Community 28042840

Quest: A Feminist Quarterly
Source: Reveal Digital , 01-01-1975

Contributed by: Charlotte Bunch; Thelma Catalano; Martha Courtot; Rosemary Rodewald;
Karen Kollias; Rita Mae Brown; Naomi Rachel; Lucia Valeska; Sandra Flowers; Randy Ross;
Gerri Traina
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UFST.
a feminist quarterly
The SELFHOOD of WOMEN

P

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84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
vol. I no. 3
Winter, 1975
a feminist quarterly
The SELF HOOD of WOMEN
COnten ts
SELF DEFINITION and POLITICAL SURVIVAL
Charlotte Bunch 2
CRITIQUE and COMMENTARY
Thelma Catalano 16
MY OTHER, MY MOTHER-A Poem
Martha Courtot 20
WOMEN HEALERS vs. the AMA
Rosemary Rodewald 21
Karen Kollias 28
CLASS REALITIES: Create a New Power Base
IT’S ALL DIXIE CUPS to ME

Rita Mae Brown 44
Naomi Rachel 51
SUZY & JANE & GREGOR & ME—A Poem
Lucia Valeska 52
IF ALL ELSE FAILS, I’m still a MOTHER
WRITTEN WORD:
Sandra Flowers 65
ANGELA DAVIS—An Autobiography
Randy Ross 71
RESPECT—A Poem
Gerri Traina 72
LOOKING BACKWARD. . .BRIEFLY
Copyright © 1975 by Quest: a feminsit quarterly,

Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission
is strictly prohibited. Quest: a feminist quarterly is pub-
lished four times a year in January, April, July, and Octo-
ber by Quest: a feminist quarterly, Inc., 1909 Que St.,
N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009, U.S.A. Application to mail at
second-class postage rates is pending at Washington D.C.
Printed by Diana Press, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Subscription rates are $7.00/year (4 issues) to individuals;
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$12.00/year to institutions; $2. 00/sample copy. Address
all correspondence to Quest: a feminist quarterly, P.O. Box
8843, Washington, D.C. 20003.

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Notes on reader responses
We regret that this issue does not include any readers’ responses.
We are eager to receive more feedback—letters and comments,
in all forms—to keep us in touch with your opinions and ideas
about Quest. However, we do not plan a “Letters to the Editors”
section and should clarify the kind of responses that we will print
in the journal itself. We seek substantive critique and commentary
on previous articles. We want to print readers’ analysis and ques-
tions, both long and short responses, which are themselves the
seeds of further (future) articles. We hope that this kind of readers’
response will further debate on issues raised previously as well as

suggest more directions for future debate and articles. Write us
at P.O. Box 8843, Washington DC, 20003.
Change of Address
For change of address, please give eight weeks notice and
include the mailing label of your most recent copy of Quest:
a feminist quarterly. Bulk rates available upon request.
Advertising rates and deadlines available upon request.

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Imagine that you are given a large,
blank piece of paper, pencils and cray-
ons, and told to depict your self in 30
minutes. You are to demonstrate who
SELF
you are, what you do and feel, who and
DEFINITION
what influences you. You can draw a
picture, write a list, make an airplane, or

whatever you want. In response to this
assignment, I draw a multi-layered pie
and
with slices and overlapping circles. In
the process, I discovered a lot about
how I saw myself.

There were some things about my-
self that were given, out of my control:
my sex, race, class background, family

POLITICAL
patterns, childhood turf, and general
physical make-up. All told, these social
givens constitute a large part of my

life. In another layer were those partic-
SURVIVAL
ular characteristics of myself, not de-
termined, yet influenced by external

conditions, such as: my talents, skills, by
temperament, likes and dislikes, emo-

Charlotte
tions, etc. I called these my individual
traits. Overlaying the entire drawing Bunch

were my attitudes and actions toward
these givens and traits. I discovered graphics by Ginger Legato

that these attitudes and actions were
the most important in determining my of the U.S. empire to attack its inhu-
self-concept. mane policies all over the world. Simi-
For example, I am a female-that is larly, I looked at my training and indi-
a given. But what is most crucial is my vidual traits and saw how I had or
stance toward that given-I have be- could direct them, consciously and
come a feminist and a lesbian who unconsciously, toward certain activi-
loves that about myself. I am a white ties such as political organizing, editing,
etc.
middle class American by birth, but
most importantly, I have chosen to use Our attitudes and actions toward
those realities to fight what they stand the givens of our lives are the primary
for: to use privileges to challenge the means we have of starting to gain con-
trol over our own selves and our des-
classist and racist system (capitalism)
in the U.S. and to use being a citizen tinies. We have no control over the so-
2/Quest, vol. I no. 3, winter, 1975

