’) This is an in¬
valuable aid in helping you get your company to pursue its affirmative action goals
Available from:
02116
EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS NOW, 45 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts
$1.50 for individuals/$3.00 for businesses, plus 16tf postage
WOMEN’S JOB RIGHTS
ADVOCATE HANDBOOK
by Women’s Job Rights
“What is sex discrimination?"
The law prohibits sex discrimination by employers,
employment agencies and unions. Discrimination can
like place whenever women and men are treated dif-
irently in advertising, hiring, pay, fringe benefits
for example, health insurance plans and pension
tans), promotion and firing. Here are a few examples
ifsex discrimination by an employer:
liring:
You are told not to bother filling out an appli¬
cation because the job you want is a “man’s
job” or you discover that there are different
application forms for women and men.
You apply for a job and are not hired; a man
who is less qualified than you is hired.
You are not hired because you are pregnant,
because you are an unwed mother, or because
you have children.
You are not hired because the employer states
or implies stereotypes of women such as “wom¬
en cannot supervise men,” “women do not
stay with a job,” “the job is too rough for a
woman,” etc.
You are not hired because the job involves
some heavy lifting or traveling or work at
night. . . .
The WOMEN’S JOB RIGHTS ADVOCATE
ANDBOOK begins by specifying what DOES con-
itute sex discrimination in hiring, firing, salary,
rcmotion, and leave-granting practices, followed
pn account of what to do to retaliate against
b discrimination. Much of the book is geared spe-
fically to California, but can easily be applied to
[her localities. This publication is part of the WOM-
N’S JOB RIGHTS program which is “to help
omen define the issues, direct the (discrimination)
urge to the proper enforcement agency, expedite
ises as fast as possible through agencies, provide
:ccssto legal assistance, and provide information
id encouragement to each woman throughout the
recessing of her complaint.”
k Handbook is available from:
lOMEN’S JOB RIGHTS
20 Sutter Street
it the Y.W.C.A.) No. 318
an Francisco, California 94102
115)771-1092
$1.25
Hmmm... Same Old Crap... 1973 Version
Crucial to the sexual constitution of employ¬
ment is that, in one way or another, it assures that
over the whole society, class by class, most men
will make more money than most women. Above
an absolute minimum that varies from country to
country, pay and poverty are relative. And for
most men, most importantly, that means relative
to women. A man who does not make as much
money as the significant women in his life—his
girlfriend, wife and closest co-workers—will often
abandon his job and will pursue women in the
plundering masculine spirit that the women's
movement so woefully condemns.
The feminist contention that women do not
generally receive equal pay for equal work, correct
in statistical terms, may reflect a preference for
male need and aggressiveness over female creden¬
tials. In any case, this tendency should be con¬
sidered in light of the greater cost to the society
of male unemployment. The unemployed male
can contribute little to the society and will often
disrupt it, while the unemployed woman may
perform valuable work in creating and maintaining
families. In effect, the system of discrimination,
which the movement is perfectly right in finding
nearly ubiquitious, tells women that if they enter
the marketplace they will probably receive less
pay than men, not because they could do the job
less well, but because they have an alternative role
of incomparable value to the society as a whole.
The man, on the other hand, is paid more, not
because of his special virtue, but because of the
key importance of taming his naturally disruptive
energies. The male job advantaae. therefore, is
based on the real costs of female careerism to
raising children and socializing men. ...
At this point, therefore, any serious govern¬
mental campaign for equal pay for equal work
would be destructive. It would endorse the false
feminist assumption that a greatly expanded
female commitment to careers would be econom¬
ical-using "human resources" that are now
"wasted." The fact is that the triumph of a career¬
ist ideology among American women would
impose ultimate costs to the society far greater
then the net contribution of the additional women
in the work force. Already, save for the exceptional
minority, female careerism is imposing heavy
psychological penalties on women themselves,
since most of them will not be able to fulfill
themselves in careers ....
George Gilder, "The Suicide of the Sexes”
HARPER’S, June 1973
CONTENTS
P«e
Foreword . ^
Federal Civil Rijhli Acl of 1964, Tide VII. I
Sure Fair Employmenl Practices Laws . 3
Provisions of Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and State Laws That Prohibit
Sex Discrimination in Employment (Table). 4
Relationship Between State Fair Employment Practices Law* and State
Protective Labor Legislation for Women. 7
Relationship Between Title VII of the Civil Rights Acl of 1964 and State
Protective Labor Legislation for Women. 10
Equal Employment Opportunity by Federal Contractors . 13
Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government.. 13
Appendixes:
A. Chapter XIV-Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Part 1604-
Guidelines on Discrimination Because of Sex . 14
B. Executive Order 11375 . 17
C. Executive Order 11478 . , 9
From:
SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS
U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402 30 ^
A COMPENDIUM OF
SEX DISCRIMINATION CASES
edited by Marcia Wiss
Do you know-
* How the Circuit courts line up on the issue of
the constitutionality of school board regula¬
tions firing pregnant teachers?
1 About the cases decided under the Fourteenth
Amendment which lessen effectiveness to
combat sex discrimination, and push women
towards the ERA to rectify all the wrongs
left unremedied?
* About anv case in which men have success¬
fully challenged laws on the basis of sex
discrimination?
* The reasoning used by the Supreme Court in
affirming a three-judge court’s ruling prohib¬
iting sex discrimination and the Fourteenth
Amendment as it relates to employment?
* How far you’ve come, baby-how much HAS
occurred in the law over the years?
If you don’t know the answers to all of these questions
and are interested:
A compendium has been written in the form
of a looseleaf service, to be updated quarterly,
giving briefs onover 300 sex discrimination
cases.
For details on price, content and date of availability,
send name and address to:
MARCIA WISS
220 Second Street, S.E.
No. 102
Washington, D.C. 20003
FIGHTING JOB DISCRIMINATION:
Three Federal Approaches
by Mary Eastwood
Title VI I of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 pro¬
hibits discrimination by private employers with
25 or more employees, employment agencies,
and labor organizations.
Executive Order 11246 requires that govern¬
ment contracts, subcontracts and federally-
assisted construction contracts include a clause
providing that the contractor agrees not to
discriminate against employees or applicants
for employment and will take affirmative
action to ensure non-discrimination.
Executive Order 11478 prohibits discrimina¬
tion in federal employment.
FIGHTING JOB DISCRIMINATION compares
the scope of each of these laws, how each is admin¬
istered by government agencies, affirmative action
plans and regulations, complaint procedures, legal
remedies and sanctions. The author then describes
how special sex-based “protective provisions” which
are exempt from these laws (i.e., weight-lifting
restrictions, maternity restrictions, separate bath¬
rooms for women, etc.) are actually used against
women as grounds for refusing them employment.
Clearly legal remedies will not suffice, although
they should be vigorously pursued.
Copies of this article can be obtained from:
TODAY PUBLICATIONS & NEWS SERVICE
National Press Building
Washington, D.C. 20004
$ 1.00
187
SLUT-IN SERVICE
The work on the plane—was the most stren¬
uous, unrewarding, alienating concentration of
housework and waitress-typed drudgery to be
found anywhere. / saw this, but / didn't know
how to feel about it. / only knew / was increas¬
ingly unhappy. / finally quit after flying a
shuttle service between Washington, D.C., and
Chicago, a flight which had many regular
passengers, mainly men. The flying time was
short, and we had to break our back to get
drinks and trays out, pick them up, and put
them away—not to mention the little extras
like hanging coats, passing out magazines, and
filling special orders from passengers and crew.
Every request for an unusual item slowed us
down, and the crew expected extra service—
"A Coke now, a glass of milk in five minutes.
OK, Doll?" The flight was going fairly smoothly
until my partner and / learned that a strong
tailwind could get us there sooner than sched¬
uled. Alarmed, / went to the captain and asked
him to call the tower for permission to circle
once to give us time to put the trays away. He
refused rudely. This created an emergency for
the stewardesses. As we scrambled about /
found myself on my knees in the aisle, hat
askew, uniform filthy , a pat of butter stuck to
my lapel, up to my elbows in the mess that had
accumulated on the buffet floor because we
couldn't stow it fast enough. The other stew¬
ardesses were running up and down the aisles
carrying six or eight trays at a time and the
plane was descending. We finally threw all the
extra dishes in the john and locked the door.
Suddenly / was able to step outside myself and
look at myself and at the passengers looking at
me. / saw that they were amused; / was humili¬
ated and sad. The last straw came when a man
reached over, patted me on the rear, and told
me my girdle was showing.
Somehow this remark penetrated all the
plastic prettiness with which the airline and
society had coated me. In that instant / realized
what a slut-in-service-to-America / had become.
/ began burning with resolve to purge myself
of all the misconceptions and illusions that
society had heaped on me and decided to
become a woman.
Gene Reece
from LIBERATION NOW
SPORTS ARE UNFAIR TO WOMEN
Opportunities for women are so limited that it
is a cop-out to designate females as second<lass
citizens of the A merican sports world. "Most of
us feel that being second<lass citizens would be a
great advance,”says Doris Brown. A faculty
member at Seattle Pacific College, Brown has
devoted fifteen years to becoming the best
U.S. female distance runner. She has been on
two Olympic teams, won six national and five
world cross<ountry championships and set a
variety of national and international records
in distances from a mileup. Despite her talent
and success she has had to pay for nearly all
her training and, until recently, all her travel
expenses. She was forced to resign from her
job at a junior high school because the princi¬
pal did not believe in women teachers devo¬
ting a lot of time to outside athletic partici¬
pation. She has received far less recognition
than male runners who cannot match her rec¬
ord of accomplishment. "Second-class citizen¬
ship sounds good, "says Brown, "when you are
accustomed to being regarded as fifth<lass."
This is not the whine of a disgruntled individ¬
ual but an accurate description ot the state of
things in sports.
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, May 28,1973
STEWARDESSES FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
I'm Karen. Fly me. You’d think that airline com-
E anies would have learned that such coy sexism is
ardly in good taste, and is grossly offensive to
women. But the ad men of a well-known airline com¬
pany continue to inject such “provocative” remarks
into their national advertising. The willingness of
airlines to exploit women to attract customers is
clear both from their advertising and their discrim¬
ination against women who do not meet arbitrary
and trivial standards of appearance totally unrelated
to the job a stewardess is employed for (not titilla-
tion of male passengers, but enforcement of safety
standards). What has nail polish or make-up eot to
do with the job she is doing? What right do airline
companies have in establishing weight ceilings for
stewardesses ten to fifteen pounds below the level
that the AMA says is healthy?
Well, the worm is turning—even in this industry
where female employees must crudely reflect the
sexual objectification of women. Since stewardesses
have seen that unions have not represented the in¬
terests of women at the bargaining table, they have
formed STEWARDESSES FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
THE SEXUAL BARRIER:
Legal and Economic Aspects of Employ^
by Marija Matich Hughes
Want to find out precisely what obstacles*
encounter in employment? A valuable refettao
on the subject, Marija Matich Hughes’ THE SEJ
BARRIER: Legal and Economic Aspects of El
ment. offers an extensive bibliography to pinpi
currently available sources.
THE SEXUAL BARRIER was first publish!
1970; however, updated supplements have bn
printed for both 1971 and 1972 (the 1972 sup
ment also includes information on the ERA
..Amendment).
Available from:
MARIJA MATICH HUGHES
2422 Fox Plaza
San Francisco, California 94102
Price of the original publication is $5.00
Each supplement is $3.00
.... to raise the consciousness of stewardesses
to their “slut-in-service-to-America” status;
.... to fight to end the demeaning treatment
to which 35,000 stewardesses are subjected by
airlines, crews, and male passengers;
.... to enforce airline company compliance
with Federal affirmative action guidelines;
.... to improve the economic status of
stewardesses;
.... to increase promotional opportunities for
stewardesses.
I’m Karen. Fly me. Better watch it—vou might
find yourself in front of a judge charged with
harassment.
STEWARDESSES FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS
82 Ohio Avenue
Long Beach, New York 11561
FEDERALLY EMPLOYED WOMEN,
The government should be a showcase ofl
ployment practices for women. UnfortunateL
not. Federally Employed Women was founde
1968 by a group of Washington, D.C., womei
the purpose of fully implementing the Presii
Executive Order 11375, which added “sex" I
other forms of discrimination prohibited in t
Federal service. In addition to its lobbying at
licity efforts, FEW maintains a job roster of i
bers interested in other job opportunities-Fi
agencies are furnished with names and qualiE
of FEW members for consideration for job 0 |
The newsletter, FEW NEWS AND VIEWS
on action in FEW chapters nationwide.
For further details, contact:
Membership fee is $10.00/year, which includes
subscription to the SFWR Newsletter
FEDERALLY EMPLOYEDH
621 National Press Building
Washington, D.C. 20004
SHORTCHANGED: MINORITIES AND WOMEN IN BANKING
Published by the Council on Economic Priorities
Anyone who has even entered the average all-American bank does not have to use her/his
imagination to guess who does the low-paying, low-prestige shitwork. The secretaries, teller!
typists, cashiers, book-keepers, filers, and messengers are bv-and-large women. However, the
bank managers, executives, loan officers, trust officers, and department supervisors are alma
all men (See section on WORK for one banking alternative).
The Council on Economic Priorities, a non-profit organization, headed by a woman, hu
done a study to document the demeaning role of minority and women workers in banks, fl
complete study is available for $12.50, but exerpted highlights of the study appear in the
ECONOMIC PRIORITIES REPORT (the bi-monthly publication of the Council on Econonr
Priorities) available for $3.00.
NUMBER OF EMPLOVEES AT CHASE MANHATTAN BANK BY ETHNIC GROUP. SEX AND JOB 1870
MALE EMPLOYEES
Minority Group*
OCCUPATIONS
OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS
PROFESSIONALS
TECHNICIANS
SALES WORKERS
OFFICE AND CLERICAL
CRAFTSMEN I Skilled)
OPERATIVES iS»mitkill0d)
LABORERS I Un ik, I led)
SERVICE WORKERS
TOTAL
FEMALE EMPLOYEES
Minority Group*
Tout
Mate*
NEGRO
ORIENTAL
AMERICAN
INDIAN
SPANISH
AMERICAN
Total
Females
NEGRO
ORIENTAL
AMERICAN
INDIAN
SPANISH
AMERICAN
row.
empiot
2660
74
12
63
457
46
5
13
mi
1501
67
19
72
457
28
8
11
1861
228
33
-
32
101
23
2
4
J3
114
1
-
1
41
2
_
IS
4579
1027
81
598
10,336
3119
115
736
l*M
85
5
2
8
10
3
-
_ —
96
84
15
-
3
23
4
-
-
»
293
81
1
19
13
4
1
a
9544
1303
115
796
11,438
3229
131
763
XM
only three of whom are women and three of whom
are minority group members.
Females constituted 29% of all college graduates
hired in both 1970 and 1971. However, black
representation dropped
in 1971.
from 5.2% in 1970, 3.4%
Tot.
Tor.
Bl.
Number
Fern.
Number
Coll.
Hirat
Coll.
Hires*
Coll.
Hirea*
1969 86
581
10
N/A
?
N/A
1970 73
480
11
25
7
138
1971 63
324
11
>1**
?
94
'Includes all
holders of college
degrees, not just those
hired from
completion of training. All Global Credit
thus have some exposure to and expert
handling minority business loans.
Global Credit represents, according to |l
Annual Report, the bank's “.. .principal i.
officers.” As such, the percentages of mi
and women included constitutes a key ii
Chase’s efforts to upgrade both groups
1970, as the table indicates, women aco__
only 8.6% of the trainees and minority
made up a miniscule 0.6% of the total.
vuuiivil <_/iv CL.LZINVJIVIK,
456 Greenwich Street
New York City 10013
1 st haven’t called it that.... The majority
FORTUNE refers to is actually white males who
tpresent barely 40 percent of the population....
he powers that be of this ‘democratic’ society
we systematically discriminated against the ma¬
nly of the population (the 53 percent who are
•males of all races) for centuries. Add to that the
percent who are minority men and it comes to
Wpercent—a larger minority. Revolutions have
ken justified and fought for lesser reasons."
STEP BY STEP:
ffirmative Action for Women
WOMANPOWER Publication
On pink parchment paper this booklet shows in
par, simple, well-researched, well-organized fashion
* specific and concrete steps involved in developing
Stmative action plans required by Federal law. For
stance, for those businesses and corporations that
iven’t a clue where to find competent women em¬
ployees the booklet offers “inventive” suggestions—
wen the talent bank doesn’t come through try look-
'i in the typing pool. “Have you checked the qual-
ications of your secretaries and typists? They may
ave BA or master's degrees ... in some cases, even
I.D's. You won’t find men of equal education be¬
nd the typewriters, so you may have overlooked
e talents of women who are almost literally, under
ur nose.” It helps a company figure out how to
tegorize a black woman in its goal projections: “as
woman, as Black, or once under eacn category?”
gives advice to companies on how to deal with
amen’s rights groups, which is required under
kvised Order Four as part of developing the Affirm-
ve Action Plan: “Feminists are people. Despite
Mggerated press cliches about bra-burners, the fact
that a feminist does have a home, she loves, she
ny have children, she cooks and cleans and goes to
(supermarket. More than 50 percent of feminists
(married, according to one study. . . .”
STEP BY STEP is written for male bosses who are
otivated by self-interest and whose ideas about and
slings with are profoundly sexist (surprise?). When
cut through this, you will find hard-core infor-
ition (especially in the “Publications of interest to
nployers” section) of use in struggles against execu¬
tes who are slow in coming to terms with the times
d the necessities imposed by law.
railable from:
TSY HOGAN ASSOCIATES
Rawson Road
)ookline, Massachusetts 02146
WOMANPOWER
A Monthly Report on Fair Employment Practices for Women
DlovSTUfkS thC laWS ’ f Vernment re g“lations, and trends in the changing status of the woman em-
5 e l tells W , hat the ‘ aw re q u “-es of companies today, and what requirements are likely to come next. Here are
some of its regular monthly features: ’
1 A concise summary of current sex discrimination complaints and court decisions.
* An overview of important trends and developments outside the courts-congressional hearings, trial day care
* centers 1,1 companies, actions taken by women employees, important demands of women’s rights groups.
* An in-depth summary of an important sex discrimination case giving the arguments, the court’s decision, and
the reasoning behind the court s decision.
* ° f . U . p f 5min 8 conferences on affirmative action for women, important publications on this subject, and
services which can help in the implementation of corporate affirmative action goals.
From time to time WOMANPOWER also includes in-depth features such as the following: (1) an overview of
steps taken to integrate “male” and “female” help-wanted advertisements, psychological research which indicates
the effects on women of sex-segregated ads, court decisions which bear on newspaper and employer help-wanted
advertising policies ... (2) maternity leave recommendations, most of which have become incorporated into EEOC
guidelines and court decisions, from the Citizens’ Advisory Council on the Status of Women-together with the
Council’s reasoning, a study of the incidence of pregnancy-related absenteeism, and a study of the costs of covering
maternity leave in sickness and disability plans . . .
(3) strong actions on employment undertaken by
women’s rights groups, and their reasons for acting ..,
(4) in-depth coverage of major stories such as the
EEOC complaint against AT & T, together with the
address where employers were able to obtain the
PUBLIC SERVICE EEOC’s 300-page brief, charts, and statistics relevant
ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN pTcd
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund motivations, and their supervisors’ comments on
their performance.
tvJn^tt * ampa W S t0 Cnd SCX - r0le . StCre °- This certainly is the information women need in
women ^ well d ' s , cnml " at !°" a g»'"« their fight against employment discrimination. But
andTrti’t 7 I the underlying values the price of a subscription puts it out of reach of
nmitv o nar7 nar 1 fi II 'a WOme ". * he ,°PP°r- most women and women’s organizations, struggling
! K P , y AmerlCan hfe : 11 P? lnts aIo "gproverbial shoestring: $37.00 for a one-
Lw nd el R yme 5 S pT!r at '°u 15 ag L " St , tllC r ^ su ^scription (twelve issues) of this eight-page
wmnen ChallengCS ° Utdated ' dcas aboUt thc role of factsheet. You are reading correctly, it is not S3 70.