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cial givens of our birth. We have limit- We are those biological, social, po-
ed control over our individual traits. litical, and economic givens that deter-
But we can control what we do with mine the objective conditions of our
those givens and traits. We can use our lives; we are the various individual
traits and skills that make us distinct;
privileges to change society or to main-
and we are what we do with and think
tain it. We can pity ourselves for our
oppression or we can embrace its good about our givens and traits. These fac-
effects and struggle to change those tors change somewhat over time. Still
which are bad. As we assert this con- it is useful to be clear about the basics
trol over our selves, we confront the of our self-concept in order to direct
society that has determined many of further, change that makes us stronger
women who live fuller lives and are
these givens. We cannot alter all the
ways that these givens control us, but capable of creating a better society. If,
we can begin to change their meaning however, the search to understand self-
and impact both now and for the fu- concept becomes self-indulgent, con-
ture. As we struggle for such societal suming, all our energies, then we have
defeated ourselves. We understand and
change, that very struggle alters how
we see ourselves, thus creating a con- change ourselves not in isolation but
tinuous process of change and growth. within the everyday context of our
female existence-in our work, play,
Two years from now, I will probably
find most of the same basic elements in love, dreams, actions and interactions
with others.
my self-drawing. But there will be new
aspects and emphases resulting from

the interaction between self-determina- An Historical Perspective
tion and the political struggle to change
society, which in turn changes me. The question of self-concept has not
been a conscious issue for Western
The purpose of talking about self is
not to advance abstract knowledge women until recently. For many cen-
about women, but to understand better turies, women’s identity was absolute-
our strengths and weaknesses. I am not ly determined and circumscribed by
a psychologist determining motivation her functions: preoccupation with

childbirth and motherhood; continual
patterns, but a feminist seeking to
understand how we can improve wom- service to her husband, home, and
en’s lives and build a more effective church; and political and sexual passiv-
movement. My approach to the politi- ity. The exceptions to this were few
and far between. These functions were
cal and personal question of self is,
therefore, to examine the factors that rooted in the assumption of male
affect us, to uncover the elements that superiority and heterosexuality. Socie-
hinder us, and to discover those things ty held little esteem for women and
women held little esteem for self.
which make us stronger both individ-
ually and as a movement. The Western philosophical tradition
Self Definition and Political Survival/3

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of “man’s search for identity” was face both crisis and opportunity. The
just that--man’s search-the prerogative old patriarchal conditions that deter-
of males only. Even among men, it was mined women’s identity are changing;
the luxury of the privileged. Of course, the 20th century middle class replace-
the natural development of selfhood- ments are also failing. The resulting
of the strengths of survival, pride and confusion leads to crisis, to inner tur-
self-respect, took place for all peoples, moil and insecurity, but it also pro-
rich and poor, male and female. But vides opportunity for fundamental
history and literature have obscured changes in the images and self-concepts
how this self-concept developed in the of women. Feminists must seize this
on-going struggles of everyday people. time to change ourselves, to change

We can learn from the ways that the position of women, and to change
women developed strengths for survival the society.
under patriarchy, and before that, of Another source of identity for wom-
women’s selfhood where matriarchies en, both traditionally and today, has
existed. But we should not romanticize been through identification with the
these as the answers for us today. In place of “our men” in the hierarchies of
the U.S.A., the functions that women class, race, etc. Many a woman has
traditionally performed, their context, gained her self-worth not from herself
and the accompanying self-concepts as a woman, but from her “superiority”

have been breaking down over the past on these male scales. Accepting such
100 years. While women still perform supposed superiority keeps a woman
most of the family and menial work, tied to the man who gives it to her
the context and importance of the (husband, father, brother), and divides
family is being altered radically and her against other women, and main-
women’s work has become even more tains her dependence on a false con-
marginal to the centers of economic sciousness about her position as a
and political power. Our society is woman. Feminists must use the givens
still based on male superiority, hetero- of our birth into these male hierarchies
sexuality, and woman-hatred, but the to challenge them rather than depend
forms are changing. The new roles on them for our self-esteem.
assigned to women with the rise of the We can and must define female
middle class—sex object, isolated moth- reality for ourselves and develop what
er/wife in a nuclear family, and active we as women want to be. But we can-
consumer-—are not taking root. In less not forget that a male supremacist
than a century, they are being exposed society is threatened by independent
and rejected. More and more women females. We will not be allowed self-
find themselves caught between old determination without a struggle. We

roles that no longer function and new must develop our individual selves in a
ones that are inadequate. As women political context, recognizing that our
caught in this historical process, we struggle to become stronger is part of
4/Quest