The answer, to be found in advertising blurb for the
Here is the problem. . . . newsletter, is that it is intended for corporate sub-
a , . , n . . . . scribers—Dow Chemical, Du Pont, Standard Oil.
W/°'TJ\ZZ klne fU *T f 97 ??o, C ° n y General Electric - AT & T, Chase Manhattan. Of
1955 f '"come-down from 64% in course business should pay through the nose to find
out “whether they are discriminating against women,
Only 8.5% of the fully employed women, but ant ^ what they can do to comply with the puzzling
44.5% of fully employed men earned $10,000 new laws.” But the information is even more crucial
or more. to womcn-who don’t have access to Wall Street law
An alarming 39.9% of women, but only 12.8% S"" S a " d ° thc A r bui ! incss counseling businesses. Since
of men earned less than $5,000. Betsy Hogan Associates represent themselves as a
feminist organization, we assume that feminist
And here is the solution- groups can subscribe at drastically reduced rates.
PUBLIC SERVICE
ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund
The aim of this campaign is to end sex-role stereo-
typing and thc consequent discrimination against
women, as well as to change the underlying values
and attitudes which have denied women the oppor¬
tunity to participate fully in American life. It points
out that employment discrimination is against the
law and challenges outdated ideas about thc role of
women.
Here is the problem.. . .
A woman working full time in 1971 made only
59% of a man’s income-down from 64% in
1955.
Only 8.5% of the fully employed women, but
44.5% of fully employed men earned $10,000
or more.
An alarming 39.9% of women, but only 12.8%
of men earned less than $5,000.
And here is the solution. . . .
Television Commercials
Two 30 second public service announcements,
directed by one of the top women directors and
produced for NOW by the Columbia Broadcast¬
ing System. “This Healthy Normal Baby” fea¬
tures film footage of an appealing baby girl,
with copy similar to that of the print ad shown
above. “The Employment Agency Scene”
dramatizes an interview with a female college
graduate, with top honors and some working
experience, who is placed in the “typing pool.”
Radio Commercials
A 33 1/3 RPM, 7” disc contains 30 & 60 sec¬
ond spots. Convincing public service announce¬
ments cover variations on the themes of em¬
ployment discrimination and sex-role stereo¬
typing.
Newspaper Ad Mats or Reproduction Proofs
The “Congratulations. You just spent twelve
thousand dollars so she could join the typing
pool” ad (shown right), is one of six available
on coated stock for direct offset reproduction
in 5 cols, x 10” size. Also: newspaper mats of
same ad available in 3 cols, x 7 3/8” size.
Write specifying materials required, to:
NOW LEGAL DEFENSE
AND EDUCATION FUND
127 East 59th Street
New York, New York 10022
Write to:
WOMANPOWER
c/o Betsy Hogan Associates
222 Rawson Road
Brookline, Massachusetts 02146
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189
Affirmative Action on Campus
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION:
Women’s Rights on Campus
by Carol Shulman
This booklet surveys the laws requiring
affirmative action by colleges and universities;
discusses questions vexing administrators and
male faculty such as goals and timetables,
procedures followed by HEW in compliance
review, fears that academic standards will be
lowered by affirmative action.
Available from:
PUBLICATIONS DEPARTMENT
American Association for Higher Education
One Dupont Circle
Suite 780
Washington, D.C. 20036
$ 2.00
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION HANDBOOK
The University of Iowa is making available
upon request an information handbook entitled,
“Recruiting Women and Minority Faculty,” by
Dr. Cecelia Foxley. Originally designed for in¬
ternal use at the University, the handbook has
proven helpful to other institutions in develop¬
ing affirmative action procedures.
Available from:
OFFICE OF THE PROVOST
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa 52240
$1.50
THEY DO MORE AND MORE-
BUT ARE STILL PAID LESS
There has never been, from time imme¬
morial, much difference of opinion concerning
women’s right to do a good share of the drudg¬
ery of the world. But in the remunerative em¬
ployments, before 1850, she was but sparsely
represented, in 1850, when Harriet Martineau
visited this country, she found to her surprise
that there were only seven vocations, outside
home, into which women of the United States
had entered. There were teaching, needlework,
keeping boarders, weaving, type-setting, and
folding and stitching in book-bindery! In
contrast, it is only necessary to mention that
in Massachusetts alone, woman’s ingenuity is
now employed in nearly 300 different branches
of industry. But it cannot be added that for
doing the same kind and amount of work
women are paid men’s wages.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, circa 1850
ACADEMIC WOMEN, SEX
DISCRIMINATION, AND THE LAW
An Action Handbook
by Adrian Tinsley and Elaine Reuben
for the MLA Commission on the Status of Women
Until December, 1971, academic women were ex¬
cluded from coverage in sex discrimination cases in
Federal law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
did not apply to teachers and administrators in edu¬
cational institutions, or to employees of state and
local governments. On March 24, 1972, the Equal
Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 extended
coverage of Title VII to include all employees of
educational institutions, both public and private.
Thus followed a flurry of affirmative action pro¬
posals by colleges ana universities to meet the stan¬
dards of.non-discrimination of which they had been
in violation.
Despite these affirmative action proposals, dis¬
crimination against women persists. The Modern
Language Association Commission on the Status of
Women has prepared this action handbook to help
concerned women rid their campuses of sexist prac¬
tices. The handbook describes the various laws which
apply to sex discrimination: Title VII, The Equal
Pay Act of 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and
the Executive order of 1968. Procedures are outlined
on how a woman who has explored local grievance
channels can begin to build a legal case.
The authors offer two suggestions to academic
women who wish to use the law in pressing a dis¬
crimination case: first-the woman should present
her individual case in the context of a strong, organ¬
ized campus women’s group which is also pressing
HEW, EEOC, The Department of Labor and the local
institution for a complete review of employment
policies toward women at all levels. Second—the
woman should try to press her case at several levels
simultaneously—with HEW, EEOC, and the Wage
and Hour Division of the Department of Labor.
Copies are available from:
ADRIAN TINSLEY
William James College
Allendale, Michigan 49401
50tf covers postage and printing costs
* A recent study, THE WO/
DOCTORA TE in America, by h
indicated that 91% of women d
working, 81% of them full-time
interrupted their careers in the
obtaining the doctorate. (Only .
are in the labor force. Of men \
ates, only 69% work full-time it
of study.)
THE WOMAN DOCTORATE
TITLE VII
TO WHOM DOES TITLE VII A
ALL educational institutions, b
PRIVA TE, with 15 or more em
ployees are covered, including t
State and local civil service law:
covered regardless of whether o
any Federal funds. Title VII als
ganizations (collective bargainir
employment services.
WHAT DOES THE LAW REQl
Title VII makes it unlawful to c
* recruitment, hiring, firing,
* wages, terms, conditions o.
employment
* classifying, assigning or prc
* extending or assigning use
* training, retraining or appr
* opportunities for promotic
* sick leave time and pay
* vacation time and pay
* overtime work and pay
* medical, hospital, life and c
coverage
* optional and compulsory rt
privileges
* receiving applications orcla
ring for employment
* printing, publishing, orcirc
ments relating to employn
specifications or preferenc
PROJECT ON THE STATU
EDUCATION OF WOMEN
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN
1818 R Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
HIGHER EDUCATION GUIDELINES:
Executive Order 11246
, 3 h f De P artment ? f Health, Education, and Welfare has issued a 17-page document aimed at providing guidance
to higher education institutions in meeting responsibilities under Executive Order 11246. The Executive Order pro-
recipients of Federal contracts from discriminating in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or
consideration" ' *“° ^ affirmat,ve ste P s to attract more women and minority applicants for employment
GuideUnes, prepared over a year in consultation with educational administrators, women’s and minorities
groups do not represent new rules, regulations, or laws, but articulate precisely and clearly existing rules and
regulations as they apply to institutions of higher education. X 8
GUIDELINES" 16 ° f thC Strat6giC c l uestions raised by Executive Order 11246 with answers supplied by the
Question: What is an affirmative action plan?
Answer: An affirmative action plan must outline the employer-contractor’s old, new or additional efforts
to recruit, employ and promote employees. Such a plan is required to overcome institutional
forms of exclusion and discrimination (Page 3, par. 1) and must indicate corrective goals and how
and when the goals will be achieved. Thus, the guidelines explicitly require that goafs and time¬
tables be established to eliminate hiring, firing, promotion, recruiting, pay and fringe benefit
discrimination. (Page 3, par 4, 5.) 6
Question: Do the guidelines or Executive Order 11246 establish quotas in hiring women and/or minorities?
Answer: No. There is nothing in the Executive Order of guidelines that requires or permits quotas. The test
ot compliance for the affirmative action plan is good taith effort and adherence to procedures
likely to yield results. Achievement of goals is not the sole measurement of a contractor’s com-
pimnce. They do, however, provide one indicator of probably compliance and achievement.
(Page 4, par. 1)
Question: Is OCR substituting its judgment of academic excellence for that of a university in hiring of
Answer: No Standards of academic exceUence which do not discriminate are properly delegated to those
in the academic community. °
Question: By adopting an affirmative action plan acceptable to OCR does a college or university engage in
“reverse discrimination” or “preferential treatment” that can lead to selection of unqualified
persons over qualified ones?
Answer: No. In fact, selection of promotion solely on grounds of race, ethnicity or sex violates the
Executive Order (Page 8, par. 2). There is no requirement that a university employ or promote
any faculty members who are less qualified than other applicants for that position. (Page 4, par.2.)
Question: What are the legal sanctions the Federal government may take against a college or university for
failure to comply with the Executive Order?
Answer: After a hearing, the existing contract may be cancelled, terminated or suspended in whole or in
part, and the contractor may be declared ineligible for further government contracts. (Page 1, par.
2.) An administrative finding of noncompliance also can result in the postponement of new con-
tracts pending a hearing or voluntary compliance.
Question: How can the Federal government insist on data and information based on race, sex, color, religion,
or national origin if a state or local law prohibits gathering or keeping information on that basis?
Answer: Under the principle of Federal supremacy, requirements for information under the executive order
supersede any conflicting state or local law. An individual, however, is not legally bound to report
such information about himself.
The GUIDELINES have so far been made available only to college and university presidents, so the document
may no L tbe know " to women fighting recalcitrant administrators for their rights under the law. Two cardinal facts
make this essential readmg for women on the academic battlefront. First, we all know that major patriarchal insti¬
tutions do not yield their privileges without a fight-which frequently takes the form of secrecy, dissembling, mis-
Xr!™' ° n ’ \ ne o eSSary ™ 8y i° Win f t0 knOW what the enem y knows - For your copy of the
GUIDELINES, write to the Regional Office for Civil Rights (U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare)
Question:
Answer:
Question:
Answer:
Question:
Answer:
Question:
Answer:
Question:
Answer:
‘i lrir , 7 - ,-/ — 57 ™ ^ vu miuw wiidi me enemy snows, l
GUIDELINES, write to the Regional Office for Civil Rights (U.S. Department of Health
in your area, or directly to:
THE PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
Office for Civil Rights
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
Washington, D.C. 20201
ducation, and Welfare)
IS COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AN H.E.W. SCAPEGOAT?
WOMEN as PERCENT of TOTAL FULL-TIME INSTRUCTIONAL FACULTY, 1972-73
National Totals*
Academic Rank Total
Professors 9.4 4 1
Associate Professors 15.8 11.1
Assistant Professors 23.1 21.4
Instructors 43.5 29.5
All Ranks 20.6 11.2
* Aggregate United States: National Center for Educational Statistics, U.S.
Office of Education. Preliminary data, February 1973.
** 1972-73 AA UP and HEGIS Reports-Columbia University.
*** Including Schools of Nursing and Social Work which have predominantly
female faculties.
Columbia**
Depts.
Schools***
Women’s Equity Action League
WEAL holds these truths to be self-evident:
“Women are being called upon to carry heavier
economic responsibilities than ever before. At the
same time, their educational and employment op¬
portunities have been declining. This has developed
into an intolerable situation which is rapidly affecting
a larger and larger segment of our population. Unless
women, themselves, organize to exert a positive in¬
fluence to correct this situation, they will continue
to be impeded by forces which they cannot, indivi¬
dually, control. ...
“While demonstrations and picketing may serve a
certain purpose in attracting attention to the prob¬
lem, WEAL believes primarily in another avenue of
approach: since the present situation is the result of
women’s inertia, it will have to be corrected by
women’s action. This action must be incisive but
patient, determined but diplomatic. Many of our
political and industrial leaders will oppose us; we
must exert unremitting pressure upon them—pressure
of a studied, sophisticated, strategic and problem¬
solving nature. .. .
“Great concern is justified for both the individual
hardships and the mass injustices and wastefulness
which have been allowed to develop. Rebellion is
inevitable, and WEAL stands for responsible
rebellion.’’
WEAL is a women’s organization devoted to im¬
proving the status of all women through education,
legislation and litigation. Members include women
from all walks of life—working women, housewives,
professional women, students and senior citizens. It
seeks to promote the economic progress of women,
to press for full enforcement of existing anti-discrim¬
ination laws, to pass new legislation improving
women’s status, to correct de facto discrimination
against women and to urge that girls be prepared
realistically for life.
The organization publishes a quarterly newsletter
W.E.A.L. Washington REPORT, that covers progress
on legislative matters of interest to women. Recent
issues have reported on the Bank Loans and Con¬
sumer Credit Bills sponsored by Rep. Bella Abzug;
the childbirth bill introduced by Rep. Martha Grif¬
fith, providing the biological father the right to
attend the birth of his child if the mother consents;
the status of measures relating to abortion, welfare
reform, tax deductions for childcare. In reporting
on pending legislation, the Newsletter always pro¬
vides a break-down of congressional committees on
whom to focus pressure.
Subscriptions from:
WEAL
538 National Press Building
Washington, D.C. 20004
$5.00/year
FACTS-NOT FICTION
* Although the percentage of women undergrad¬
uate students has been increasing since the 1950’s,
so that it is now 41%, it is still less NOW than the
percentage of women undergraduates in 1920,
when women were 47% of the undergraduates, or
in 1899 when 53% of all undergraduate degrees
went to women.
* The percentage of women graduate students is
less now than it was in 1930.
* The percentage of women faculty is less now
than it was in 1930, and even less than it was in
1870.
THE DAY WEAL
OPENED PANDORA’S BOX
Jan. 31, 1970, is not likely to be known as a
day of historic importance, although it will un¬
doubtedly appear as a footnote in women's studies
textbooks. On that day, a small, unknown, wom¬
en's civil-rightsgroup, the Women's Equity Action
League (WEAL), opened Pandora's box by filing
its first complaint of sex discrimination against
the academic community with an "industry-wide
charge" of a pattern of sex discrimination.
The group urged that the federal government
enforce the Executive Order with regard to sex
discrimination in universities and colleges. The
charges were accompanied by about 80 pages of
documentation and later were followed by more
than 360 class-action complaints filed by WEAL
and other women's groups against individual in¬
stitutions. ...
In January, 1970, only the Executive Order
(1124 7) applied, but it was unknown in the aca¬
demic community. It covered all federal contrac¬
tors, but had been enforced primarily with regard
to minority blue<ollar construction workers, not
with regard to discrimination in educational
institutions....
In short, women had no recourse under law in
1970, until WEAL discovered that the Executive
Order applied to colleges and universities.
WE A L's filing of charges gave hope and courage
to women on the campus. It confirmed what many
had suspected but few knew how to document:
that sex discrimination was real. It accelerated
the growing concern of women on the campus
about discrimination ....
None of WEA L's charges or other class-action
complaints have ever been refuted in the subse¬
quent HEW investigations.
The activities of WEAL, coupled with those of
women on the campus, are in no small part res¬
ponsible for the shift in Congress’s attitude about
sex discrimination on the campus. When the 92nd
Congress adjourned, academic women had almost
all they and asked by way of legislation: Title VII
of the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Pay Act, Title
IX of the Education Amendments Act, the Equal
Rights Amendment, and the coverage of sex dis¬
crimination by the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights. The mandate of the Congress is clear: it is
a matter of national policy to prohibit discrimina¬
tion against women on the campus.
Jan. 31, 1970, is a date womet. will remember
for a long time.
Bernice Sandler
THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION,
Volume VII, No. 16, January 22,1973
Project on the Status of Women of the
Association of American Colleges
192
PROJECT ON THE STATUS AND
EDUCATION OF WOMEN OF THE
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLE
Dr. Bernice Sandler, a founding member of V
is one of the most knowledgeable people on the i
ject of discrimination against women in academic
institutions. Under her direction, the Project on tfc j
Status and Education of Women of the Associs
of American Colleges issues deeply researched and
clearly written analyses of Federal laws which can
be used to remedy discrimination based on sex in
educational institutions.
* In 1970 about 3,250,000 of the 7,900,000M
ents enrolled in colleges were women and there¬
fore potential patients of the campus health i
vice. Yet figures compiled by the National Sti
Association indicate that 53 percent of theca
and university health services do not provide
gynecological services, and fully 72 percent do
not prescribe birth control for women. What ex¬
actly are the obligations of colleges and univer¬
sities in providing for the health needs of wo
students?
* As a woman employee of a college or univi
arc you getting screwed on maternity leave and
benefits?
* Are you as a woman paying more and gettia|
less from your institution’s retirement pian’f
you know that this is unlawful?
* Are the officials and administrators at youri
stitution trying to keep you in the dark about
contract compliance procedures which are re¬
quired of all institutions which accept Federal |
monies?
* Are they trying to mystify and confuse the!
of numerical goals for women? What ate the It)
fercnces between goals (which are required by^
Federal contractors) and quotas (which pro"
arc illegal)?
* If you arc an employee at a religious instill
arc you covered by Federal laws prohibitingd^
crimination on the grounds of sex?
The Project's fact papers arc addressed to these
and a host of other such Questions. They arc indis¬
pensable to women who wish to take full idnaOjf 1
of the law to redress discrimination policiese
in their schools, colleges, and universities. Tbcji
of course, also useful to those academic adn‘
tors who want to take the initiative themselvesfcj
correcting illegal practices and policies in their
institutions.
It should be noted that the information dial
ated by the Project is not confined to facultyi
it is relevant to policies that affect ALL women ■(
educational facilities-students, non-academic e* j
ployees, as well as teaching staff.
Fact papers issued by the Project include:
“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Sexual D»
crimination in Educational Institutions,” "Sex
Discrimination Provisions Concerning Students
and Employees as Contained in the Higher Ed¬
ucation Act of 1972,” “HEW Contract Com¬
pliance and Review,” “Goals and Timetables
versus Quotas: Legal Background ConcerningN*
inerical Goals for Women and Minorities," "Heakh
Services for Women: What Should the University^
Provide?” “Statistics Concerning Doctorates
Awarded to Women,” “Part-time Employment ■
Educational Institutions,” “Maternity Policies lid
Educational Institutions,” “Guidelines on Sex
Discrimination as they Relate to Retirement
Plans.”
For copies, write to:
DR. BERNICE SANDLER
PROJECT ON THE STATUS
AND EDUCATION OF WOMEN
Association of American Colleges
1818 R Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 265-3137
Women’s Divorce Co-op
One out of every three marriages ends in divorce. Of these,
an estimated twenty-five percent are uncontested, that
is, neither spouse plans to fight the divorce in court. (This
s especially true where neither children nor property
iettlements are involved.) In 1973, “incompatibility” was
iccepted as grounds for divorce, in thirteen states: Alaska,
ialifornia, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas,
levada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Wash-
ngton. Other states arc rapidly introducing such improved
livorce legislation. In essence, this means that two people
*ho simply want to terminate their marriage do not have
logo through the charade of proving legally that one of
;hcm was guilty of actions that wrecked the marriage.
Lawyers in collectives around the country have told us
lhat these so-called “no-fault” divorces are a very routine
natter. In fact, we were informed that in many law firms
ihe papers for uncontcsted divorces are drawn up by legal
ecretaries. Yet the standard charge including lawyer’s fees
ind court costs is in the neighborhood of S600. The Amer¬
ican Bar Association recommends a minimum fee of $350.
Court costs are usually around fifty dollars. Some rip-off!
Lawyers would call it lucrative practice. So lucrative, that
when a group of Seattle women advertised in a women’s
E per their intention to form a divorce “co-operative” to
cuss ways in which women could get their divorces
without lawyers, they received a letter from the local bar
issociation warning them that they were under investiga¬
tion, and requesting copies of all materials that they in¬
tended to use.
If this was meant to be a threat it did not work: these
(omen were feminists.
The Divorce Co-operative was originated by nine
lomen, all of whom intended getting divorces, uncontested,
nd who were incensed at the high fees lawyers were asking
km to pay. They felt particular outrage at these high
vosts, since women earn, on the average, only 59 percent of
what men earn, and women who do not work are e.conom-
xally dependent on their husbands or the welfare depart¬
ment. Under such circumstances an exorbitant fee structure
lends further to victimize women already in oppressive situ¬
ations. The women believed that free, or at least cheap,
livorce is a necessity for women who can no longer tolerate
pr continue their marriages.
Feminists don’t sit around tossing the bull. They do
omething. These women decided to break the stranglehold
vhich the legal profession has maintained over knowledge
if the legal procedures involved in getting a non-contested
livorce. “Most women mistakenly assume that they must
lire a lawyer to get divorced. The fact is that everyone has
he constitutional right to represent herself in court and
livorce proceedings are part of this right. (And in some
i sates) it is possible and reasonable for a woman to get her
iwn divorce.”
The majority of women do not come from the
Women’s Movement. Nevertheless, the Co-op is
consciously organized as a feminist endeavor. This is
not just a do-it-yourself nuts-and-bolts workshop.
Legal matters are discussed at the beginning of each
weekly meeting, but the bulk of the session is de¬
voted to a topic of general concern to women. “We
feel it is crucial that we get together and talk about
our experiences and feelings. We hope to find and
build new alternatives for our lives.” Topics include
marriage, divorce, female sexuality, women working,
welfare, child care, lesbianism, older women, rape,
prostitution, women in prisons and mental institu¬
tions, alternative lifestyles. Reading matter is given to
participants to read and think about a week in ad¬
vance of each meeting. As the divorce proceedings
progress, the amount of time spent on legal matters
dwindles and discussion of topical subjects increases
proportionately. A spokeswoman for the Co-op ad¬
mitted that the feminist perspective does put off
some women, who drop out. But this is far out¬
weighed by the number whose consciousness is
sharpened and whose self-confidence grows through
participation in the Co-op—and who go on to get
their divorces by themselves. “Securing a divorce by
herself—without a professional, who is usually a man-
can be an all-important step in building the necessary
reliance necessary if she is to take control of her
own life.”
We asked how the Divorce Co-op enables a woman
to get her own divorce. “At the first session we sit
around, get to know one another, talk about the
Divorce Co-op, why we are doing it, what will be in¬
volved. At the next session we give the women the
packet containing the basic legal information we
will be working with. We were scrupulous in prepar¬
ing the packet not to violate the law which makes it
a misdemeanor to practice law without a license. This
means that you cannot tell someone how to apply
the law to her specific situation. Therefore, our
packet simply contains a record of one woman’s
whole divorce—all the documents she was reauired to
file, a transcript of the court proceedings, a descrip¬
tion of the general rules of the court, such as the six
months residency requirement, the necessity to state
whether you have children or are pregnant, plus a
page that describes in general terms what it is like to
go to court. The packet has a covering statement
which says explicitly that this is not a do-it-yourself
divorce kit; that it is just another woman’s divorce
that can be used as a learning aid; that it can be use¬
ful only if it is used with a group of women. (The
packet is available only to women who sign up for a
Co-op session.)
Every two weeks for five months the women met
to study the state of Washington’s divorce laws. At
the end of that time, they decided they could do their
own divorces themselves, and help other women do
the same. To begin with, one woman acted as a guinea
pig for the group and went through the whole process
from start to finish, “to make sure that we could do
it, to test whether we had enough knowledge.” When
she went through like a breeze, the group advertised
the formation of the divorce co-operative, eliciting
the letter from the Seattle Bar Association. “We im¬
mediately responded, and demanded to know why
they were investigating us, since we were doing no¬
thing illegal. We pointed out that the legal part was
only one aspect of the Divorce Co-operative; that
whereas they were merely out for personal profit
we were giving women support through the whole
divorce experience; that we certainly would not send
them anything.” A couple of months later we received
ceived a letter saying that they had completed their
investigation and found that at that time we were not
engaged in practicing law. We don’t anticipate any
further difficulties. They would look pretty ridicu¬
lous harassing us. After all we are not charging
money; we are a group of women helping each other;
and the public can see what a rip-off it is charging
that kind of money for what we have shown anyone
can do.”
In January, 1972, women signed up for the first
three-month divorce co-op. Since then, over two
hundred women have obtained their own divorces
through participation in the Co-operative. Usually,
about forty to fifty women break up into two or
three groups, each of which is led by five “core”
members—women from the original nine, or women
who have themselves obtained a divorce through
participating in the Co-op. The women who join are
described as varied in background and occupation,
although the majority are white, from twenty-two to
thirty-five in age, and almost all women who work
because they have to—that’s why they join the Co-op,
they can’t afford to pay huge lawyer’s fees.
A divorce takes a minimum of nine papers and a
brief courtroom appearance before a judge. It be¬
comes final ninety days after the first paper has been
filed. (This is why each Co-op session is three months
long.) At the third weekly meeting, the women go
over the first papers in the kit (the complaint), and
then go home to do rough drafts of their own com¬
plaints, which they bring back to the next meeting.
Everybody reads everyone else’s paper, criticizing
and commenting on each one. The aim is to make the
paper as competent as possible. We go back and forth
like that through all the required papers that have to
be filed. To prepare for the court hearings, the women
act out and rehearse courtroom situations, and visit
courts to witness actual proceedings. Women generally
accompany each other to their own hearings. No
woman who has gone the full course has failed to be
granted an official decree.”
Divorce
C o-o p e r a t i v e
It costs a woman exactly thirty-five dollars to get
her own divorce through the Divorce Co-operative:
thirty-two dollars in court fees, a two-dollar contri¬
bution to help defray the cost of mimeographing
discussion materials, and a one dollar contribution to
the YWCA, which answers the phone for the Co-op.
A beautiful end-run around an institution which has
generally treated women with quintessential patri¬
archal condescension.
The Women’s Divorce Co-operative urges women
in other states with “no-fault” divorce laws to investi¬
gate the possibilities of helping women get their own
divorces with lawyers.
For the Co-operative’s brochure, write to:
THE WOMEN’S DIVORCE CO-OPERATIVE
c/o YWCA, University of Washington
4224 University Way, N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
(206) ME 2-4747
193
HOW TO DO YOUR OWN DIVORCE IN CALIFORNIA
by Charles E. Sherman
“This book is not designed to replace an attorney. It
is meant to help you decide whether or not you need
one. The law says that you have a right to have an at¬
torney represent you if you want one; no law says that
you must have one. . ..
“You should be your own attorney only when you
expect no opposition from your spouse. Perhaps your
spouse is long gone, or for some reason has no particular
interest in what you may do. In such cases, you will
probably have a very easy time of doing your own dis¬
solution. Where your spouse is in the picture, and cares
about what happens, you should be your own attorney
only if the two of you can agree:
* That your marriage should be dissolved;
* Who is to have custody of the children;
* How visitation is to be arranged;
* How much is to be paid for child support;
* How much is to be paid for spousal support; and
* How to divide the property and bills which you
may have accumulated during the marriage.’’
If there is concensus on these issues, lawyer Charles
Sherman’s book will be extremely helpful to you—if you
live in California. All charts, petitions, and sample forms
are based on California law. And, although some of the
general principles probably apply in all states with “no
fault” divorce laws, the forms will be useless outside of
California. We call attention to the book, not only be¬
cause of its usefulness to the many women residents of
the Union’s most populus state, but to show what could
be possible in all states providing for non-contested
divorces.
The attitude throughout this book is a positive one—
Sherman, with a little help from the I CHING, empha¬
sizes the need for the adaptability to change. “The theme
of changes is central to what’s happening in your life,
now. The ancients knew that life is primarily a process of
flow and change. The I CHING and astrology, among
other bodies of lore, teach the same message. Things
never stay the same. Learn to relate to changes. To try
to cling to your old self against the relentless force of
your own changes can be as futile and frustrating as
trying to stem the tides. Accept the changes—learn and
grow. You won’t be sorry.
Californians, be sure to get the updated 1973 version.
Win THE HUMS TOU Will HEED TO M IT
l>T
E.
B.A., J.D.
• «k» many dnatoia yo« iiml nuke tmlnlinf -hfilv* t«a ml w
attorney If yov don't, il Utowt >•«rurllt fc.m indn tout non Infcrr
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NOLO PRESS
P.O. Box 2147
Berkeley, California 94702
$4.95, plus 35^ postage
194
Figure 7:
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(check dils box
ti\ pe in respondent's
name as it appeals on
the petition
( jype the uioid
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9f, indicate date cjmsilinp
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address at uthidi
(respondent was served
or to which papers
were mailed.
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check this box if yoq
served respondent by
method described in 8e>
type in city or location
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attach acknouilodgement
check this box if you
served respondent by
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type in name,
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Center For A Woman’s Own Name
Almost from the day a little girl learns how to spell and write her whole name, she begins wondering what
kr “last” name will be “when she grows up.” She knows that Mommy’s name is different now than it was when
she was a little girl and she sees articles in the newspaper referring to married women as, “the former_” She
jets more reinforcement about changing her name from interested profit-making parties—stationary companies and
nonogrammers place advertisements in magazines for young women showing dreamy photographs of betrothed
‘girls” envisioning their stationery, luggage, and bath towels bearing new names and monogrammed initials.
However, more and more women are deciding to keep their own names when they get married. Women who are
llready married are changing their names back or hyphenating their own name with their husband’s name. Other
[Omen have completely changed their names and have chosen “liberation names,” (for example, Ann Forfreedom,
iusan Sojourner, Ann Pride, Susan Furious, Betsy Warrior, Cathy Sarachild, Susan Silverwoman, Wanda Westcoast,
Judy Chicago, Norma New York, Laura X, Ruby Fruitjungle, Sara Savage), explaining that all names are male any¬
way and when a woman keeps her “own” name, she is only keeping the name of her father.
Name changing upon marriage in the United States is generally based on custom and tradition—and not on any
legal grounds. There is NO LAW IN ANY STATE (except Hawaii) that requires a woman to change her last name
when she gets married. The custom goes back to the days when a woman’s father “gave her over” to her husband
ind she became the property of her husband instead of the property of her father.
Like most women, Terri Tepper of Barrington, Illinois was not aware that she had to change her name when she
jot married. In June, 1972, she became the first woman in Illinois successfully to appeal to the court to change back
lo her maiden name (she was, incidentally, represented in court by her lawyer-husband).
In February, 1972, Tepper placed a classified ad in
MS. MAGAZINE which read, “Center for Woman’s
Own Name—need data from your state—court peti¬
tions, state regulation, county voting policies, etc.”
She submitted the ad in the hopes of compiling in¬
formation from other states on women’s right to re¬
tain their own names. From the responses she re¬
ceived she compiled a fact sheet on regulations for
passports, driver’s licenses, voter registration and set
up a network of volunteer representatives for each
state. When a woman writes to Terri Tepper (her
classified ad now appears monthly in MS.), her letter
is forwarded to the woman who represents that state
for the Center for a Woman’s Own Name. Each repre¬
sentative knows the particular information for her
state and helps the inquirer with any problems that
might come up.
There are still some states which do not have a.
representative in the Tepper network. If you are in¬
terested in working as a representative or in assisting
the existing representative, or if you wish to regain or
retain your own name, write to Terri Tepper.
For information, write to:
ENTER FOR A WOMAN’S OWN NAME
61 Kimberly
arrington, Illinois 60010
IL DIVORCE DO YOU PART
y Roberta Greene
“Divorce is the legal severing of the marital bond,
nd that is what you ultimately want. It is also the
vision of property and agreement about custody of
se children. Most of the problems arise over the
troperty, real and human, and that is where women
equently find themselves in trouble. Unfortunately,
w women are schooled about their rights as wives,
ustodians, property owners, beneficiaries, or any of
le other titles or parts they play as legal adults. Hus-
jands learn these things as a matter of course, but
ry few wives care to interest themselves in such
etails, or they have been excluded from knowledge
fsuch things by their husbands. Divorce becomes a
irror not to be considered by some, because they
’t know how they can maintain themselves fi-
eially, and they have been told by their husbands
t no money will be forthcoming, the children will
taken from them, or they will have to leave the
juse. (The threats are varied, but are usually un-
cunded in law or custom). . . .”
TIL DIVORCE DO YOU PART “is an attempt to
escribe some of the problems women might en-
unter on the way to a final decree, and some pos-
lilities for responding to them. .. . The suggestions
purposely aggressive. One of the problems with
omen (which men, both husbands and lawyers,
ant on) is that they keep up the role of‘lady’,
lich means being polite, avoiding arguments, being
informed, depending on the good will of the
wyer, being bamboozled by a lot of monetary fig-
its, and succumbing to an inadequate settlement
Icause of the ‘emotional strain’. . . .”
Roberta Greene’s book is “a swift (and biased)
course in divorce problems from the perspective
women for women. . . .”
A SMALL, BUT
UNQUESTIONABLE RIGHT
A misguided department chief in Washington
last week ruled that women working under him
couldn't, as well as wouldn't, get a pay check if
they were married, unless they abandoned their
maiden names, and let the cashier put their hus¬
band's name on it ....
As the department chief has no warrant in law
for his ruling, resistance to it will be easy for any¬
body who is willing to take a little trouble in de¬
fense of a small, but unquestionable right.
NEW YORK TIMES, August 18, 1924
This book has been written because women who
have been through the trauma of being “gulled” and
short-changed through their separation negotiations
and divorces do not want to see other women “taken”
the same way. There is little widely distributed in¬
formation available for women, written by women
who have been through the educational experience of
separation proceedings and divorce.
Available from:
KNOW, Inc.
P.O. Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
$1.50
SOURCES FOR DIVORCES:
Everything You Need to Know About
Divorce Law and Procedures
in the United States
by A. Michael Counselor
Where, how, whether to get a divorce supple¬
mented by a chart detailing residency requirements,
grounds for divorce, whether alimony is permitted,
whether or not common law marriage is recognized
and when remarriage is allowed in each of the 50
United States and the Dominican Republic.
Available from:
TECHNI-LEGAL PUBLICATIONS
407 Luhrs Towers
Phoenix, Arizona 85030
$5.00
ALIMONY AND SUPPORT
by Stephen Blair
This little booklet is sub-titled: “A Lawyer’s Guide
to What it Would Cost Your Husband if You Were
No Longer Married.” Even though it was written in
1971, and is pretty much up-to-date in its factual in¬
formation, the author/publishers are still not so
subtly hinting at the tired but dangerous myth that
financially a wife has nothing to lose through
divorce—maybe she even gains. Here are a couple of
little beauties that will give a married woman pause
for thought when she thinks about that sub-title:
Q: Will the courts let a man spend wildly on a new
wife while his ex-wife can barely manage?
A: Yes—if the man’s income hasn’t changed and if
the amount of alimony was set. For example, the
court can’t stop a man from going into debt to
buy his wife a fur coat even if his former wife is
wearing a five-year-old cloth coat.
Q: Does the law let a man spend more on his
“new” children than he spends on his “old”
children?
A: Yes-if his income is the same as it was when
the amount of child support was set and if the
needs of his first children haven’t changed. In
short, a divorced father may favor one or some of
his children over others. . ..
We call attention to this booklet, however, because
if you can cut through the sexism, it does provide
good information on the broad principles generally
applicable throughout the United States in the areas
of alimony and support. And, it is one of the few
books of this kind available at a reasonable price—
twenty-five cents.
The author, himself a lawyer, advises women that
“a lawyer is the unhappy wife’s best friend, and HIS
(our emphasis) prompt, competent advice can affect
her financial future for years to come.” Yes, paying
off HIS bills.
Available from:
DELL PUBLISHING COMPANY
750 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10017
25 4
Feminists at Law
(Bales and Edhlund)
Tfhe United States is the world’s most litigious
society. Day-to-day survival involves frequent direct
contact with the law; and the judicial system provides
one of the major avenues of social change. The fact
that this profession is the repository of so much
power explains why the law profession, even more
than medicine, has been a bastion of white male
privilege. It also goes a long way in explaining the
unequal and unfair treatment accorded women by
the law and those who practice and administer it—
why prostitutes are prosecuted arid not the “john”
and pimps; why women are given longer sentences
for the same crimes than men; why rape victims are
treated like the accused and rapists like victims; why
child-support payments are not generally enforced;
why girls running away from home because their
fathers have raped them are sent to reformatories
while boys who rape girls are sent to psychiatrists.
Until a couple of years ago, women were virtually
shut out of law schools (Harvard Law admitted its
first women students in the nineteen-fifties.) When
admitted, even if they graduated top of the class—
which was frequently the case—women were bluntly
and arbitrarily barred from the clerkships they de¬
served and excluded from the major law firms.
Women are still being shunted into the less presti¬
gious law firms, where they are paid less than men,
wait longer to become partners—if they make it at
all—and are generally assigned the shitwork and
drudgery.
All this is beginning to change. Women are forcing
entry into law schools in increasing numbers, moti¬
vated by awakening consciousness and an increasing
realization that the patriarchy can be hoist by its own
petard—that women can use the law, thus far a tool
used in their oppression, to liberate women. This is
not all. Unlike so many of the bright-eyed, long¬
haired male law students—who are slowly seduced
and co-opted by their elite status to end up three
years later at Dewey, Ballantine or Sullivan and
Cromwell—the majority of women law students be¬
come progressively radicalized through law school.
At a time when women are sensitized to their second-
class citizenship, they run head-on at law school into
sexism which is blatant and unending. And, if a
woman does make it as a token into one of the better
law firms, the same old crap keeps coming down.
The result is predictable: women are starting their
own law firms—feminist law firms. Sara Bales and
Sandra Edhlund have such a law firm in Milwaukee,
at 704 W. Wisconsin Avenue. Although they have
worked on a wide range of cases—from the draft to
divorce—they are increasingly devoting themselves
to women’s issue cases. (They have most recently
handled a suit challenging the Wisconsin Inter-Athletic
Association rules which prohibit girls from competing
against boys in inter-scholastic swimming.) As re¬
ported in the “Milwaukee Journal” Qixly 5th, 1973),
the women make a point of distinguishing between
women lawyers and feminist lawyers working for
causes espoused by the Women’s Movement. As
feminists, they are particularly interested in handling
litigation which not only helps a specific woman, as
in the average divorce case, but which sets precedents
affecting large groups of women. They also exclude
themselves from certain types of cases: representing
men in divorce actions, or defendants in rape cases.
Neither woman started out choosing the law with
feminism in mind; but it is hard to survive law school
and male law firms without undergoing an increase in
consciousness of sexist oppression. Both Bales and
Edhlund are involved in feminist activities outside
their law practice; and they are planning to start a
legal rights group for women.
Feminist law firms are mushrooming. If you
would like to engage a feminist attorney, call your
local women’s center (a listing is provided in the last
section).
NEW YORK WOMEN’S LAW CENTER
351 Broadway
New York, New York 10013
(212)431-4074
The New York Women’s Law Center is not un¬
typical of similar law centers around the country.
A law center does not function as a law firm per
se, rather it serves primarily informational and educa¬
tive purposes. Each center has its own specific areas
of interest but'in general most provide the services
made available to women at the N.Y. Law Center:
LIBRARY—makes available to women statutes,
cases, treatises, briefs and forms used in past cases,
as well as basic skills in legal research.
LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING -explains
to women their basic rights and obligations under
the law and the legal procedure which women
must use or which will be used against them.
Sometimes workshop classes are frequently held.
PUBLICATIONS—Produces short pamphlets on
topics concerning legal questions of interest to
women, e.g., name-change, job discrimination,
and divorce procedures.