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a larger political fight to end all female self-worth; we are taught to hate our-
oppression. If isolated from the poli- selves, to see ourselves as personal fail-
tical context, our self-development will ures, to İook outside for approval, and
become diluted, individualistic, and to accept that much of our life is out-
ultimately, futile. Our survival depends side our control, determined by others.
on our identification with other wom- On the other hand, oppression also
en; hence a group identity and politics, brings out the strengths necessary to
as well as a personal one, must develop. survive as oppressed peoples: endurance

Too often, feminists have used the con- and ability to cope with changing and
cept “the personal is political” to de- difficult situations, less obsession with
fine all of our personal desires and individual ego, and more focus'on
problems as political. But the personal group survival. *
and political circles overlap only as we All women are oppressed, but there
incorporate a political analysis and is tremendous variety in the forms
identity into our personal lives and oppression takes and consequently irn
actions.
the strengths and weaknesses of our
self-concepts. Conventional liberal wis-
Oppression And Self-Concept dom argues that lower class and black
women are the most oppressed and

To incorporate a political under- need the “freedoms” of middle class
standing into our view of self, we women in order to pursue self-develop-
must analyze the effects of oppression ment. True, but not true. Lower class
on self-concept. While race, nationali- women of all races are the most mater-
ty, and perhaps other social conditions ially oppressed and consequently do
are equally important, I will focus on not have the time, money, or space to
aspects of class and lesbian oppression pursue many individual interests and
since I am most familiar with these
areas. In my experience, many of the

*There are numerous studies on the
women with the strongest self-concepts
effects of oppression on self-concept and
and whose identity is closely tied to behavior, but most focus only on the nega-
the political interests of a group are tive aspects. The paradox created by op-
lower class (used to include lower and pression has emerged in women’s liberation
primarily in the recognition of positive
working class women of all races) and
characteristics of women that may result
lesbians. I have tried to understand
from our oppressed status. The debate has
why this is so.
been over whether we want to develop
Selfhood is strongly affected by characteristics labeled masculine (e.g. aggres-
necessity. What we must do in order to siveness) or retain those labeled feminine
(e.g. sensitivity). Still we have not suffi-
survive, both materially and emotional-
ciently analyzed what is behind these differ-
ly, influences us deeply. This creates a
ences or looked at the parallel questions
paradox within oppression. On the one about differences among women that result
hand, oppression is destructive to our from other social and economic oppressions.
6/Quest

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the most liberated, but what elements
talents that can be important to self-
can be drawn out of each experience
hood. For example, a lower class artist
rarely has the resources or opportunity and transformed into personal and
to devote as much energy to her art as political strengths.
a middle or upper class woman. A”similar paradox exists among les-
Yet, the very demands of everyday bians, whose self-concept is affected
survival often create a strength of self by oppression. Our strengths are par-
and clarity of vision almost unknown tially based on the awareness that we
to the middle and upper classes. Karen are solely responsible for our survival
Kollias describes these as: strong self- all of our lives. Like lower class wom-
concept, group identity, and account- en, most lesbians must depend on our
selves and others of our kind, both
able leadership. ` Without glorifying
oppression, we can examine the so- economically and emotionally. Except

for a few from rich families, wè rarely
called advances of bourgeois women
and ask whether these are really ad- can fall back on male privilege. The
vances or setbacks. Have the legal re- economic reality of lesbianism has
forms and economic and social changes pushed middle class, previously hetero-
in women’s status that accompanied sexual women, to develop strengths
the rise of the middle class made and skills seldom encouraged in the
women stronger and more self-loving? middle class. This process has created
Or have they further weakened us, greater clarity concerning self-concept
made us more passive and woman- and direction. Single women, even if
hating, made us sex objects and desper- they are not lesbians, share some of
ate consumers? Is the mother in a male this experience if they remain unmar-
ried and do not depend on men to res-
dominated peasant society or a poor
black family any further away from cue or support them.

Some have argued that because we
power and control over her life than
the middle class housewife in suburbia? do not have male support, all single
Is her route to liberation through bour- and lesbian women are working class.
This is not accurate. While we are
geois reforms or can she draw on other
strengths to create new possibilities usually closer to the working class

for women? These are some of the reality, there are still class differences
questions we must ask about wom- among us. Supporting oneself with a
en’s selfhood, feminism, race, and professional degree is very different
class. The point is not which group is from working at jobs available without
a high school diploma. It is true how-

ever that the economic differences are
usually narrower when women are

**See Karen Kollias, “Class Realities:
separated from men and this fact
Create a New Power Base” in this issue of
affects our self-concepts. Our reality
Quest for a fuller discussion of these
is closer to what lower class women,
strengths.