SELF-REPRESENTATION—Teaches women how
to represent themselves in court, specifically for
divorce proceedings and some claims court cases.
CLEARINGHOUSE—attempts to eliminate dupli¬
cation in women’s rights work.
REFERRAL SERVICE—refers callers with spe¬
cific problems to the appropriate agencies and
organizations. Also informs women about loca¬
tions of food stamps, health services, and public
assistance.
Other women’s legal services include:
WOMEN’S LAW FUND
620 Keith Building
1621 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 4415
(216)621-3443
WOMEN'S LAW CENTER
St. Paul Place
Baltimore, Maryland 21203
(301)547-1653
WOMEN’S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
1736 R Street
Washington, D.C.
(202) 232-5293
WOMEN’S LAW CAUCUS
c/o 1208 West 12th Street
Austin, Texas 78703
WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTION
c/o Eleanor Dunn
2458 Howard Avenue
Ottawa 8, Ontario
CANADA
NATIONAL LAW WOMEN’S NEWSLETTE
Volume II. Number 1
79 Dartmouth Street. A to. 2. Boston, Massachusetts 02116
(617) 262 6720
Swemfcr (977
In 1969-70 only 3% (8,100) of the legal
profession were women. The 1971 Review of
Legal Education by the ABA shows even more
startling enrollment figures for women in va¬
rious law schools: 32 women out of a total
enrollment of 600 students at Sam ford (Ala.);
177 women out of 911 students at Berkeley
(Calif.); 235 out of 1813 at George Washington
University (Washington, D.C.); 87 out of 954
at the University of Miami (Fla.); 147 out of
1671 at the University of Texas; 55 out of 600
at VUlanova (Pa.); 93 out of 1266 at the Uni¬
versity of Idaho; and 161 out of 1922 at
Harvard—to name only a few schools. These
random figures alone exhibit striking evidence
of prejudice against women in law when one
acknowledges the fact that women comprise
over 50% of the American population.
PRO SE, September 1972
PRO SE
“PRO SE is an independent, monthly newsl_
for law women. Its purposes are two-fold: tomaa-,
tain communication and sisterhood among wo
law schools around the country and to give covi
to events and projects which concern law won
struggles for equality and humanity.”
Through personal reflections, news briefs, new J
exchanges, PRO SE keeps women in the law, par¬
ticularly women law students, informed about the
way in which women in law schools all over the
country are working to equalize the female popub
tion of the legal profession and are fighting sexhn
in other areas of everyday life.
Subscriptions available from:
PRO SE
79 Dartmouth Street
No. 2
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
$5.00/12 issues
$3.00/law students
$25.00/institutions-five copies of each issue l
196
Women inTransition
A pet notion fostered by this culture is that when
a divorce occurs, it is the male who is victimized by
a parasitic wife who gouges her ex-husband’s pay-
check for alimony payments to support her in the
style to which she is accustomed. For the vast ma¬
jority of women who are actually able to liberate
themselves from oppressive marriages, consequent
economic hardships are severe and play no small
part in fostering dependence on men. Here are some
of the facts.
,3/4 of all divorces involve children.
,5.6 million families in the U.S. are headed by
women (10% of all families).
8 million children under 18 are being cared for
by single mothers.
The cost of rearing a child ranges from SHOO
per year to $2100 per year according to the
Department of Agriculture.
The median income of female-headed house¬
holds is $4000/ycar; the median income for
two-parent families is SI 1,600/year.
However, a woman’s dilemma in getting divorced
is not confined to these staggering economic burdens,
often heightened by the fact that she must re-enter
the job market with no other skills than housekeep¬
ing. Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the cultural bur¬
den which defines women as adjuncts to men—wives
and mothers. According to this thinking, a woman’s
only conceivable joy in life is to be the perfect ac-
cutrament to the male ego. Any woman, especially if
she has children, who contemplates leaving her hus¬
band can only wish to do so because she has failed
as a woman. And any woman who dares to venture
outside the narrowly prescribed limits of “feminine
behavior” (i.e., dependent on male approval) is
automatically typecast as a “castrating female.”
It is a testament to the strength of women that so
many women are able to free themselves from op¬
pressive marriages in spite of their inculturation and
the severe material hardships which so frequently
follow.
The Women in Transition program was initiated
to help women overcome some of the psychological
and material obstacles they face in getting separated
or divorced-above all their own conditioned passiv¬
ity, which creates financial and psychological de¬
pendency on men, II a woman calls Women in
Survival
Transition in need of emotional support, she is im¬
mediately plugged into a small on-going support/dis¬
cussion group where she can talk out her feelings,
ideas and experiences with women in similar situa¬
tions. She can also get referred to a sympathetic
lawyer or therapist, and to child care centers and
job opportunities.
In the spirit of women’s self-help, WIT has also
put out some juicy self-help publications—“What
to Look for in a Lawyer,” “What to Look for in a
Therapist,” and “How to Change Your Name,” in
addition to their phenomenal 260 page SURVIVAL
MANUAL: A Feminist Handbook of Separation
and Divorce. Although some aspects of the
SURVIVAL MANUAL apply to the Philadelphia
area only (such as lists of local employment
agencies, food coops, childcare centers, district
welfare offices), this book is chock full of informa¬
tion on virtually everything a woman needs to
know in getting started on her own again: from legal
questions to public welfare programs to job training
opportunities, to housing possibilities, to home
maintenance, to consumer advice. The no-nonsense
hard information contained in the MANUAL is set
off against a context which analyzes the legal and
economic status of women supplemented by charts,
factsheets, tables, statistics. One could say that it is a
local version of THE NEW WOMAN’S SURVIVAL
CATALOG.
Women in Transition is another signal that women
ARE in transition-from passivity and dependence to
self-assertion, from object to subject status; that we
are moving irrevocably to controlling our own lives.
For the SURVIVAL MANUAL, or additional infor¬
mation, write to:
WOMEN IN TRANSITION
4634 Chester Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19143
$ 1.50/individuals
$5.50/institutions
Women’s Legal Center
PURPOSE:
The Women's Legal Center is a place
where women with legal problems can
be helped'and supported by other women.
We will be frustrated by discrimination In
our legal experiences until we acquire skills
to counter this discrimination and to affect
laws and legal Institutions. We are a group
of legal workers who created the Women's
Legal Center to help ourselves and others
develop these skills. In working to provide
a feminist approach to women's legal prob¬
lems, we see ourselves as part of the
women's movement. Only as we become
confident in the strength we have together
will we be able to achieve social and legal
equality.
To begin our struggle, the Women's Legal
Center has initiated work on the following
projects:
1. Divorce Clinic - We run a three session
clinic in which we teach women how to
do their own divorces. We provide
technical assistance and a supportive
atmosphere in which women can discuss
divorce, marriage, and related issues.
Attendance at the clinic is by appoint¬
ment only.
2. Welfare Project - We provide education
and publicity on women's issues in wel¬
fare programs. We refer individuals
to welfare rights organizations and other
support groups focusing on women and
welfare. We are also available for
technical legal backup for developing
welfare groups.
3. Referral Program - When appropriate,
we refer women to sympathetic women
attorneys who handle individual cases.
We take phone calls for referrals on
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after¬
noons, 1-5 p.m. Women who wish lo
come to the Center to discuss their
problems should call first.
4. Women and Law Column - We publish
articles on women and law in The Con-
splracy , the National Lawyers Guild
publication. Past articles have focused
on such areas as abortion, welfare,
employment discrimination, and the
denial of disability benefits to pregnant
women. We are interested in more arti¬
cles from legal .workers, law Btudents,
attorneys, and others who have been
involved in the legal struggles of women.
5. Publicity and General Information - We
have helped organize press conferences
concerning legal issues which are im¬
portant to women. We are also available
to speak about the legal oppression of
women.
6. Booklets - We are putting together in¬
formational booklets on married women's
rights to keep their own names, com¬
munity property laws, and the legal
implications of marriage and divorce.
The ngMf +0 vote,or civil riaWH, may
be qooa demands, bat +ruCemanci(feh»
beq,ns neither at the polls nor in court
: polls nor in Court
ItBBins in utoman’s soul -History -His
Ms everu oppressed class o&nei
true liberation from its ma9*ffs frioinb
its own efforts - It is necessaru -tjnrt °
woman (earn mat lev»rvHtkiat she.
realise, -that- her freedom u>il reach
as ftxr as her rawer fc> achieue her
freedom cecuMes
€rnma 6o&nfln,rtll
WOMEN’S LEGAL CENTER 558 Capp Street San Francisco, California 94110 (415)285-5066
COURTROOM SELF-DEFENSE KIT
WOMEN, BECAUSE OF OUR SECOND CLASS STATUS,
FACE A LOT OF SPECIAL LEGAL PROBLEMS.
MANY WOMEN GET ROOKED INTO SHADY DEALS
BY DOOR-TO-DOOR SALESMEN, OR HAVE OUR
BOSSES DISCRIMINATE AGAINST US, OR EVEN GO
TO A LAWYER FOR HELP IN GETTING A DIVORCE
OR CHILD SUPPORT AND HAVE HIM CHARGE A LOT
AND DELIVER LITTLE.
Packets of materials used at a workshop held in Jan¬
uary 1972 at the University of Washington in Seattle
incjude: notes on how to research a legal case (anatomy
of a law suit, sources of law, types of law books, law
libraries, most commonly used legal research materials);
excerpts fron Federal laws prohibiting discrimination on
account of race, sex, etc.; instructions on examining
witnesses, cross examination, and “objection” proce¬
dures; role-playing exercises (using women’s typical
cases); constitutional amendments; Washington State
Laws on the F.mnloyment of women;statutesre divorce;
legal background for select Seattle city ordinances.
The packet was designed for use in pro se causes by
women in the State of Washington; but it could prove
useful to women in the law in other states who would
like to put together their own such packets for distrib¬
ution to people who can’t afford attorneys.
According to the co-ordinator of the workshop, “The
record shows that pro se actions are remarkably success¬
ful when the parties have had good legal advice before¬
hand.” Many people must be encouraged to represent
themselves, because of the very simple economic reason
that nobody else exists who will represent them. Many
people cannot afford lawyers, yet they are not poor
enough to qualify for Legal Aid. She also stated the
belief that very few lawyers can adequately defend
women, since they do not understand or sympathize
with the woman’s point of view and special problems.
All the more reason for women to receive the kind of
briefing and guidelines contained in the packet.
The packet is available from:
CLARA FRASER
2940 36th Avenue South
Seattle,Washington 98144
$1.50 plus 35c postage and handling
LEGAL
CLINIC
For these reasons, the Chicago Women's Liberation
Union started a free Women's Legal Clinic, open
every Wednesday night from 7 to 9pm at the CWLU
office. Many legal problems can be handled right there:
if you need to go to court, we can refer you to a lawyer
who will have reasonable rates, or in many cases, no
charge. The women lawyers and legal workers in our
Legal Clinic are anxious to help women with any legal
problem, and to show women a new way of dealing
with lawyers.
WEDNESDAY 7-9pm
852 W. BELMONT
CHICAGO 348-4300 WOMEN’S
LIBERATION UNION
198
WOMEN AND THE LAW: The Unfinished Revolution
By Leo Kanowitz
“It will not come as a surprise to anyone even cursorily acquainted with the work of courts and legislatures
lobe told that the law has often accorded different treatment to men and women solely because of sex. Voting
■f_ghts, jury service, right to a separated domicile, causes of action for loss of consortism, capacity to enter into
binding agreements and to sue and be sued, change in citizenship upon marriage to an alien, change of name
upon marriage, age of attaining majority - these are only a few of the many areas in which a person’s sex has at
times made the sole difference in the treatment he or she would receive under the law in the United States and
other countries . . .
“Discrimination, whether social of legal or both,
not only stunts the personal development of its ob’
jects, causing them to become less socially productive;
it also often nurtures the development of many traits
and characteristics that on any objective sclae would
be deemed undesirable and unworthy. Confronted by
a threat to his survival, man adapts his character to the
exigencies of the situation, the result at times being
ifie loss ol integrity and a part of his humanity. Thus
has it often been with women, who, to some people,
appear to hold an upper hand in the male-female relat¬
ionship despite legal and social restrictions. In many
cases, they have achieved such a position at the expense
of sacrificing essential components of their character . . .
“Many legal expressions of discriminatory attitudes
based on sex can and will be corrected by lawmakers
themselves, solely because of their revised appraisal of
the policy considerations underlying such rules in the
first place. Their willingness to make such changes will,
of course, be influenced by the extent to which they are
subjected to the normal political pressures urging them
to do so. The development of such pressures will in turn
depend upon the extent to which the public is informed
of the existence of these sex-based inequities in the law.”
Kanowitz’s book is an attempt to inform the public
of the “existence of these sex-based inequities in the law.”
As a professor of law at the University of New Mexico at
Alburquerque, Leo Kanowitz is aware of the sexist nature
of the law and t>f the judicial system which implements
that law. He has discussed in full how the law affects
single women, married women, and working women, and
has also analyzed Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
and Constitutional Aspects of sex-based discrimination
in American Law.
Kanowitz’s book is so thorough that any woman who
reads it will be filled with a sense of outrage that the legal
system is so blatantly discriminatory. . . But as Kanowitz
himself says in his subtitle — this is the unfinished revolution.
WOMEN
and
THE LAW
The Unfinished Revolution
Available from:
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS
Alburquerque, New Mexico 87106
$3.95
VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW
Volume 5, No. 2, 1971
HUMAN RIGHTS FOR WOMEN
Human Rights for Women is a “non-profit, educa¬
tional corporation organized to furnish legal assistance
to women in sex discrimination cases of crucial impor¬
tance, to publish educational materials on women’s
rights, and to encourage research on the legal, economic,
and social conditions affecting women as a class.”
HRW periodically publishes newsletters describing
relevant court cases, sex dsicrimination cases, and con¬
ferences. A recent issue included articles on menstrual
extraction, judicial attitudes towards lesbianism, and
a report of the appeal of the women workers of the
Colgate-Palmolive Company in a Sex Discrimination
Complaint.
An important publication put out by this corpora¬
tion is the JOB DISCRIMINATION HANDBOOK
which supplies all the specifics for filing discrimination
complaints. This handbook recommends that a
woman file charges with as many agencies as possi¬
ble, since discrimination usually occurs in more than
one facet of her job.
The JOB DISCRIMINATION HANDBOOK is
available from:
HUMAN RIGHTS FOR WOMEN
1128 National Press Building
Washington, D.C. 20004
(202)737-1059
SEXIST JUSTICE
By Karen DeCrow
In late January 1974, the “first feminist analysis of
the law by a woman lawyer” will appear on the market.
Karen DeCrow, a National NOW board member and
author of THE YOUNG WOMAN’S GUIDE TO LIB¬
ERATION, has written an essential Women’s-Move-
ment-view of the male-dominated judicial system.
Bound copies are available earlier for anyone who
wants to use the book as a text for a course in law
school or college.
Available from:
RANDOM HOUSE
Toni Morrison, Editor
201 Eats 50th Street
New York, New York 10022
The first university law review issue which is de¬
voted exclusively to women and the law and
contains:
“The Legal Basis of the Sexual Caste System,”
by Jo Freeman
“Economic and Educational Inequality Based on
Sex,” by Pauli Murray
“The Double Standard of Justice: Women’s Rights
Under the Constitution,” by Mary Eastwood
"The Federal Bar vs. the Ale House Bar: Women
and Public Accommodations,” by Faith Seidenberg
“Equal Pay, Equal Employment, Opportunity, and
Equal Enforcement of the law for Women,”
by Caruthers Gholson Berger
“Federal Remedial Sanction: Focus on Title VII,”
by Sonia Pressman Fuentes
“Sex and the Single Man: Discrimination in the
Dependent Care Deduction.”
“Comparative Legal Status of American and Soviet
Women,” by Aleta Wallach
'Treatment of Women by the Law: Awakening
Consciousness in the Law Schools,”
by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Available from:
VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Valparaiso, Indiana 46383
$4.00
WOMEN’S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER
“Women are realizing that law sometimes helps impose on them
someone else’s definition of what being a woman means and helps make
the consequences of that imposed definition painful. Yet women also,
realize that they can use law in their fight to free themselves from
having their identity painfully defined by others. From such realization
come the exciting developments which are taking place in women’s
law.” These are the developments which are covered in WOMEN’S
RIGHTS LAW REPORTER.
A new weapon for lawyers and other women interested in the law, WOMEN’S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER
began publication in 1971 to cover legal cases and problems women have related to the law. The publication
covers education, employment, health care, child_care, domestic relations, abortion, sexual freedom, certain
civil rights, the special problems of being female and poor, or female and a member of some other disfavored
group.
A recent issue covered sex discrimination in employment, union discrimination, child care deductions,
and a woman’s right to keep her own name.
“WOMEN’S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER realizes that the truth about a legal action is not found exclu¬
sively in the records of the court reporter. What the actual results of legal action are, and what women
think about how law and lawyers are serving-or maybe not serving-them, these are the questions which
WOMEN’S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER tries to answer.”
Subscriptions available from:
WOMEN’S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER
180 University Avenue
Newark, New Jersey 07102
$15.00 for 6 issues/$28.00, institutions
199
THE WOMAN ACTIVIST GUIDE FOR
WOMEN CANDIDATES:
a political Selfstarter
“By any measure — statistical, geographical, histor¬
ical, legal, social or economic — women have not had
political power. Political power is in essence the opport¬
unity to control what happens by the mandate of those
who elect you. Consider this guide as an outline and
introduction to the subject of winning power at the
polls. My aim here is to present a basic, simple but ess¬
ential introduction . . .
These suggestions are a distillation of over twenty
years of work in traditional politics as an organizer —
one of those years as a candidate. (Flora Crater, edi¬
tor of THE WOMAN ACTIVIST, and author of the
HANDBOOK, is a candidate again; she is currently
running for the office of Lieutenant-Governor of
Virginia).”
The December 1972 issue of the periodical THE
WOMAN ACTIVIST is a political primer with fund¬
amental yet sophisticated information for women who
want to run for political office and win. It is a useful
guide whether you are going to run yourself or help
another woman. The contents cover women as cand¬
idates, the elective office to seek, the issues, the cam¬
paign, and getting the money to run. An action guide
accompanying each subject suggests specific, concrete
ways to act to win. The handbook concludes with an
excellent bibliography of sources for campaign infor¬
mation.
To get your copy, write to:
THE WOMAN ACTIVIST
2310 Barbour Road
Falls Church, Virginia 22043
Single copies are $ 1.00 ‘
WOMEN AND THE LAW:
A COLLECTION OF READING LISTS
By Barbara Bowman, Ann Freedman, Eleanor Holmes
Norton, Susan Deller Ross and friends. April, 1971
A packet of reading lists developed and used in law
school and undergraduate courses at NYU, Yale, George¬
town, and George Washington University. Included read¬
ing list and bibliographies on Constitutional Law, Abort¬
ion, Criminal Law, Education Discrimination, Employ¬
ment Law, Family Law History, Media, and Public Acc
Accommodations. The women who compiled the read¬
ing lists are putting together a casebook of materials
on women’s legal status.
Available from:
KNOW, INC.
Box 86031
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15221
65c
THE WOMAN ACTIVIST
THE WOMAN ACTIVIST, a monthly “bulletin for
women’s rights,” provides women with important leg¬
islation information and with an inspired “call to act.”
Each issue contains an analysis of the political and
legislative scene, lists reviews of new feminist publi¬
cations, and has a column of “Actions for the Month”
For advice on lobbying from the “courthouse to
the White House,” subscribe to:
THE WOMAN ACTIVIST
2310 Barbour Road
Falls Church, Virginia 22043
$5/year for individuals
$ 10/year for institutions
WOMEN’S LOBBY, INC.
INTRODUCING WOMEN'S LOBBY, INC.
A LOBBY OF WOMEN, WHO BELIEVE
IN FEMINIST PRINCIPLES AND
WORK TO PUT THOSE PRINCIPLES
INTO LAW
In 1970, Carol Burris and Flora Crater began lobby
ing for the Equal Rights Amendment. They were join
ed by other women who are now on the Board of
Women’s Lobby, Inc. and by a group of volunteers wh
each gave one day a week of intense lobbying.
After the ERA victory, these same women lobbied
for the Higher Education Bill, the Health Manpower
Assistance Act, extension of minimum wage to domes
tics, extension of the powers of the Civil Rights Comn
ission to cover women, the Equal Employment Oppor
unity Commission Bill, and amendments that would
provide training benefits to the wives, widows, and de
pendents of all veterans.
Burris and Crater visited every member of Congress
testified before committees, developed informational
materials, and put together a complete file on mem¬
bers. They have developed extensive state contacts.
They understand the committee system and are cap¬
able of professionally analyzing legislation for its
potential effect on women.
Women’s Lobby testifies on bills, attempts to get
them on the floor, and builds public support to get
them passed. Major goals for the Women’s Lobby are
child care, pension reform,health care, minimum wag-
for domestics, women’s education act, welfare reform
and credit legislation. Women’s Lobby works to edu=
cate the Congress, the public, and especially the wome
who never hear about legislation until it is too late.
Women’s Lobby publishes a quarterly comprehen¬
sion legislative sheet which analyzes bills and legis¬
lation from a feminist viewpoint. In addition, the LobE
rovides Alerts for important developments as they
appen in Washington.
Subscriptions to the Quarterly are available fora
$10.00 contribution. Women who wish to be included!
in their state’s directory of women interested in wo¬
men’s legislation should contact the Women’s Lobby.
Write to:
WOMEN’S LOBBY, INC.
1345 G Street, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
(202) 547-0082
WRITE ON! A HANDBOOK FOR EFFECTIVE
LETTER WRITING
“It used to be that when a woman objected to any
injustice, someone told her, ‘write your congressman’.
Since she seldom saw any result except a polite reply,
letter writing seemed like a meaningless exercise of
futility.
“But now that women are on the move, skilled
letter writing becomes one of many useful techniques
to make waves.” Letter writing can make an impact on
businessmen, legislators, and commissioners if women
know how to direct their efforts. No elected official
will ignore a deluge of mail from his constituents, and
businessmen respect the opinions of their customers
if their business is at stake.
If you have a gripe, NOW has compiled WRITE-
ON! a handbook which offers suggestions on what
kinds of letters to write, who to write to, and how to
conquer your letter writing hang-ups. WRITE-ON!
is accompanied by the NOW “Lobbying Techniques
Suggestion Sheet” which offers concrete suggestions
on how to make your opinions known to your legis¬
lators.
Both are available from:
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN
1957 East 73rd Street
Chicago, Illinois 60649
(312) 324-3067
50c
WRITE
ON!
A HANDBOOK FOR EFFECTIVE
LETTER WRITING.
Pressure Tactics
WOMEN TODAY
“WOMEN TODAY is neither anti-nor pro-estab-
lsihment. By the same token, it is neither for nor
against radical action. Our editorial aim is to keep you
fully informed. Our editorial absolutes are accuracy and
relevance. In our offices in New York City and Wash¬
ington, D.C., we stay abreast of current developments
in such critical areas as employment, education,
litigation, and other legal aspects, volunteerism and
legislation. Using our network of informed news
sources, we can check the latest grapevine gossip as
easily as we can report the background maneuvering
of lobbyist and legislators.
“WOMEN TODAY brings you relevant facts, not
rhetoric. We’ll tell you what’s happening. You de¬
cide what to do about it.”
Subscriptions available from:
WOMEN TODAY
National Press Building
Washington, D.C. 20004
(202) 628-6663
$15.00/year (bi-weekly).
Includes subscription to the WEAL Washington Report.
PUBLICATIONS
RESOLUTIONS - INDEX, National Women’s Polit¬
ical Caucus. For excellent thoughts of women join
the National Women’s Political Caucus and ask for
copy of their Resolutions.
Write: NATIONAL WOMEN’S POLITICAL CAUCUS,
1302 18th St.N.W., #703,
Washington D.C. 20036
WOMEN, Report of the Citizen’s Advisory Council
on the Status of Women for 1972. Excellent and
comprehensive account of where we are and what needs
to be done legislatively for women.
Available from: U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D. C.
11.25
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR WOMEN IN NEW
JERSEY
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR WOMEN IN NEW
JERSEY is a quarterly newspaper “published to
inform the women of New Jersey about equal rights
-in legislation, employment, abortion, advertising,
education, the arts, the family, child care, religion
- in everything. It is directfcd to all women and is
filled with hard news and detailed information about
every aspect of the movement — statewide, national,
and international. It is consciousness-raising and is
written to energize women to take action to advance
their positions.” NEW DIRECTIONS FOR WOMEN
IN NEW JERSEY believes that “when women under¬
stand sex discrimination, they will reach for the tools
to combat it.”
As New Jersey’s “key to the Women’s Movement,”
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY
is founded by individual women’s groups, donations,
and advertisements.
Subscriptions available from:
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY
P.O. Box 27
Dover, New Jersey 07801
$3.00/year
DIRECTORIES:
CONGRESSIONAL STAFF DIRECTORY
Indispensable for Federal lobbying. Gives legis¬
lators, their committees, staffs, staff biographies,
phones, Executive Branch agencies and staffs —
everything!
Order from:
CONGRESSIONAL STAFF DIRECTORY
300 New Jersey Avenue S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
$13.50
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
MANUAL
Official organization handbook of the Federal
government. Describes agencies of the legislative,
judicial and executive Branches, charts of complex
agencies, etc; Indispensable for Executive lobbying.
Order from:
THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
Washington, D. C. 20402
(New each year, $3.00)
CONGRESSIONAL DIRECTORY
Biographies of members of Congress, committees,
terms of service, federal agencies, caps of state
congressional districts, etc.
Order from:
THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
Washington, D.C. 20402
(New each year. $3.00/paperbound)
WOMEN’S BUREAU PUBLICATIONS
In addition to its publications on Women and
Employment (see section on work), the Women’s
Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor publishes
material on standards and legislation affecting women,
such as:
GUIDE TO CONSULTATION ON WOMEN’S
EMPLOYMENT WITH EMPLOYERS AND UNION
REPRESENTATIVES
EQUAL PAY ACTS (lOtf)
LABOR LAWS AFFECTING PRIVATE HOUSE¬
HOLD WORKERS
LAWS ON SEX DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOY¬
MENT (30tf)
For a complete listing and to order the above write:
SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS
Government Printing Office
Washington, D. C. 20402
LOCAL LOBBYING PUBLICATIONS
Feminists have begun to publish legislative news¬
letters to keep women informed on the laws that will
affect their lives. These publications cited below carry
specific information about bills up for discussion and
vote on both the local and national level, report on
voting patterns of local Congresspeople, offer lobby¬
ing ana other suggestions for possible choices of
action, and information about kinds of status-changing
things women are doing:
ALERT
Box 437
Middletown, Connecticut 06457
$4/year for individuals (monthly)
$ 15/year for institutions
PWR
PENNSYLVANIANS FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
NEWSLETTER
230 Chestnut Street
Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17603
$2.50/year (quarterly)
free to PWR members
SKIRTING THE CAPITOL
c/o Marian Ash
P.O. Box 4569
Sacramento, California 95825
$ 15/year (bi-weekly)
WOMEN IN STRUGGLE
Box 324
Winnecone, Wisconsin 54986
free (quarterly)
WOMEN’S UNIT
Executive Chamber
State Capitol
Albany, New York 12224
free (three times a year)
BREAKTHROUGH
The Interstate Association of Commissions on the
Status of Women is committed to eliminating sexism
from every area of the law. Priorities for IACSW are:
complete ratification of the ERA; enforcing Federal
and State Laws which prohibit all forms of discrimina¬
tion by sex; affirmative action to appoint women to
important positions in government; and making the
Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor more
powerful in helping women achieve job equality.
Sexism in education, public support of child care,
a uniform marriage and divorce act, and repeal of
contraceptive laws are specific areas of concern to the
IACSW.
BREAKTHROUGH is the official publication of
the Commission. Published monthly, the newsletter
reports on state by state action to eliminate sex dis¬
crimination in the law.
Receiving BREAKTHROUGH is a privilege of
membership of the IACSW. For details on joining,
contact:
INTERSTATE ASSOCIATION
OF COMMISSIONS ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
District Building, Room 204
14th and E Streets, N.W.
Washington, D. C. 20004
Chicago Women’s Liberation Union
lhe CWLU-The Chicago Women's Liberation Union is an explicitly radical, anti-capitalist, feminist, city-wide organization committed to building an autonomous
muti-issue women s liberation movement. There are from 40-50 highly committed women who form the core of our organization, about 150 women who are somewhat
needs' t^be done^atd' 5 “ rr payUl § Leadership abilities-by which we mean a lack of intimidation and an assertiveness about what
narfiri r b d ' U d aC . 0rnm ! ttme , nt and res P ons,blht y to ward doing it-have been developing throughout the CWLU membership. In particular, a large number ofwomen
participate or have participated in the steering committee—the decision making body of the Union.
tive^effecnd°i Hn a i ? l ? a I s£r ** c ^J* re has enabled “to survive slack periods when work seems futile and morale is low; it has enabled us to feel that our work has cumula-
‘h* M„i on ’i! nlhlhlv rh b ?d V 1° f “ constltue " clea ln "ays tbat s.ngle-.ssue, university-based groups, and small-group federations could not have. We feel that
and/or depend^ W ° men ’ S mOVem6nt “ *" th * ° tfcr ^ fa SOmC WayS fo "° W from
oroIX',"™ In ZZ "* “ °. f ° n S° in S programs in Chicago right now, most of which have strong ties to CWLU. What this means is that effort on any one
LrTh S rh"Tl CeS 35 f Umulat,ng: that l . s - asaddln g t0 the development of the Union and therefore, to the development of women’s liberation in ChiJgo. This
means that we liave something of a common political history and experience to draw on. Ongoing programs include:
The LIBERATION SCHOOL FOR WOMEN which has three six-week sessions a year of about 20 classes each (sec LEARNING).
WOMANKIND, a monthly newspaper directed to women who are not in women’s liberation. Its aim is to concern itself with a variety of news which will interest
different groups ofwomen. Although the staff is CWLU-based, it is explicitly not an internal organ of the women’s movement.
WOMEN DARE Direct Action for Rights in Employmcnt-a work project composed of CWLU activists and working women who joined because they were fed up
wnh working conditions for women. The group is working to develop direct action campaigns around work-related issues. Its first focus was to pressure the city
dZoTtrarino Z.tuVJ 6 Z f ,amto , rs who work at City Halk DARE ’ S activiti « included testifying at City Council budget hearings,
demonstrating outside City Hall, and running classes on women s economic oppression. ® ®
2*. Th ,C l WhiCh in :° IVCS r°. men laW StUdentS ’ P ? ra ' 1 T 1 WOrkerS *2? h V eTS in P rovidin g information and a referral service to women with a variety of
X he dS oth J ar y v'* Z’." 8 3 Weck a " d ma,nta,ns a file of low cost legal services and female lawyers. The clinic serves women who are not
reached by other women s liberation activities and is an important avenue of involvement for women in the legal professsion.
A WOMEN’S GRAPHICS COLLECTIVE produces
women’s posters and greeting cards and provides a
context in which women who sec graphic art as the
center of their lives can function and create
(see ARTS).
The CHICAGO WOMEN’S LIBERATION ROCK
BAND (alas, now defunct) has been performing now
for over two years. The band wants to liberate rock
from the sexist evil which pervades it; to produce
beautiful music; to celebrate with its sisters and to
make real the vision of women’s liberation.(see
MUSIC).
The RAPE PROJECT maintains a rape hot line
which offers information and support for rape vic¬
tims. Located on the far north side of Chicago, the
project has spent time researching the medical and
legal rights of rape victims and hopes to apply po¬
litical pressure to remove the burden of guilt from
the victim and place it on the sexist attitudes and
institutions in our society.
The SPEAKERS BUREAU was created to help stim¬
ulate discussion about women’s oppression in
American society (sec COMMUNICATIONS).
The Chicago Women’s Liberation Union is, by and
large, not sectarian. With the exception of the stan¬
dard Socialist Workers’ party versus autonomous
women’s movement fight (described in more detail
below) denunciation of our sisters has been kept to
a fairly inaudible mumble. The revealed-truth di¬
viders that have come up elsewhere—straight/gay,
male-idcntified/female-identified, feminist/socialist—
have come up in Chicago but they have not led to
any serious splits in our organization. This is not to
sav that we have a uniform movement by any means.
What it does mean is that we have a tolerant and
moderate movement. We have gays, straights, celi¬
bates, women who are male-identified and those who
are more female-identified; women who consider
themselves feminist-socialists and those who consider
themselves socialist-feminists. We expect next year
that a new division will arise; the year after, another.
We also expect that these divisions will not have to
lead to splits any more than our current divisions do.
(This is not to say that all women who are active in
women’s liberation in Chicago are members of
CWLU. There are other independent groupings with
which we have different relationships with varying
degrees of mutual respect.) In other words, we live
with all of us, not only because we have to if we are
to survive, but because we believe in building a plur-
alistimovement which understands that differences
are inevitable and desirable. The work women do,
and the diversity of skills and imagination that they
bring to this work is more important than whether
they (or we) have the “correct” political analysis
and/or life-style.
We can think of two main reasons why we have
avoided extreme sectarianism. The first has to do
with CWLU. . . . We have provided structure and
203
WOMANKI
published by THE CHICAGO WOKH’S LIBERATE
february 1973
to
n ,.r s c h
&
\
iSplAUSr"
ST foI EGy
THE Wn ^Nt
IT
CWLU OUTREACH PACKET
As part of the Union’s effort to exchange program and organizational ideas with women in var¬
ious parts of the country, it has initiated a National Outreach work group. One way the group is at¬
tempting to begin communications with other women is through a packet of materials about the Chi¬
cago Women’s Liberation Union. This packct(abovc), handsomely designed by the Graphics Collec¬
tive, contains the following leaflets and pamphlets:
The program, history, and political outlook of the CWLU by Naomi Weisstcin and Vivian Rothstein;
the constitution of the CWLU; resources available from the CWLU; the summer 1973 Liberation
School catalog; the catalog of the Chicago Women’s Graphics Collective; an issue of WOMANKIND,
the CWLU’s monthly newspaper; “Socialist Feminism: A Strategy for the Women’s Movement, a
31-page pamphlet;“Lesbianism andSocialist Feminism,” a position paper written by the Gay Women’s
Group of the CWLU
CHICAGO WOMEN'S LIBERATION UNION
Packets are available from: 852 West Belmont
Chicago, Illinois 60657
$1.50 plus 35tf postage and handling
programs—like the Liberation School and DARE—
which are medium range things, in the sense that
one doesn’t have to have impossible revolutionary
credentials to participate. None of this means that
we hide our politics; but all of it means that we are
able to keep broadening, rather than narrowing, our
base since the criteria for participation allows for
entrance, development and choice. Finally, our
understanding that people arc at different places and
that that fact adds to, rather than subtracts from,
our movement, has helped us suppress our own indi¬
vidual sectarianism. .. .
After a conference (called in 1969 to organize an
organizational structure and program for the Wom¬
en’s Union. The structure which was decided upon
was a general chapter structure with a steering com¬
mittee made up of one representative from every
chapter and work project. Two women volunteered
to be part-tiem upaid staff until the Union could
afford to pay two women for this work (which hap¬
pened the next year). CWLU now hires three part-
time staff workers and pays them $60 a week each.
The Union rented a small office and slowly set up
the coordination center for our organization.
Of course there are many problems with our
organizational structure. We have by no means over¬
come all traces of elitism, intimidation and cliquish¬
ness. Our structure never functions in as democratic
a fashion as we always hope. Our chapters are often
changing and representatives are often not responsible
and consistent. And programmatically we have many
of the problems common to women’s liberation
throughout the country—we have developed virtually
no “struggle oriented” programs which are designed
to gain power over institutions which oppress women.
Nevertheless we have a forum in which to constantly
discuss, argue and debate these problems. We have an
ongoing communication network to keep us all in
touch and informed. We have a permanent women’s
liberation presence in the city of Chicago. And our
organization continues to learn from its mistakes
and to grow. VIVIAN ROTHSTEIN,
NAOMI WEISSTEIN
204
THE LOS ANGELES WOMEN’S UNION
Feminist groups in Los Angeles have gotten to¬
gether to form a Women’s Union, an umbrella organi¬
zation for radical women organizing against sexism.
“Organizationally, the Union is a federation of
chapters linked together by a steering committee.
Projects or actions will be initiated from the chapters.
A steering committee composed of a delegate from
each chapter will also be empowered to propose
actions and make emergency decisions for the Union.
“When chapters need support, they can ask the
Union as a whole to take political positions at their
suggestion. Chapters would call general meetings,
present their position, and poll the general member¬
ship to see where they stand on a given issue. Posi¬
tions adopted by the body of the Union would obli¬
gate chapters to uphold and whenever possible, to
advance a given cause.”
Chapters already in operation include Guerilla
Theater, Media, Working Women, Anti-Rape, Child
Care, Women in Education. There are plans for in¬
itiating more chapters, World Women in Struggle,
and Young Sisters, a feminist alternative to the
Girl Scouts.
Through such organization, radical feminists will
be able to make the Women’s Movement in Los
Angeles an important and visible force.
THE SEATTLE FEMINIST
CO-ORDINATING COUNCIL
The Feminist Co-Ordinating Council is a federation
of some thirty organizations covering a broad political
spectrum: Radical Women, NOW, Gay Women’s Al¬
liance, Fremont Women’s Clinic, the Divorce Co¬
operative.
The functions of the Feminist Co-Ordinating
Council are: the collection and dissemination of in¬
formation to keep the Movement informed of the
various issues that affect women; taking joint action
on issues around which there is agreement; fostering
internal discussion and debate among groups par¬
ticipating in the Council with a view to clarifying
areas of disagreement and establishing new areas of
consensus and establishing a research committee to
investigate areas of concern to women. Each partici¬
pating organization is entitled to one representative
on the Council.
For further information about the Council, write for
“What We Intend To Do & How” from:
FEMINIST CO-ORDINATING COUNCIL
Seattle King County YWCA
Room 206
5th and Seneca
Seattle, Washington 98101
c.ws.s.
The Center for Women’s Studies and Services
(CWSS) is a Feminist organization dedicated to
identifying and meeting the needs of women and
fighting the oppression and exploitation of women.
It offers the following services geared to meet the
needs of women; needs which have arisen out of
our historical and current conditions as women, an
oppressed majority.
* Vocational counseling and job referral
* Job Development
* Information on current job listing
* Assistance in preparing resumes and with inter¬
view preparation
* Information on job training programs
* Assists women in entering jobs traditionally
held by men
* Feminist-oriented counseling on a one-to-one
basis or in groups includes some of the
following:
Pregnancy and Abortion
Alcoholism/Crisis Intervention
Drug Addiction/Personal Counsel
All services are free
CWSS PUBLICATIONS include:
“Rainbow Snake”
(an anthology of women poets)
“Women of the Convicted Class”
“The Oppression of Women in the Hard
Drug Culture”
“International Bibliography of Women Writers”
“Sisters Unite” poster
CWSS Newsletter
'm*
« M
V
WgL © 1
CURRENT TRENDS IN FEMINIST ORGANIZING
by Carol Rowell
%
Available from:
WOMEN’S HERITAGE SERIES 838 15th Street Santa Monica, California $1.50
the
"CAN AN ORGANIZATION PROVIDE SERVICES AND
REMAIN POLITICALLY RADICAL AS ITS PRIMARY FOCUS?
This is a common concern born out of many sad experiences
with, for example, women’s centers whose potential, if any, was
never fully realized. However, it CAN be done! An example can
be seen in the work of CWSS in San Diego. CWSS is a radical
feminist collective dedicated to meeting the many unmet needs
of women—social, economic, cultural, educational, and political-
while at the same time, working towards a radical socio-political
change to create a society that corresponds to its socialist fem¬
inist vision. One method it has developed is to separate its service arm from the main organization, both by a distinction in name and by maintaining separate physical loca¬
tions. So the SERVICE ARM (job help, personal counseling, etc.) of the Center for Women’s Studies and Services is the CWSS STOREFRONT, a separate facility and function
of the main organization, although, the two are, of course, intimately connected. Overt radical political action, such as presence at a pro-abortion demonstration, a mass anti¬
war action, a confrontation with the officialdom, is carried out by sisters from CWSS and is NOT associated with the Storefront. This technique is particularly appropriate to
organizations concerned with maintaining a tax exempt status. ...