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8/Оиеѕі

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lesbian or heterosexual, have always The purpose is to understand how
known: we must depend on ourselves these conditions lead to different needs
for survival; weakness and passivity are and strengths among women so that
luxuries we cannot afford. we can better use our strengths, learn
Our survival is not only economic how to develop more strengths in all
but emotional and political as well. of us, and meet one anothers’ needs
The lesbian’s self-concept is shaped by more fully. The women’s movement

the necessity of creating our own ways has made some steps in this direction,
of living—systems of support and rela- and in thé process, created other

tionships that perform the functions problems.
of the traditional family. Since out-of-
the-closet lesbians face active hostility Substitutes For Self

and oppression from society, we must
develop group identity and depend on The women’s movement has pro-
each other for survival. We cannot fit vided some ways for women to explore
passively into society’s institutions the questions of self. Through con-

(unless our whole life is a lie), because sciousness-raising, individuals see how
these were not made to accommodate sexism affects each woman’s self-con-
us: home, school, church, nightclub, cept. We have developed analyses of

and sex itself. The process of creating how society’s attitudes and institutions
one’s own structures and ways of cripple us, thus freeing women some-
relating, constantly sorting out old what from seeing ourselves as personal
and new forms, demands an active failures, from blaming ourselves for
attitude toward one’s self. This is a self-hate, insecurity, or lack of skills.
vital part of self-determination and Similarly, particular groups have exam-

the experience of shaping one’s own ined the effects on women of class, age,
environment. The more we must create race, and heterosexual oppression. In-
creased consciousness has helped us

learn what we want and the more understand our oppression and develop
we confront the ways society denies pride in our womanhood, lesbianism,
that to us. Thus, the process of self- and other identities.
definition can lead to greater political After developing initial conscious-

awareness, to rebellion, and can move ness, the movement has floundered in
women toward the creation of a dif- its efforts to create self-determination
ferent society. among women. Often we have con-

We must learn more about how fused feminist consciousness and poli-
race, class, heterosexuality, and other tics with the ability to verbalize about
experiences affect us differently as one’s self, overlooking women’s non-
these are complex issues. The goal is verbal strengths. Consciousness-raising
not to prove who is best or to wallow helped us to verbalize our oppression,
in comparisons, guilt, or navel-gazing. but often has not led to control over

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
our lives and change in the conditions so why bother?” Our consciousness of
causing our oppression. oppression thus becomes an excuse for
What are the steps toward self- not moving forward, crippling our self-
development that have come out of development instead of freeing us to
the women’s movement and what has assert our lives in new ways.
gone wrong with these? I have seen In developing self-respect out of
four sourees of partial identity that our oppression, we may also fall into
have: become substitutes for self: false pride and arrogance. Conscious-
1.) oppression, 2.) the movement, ness-raising leads us to assert pride in
3.) ideal models and 4.) relationships*** our oppressions but it is necessary to
have a self-concept that is more than
Building Identity Around Oppression that. For example, I am proud to be a

Starting with the valid assertion that lesbian rather than ashamed as society
society oppresses us because we are would have me be, but that is not my
women, lesbians, lower class, etc., we only source of self-identity. If we fail
become proud of our oppression and to develop other traits as well, we be-
can get stuck there. We concentrate come dependent on oppression for self-
too much on discovering the intricacies respect and use it to demand power
of these oppressions instead of work- and respect from others. We do not
ing to get out of them. We may wear ask for respect for our particular abili-
them as a chip on the shoulder, a cross ties but simply for our self as a cate-
to bear, or a badge of honor. In so gory of oppression—a token-woman,
doing, some women become “profes- lesbian, working class, etc. If our
sional victims” of societal givens. We identity remains dependent on these
create politically legitimate reasons for categories alone and not on other
untogetherness or lack of self direc- interests as well, we have not achieved
tion, which, as victims, we use to ex- liberation but remain limited and de-
cuse us from responsibility for chang- fined by the categories of our oppres-
ing ourselves or society. sors. We stagnate. Stagnation leads to
Both oppressed and oppressor can false pride and arrogance toward those
use oppression as an excuse. The op- supposedly less conscious than us.
pressed says, “I’m just a victim of so- Such arrogance is self-defeating because
ciety and can’t fight it.” Or the op- it cuts us off from other women, pre-
pressor claims, “No matter what I try, venting a real examination of differ-
somebody says I’m being oppressive, ences which could lead to change and
growth all around.
HKK
I first defined and described these

Building Identity Around the Movement
substitutes in an earlier article, ‘“Persever-
Some women solve the crisis of self
ance Furthers: Woman’s Sense of Self,”
The Furies, February, 1973. Some of that by turning our beings over to the move-
previous description is included here. ment, lock, stock, and barrel. While
10/Quest

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making us aware of our oppression
can do or be, but they are destructive
and giving a name to our problems,
when they operate as the only accept-
the movement can substitute itself for
able standard. Then they function like
our identity. Hours of endless meet-
the traditional ideals of beauty or
ings, offices to be run, conversations
motherhood, keeping women dissatis-
to be had, articles to be written, good
fied with ourselves and forcing us to
deeds to be done become not only look outside ourselves for standards of
what we do but who we are. When
what to be.
something goes wrong in the move-
Each discovery of oppression brings
ment—someone disappoints us, a proj-
new ideals: as we learn about the sup-
ect fails, an office closes down, a new
pression of women’s intellect we want
split occurs-we are crushed personally to be writers; as we learn about class
because our self validation is totally we try to act like the “workers” as
dependent on the movement.
we hear about matriarchies we must
This is 70t to suggest that women be spiritualists or artists. Each dis-
cannot do movement work and have a
covery has value and we learn about
clear sense of self-definition. We can
ourselves by trying new things. But if
and must. The danger is that too often
we do not know our own center, we
we allow movement life to overpower
can float from one newly discovered
us, especially when we first become
ideal to another every six months,
involved. Movement work often can
depending on what is premium in our
help us identify and develop interests group.
and abilities better. But when the

Ideals or models can inspire and
movement becomes a substitute for
challenge us but often we do not know
what a woman doesn’t find in herself,
how to use them without being con-
eventually there will be a break-down
trolled by them. We create ideals be-
or a dead-end and her work will no
cause society has conditioned us to
longer be useful even to that move-
identify with external models rather
ment. For all its political and personal than to develop our own selves. When
importance to each of us, the move-
we do think of “self-identity,” we
ment cannot suffice as our only source tend to romanticize it. We think that
of identity, pride, and self-respect. to have an identity, one must be some-
thing that sounds exotic (an artist),

Building Identity Around Ideal Models
or well-defined (a professional), or de-
Sometimes we escape self know-
sired (a knock-out at the bar). Because
ledge and development by trying to of the power of these ideals, women
become different ideal types. We are are often unable to see that a sense of
controlled by these models or by think- self-worth grows out of what we do
ing that we have to become the models
well and like, and not in trying to
in order to be accepted. Most feminist copy models.
ideals embody good things that women
Feminist ideals are determined by
12/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
what’s accepted in the movement in- and our strengths are used to build,
stead of the male media. This is an
not control, each other, then, they
improvement. But often we are still
can be positive ways of sharing, push-
controlled by external images and ing, and further expanding our lives,
group approval instead of by our own personally and politically.
sense of self-worth and knowledge of
what we can do well. Toward The Future
Building Identity Around Relationships Substitutes for self reflect part

Traditionally, women have derived
of the process of self-development if
self-identity from relationships to oth- they are seen as parts, not the whole.
ers-family, husband, children, the
We are significantly affected by the
women in our social or work circles.
givens of our oppressions and privileges
With women’s liberation, this tendency -by where we fall in the hierarchies of
has continued. Relationships, whether sex, class, race, etc. So, too, we are
heterosexual or lesbian, non-sexual or
partially determined by the movements
sexual, are often the primary preoccu- that we build, by the ideal models that
pation of women’s time and energy, inspire us, and by the relations with
at the expense of self-development and others that we experience. But we`are
other political work.
more than the total of all these. We are
Relationships are important. Rela- the particular things that we do and
tionships do affect us deeply. But a like and feel, our individual traits. We
woman cannot find her own self solely are the consciousness and attitudes
through the creation of a lesbian affair
that we develop toward these things
or a communal family, just as she
and the ways that we change ourselves
cannot through the traditional hetero- and the world because of that con-
sexual marriage. Each woman must sciousness. And we are still more.
find her center alone as well as in rela-
Each of us is a variety of selves that
tion to others. We must stop avoiding come together to form a center that
the reality of our aloneness.
is solid, yet ever changing. It is ex-
Overconcentration on feelings and pressed in the way we live our lives-in
relationships often shields and diverts
what we do, say, think, dream, plan,
us from our self and the hard but cru-
love and feel. And in the end, women
cial struggle to develop what we can
must: explore and live this question
do. Each:woman needs a sense of self-
daily. Our self-concept becomes strong-
worth based on what she knows that
er and clearer through our life acti-
she can do and be. Relationships vities—in the struggle for survival, in
among self-defined women then can
work for the movement, in efforts to
be the gaining and giving of positive express our own talents and love, and
energy, strength, and love. When rela-
in actions that change the world as it
tionships do not substitute for self affects us.
14/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
these in common efforts. We can find
The question of self should not be
ways to provide less privileged wom-
approached as.the archetypal roman-
tic individual search, but as a question en with time, space, and money to pur-
sue talents and work that is important
that moves to the heart of the prob-
to feminism. We can and must fight
lem of liberation for women. Confi-
women’s tendency to undermine each
dence and strength in our own selves
other's strength and to impose models
gives us the ability to fight for change
of correct behavior. We seek an honest
and to cope with the problems and
diversity, one which encourages indi-
instability that go with that struggle.
vidual difference and skills but still
Only those who are taking responsibil-
pushes for criticism and change. This
ity for their own selves can create the
enormous changes that are necessary diversity would not stop our efforts to
create a common political vision but
in this society. Only a movement that
understands the different strengths of provide a broader basis for it.
We have taken important steps to-
women and supports individual’s ef-
ward developing stronger self-concepts
forts to grow can succeed in challeng-
as women. Analysis of our mistakes
ing that society. The development of
each woman’s individual self and the and successes should guide us in what
is a long struggle ahead. All of our