“HOW CAN WE ACTUALLY DELIVER THE SERVICE IN A POLITICAL CONTEXT? This is a tricky one because, above all else, sisters need to avoid laying personal
trips on other sisters as this has been done to us by men for too long. But, since the services women come in for are directly related to their oppression as women (e.g.,
abortion counseling, child care, employment help, etc.) it would be a disservice to fail to make these political connections. After all, matching women’s NEEDS up with
corresponding SOURCES of oppression is a tremendously successful form of political education and a direct vehicle for social change. 1
“IS IT POSSIBLE TO GET GOVERNMENT AND FOUNDATION FUNDING WITHOUT BEING COOPTED? In the past, many of our sisters have taken an extreme posi¬
tion on the funding controversy: Funding = Cooptation, Government Funding = worst kind of Cooptation. Let us examine this reasoning. The assumption here is either that
outside money (money other than donations for which you solicit) is tainted (having been in the hands of MORE imperialists, sexists, racists and bureaucrats than the dollar
dropped in the hat at your local women’s center) OR that the “strings attached” to such money are so overwhelming that the average woman cannot see them and therefore;
is beguiled into evil one way or another. This is reasoning from a sense of weakness, a lack of self-confidence, imparted to us by centuries of socialization. It betrays a lack of
faith in the ability of women to be strong, shrewd, intelligent and incorruptable. This attitude can and must be overcome. . . .
“The point is that as women we DO collectively possess the skills and knowledge to know a good deal when we see one. The outside funding or grants world is not man’s
arena so sophisticated and complex that we should run from it. It is simply one more arena where women should enter with caution and use their best skills to exploit re¬
sources (to use for our ends). If to get funding from NIMH you must call your prison work “crime prevention and rehabilitation program,” you have not been coopted—
you’re merely using straight language for straight people. The proof of the pudding is in your work.
“Besides, what IS cooptation? If it means to be sucked into serving the interests of the “other side’,” then we see that through the approach outlined above it is the govern¬
ment or foundation that has been coopted by the women’s movement in many instances. The government doesn’t fund a feminist project because it wants to see a fundamen¬
tal change or its own overthrow. The government simply wants to continue some bandaid approaches to “meeting people’s needs” so that it can remain in power. Those of us
who don’t buy the current government know we CAN’T overthrow it tomorrow. But we CAN begin to subvert it TODAY. And, as women revolutionaries, this is part of our
long haul. Why not use the system to our best advantage? (Note the word ‘use NOT ‘join’!).”
(Ed. note: CWSS has succeeded in obtaining funding two years running from San Diego’s United Way to support its Storefront activities. They are now working on the possi¬
bility of getting money from Revenue-sharing Funds, which would permit an increase in the number of their paid staff. CWSS was one of the more impressive feminist ven¬
tures we encountered in our 12,000 mile cross-country journey. It is a model of feminist determination, planning, and achievement. Women interested in structuring similar
organizations would be well rewarded by communication with CWSS.)
Write to: CWSS 908 F Street San Diego, California 92101
205
GRAY PANTHERS
“This country is caught up in the Detroit Syn¬
drome. Only the new model is desirable, even if the
older one works better. . . . Old people are constantly
being put out to pasture to make room for the
young. . . . Our whole culture is centered around
youth, assuming that people reach their peak at age
twenty-five and it is all down hill after thirty. This
robs the young of a future and makes aging seem like
a disease if not a disaster.” In our society, all people
fear getting old; women arc particularly terrified of
having their faces and bodies show signs of age.
Maggie Kuhn founded the Gray Panthers to fight
“ageism” and to counteract the feelings of self-
rejection that old people face. “Our first step,” says
Ms. Kuhn, “is to raise the consciousness of the old.”
Then old people will realize that they can be agents
for social change. “We are the freest group in Ameri¬
can society,” Maggie Kuhn says. “We have neither
jobs nor families which could be jeopardized by
radical action.”
Old people have shown that they can effectively
mobilize to make demands of the system. In Phila¬
delphia, through a mass turnout and picket line at
City Hall, Gray Panthers persuaded the Southeastern
Pennsylvania Transit Authority to reduce bus fares
for the elderly. Gray Panthers are mobilizing to take
action in other areas in need of change: social secur¬
ity, health care, consumer rights.
The Gray Panthers are growing fast. People are
refusing to give up the fight for human dignity just
because they arc over sixty. More and more people
are taking up Maggie Kuhn’s cry: “Out of the rocking
chair, into the street!”
For more information, write:
THE GRAY PANTHERS
c/o Tabernacle Church
3700 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
Cell 16 shares with THE FEMINISTS the dis¬
tinction of being one of the founding groups of
the second feminist movement. Over the last several
years this radical feminist collective has contributed
to feminist theory far out of proportion to its small
size. For more information about Cell 16’s publica¬
tions, see COMMUNICATIONS, NO MORE FUN
AND GAMES: A JOURNAL OF FEMALE
LIBERATION. The collective runs one of the better
known women’s martial arts schools: the Cell 16
Tae Kwan Do School of Karate.
CELL 16
2 Brewer Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
(617) 491-0345
NEW YORK RADICAL FEMINISTS
In the fall of 1969, four women, dissatisfied with
the radical feminist groups in which they were active,
met to form a new organization. Minda Bikman,
Diane Crothers, and Shulamith Firestone left Red-
stockings, and Anne Koedt left The Feminists, to
organize New York Radical Feminists. Their first
action was to form consciousness-raising groups
throughout New York City. By January, 1970, more
than twenty groups had been organized and more
were being formed at the rate of several per week.
Consciousness-raising continues to be the basis of
Radical Feminists today, and new groups are con¬
tinually being formed.
In the months that followed. Radical Feminists
continued to grow despite conflicts over the nature
of the group (nonstructured organization vs. hier-
archal one). By the next year a Rape-Speak-Out and
a Rape Conference were organized to politicize the
issue of rape. After this conference, rape was picked
up as a feminist issue by women’s groups throughout
the country.
Subsequent conferences have been held on Pros¬
titution and on Marriage, giving women the oppor¬
tunity to speak out on their experiences and feelings.
This year, Radical Feminists and the Professional
Household Workers Association co-sponsored a
speak-out on jobs of working-class women who
presented consciousness-raising testimony. A future
conference on illegitimacy is being planned.
Monthly meetings are held on the first Sunday of
each month at the New York Women’s Center. A
wide variety of topics, including lesbianism, men¬
struation, heterosexuality, and money are discussed.
Business is conducted at weekly meetings of the co¬
ordinating committee. Various committees work
independently and report to the coordinating
committee on their progress.
A six-page bulletin is distributed monthly for a
yearly subscription of S3.00. To subscribe to the
NYRF Newsletter or for further information,
write to:
NEW YORK RADICAL FEMINISTS
c/o Jean Grove
80 Thompson Street
New York, New York 10012
OLDER WOMEN’S LIBERATION (OWL)
“The older woman has a lot more to lose. Her life
style is set—if she joins a consciousness-raising group,
it’s much more threatening for her than for a young
woman.” Gwen Davis, a leading member of New York
OWL spoke frankly about the problems older women
face when they join a women’s group. OWL women
arc usually in their 40’s, 50's and 60’s and most are
involved in some type of consciousness-raising activity.
Older Women’s Liberation is loosely structured,
as each group is run on the local level according to
specific community interests. Some OWL members
envision forming a national organization, similar to
NOW, others plan to become incorporated as part of
the NOW Task Force on Older Women.
For more information on OWL in your community,
contact your local women’s center, or write to:
TISH SOMERS, National Chairperson of the Task
Force on Older Women, National Organization for
Women, 1957 East 73rd Street, Chicago, Illinois.
INTRODUCTION TO
CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING
“One of the purposes of consciousness-raising is to
make us aware of the societal pressures that oppress
women. Some women use the awareness gained from
consciousness-raising solely in their personal lives
without becoming active in the women’s movement.
This is a valid purpose of consciousness-raising. It is
hoped, however, that consciousness-raising will help
to radicalize us, as women, to participate in whatever
action is necessary to change our society. ... It is a
good idea to discuss background experiences belorc
moving on to adult experiences. This is invaluable
for developing trust and intimacy within the group....
Consciousness-raising is free space to talk about
yourself as a woman.”
These guidelines were developed by the New
York Radical Feminists to aid women who would
like to participate in consciousness-raising but don’t
know where to begin. The techniques of conscious¬
ness-raising are outlined, based upon the practice and
experience of the New York Radical Feminist. An
excellent list of topics for C-R groups is suggested,
covering such areas as early childhood experience,
puberty, attitudes toward motherhood, rape,
prostitution, “contemporary issues” and “the
liberated woman.”
Available from:
NEW YORK RADICAL FEMINISTS
Box 621
Old Chelsea Station
New York, New York 10011
FEMALE LIBERATION
In its third floor office on Massachusetts Avenue
in Cambridge’s Central Square, Female Liberation
coordinates feminist action projects. An outgrowth
of the original Cell 16 founded in 1968, Female
Liberation serves as an umbrella group for women in
the Boston/Cambridge area.
Female Liberation has been going through changes
as an organization. “A major difficulty has been
equalizing our desire to be a supportive group for our
members, with our goal of bringing about social
change in our environment, and the concurrent need
to develop political analysis.” Nevertheless, a woman
new to Female Liberation would find a number of
projects where she would feel welcome. There arc
action committees to orient new members, feminist
study groups, and the Female Liberation Newsletter.
Creating the SECOND WAVE four times a year (sec
Communications section) is a major activity. Every
Saturday morning at 9:00, Female Liberation women
moderate the “I Am A Woman” radio program on
WBZ-FM.
To find out more about Female Liberation activities,
or to subscribe to the Female Liberation Newsletter,
contact:
FEMALE LIBERATION
(Office) 639 Massachusetts Avenue
Room 314
(Mail) P.O. Box 344
Cambridge A
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
(617)491-1071
Notecards black on
cream (5x5) available
in packets of 15,
assorted or same
design from:
THE SECOND
WAVE
$2.50 per packet
plus 25tf postage
c/o FEMALE LIBERATION
national
ORGANIZATION
FOR WOMEN
BACKGROUND FACTS ABOUT NOW
The National Organization For Women was founded in 1966 in Washington, D.C. and now has over
400 hundred local chapters and over 30,000 members.
HOW IS THIS GROUP DIFFERENT
FROM ALL OTHER GROUPS?
NOW Questions and Answers
Q: How does NOW differ from other Women’s
Liberation groups?
A: It is the largest. It is one of the few that is
open to male membership. It is also one of the
few that is organized on a nationwide basis
which we feel is necessary to effect fund mental
societal change.
Q: Why do women and men join NOW?
A: To work together to expose and change the
inequities in the law, in discriminatory policies
and practices, in prejudicial myths, in outdated
attitudes. NOW gives women the opportunity
to contribute up to the highest level of their
abilities instead of following the patterns dic¬
tated by traditional roles. The sisterly support
received in this community of women is helpful
in creating new and healthier patterns of human
relations, including those between women and
men.
Q: Why do so many women ignore organized
efforts to improve their lot?
A: There are no ghettos of women. Conse¬
quently, women isolated from one another,
mistakenly assume that their problems are
personal, rather than serious societal problems.
Many women are also fearful of losing male
approval in a male dominated and defined
society. Whatever the reasons, NOW feels that
the energy women have traditionally been
willing to expend to help everybody else should
now be spent to help themselves.
WHAT WE’RE ALL ABOUT
NOW New York Chapter
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
THE PURPOSE OF NOW is to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream
of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal
partnership with men.
PUBLICATIONS:
NOW IS DEDICATED to the proposition that women, first and foremost, are human beings, who,
like all other people in our society, must have the chance to develop their fullest human potential.'
We believe that women can achieve such equality only by accepting to the full the challenges and
responsibilities they share with all other people in our society, as part of the decision-making
mainstream of American political, economic and social life.
WE BELIEVE THAT women will do most to create a new image of women by acting now, and by
speaking out in behalf of their own equality, freedom, and human dignity - not in pleas for special
privilege, nor in enmity toward men, who are also victims of the current, half-equality between the
sexes - but in an active, self-respecting partnership with men. By so doing, women will develop
confidence in their own ability to determine actively, in partnership with men, the conditions of
their life, their choices, their future and their society.
GOALS OF NOW
Equal Rights Amendment
Child Care Centers
Anti-poverty measures
Control of women's rights to
Reproduction
Enforce Law Banning Sex
Discrimination in Employment
Equal Educational Opportunities
Partnership Marriage and
Responsible Divorce reform
NOWs program material (such as the NOW Press Kit,
the FCC Kit, the Credit Manual) are listed indifferent
sections throughout this book. For a complete listing,
write to the NOW National office.
NOW also publishes materials designed to help women
start and operate local NOW chapters. These include:
* Guidelines for Starting a Chapter
* Guidelines for Organizing a Chapter
* What it Costs to be a NOW Officer
* Chapter Officers Record
* Provisional Charter Form
* Chapter Structure Plan
* Preparing a Budget
* Taskforce Guidelines
These are also available from the national office:
NATIONAL NOW
1957 East 73rd Street
Chicago, Illinois 60649
Free to NOW members
207
LESBIAN RESOURCE CENTER
WMENFORfREEDOM
FREEDOM FOR WOMEN
HURRAH HURRAH FOR
_ THE BEAUTIFUL DYKES
STARS & DYKES FOREVER SIARS &.DYKES
SIARS & DYKES FOREVER STARS &DYKES
SIARS &DYKE5 FOREVER SIARS 8.DYKE5
© DdiA DAVIS L D«otS4 Wood 1975
w/w
vww
LESBIAN FEMINIST LIBERATION
“Lesbian Feminist Liberation is a New York
based organization dedicated to eliminating sexism
in the form of heterosexual chauvinism and male
supremacy and promoting Lesbian identity every¬
where. L.F.L. has been around formally since May,
’73 when members of the Lesbian Liberation Com¬
mittee decided to separate from the Gay Activists
Alliance and form an activist Lesbian organization.
Now with over 100 members, L.F.L. is one of the
most dynamic women’s groups in the metropolitan
area, reaching over 400 women a week through our
Sunday forums, meetings, and dances, and thousands
of others through our publicized zap actions, demos
and newsletter, THE LESBIAN FEMINIST. At
present Lesbian Feminist Liberation has five stand¬
ing committees: Finance, Media, Membership, Pro¬
gram and Political, meeting at different times
throughout the week and providing a broad range
of activities and projects for any woman interested
in involving herself in Lesbian liberation.
ATLANTA LESBIAN
FEMINIST ALLIANCE
P.O. Box 7963
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance is one of the
most active feminist groups in this southern city.
Radical feminists, lesbian and straight, are welcomed
to rap, exchange news and views of the Movement
in other parts of the country. With sufficient notice,
ALFA can help lesbian feminists crash overnight.
AMAZON EXPEDITION
A Lesbian/Feminist Anthology
edited by Phyllis Birkby, Bertha Harris,
Jill johnston, Esther Newton and Jane O’Wyatt
When lesbians within the gay liberation move¬
ment synthesized gay politics with feminism, they
started a separate political/cultural development
which thousands of women, many of whom had not
previously recognized themselves as lesbians, began
to identify with. Lesbianism was liberated by fem¬
inist consciousness from the closets, definitions and
lifestyles imposed by the heterosexually dominant
society. And feminism was invigorated and made
whole—liberated by lesbianism from the limits of
making changes only in relation to men.
This is what this anthology is about. Culture,
herstory, politics, celebration. Lesbian/feminism-
one concept: the new womanity.
Available from:
TIMES CHANGE PRESS
c/o Monthly Review Press
116 West 14th Street
New York, New York 10011
208
WHY L.F.L.?
“The need for a serious, well-orga¬
nized Lesbian movement has been
apparent for a long time to women who
in the past have devoted energy and time
to either the Gay or Women’s movements.
The split came with the realization that
we could no longer waste energy strug¬
gling within a male-dominated organiza¬
tion, that Gay politics will never cut
deep enough to eliminate the sexism
in a totally sexist society, and that to be
freed as Gay people would still leave us
oppressed as women. We were joined by
other Lesbians, members of various wo¬
men’s organizations, who were tired of
being dealt with as second-class citizens
within those organizations. . . . Now
L.F.L. as an independent two-issue organi¬
zation focusing on Lesbian Feminist
priorities, plays an influential role in both
movements and working relationships
have improved one hundred percent. The
strength of L.F.L. lies in the fact that we
arc a separatist organization, but also
in the capacity we have for establishing
and maintaining coalition relationships
with Feminist and Gay groups.”
LESBIAN FEMINIST LIBERATION ACTIVITIES
“Every Sunday L.F.L. sponsors programs for
women in N.Y.C. Task groups are sometimes formed
to work on issues generated from our forums. Pro¬
grams in the past have covered Lesbian mothers,
Black women in the Lesbian community, Lesbian
Feminism, coming out, women in prisons, rape,
Lesbian authors, women in media, sports, Lesbian
films, picnics, legal rights. The list of on-going ac¬
tivities is endless.
“L.F.L. is always open and welcomes new mem¬
bers. We are looking for a building of our own, but
can be reached through the G.A.A. firehouse (966-
7870), Lesbian Switchboard (741-2610), or Wom¬
en’s Center (255-9802). Our general meetings arc
Monday at the G.A.A. firehouse, 99 Wooster St.”
Anyone wanting further information should write
to us at:
P.O. Box 243
Village Station
New York, New York 10014
call Jean O’Leary (spokeswoman) (212) 387-5151.
LESBIAN RESOURCE CENTER
YWCA University of Washington
4224 University Way, N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
The resource center provides counseling, rap
groups, a survival file, library and a speakers bureau.
The center is totally staffed by volunteers and par¬
tially coordinated by a Y staff person. For more
information call or drop in Monday-Thursday,
9 pm to 5 pm.
Gay women in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have
opened a Lesbian Resource Center in Minneapolis to
better serve the needs of lesbians. We have found
that other organizations are cither too male- or
straight-oriented, leaving us with a sense of invisi¬
bility. We are now coming out completely, affirm¬
ing that we are here and that we can no longer be
ignored.
The center serves several purposes, with the goal
of building a lesbian community in the area. A
small library exists which will eventually contain
periodicals and books concerning lesbians. There is
a lounge to allow women to drop in, look at the
literature and meet other women. One important
function is that of acting as a clearing house and
facilitator for any groups, activities or actions which
women want to do-providing a place to meet and
finding other women who are also interested.
We definitely want to be in contact with other
gay women’s groups and centers across the country.
If anyone is interested in exchanging ideas and
support please write to us and we’ll send you our
bulletin. Also anyone who is going through the
Twin Cities is welcome and encouraged to drop by.
We also have a bibliography of lesbian-related
materials. It’s free but please send a stamped,
self-addressed envelope to:
LESBIAN RESOURCE CENTER
710 West 22nd Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55405
(612) 374-2345
G.A.W.K.
(Ann Arbor, Michigan)
The Gay Awareness Women’s Kollectivc (GAWK),
originated in the summer of 1972 as an effort to
rovide the lesbian community in this area with a
ase for organized social activities. ... A group of
gay women, feeling the need of a supportive com¬
munity group, began meeting regularly, and out of
these informal gatherings came GAWK, a fluid group
of twenty to thirty women encountering and deal¬
ing with their gay awareness.
GAWK meetings are held at Feminist House, 225
East Liberty. They are open to all interested women,
gay and straight, and provide a much needed public
gathering place from which gay women can draw
strength—the strength of solidarity that all homo¬
sexual people need in their dealings with the straight
world. The Gay Awareness Women’s Kollectivc
offers straight women the chance to meet lesbians
and to explore their own gay consciousness and gay
awareness in a non-threatening atmosphere.