political strengthening of the feminist
movement should therefore be mutual- efforts toward self clarity and growth
must be seen within a political con-

ly reinforcing.
Women in different socio-economic text. We must be strong women who
situations have developed different are politically tied to a group but not
held down by it-who recognize the
parts of the strengths that we all need
as a movement. We must find ways to effects of oppression on us but do not
learn from each other and move on our depend on either oppressed or oppres-
sor identities or behavior. We are mov-
collective power. To do this, we must
ing on an uncharted path to create
stop being afraid of conflict with each
something new for women. But we can
other, stop feeling guilty about the gi-
also build on the best of our past.
vens of our birth, and stop trying to
We cannot expect to lose all negative
prove who is best. There will be con-
flict because women do still oppress traces of our previous lives. We can
one another and must continue to expect to keep moving forward and
to change and examine our selves as
struggle over those oppressions. But
we work to challenge and change the
as we develop our own strengths, we
should be able to struggle more pro- society.
ductively, to accept and learn from
the strengths of other women.

Charlotte Bunch, a lesbian/feminist
As we learn from each other’s
organizer and writer, is a fellow at the
strengths and weaknesses, we can get
Institute for Policy Studies.
beyond talk and see how to utilize

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
This is written in response to “Insanity and Control: A Class Trap,” by
Alice Quinn in Vol, I, no. 2, Money, Fame and Power.
One nice thing that comes with some sense of psychological well-being is
being able to wade through the bullshit in life. And, simultaneously, to cope
with the real “nitty gritty” issues in life.
I'd love to think that all of my problems were of a social, economic, or
political nature. In fact, if I could sustain such an illusion, even knowing it
was an illusion, Id do it. Sometimes. But then, sometimes, I’d do anything

to avoid my pain. The only thing is, I don’t “get off” on illusions. So be it.
Alice Quinn still believes that all of women’s problems stem from social,
economic, and political factors. Solve these, solve everything. She sells wom-
en short. She also avoids the real issues connected to women’s problems.
Many, if not most, of women’s problems stem from social, economic, and
political factors in our lifetime—especially problems associated with women
in the lower class. I term the problems stemming from these factors (which
have such harsh and damaging effects upon women) as “collective pathology
(ies),” that we, as women, have to deal with constantly. But that’s only half
of it. The other half is that, because all women are victim, and subject to,
collective pathology as rooted in the social, economic, and the political,

these have additionally created, in all women, individual pathology (ies).
One example: I was born female (oppressed). Raised female (oppressed).

And, now let’s assume I have just been elected President of the U.S. Does
Alice Quinn readily assume, then, that all of my life-experiences related to
oppression disappear? Even diminish? Bullshit! The real tragedy is, that be-
cause I was born, and raised, oppressed I will experience the damaging effects
of this my entire lifetime.
Alice Quinn is only partially correct.
She is correct in her thinking on Psychiatry. She implies that it is destruc-
tive to women. I think she’s right. Psychiatrists, male or female, implement

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
theory in practice that is entirely patriarchal, and, therefore, destructive to
women. She is also correct in her views on State Hospitals. These institutions
are also rooted in patriarchy, and are therefore destructive to women. And
she is entirely correct in assuming that Psychotherapy is ineffective with the

lower class. Studies in Social Psychology revealed evidence along those lines
years ago.
Alice Quinn is also correct in assuming that all acț¢s are political. Including
Psychotherapy. Indeed! Psychotherapy was originally designed and establish-

ed for the middle and upper classes, who could afford to pay for the treat-
ment of their illness, or better yet, utilize the therapeutic modality in such a
way that it became a means of social conformity for society at large, and
worse, validated their insanities as everyone else’s “reality.”
Psychotherapy is political when it comes to the lower class but not solely
as Alice Quinn states, that “...specifically oppresses those of us who are not
white, middle class, or, heterosexual.” In fact, it is far more political than
that. Psychotherapy totally excludes the lower class. When you consider that
the major sources of care for emotional illness for the lower class rest with
1) State Hospitals, and 2) (free) rehabilitation-social conformity-adjustment
“therapy,” that, to me, excludes the lower class from any care for emotional
illness.
And, if anyone really needed proof of the “politics of Psychotherapy,”

take a look around us. Traditional and classical forms of Psychotherapy have
always been rooted in patriarchal theory and practice. Look at the society
we live in. Patriarchal!
So.
Alice Quinn is quite correct.
As far as she goes.
She doesn’t go far enough for me.
If I had never known pain that comes from individual neurosis and
pathology and how it rots your gut like acid when you continue to live
with it, I’d believe Alice Quinn when she says:
“Feminist therapy is an insidious trend within our movement which creates
a demand for individual middle-class emotional solutions and denies the poli-
tical and economic aspects of lower and working class women’s experience
with mental illness.” If I had never known that some of my pain stemmed
from my having been raised nine years (in my youth) in the lower-class cul-
ture, Id also believe her. And, if I hadn’t spent so many years of my life
attempting to solve my problems racing after external variables (always
meeting myself coming in the other direction), I could believe her.

But I know otherwise.
Psychotherapy, with the right therapist, works.
Critique and Commentary/17

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
Now then, Alice Quinn. You not only sell all women short, by implying
that dealing with collective pathology is the means to solving all women’s
problems, you have done the same thing by minimizing the impact of Femi-
nism on women, like myself. And others like me. I am a Feminist. And, I am
a Psychotherapist. In my work, Feminism, not patriarchy, is my reality. And,
where I assume that collective pathology must largely be dealt with by way
of collective Feminist action in society at large, I also feel that there is the
need to “neutralize the acid/rot gut” on an individual therapeutic basis, in
order to make Feminism work both individually and collectively.
A word about me as a woman. As a Feminist. And, as a Psychotherapist.
(For I am certain of others like me, and I want Alice Quinn to know.) For
one, I am a “woman-identified-woman.” That is to say, the basis for my
identity (yes, still in struggle) is woman-defined. I am not a male-defined-
female, nor am I a Freudian-female, nor am I a “patriarch in disguise,” i.e., a
female who is modeled after patriarchs like Freud, and/or behaves in accord-
ance with men’s wishes and desires and thus, merely a projection of same. I
am also a Feminist Psychotherapist who uses “political clout” if you will, by
way of utilizing Feminist theory and conceptualizations as a basis for reality
within the treatment process. I practice Psychotherapy A.F. (After Feminism).

Alice Quinn knows solely of Psychotherapy B.F. (Before Feminism).
I do not have the space here to describe my own theories as a Feminist
Psychotherapist, and practical implications thereof, for working with women.*

As such, I can only respond briefly to some of the comments made about
Psychotherapy. For one, what Alice Quinn describes in the way of therapeutic
technique, i.e. “intense feeling therapy,” sounds to me much like Primal
| Therapy, and has little or nothing to do with my work as a therapist. For

another, where she describes the needs of the lower class as “concrete aid,
better homes, and jobs,” she overlooks the fact that these “collective
pathologies” are not the direct function of Psychotherapy. They are the
direct function of collective Feminist action within society at large. The.task
of Psychotherapy is to work through the emotionally damaging effects of
these collective pathologies so that the individual can do something about
these. And, lastly, where Alice Quinn negates all therapy as useful to women,
Feminist Psychotherapy is most useful. If effective, Feminist Psychotherapy
cuts across all class lines. There isn’t a single woman alive today in America
that hasn’t experienced the damaging effects of patriarchy. All women are
oppressed. All women experienced infant vulnerability, and with it the parallel
experience of being rejected for having been born female. And all women have
been raised to form an identity as male-defined-female. My own theories, for
example, do not include Freud’s theories on infantile sexuality as the basis for
neurosis and the means for dealing with those variables. A patriarchal ploy if
18/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
ever there was one! Briefly, my own theories are rooted in infant vulnerability
and what this means for girl-children having been rejected by mother (and, of
course, father) and later as woman, rejected by society at large.
When Feminists ask me, why Psychotherapy at all? Why not just change
society? I say, we need both. We need a joint operation of collective Feminist

action within society, as well as Feminist Psychotherapy, to provide a dove-
tail effect for change in all women’s lives. We need to correct the collective
pathology of our times, and we need also to do the same for the individual
pathology these have created in all of us. As women, we have been born and
reared in patriarchy. For richer, or, for poorer. It’s a matter of degree, in
terms of how this has affected each of us. As such, our identity as woman is
firmly rooted in patriarchy. And, in terms of a start, for women being able to
deal with the individual and emotionally damaging effects created by the
collective pathology in our lives, Feminist Psychotherapy has much to offer.