GAWK maintains contact with other lesbian
groups in Michigan through the Gay Advocates
Office, 325 Michigan Union. When wc have the
chance to exchange our thoughts and feelings pub¬
licly with other lesbians, and find out how they are
dealing with their oppression, wc gain energy and
further motivation to continue our struggle against
this sexist society in which we, as gay and straight
women, are subjugated to the position of domesti¬
cated penis worshipers.
“Sisterhood feels good"
light blue on yellow
(16x22)
from TIMES CHANGE
PRESS, c/o Monthly
Review Press, 116 West
14th Street, New York,
New York 10011
$1.00 plus 35^ postage
$1.75 plus 35tf postage
The Feminists
T
ihe history of THE FEMINISTS is very much a part of the history of radical feminism in New York City, going back to the mid- and late 1960’s when the first post-
ffrage complaints were being voiced. On October 17, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson resigned as president of the N.Y. chapter of N.O.W. and formed the October 17th Movement.
The next year was one of continuous growth and analytic development. The recognition of the effects of women’s class position being determined by her husband or
ther led to a disciplined group structure which attempts to minimize the advantage or disadvantage of a member’s background and the group adopted the lot system in
der to equalize the distribution of tasks. A major radicalization was occurring in the group with the realization that women’s oppression is due not to a mere misunder-
mding between the sexes but owes its origins to conscious male domination. Changing its name in June, 1969, the October 17th Movement became THE FEMINISTS.
On September 23, 1969, in their first public action under their new name, THE FEMINISTS invaded the New York City Marriage License Bureau and City Hall to charge
ose offices with “fraud and force” exercised against women in marriage. In this action, THE FEMINISTS publicly declared themselves to be against marriage. The demon-
•ation soon caused a split in the group with the dissidents leaving THE FEMINISTS to form the New York Radical Feminists in December. To this day, married women and
amen living with men are inelligible for membership in THE FEMINISTS.
In 1969 and the years that followed most of the group’s writings became generally available as mimeographed pamphlets and formed a part of the foundations of the
amen s movement literature. THE FEMINISTS, however, is not simply a theory and study group: the group is dedicated to joining theory and action for the continuous
velopment of feminism.
For example, early in 1971, the New York City Police Department began a much-publicized “clean-up” campaign designed to rid the streets of prostitutes by harrassing
e women out ol business. On March 29, THE FEMINISTS led a demonstration protesting the police actions. The demonstration led to the June 13 Forum on Prostitution
esented by THE FEMINISTS at Washington Square Methodist Church. One month later they and other women’s groups joined in a courtroom disruption at the Criminal
>urt Building in New York City in protest against the judge’s refusal to grant bail to two women arrested for prostitution.
Also in 1971 the issue of rape was attacked by THE FEMINISTS at a protest rally on September 28. organized after a Grand Jury failed to indict a self-confessed rapist
two little girls. The courtroom demonstration resulted in two arrests, the feminists being charged with “interfering with the administration of justice.”
1972 began as a year of regeneration and study, of
mi-retreat and the building of physical defense skills,
arious aspects of women’s culture were considered and
ie group began an ongoing investigation of female reli¬
on and rituals as energy-generating forces and a part of
e basis for a feminist tradition. In order to inject some
this energy and to heighten women’s awareness of the
ilprit responsible for their pain, THE FEMINISTS spon-
red the Sept. 13 Speak-Out on Manhating. The more
ternal processes of the group were evident in such
arkshops as THE FEMINISTS’ Lesbianism, Celibacy and
nazon Virginity panel at the Lesbian-Feminist Confer¬
ee held at Columbia University on December 16, where
c group’s members espoused the views that “aside from
pe, prostitution and marriage, sex just is not all that
iportant,” and that “ethically and morally, feminists
list strive to love each other and not be confused with
e distractions that sex offers.”
The sexuality theme continued through the winter and
the February 4, 1973 New York Radical Feminists
jrriage Conference, THE FEMINISTS offered a work-
op entitled Spinstcrhood is Powerful: The Feminist
isc Against Marriage, at which their legal, moral and
ilitical arguments devastated the “open marriage” and
w marriage contract ideas. Keeping the idea of women’s
cds for a tradition of strength and for edifying models
the feminist virtues, THE FEMINISTS held a Susan B.
ithony birthday celebration on Feb. 15, before New
>rk’s City Hall, demanding that the day be declared an
ficial holiday. The event also marked the debut of the
wly formed Victoria Woodhull Marching Band. The
ht mood shifted abruptly, however, with the NEW
3RK TIMES MAGAZINE article by Betty Friedan two
:eks later. With its emphasis on sex, women’s “need”
r male support, and her vile attack on lesbian feminists,
iedan’s article naturally shocked THE FEMINISTS,
iny of whom first heard of women’s rights from
iedan herself. At the March 7 news conference which
lowed, with other members of the New York women’s
ivement, THE FEMINISTS issued their press statement
fending man-hating as a social virtue, repudiating
iedan’s article as a sell-out. Also in March, THE
iMINISTS launched a graffiti campaign against known
lists in New York City with the specific addresses of
: criminals as their targets.
On June 28, New York N.O.W. sponsored a
atriarchy vs. Humanism panel with THE FEMINISTS
esenting the case for matriarchy. At this discussion,
IE FEMINISTS proposed a new plan for feminist rev-
utioji to include, among other things, the long-term
al of building permanent institutions which would move
/ay from personal, humanistic solutions and avoid the
rrow-visioned idealism that has thwarted women’s
ogress up to now, stressing particularly that real power
n be obtained only by women working together in
ilitically conscious groups.
THE FEMINISTS, evolving theory, writing, and par-
ipating in feminist actions, are available for speaking
gagements. They speak only to women—no mixed
aups. Their rates are $25.00 plus expenses. A complete
erature list and order form for their writings may be
itained by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:
IE FEMINISTS
!0 Liberty Street
w York, New York 10006
THE FEMINISTS’ CURRENTLY AVAILABLE LITERATURE
“Radical Feminism and Love” (Ti-Grace Atkinson) lOtf
‘7 propose that the phenomenon of love is the psychological pivot in the persecution of women. Be¬
cause the internalization of coercion must play such a key functional part in the oppression of women due
to their numbers alone, and because of the striking grotesqueness of the one-to-one political units “pairing”
the oppressor and the oppressed, the hostile and the powerless, and thereby severing the oppressed from
any kind of political aide, it is not difficult to conclude that women by definition must exist in a special
psycho-pathological state of fantasy both in reference to themselves and to their manner of relating to their
counter-class. This pathological condition, considered the most desirable state for any woman to find her¬
self in, is what we know as the phenomenon of love."
“Rape: An Act of Terror" (Barbara Mehrhof and Pamela Kearon) 254
"A male has been hurt. He is a member of an oppressed class or has been defeated by early psycho¬
logical experiences. Rape is an understandable expression of hostility toward 'society', which has cheated
him of his ambition and fulfillment in the world. That the woman is his victim is unfortunate. But he has
looked around and seen women who are more forceful than himself or more educated and knowledgeable. ...
It is only to be expected that he would strike out against women in general to regain his manhood. De¬
pending on the politics fo the particular rape apologist, it is argued that we must all work for a socialist
revolution or to restore the father to his rightful place in the family. But this is the most sentimental and
insidious explanation of rape because it ensnares countless women into jeopardizing their own safety and
freedom by leading them to pity the male and his ‘lost manhood. ’ "
"Vaginal Orgasm as a Mass Hysterical Survival Response" (Ti-Grace Atkinson) lOtf
Vaginal orgasm is an excellent illustration of the way men oppress and exploit women. It's ironic that
you insist men and women respond the same in the one place no one can deny men and women are differ-
ent-m their genitals. This difference is the basis for the whole distinction between men and women and
the ground for the inequities that are heaped on women by men. . . .
"A man’s penis and a woman’s vagina are obviously different. Male orgasm is analogous to clitoral
orgasm. Where, then, does vaginal orgasm come from? People say it’s learned. And by God you’d better
learn it, lady, especially if you’re with a liberal man; you’d better learn to shuffle, nigger, because if you
don t you won t get the job. And you want to eat don’t you? Why SHOULD she learn vaginal orgasm’
Because that s what men want. How about a facia / tic? What's the difference?”
"Manhating” (Pam Kearon) 10^
Argumentum ad Sexus:
"Men and women are made for each other sexually. / am perfectly 'normal'. Therefore, / must cer¬
tainly love men. ”
Answer:
Many men engage in sexual intercourse, often extensively, even marry, while yet hating women.
These men are called misogynists. Now, there is no shame in being a misogynist. It is a perfectly
respectable attitude. Our whole society (including women, unfortunately) hates women. Perhaps we
need a Latin or Greek derivative in place of ’man-hating’ to make the perfect symmetry of the two
attitudes more obvious. ”
“The Institution of Sexual Intercourse” (Ti-Grace Atkinson) 25 4
"The. biological argument tor the maternal instinct goes something like this: women NEED to have chil¬
dren,, it's part of their NA TURE. Can't you see that that's what their bodies were built for? And if women
didn’t LIKE to have children, they wouldn't; this proves women CHOOSE to have children. And since they
choose to have children in such large numbers, having children must come naturally to women. It's an
INSTINCT, the MATERNAL instinct. There's a confusion of priorities here: a capacity for some activity is
not the same as a need for that activity, so that even if women's bodies WERE suitably formed for the ac¬
tivity of child-bearing, this in no way necessarily entails that they WANT to bear children, much less NEED
to. . . .
UNBECOMING MEN
A Men’s Consciousness-Raising Group
Writes on Oppression and Themselves
“It’s hard to shed the conditioning of a lifetime.
People replace the Gospel of Jesus with the Gospel of
the correct political line. Most men still look to out¬
side sources to validate their actions, or their very
existence. They may quote to you Chapter 1, Verse
22 of Das Kapital as a reason for a certain action, but
they may never attain the real validity of knowing
themselves that women I know are discovering
through the Women’s Liberation Movement.
“The articles in this pamphlet are an outgrowth of
things we have dealt with in our group. They attempt
to trace our experiences back to their roots, discover¬
ing how we learned to be male and sexist, to oppress
women and dehumanize ourselves—how we became
‘men.’ ”
Available from:
TIMES CHANGE PRESS
Pen well Road
Washington, New Jersey 07882
$1.35
“MANHOOD”
What's your idea of a man?
What’s your idea of a woman?
Do you really know your "real dose" male
friends? Who was the last man you kissed? put
your arm around? touched? made love to? loved?
Do you cry? Can you cry? Do you need to cry?
What were you like as a boy? What are you like
now? How are other people oppressed by you?
How do you relate to kids?
Are you afraid of being tender? gentle? affec¬
tionate? vulnerable?
Do you cook ? sew? dust?
Do you automatically look at women on the
street? Do you call women chicks? broads? cunts?
honey?
Are you frightened by Women's Liberation?
Do you have any idea of what being a man
prevents you from being?
Do you really think you're the only one who
feels this way?
from UNBECOMING MEN
' Womanmade Pink Pig pincushion. Practice voodoo or a perfect gift
for the MCP who has everything. Embroidered. For my legal fees to
fight MCPs send
$5.00 to Dr. Joan
Joesting, Sarah
Grimke Road,
Route 6,
Box 154A,
Chapel Hill,
North Carolina
27514
Would you be more careful if
it was you who got pregnant?
EOR BIRTH CONTROL HANDBOOK. WRITE N I I f . 791 TIlMONT ST BOSTON MASS 02118
Ijnuseuiork
V- J ‘ '
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This black and white poster is available from THE JOYFUL WORLD PRESS for $2.00
Write to: SHIRLEY BOCCACCIO, 468 Belvedere Street, San Francisco, California 94117
NOW MASCULINE MYSTIQUE KIT
by Warren T. Farrell
“Emphasis on human values is not a central part of
a man’s world now, and a man considers only his
world to be the real world. Perhaps the most impor¬
tant political change which a change in the man’s role
portends is the possibility of a change in the balance
between values of power and cooperation. It is not
until a man lives in a world in which both values are
necessary for him to be successful that he will give
human values the type of priority which make them a
realistic competitor to the values of power and com¬
petition. It is at this point—when men are resocialized
to women’s values as well as women to men’s—that
access to power will occur in a framework which al¬
locates a meaningful proportion of resources to
human priorities.”
Available from:
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN
1957 East 73rd Street
Chicago, Illinois
$2.00 for NOW members
$3.00 for non-Now members
TWELVE STEPS TO
NON-SEXIST MASCULINITY
How To Be a Lover, Husband, and Father
Without Fouling Up Women
“Step Eleven: Get Rid of Your Mental Picture of
‘Women’: Don’t say to anyone, most of all yourself,
‘Women are . . .’ for instance, more emotional, pa¬
tient, understanding, weak, intuitive, etc. And con¬
currently, of course, don’t say to yourself, ‘Men
are . . .’ The main point here is that no matter what
you say—good or bad—some women aren’t and some
men are. You are generalizing and furthering the
power of the stereotype that keeps us all locked in
and away from freedom. . ..
“We indeed must invent new formulae, new atti¬
tudes toward power and new internal rewards for
men. You must begin—now—today—to count each
day successful not in that you accomplish something
but in that you helped some woman accomplish
something for herself.”
Available from:
JANET NILAND
812 Kenyon Lane
Newark, Delaware 19711
MALE CHAUVINISTS
IN LIBERAL DISGUISE
In the same way that chameleons change color
in order to pass unnoticed in their new environ¬
ment while going about business as usual, so men
must take new masks for their sexism as the
women’s movement causes the old ones to wear
too thin. Where once the sexist could openly an¬
nounce his bigotry with the most crude biological
rationalizations, such as the Freudian "Anatomy is
Destiny," now the growing strength of our move¬
ment, bolstered by the laws we have already ob¬
tained outlawing some of the more obvious sexist
practices, have made it impossible, to say nothing
of illegal, for all but the most powerless men to
openly proclaim the inferiority of women.
This new sexist theory, which says that women
have brains, but they are damaged, together with
a lot of cant about "roles" and "learning" and
"socialization " has replaced the earlier "biologi¬
cal" theory (which said we had wombs instead of
brains) as surely as the urbane liberal sexist has
replaced the Archie Bunker reactionary. But this
is a change of style, not content, and so conse¬
quences for women have not changed. With this
new ploy, sexist men hope to maintain their power
and privilege forever-if we let them.
FEMINIST ART JOURNAL , Fall 1972
41 Montgomery Place
Brooklyn, New York 11215
$4.00/year
PROSTITUTION
Street-walkers at work, over a quote from feminist-
anarchist Emma Goldman. Purple on red. 15x22.
from TIMES CHANGE PRESS
c/o Monthly Review Press
116 West 14th Street
New York, New York 10011
$1.00 plus 35 4 postage
211
Women’s Centers
nr
.worm
BERKELEY WOMEN'S CENTER
BERKELEY WOMEN’S CENTER
1 1
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* 'JliijE
(i . ■--]
LISTINGS OF WOMEN’S CENTERS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
ALASKA
ANCHORAGE WOMEN'S LIBERATION MOVEMENT
7801 Peck Avenue
Anchorage, Alaska 99507
ARIZONA
PHOENIX AREA WOMEN’S CENTER
1414 South McAlister
Phoenix, Arizona 853281
(602) 968-0743
TUCSON WOMEN’S CENTER
912 East 6th Street
Tucson, Arizona 85719
(602) 792-1929
CALIFORNIA
BERKELEY WOMEN'S CENTER
2134 Allston Way
Berkeley, California
(415) 845-8854
CENTER FOR WOMEN’S STUDIES
AND SERVICES
805 9th Street
San Diego, California 92105
(714) 233-3088
INFORMATION CENTER FOR WOMEN
615640, University of California
University Extension
Los Angeles, California 90024
(213) 825-3803
ISLA VISTA WOMEN’S CENTER
6504 Pardall
Goleta, California 93107
(805) 968-5774
LOS ANGELES WOMEN’S CENTER
218 South Venice Boulevard
Venice, California 90291
(213) 823-4774
LOS ANGELES WOMEN’S UNION
P.O. Box 3934
Terminal Annex
Los Angeles, California 90051
A federation of Los Angeles Women’s
Chapters linked together with a steering
committee. Projects include Media, Working
Women, Anti-Rape, Child Care, Women in
Education.
ORANGE COUNTY WOMEN’S CENTER
429 Sycamore
Santa Ana, California 95814
(714) 836-1213
SACRAMENTO WOMEN’S CENTER
1221 20th Street
Sacramento, California 95814
SAN DIEGO WOMEN'S CENTER
10th and C Streets
San Diego, California 92103
(714) 423-0276
SAN JOSE WOMEN’S CENTER
9th and San Carlos, Building 2
San Jose, California
(408) 294-7365
STANFORD WOMEN’S CENTER
Women’s Clubhouse
Old Union Courtyard
Stanford University
Palo Alto, California
(415) 321-2300
WOMAN’S WAY
412 Red Hill Avenue
Suite 9
San Anselmo, California 94960
CONNECTICUT
HARTFORD WOMEN’S CENTER
11 Amity Street
Hartford, Connecticut 06106
(203) 523-8949
MIDDLETOWN WOMEN’S CENTER
115 College Street
Middletown, Connecticut
(203) 346-4042
NEW HAVEN WOMEN’S
LIBERATION CENTER
215 Park Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06520
(203) 436-0272
NORWALK WOMEN’S
LIBERATION CENTER
11 North Main Street
Norwalk, Connecticut 06856
(203) 853-2162
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
WOMEN’S CENTER
Student Union
Storrs, Connecticut 06268
(203) 486-3421
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
WOMEN’S CENTER
High Street
Wesleyan University
Middletown, Connecticut 06457
(203) 347-9411 (University information)
DELAWARE
WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTER
57 West Park Place
Newark, Delaware
(302) 368-9824
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
THE WASHINGTON WOMEN'S CENTER
1736 R Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 232-5145
FLORIDA
THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
Florida State University
Building 212 Mahry Herights
Tallahassee, Florida 32306
(904) 599-3317 (University information)
THE JACKSONVILLE WOMEN’S CENTER
1825 Hendricks Avenue
Jacksonville, Florida 32207
(904) 398-7728
TAMPA WOMEN’S CENTER
2205 West Platte
Tampa, Florida
HAWAII
HONOLULU WOMEN’S CENTER
YWCA
1820 University Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii
(808) 947-3351
ILLINOIS.
CHICAGO WOMEN’S LIBERATION UNION
852 West Belmont
Chicago, Illinois 60657
(312) 348-4300
EVANSTON WOMEN’S CENTER
2214 Ridge
Evanston, Illinois
(312)475-4480
INDIANA
BLOOMINGTON WOMEN’S LIBERATION
414 North Park Street
Bloomington, Indiana
(812) 336-8691
FORT WAYNE FEMINISTS
c/o Young World Development
Regional Center
P.O. Box 2796
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46808
(219) 742-1241
IOWA
IOWA CITY WOMEN’S CENTER
3 East Market Street
Iowa City, Iowa 52240
(319) 353-6265
LOUISIANA
NEW ORLEANS WOMEN'S CENTER
7909 Willow Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70118
(504) 486-3655
MAINE
BANGOR WOMEN’S CENTER
Box 914
Bangor, Maine 04401
BATH-BRUNSWICK WOMEN’S CENTER
Maine Street
Brunswick, Maine 04011
(207) 725-2512
MARYLAND
BALTIMORE WOMEN’S
LIBERATION CENTER
101 East 25th Street
Suite B-2
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
(301) 366-6475
TOWSON STATE COLLECT
WOMEN’S CENTER
Towson State College
Baltimore, Maryland 21204
(301) 823-7500
MASSACHUSETTS
ANDOVER WOMEN'S CENTER
Andover Public Library
Elm Square
Andover, Massachusetts 01810
(617) 475-6960
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
WOMEN’S CENTER
211 Bay State Road
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
(617) 262-4240
CAMBRIDGE WOMEN’S CENTER
46 Pleasant Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
(617) 354-8807
CLARK UNIVERSITY
WOMEN’S CENTER
51 Downing Street
Worcester, Massachusetts 01610
(617) 793-7711
DORCHESTER WOMEN’S CENTER
1880 Dorchester Avenue
Dorchester, Massachusetts
(617) 288-0770
EVERYWOMAN’S CENTER
Munson Hall
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts 01002
(413) 545-0883
GREENFIELD COMMUNITY
$’s CENTER
308 Main Street
Greenfield, Massachusetts 01301
(413) 773-7519
LOWELL WOMEN’S CENTER
c/o Ruth Yaw
90 Tenth Street
Tewksbury, Massachusetts 01876
(617) 658-5045
LOWER CAPE COD
WOMEN’S CENTER
Box 712
Provincetown, Massachusetts 02657
(617) 487-3075
PROVINCETOWN WOMEN’S
LIBERATION CENTER
6 Goswald Street
Provincetown, Massachusetts 02675
SALEM STATE COLLEGE
WOMEN’S CENTER
Salem State College
Salem, Massachusetts
(617) 745-0556
213
SMU WOMEN’S CENTER
Southeastern Massachusetts University
North Dartmouth, Massachusetts
(617) 997-9321, ext. 698
SPRINGFIELD WOMEN’S CENTER
451 State Street
Springfield, Massachusetts 01101
(413) 732-6734
VALLEY WOMEN’S CENTER
200 Main Street
Northampton, Massachusetts 01060
(413) 586-2011
WORCESTER WOMEN’S CENTER
905 Main Street
Worcester, Massachusetts 01610
(617) 753-9622
MICHIGAN
KALAMAZOO DROP-IN CENTER
AND SERVICES FOR WOMEN
211 South Rose
2nd Floor, YWCA
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49006
(616) 343-1223
WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTER
18700 Woodward
Detroit, Michigan 48203
(313) 892-7161
MINNESOTA
LESBIAN RESOURCE CENTER
710 West 22nd Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota
(612) 374-2345
MINNESOTA WOMEN’S CENTER
301 Walter Library
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
(612) 373-3850
Established in 1960 as the first
center to offer a distinct educational
program for mature women.
MISSISSIPPI
JACKSON WOMEN’S COALITION
622 North Jefferson Street
Jackson, Mississippi
(601) 355-8030
MISSOURI
COLUMBIA WOMEN’S CENTER
501 Rollins
Columbia, Missouri 55201
WOMEN'S LIBERATION UNION
5138 Tracy
Kansas City, Missouri 64110
(816) 333-4155
WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTER
Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri 63130
(314) 863-0100, ext. 4848
NEW HAMPSHIRE
CONCORD WOMEN’S CENTER
130 Main Street
Concord, New Hampshire 03301
(603) 224-3412
FRANCONIA WOMEN’S CENTER
Franconia College
Franconia, New Hampshire 03580
(603) 823-8045
KEENE STATE WOMEN’S CENTER
Keene State College
Keene, New Hampshire 03430
(603) 352-1909
MANCHESTER WOMEN’S CENTER
104 Middle Street
Manchester, New Hampshire 03102
(603) 622-9721
NEW DYNAMICS ASSOCIATES
Box 92
R.F.D. No. 5
Laconia, New Hampshire 03216
(603) 524-1441
Consciousness-raising for men and women
through small group experience.
PORTSMOUTH WOMEN’S CENTER
YWCA
40 Merrimac Street
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
(603) 436-0162
UPPER VALLEY WOMEN'S CENTER
11 Lebanon Street
Hanover, New Hampshire
(603) 643-5981
NEW JERSEY
BERGEN COUNTY
WOMEN'S CENTER
166 Main Street
Hackensack, New Jersey
(201) 342-8958
ORANGE YWCA WOMEN’S CENTER
395 Main Street
Orange, New Jersey 07052
(201)674-1111
WOMEN’S PLACE
14/2 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
(609) 924-8989
WOMEN’S CENTER
15 West Main Street
Moorestown, New Jersey 08057
(609) 235-9297
WOMEN’S CENTER OF
NEW BRUNSWICK
2 Easton Avenue
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901
(201) 246-9637
NEW MEXICO
WOMEN’S CENTER
1824 Las Lomas
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106
(505) 277-3716
This women’s Center maintains
contacts with the University
to offer women legal aid through
the Clinical Law Program.
NEW YORK
ASTORIA STOREFRONT
WOMEN’S CENTER
44-03 28th Avenue
Astoria, New York 11103
(212) 932-5863
BARNARD COLLEGE
WOMEN’S CENTER
117th and Broadway
Barnard Hall
New York, New York 10027
(212) 280-2067
Home of WOMEN’S WORK AND
WOMEN’S STUDIES Bibliography,
which gave the original impetus to
this CATALOG.
CEDARHURST WOMEN’S CENTER
136 B. Cedarhurst Avenue
Cedarhurst, New York
(516) 569-0238
ISLIP WOMEN’S CENTER
1 Grant Avenue
Islip, New York
(516) 591-2680
ITHACA WOMEN’S CENTER
140 West State Street, upstairs
Ithaca, New York 14850
(607) 272-6922
NASSAU COUNTY WOMEN’S
LIBERATION CENTER
14 West Columbia Street
Hempstead, New York 11550
(516) 292-8106
NEW YORK WOMEN’S
LIBERATION FIREHOUSE
243 West 20th Street
New York, New York
(212) 255-9802
NORTHPOINT WOMEN’S CENTER
144 Bayview Avenue
Northpoint, New York
(516) 757-6564
POUGHKEEPSIE WOMEN’S CENTER
27 Franklin Street
Poughkeepsie, New York 12601
(914) 473-1538
ROCKLAND COUNTY WOMEN’S
LIBERATION CENTER
Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church
Pierce Parkway and Ehrnhardt Road
Pearl River, New York 10965
SYRACUSE WOMEN’S CENTER
914 South Crouse Street
Syracuse, New York
(315) 478-8558
WESTCHESTER WOMEN’S
LIBERATION COALITION
Box 9
Hartsdale, New York 10530
(914) 761-1606
OHIO
ANTIOCH WOMEN’S CENTER
Antioch Union
Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387
(513) 767-7331, ext. 311
CASE WESTERN RESERVE
WOMEN’S CENTER
Hitchcock Hall
11205 Euclid
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
(216) 368-2647
OBERLIN WOMEN’S CENTER
Wilder Hall
Oberlin College
Oberlin, Ohio
(216) 774-1221
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
WOMEN’S CENTER
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
(513) 475-8000 (University information)
OREGON
A WOMAN’S PLACE WOMEN’S CENTER
706 S.E. Grand Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97214
(503) 234-8703
A WOMAN’S PLACE has its own
feminist bookstore.
WOMEN’S UNION AT
PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY
450 Smith Center
Portland State University
Portland, Oregon
(503) 229-4459
PENNSYLVANIA
KENSINGTON WOMEN’S
RESOURCE CENTER
174 West Allegheny Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19133
(215) RE 9-1430
PHILADELPHIA WOMEN’S
LIBERATION CENTER
4634 Chester Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19143
(215) SA 7-1717
RHODE ISLAND
WOMEN’S LIBERATION UNION
OF RHODE ISLAND
P.O. Box 2302
East Side Station
Providence, Rhode Island 02906
(401) 861-5511
TENNESSEE
NASHVILLE WOMEN’S CENTER
1112-19th Avenue S.
Nashville, Tennessee 37212
(615) 327-1969
TEXAS
AUSTIN WOMEN’S CENTER
1208 Baylor Street
West Austin, Texas 78703
(512) 474-1798
VERMONT
BURLINGTON WOMEN’S CENTER
217 North Winooski
Burlington, Vermont
(802) 863-9133
GODDARD WOMEN’S CENTER
Goddard College
King Basement
Plainfield, Vermont 05667
(802) 454-8311
WASHINGTON
FEMINIST CO-ORDINATING COUNCIL
Downtown YWCA
Seattle, Washington
(206) 623-4800
The F.C.C. is composed of repre¬
sentatives of thirty separate women's
organizations in Seattle. The F.C.C.
disseminates information between
member groups and provides a forum
for debate of issues.
RADICAL WOMEN
3815-5th Avenue N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
(206) 632-5160
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON YWCA
4224 University Way, N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
(206) 632-4747
The Seattle YWCA also houses a
Third World Women’s Resource Center
and a Gay Women’s Resource Center.
WISCONSIN
WHOLE WOMAN WOMEN’S CENTER
836 East Johnson
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
(608) 255-7447
CANADA
ALBERTA
THE WOMEN’S CENTER
11812 95th Street
Edmonton, Alberta
BRITISH COLUMBIA
THE WOMEN’S CENTER
804 Richards
Vancouver, British Columbia
(604) 684-0523
THE WOMAN’S PLACE
1766 West Broadway
Vancouver 9, British Columbia
THE WOMEN'S CENTRE
No. 414,1029 Douglas Street
Victoria, British Columbia
(604) 385-3843
NEWFOUNDLAND
THE WOMAN’S PLACE
203 Water Street
P.O. Box 5021
St. John’s East, Newfoundland
(709) 722-4533
ONTARIO
OTTAWA WOMEN’S
CENTRE ASSOCIATION
136 Lewis Street
Ottowa, Ontario
(613) 233-2560
THE WOMEN'S PLACE
31 DuPont Street
Toronto 5, Ontario
(416) 929-3185
THE WOMAN’S PLACE
968 University Avenue West
Windsor, Ontario
(519) 252-0244
QUEBEC
A WOMAN’S PLACE
3764 St. Laurent Boulevard
Montreal, Quebec
(514) 845-7146
CENTRE DES FEMMES
4319 St. Denis
Montreal, Quebec
WOMEN’S CENTER
YWCA
1355 Dorchester West
Montreal, Quebec
WOMEN’S INFORMATION AND
REFERRAL CENTER
3595 St. Urbain
Montreal, Canada
(514) 842-4781
SASKATCHEWAN
THE WOMEN’S CENTER
147-2nd Avenue South
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
(306) 242-5830
VV .
rufliiauit iiuiii r\ ** uiiidli f
706 S.E. Grand, Portland, Oregon 97214,
$1.00 each plus $.35 postage.
I swear it to you
I swear on my common womans bead
The commo^woman is as common :
Asia common loaf of bread -• f., (
m
and will rise^
215
Making the Book
This book was conceived, researched, written, photo¬
graphed, designed, typeset, pasted-up by six women
in a little over five months.
April-Kirsten and Susan do preliminary research.
May 13—Kirsten and Susan begin a 12,000 mile trip
around the country to report on projects and
groups first-hand. Fanette and Ruth join, con¬
tinue research and get in touch with women
Kirsten and Susan will not be able to visit.
July 13-Kirsten and Susan return, and sorting of the
material begins.
216
August 1-Book production begins: Fanette, Ruth,
Kirsten, Susan write copy, lay out pages.
Mark typesets on an IBM composer, Kirsten and
Susan photograph and print graphics.
September 15—With some copy-writing and layouts
remaining, paste-up begins. (This would have
been impossible without Peggy and Leslie, two
"pros" who bailed us out at a critical moment.)
October 3 —Camera-ready mechanical delivered to
printer at 9:00a.m.
217
The book was, therefore, made under terrific press¬
ure. We had three reasons for moving so fast. To
begin with, much of the material, by its very nature,
ages rapidly. We wanted this information out, into
the hands of women, while it was of maximum use¬
fulness. Second, we wanted this book to reach as
large an audience as possible. If we could get it into
the bookstores in time for the Christmas “season,"
people would have an extra incentive for buying it—
it could be bought for daughters by mothers; for
wives, daughters, sisters, womanfriends by men
(why not take advantage of the contradictions!)
To be a Christmas book, the Catalog had to be
finished by the beginning of October—even then,
the way publishing goes, it would take a printing-
distributing feat. A final reason lurking in the back¬
ground was to discourage a male group planning to
put out a similar type of book—a<!ip-and-paste-job.
218
To combine a high level of quality with fast pro¬
duction we worked sixteen hours a day NON-STOP
for several months. We are sure that there are typos
we didn't catch;and in some places the copy is
uneven. In the last few weeks what was intended as
a first draft was sometimes forced by time pressure
to be set as final Copy.
We learned a good deal about the group dynamics we
have written about in the book-at times there was
tremendous sturm und drang. But we ended up with
most of us talking to each other—and very happy
with our book.
219
For permission to reproduce artwork and excerpt
from published materials the editors wish to thank
the following publishers:
COMMUNICATIONS
Diana Press for permission to reproduce the covers of
SONGS TO A HANDSOME WOMAN, THESE DAYS
FORTY ACRES AND A MULE, GIRL IN A
CORNFIELD, and AFRICAN WOMAN;The Feminist
Press for permission to reproduce the covers of THE
YELLOW WALLPAPER and LIFE IN THE IRON
MILLS; Wollstonecraft Inc. for permission to
re produce jackets of RAPE and ON THE VERGE
jacket designs by Ivy Bottini (c) 1973 Wollstonecraft
Inc.; Workman Publishing Company for permission
to reproduce front and back covers of THE NEW
YORK WOMAN’S DIRECTORY; Violet Press for
permission to reproduce the cover of LOOKING
AT WOMAN.
HEALTH
National Organization for Women, Denver Chapter
for “Butterballs” Poster; Feminist Women’s Health
Center for permission to reprint from all published
literature; The Feminist Press for permission to reprint
from WITCHES, MIDWIVES AND NURSES by
Barbara Ehrenreich and Deidre English; Montreal
Health Press, Inc. for permission to reprint from
BIRTH CONTROL HAND BOOK/VD HANDBOOK,
P.O. Box 1000, Station G, Montreal, Quebec, H2W
2N1, Canada, bulk order impossible, $50.00 per
thousand copies, small bulk ordering possible/write
for cost information, individual copies free, send
25 i for the first copy and 10 i for each additional
copy up to and including 20 copies to cover postage
and handling; New Moon for permission to reprint
the cover of GETTING CLEAR: BODY WORK FOR
WOMEN by Anne Kent Rush; Random House for
permission to reproduce the cover and photographs
from TWO BIRTHS by Janet Brown et al.
CHILDREN
Atheneum Publishers, Inc. for permission to reproduce
the cover from NEVER JAM TODAY, copyright (c)
1971 by Carole Bolton. Jacket cover by William
Plummer; Atheneum Publishers, Inc. for permission
to reproduce jacket and illustrations from GIRLS
ARE EQUAL TOO, copyright (c) 1973 by Dale
Carlson. Jacket and illustrations by Carol Nicklaus;
Beacon Press for permission to reproduce the jacket
from DAY CARE by E. Belle Evans, Beth Shub,
Marlene Weinstein, “Sample Actual Cost Budget for
a Co-operative Day Care Center for One Classroom
of Twenty Children.” Copyright (c) 1971 by E.
Belle Evans, Beth Shub, Marlene Weinstein; Boston
Women’s Collective, Inc. for permission to reproduce
the cover of KEEPING YOURSELF TOGETHER by
Kathryn Hallett. Copyright 1973; Day Care and Child
Development Council of America for permission to
reproduce covers of four publications; Feminist
Resources for Equal Education for permission to
reproduce photographs; Freestone Publishing
Company for permission to reprint from RASBERRY
(Box 357, Albion, California); Holt, Rinehart &
Winston, Inc., for permission to reprint from BOYS
AND GIRLS/GIRLS AND BOYS by Eve Mcrriam
with pictures by Harriet Sherman. Text copyright
(c) 1972 by Eve Merriam. Illustrations copyright
(c) 1972 yb Harriet Sherman; Joyful World Press for
permission to reproduce artwork by Shirley
Boccaccio from PENELOPE GOES TO THE
FARMER’S MARKET and PENELOPE GOES TO
THE FARMER’S MARKET and PENELOPE AND
THE MUSSELS; Alfred A. Knopf for permission to
reprint from MOMMIES AT WORK by Merriam and
Montresor; J.B. Lippincott Company for permission
to reprint from SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS YOU
CAN EAT by Vicki Cobb. Text copyright (c) 1972
by Vicki Cobb. Illustrations copyright (c) 1972 by
Peter Lippman; Lollipop Power for permission to
reproduce text and artwork from various publica¬
tions; Metropolitan Museum of Art for permission to
reproduce portrait of Gertrude Stein by Pablo
Picasso; MOMMA for permission to excerpt “Silver
Lake” by Ruth Beagclhole and “Joshua Tree” by
Dorothy O'Connor and artwork by Larry Barret;
G.P. Putnam's Sons, Inc. for permission to reproduce
the cover of MARY MC LEOD BETHUNE by Ruby
Radford; Random House, Inc. for permission to
reprint the cover of WOMEN OF COURAGE by
Dorothy Nathan; Times Change Press for permission
to reproduce “Kids Liberationville” poster from A
GRAPHIC NOTEBOOK ON FEMINISM by Su
Negrin; Walker and Company for permission to
reproduce the jacket of THE SINGLE PARENT
EXPERIENCE by Carole Klein,copyright (c) 1973
by Carole Klein; Women on Words and Images for
permission to reproduce from DICK AND JANE AS
VICTIMS; Bonnie Belky Zimmerman for permission
to reproduce artwork from JACK AND JILL.
LEARNING
American Association for Higher Education for
permission to quote from WOMEN’S STUDIES:
COURSES AND PROGRAMS FOR HIGHER
EDUCATION by Lora H. Robinson;College Entrance
Examination Board, N.Y. for permission to reproduce
the cover of WOMEN’S HIGHER AND
CONTINUING EDUCATION: AN ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH SELECTED REFERENCES
ON RELATED ASPECTS OF WOMEN’S LIVES;
Grosset & Dunlap, Inc. for permission to quote from
THE FEMININE FIX-IT HANDBOOK by Kay B.
Ward. Copyright (c) 1972 by Kay B. Ward; Grossman
Publishers for permission to reprint from WHAT TO
DO WITH YOUR BAD CAR, AN ACTION MANUAL
FOR LEMON OWNERS, Copyright (c) 1970 by The
Center for Auto Safety Inc.; William Morrow for
permission to reproduce the cover of I TOOK A
HAMMER IN MY HAND ($9.95); People’s Press for
permission to reproduce illustrations and text from
FIXING BRAKES; Shire Press for permission to
quote from HOW TO FIX YOUR BICYCLE; XYZYX
Information Corporation for permission to reproduce
material from BICYCLE REPAIR, VOLKSWAGEN
TUNE-UP, and H.E.L.P. (Home Emergency Ladies’
Pal).
RAPE
National Press Books for permission to reproduce
cover and photographs from Jerrold Offstein’s
SELF-DEFENSE FOR WOMEN; Rape Education
Project of the Women’s Crisis Center of Ann Arbor,
Michigan for permission to reproduce material from
FREEDOM FROM RAPE; Rape Crisis Center
Collective for permission to reproduce the cover of
“How To Start A Rape Crisis Center”; Wollstonecraft
Inc. for permission to reproduce the cover of RAPE
by Eve Norman. Jacket design by Ivy Bottini for
Wollstonecraft Inc. (c) 1973.
WORK
Simon & Schuster, Inc. for permission to reproduce
the cover of HOW TO GO BACK TO WORK WHEN
YOUR HUSBAND IS AGAINST IT, YOUR
CHILDREN AREN’T OLD ENOUGH AND
THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ANYWAY by
Felice Schwartz and others; Urban Planning Aid, Inc.
for permission to quote HOW TO LOOK AT YOUR
PLANT.
GETTING JUSTICE
University of New Mexico Press for permission to
reproduce the cover of WOMEN AND THE LAW
by Leo Kanowitz.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS
Full page self-help demonstration:
Sue Sternfield
Full page karate photo:
R. Ewen
Video Women:
Betty Lipton
221
What additional topics would you like to see covered in the second edition of the NEW
WOMAN’S SURVIVAL CATALOG?.
If your organization/group was not included in this edition, could you please let us know
about it?.
Your comments about the NEW WOMAN’S SURVIVAL CATALOG are crucial to the
planning of a second edition. Please send to: THE NEW WOMAN’S SURVIVAL
CATALOG, P.O. Box 90, Planetarium Station, New York, New York 10024.
^ass!^,
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