Yes, Alice Quinn. Traditional and classical treatment modalities are a dead
end for women. But Feminist Psychotherapy is not. I know that, personally.
And, I know that professionally, as well.
All the money in the world isn’t going to help me love myself, as woman.
Nor others like me, other women. Nor, all the power. Nor, all the prestige in
the world either. Nor will these factors enable me to become independent,
sexual, and assertive as woman. Oh, yes. It would help. And, with enough
illusions, it might even work. Sometimes. But. Mostly, this must come from
within.
Yet, I know that I must have a society that validates love for myself as
woman; and, others like self, other women; my own independence, sexuality,
and assertiveness. That requires collective Feminist action to change society.
Just as Feminist Psychotherapy can become as irrelevant for women as tra-

ditional and classical treatment forms, without collective Feminist action, is
it not possible to work through individual pathology without adequate pto-

fessional assistance whereby women can unlearn male-defined oppressive
behavior patterns, and re-learn “woman-identified-woman” behavior patterns?
The re-building of a new self in Feminist Psychotherapy without collective

Feminist action will hinder the movement the same as the loss Alice Quinn
refers to when she speaks to the lack of adequate care for women in the lower
class who have not benefited by Psychotherapy. But the movement will
crumble if the selves upon which it is built are patterned after the selves that
have been reared solely in patriarchy. As it is said, “a house built upon sand...”
*Request copy of my paper entitled: Thelma P. Catalano is a psycho-

Psychotherapy: B.F./A.F. therapist in private practice in New
B Feminism/After Feminism).
n embun Hien, Penais, York City and Connecticut.
Critique and Commentary/19

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
my grandmother laura i loved the way
had black indian hair the veins in his head
and rough hands moved when he laughed

a country woman because he died
everything she learned

i will always be a revolutionary
was in her black eyes
when she looked at men

but my mother’s life
they cried
runs over me like rancid water
a litany of work and curses

i used to sit at her feet
against life
while she was dying
and listen to her made-up stories her strong face set against the sun
they were so good
she was a born writer

from my mother i got a yearning
without the words to bring her home for tough women
a terror of the hungry touch

my poetry comes from her a terror of the mother in me
as a stream from a hidden source the mother in all women
rich with her wild blood
i can feel her everytime i write

from my mother i got everything
my life, my laugh, my love, myself

my father was irish and, smart
and when a woman i love leaves the room
would rather talk than make money a pain, that never goes away
would rather play pinochle
or talk politics
or bet on horses
that never came in

by Martha Courtot
20/Quest, vol. I no. 3,

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Health care and nursing as they are
practiced today do not lead to posi-

tive feelings of selfhood or to the
achievement of optimal health and
well-being for women. Nursing was
Women
created as a means of practicing legal-
ly what had always been a very real
part of woman’s self-expression: assist-
ing others in ways which extend the

natural healing ability of the mind-
Healers
body-spirit totality. Laws which allow
only a few, by virtue of their sex or
position, the right to perform these
healing acts create a destructive dichot-
omy between healing (medicine as it is
practiced) and the achievement of
VS.
health.
As recipients of health care, women
are diagnosed, treated, examined, dis-
cussed, drugged, operated upon (often

unnecessarily), incarcerated as mad,
denied information about their health
status, denied legal right to their bodies

the
(particularly in the reproductive area),
and experimented upon, often without
consent or knowledge. These sexist
attitudes reflect the general societal

attitudes toward women, and towards
nursing as an occupation primarily of
women. Nurses are generally consider-

an
ed incompetent to perform healing
acts unless supervised by the “more
competent” physicians. They are con-
sidered incapable of independent deci-
sions, especially those which carry risk
and responsibility. They are laughed at, by

ridiculed, scorned and rarely consider-
ed peers of physicians.1 Rosemary Rodewald

How do we, as nurses, achieve a
graphics by Cynthia Gair
sense of self, or of self-worth, or of
feeling good about nursing under these © 1974 Rosemary Rodewald
Women Healers vs. the AMA/21

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
existing conditions and within these
subservient positions, roles and atti-
tudes? In a very real sense, we cannot.
Women lost their rightful role in the

art of medicine because of the relent-
less discrimination of male healers,
whose machinations were financed by
the wealth of the male ruling class.
Women lost their selfhood when they

accepted dependence disguised as “re-
spectability.” To find this selfhood
within nursing, we must again achieve
the status of independent healers

through our own efforts in alliance
with other women.
The subservient role of nurses. in
the practice of medicine arose out of
class and sex struggles of the 17th and
18th centuries. Details of these strug-

gles can be read in Witches, Midwives
and Nurses: A History of Women

Healers.2 Until seventy years ago, the
art of healing had always been the
realm of wise women healers who were
often accused of being witches because
of their knowledge. These women were
experts in the use of pharmacological

remedies, the practice of obstetrical
and gynecological medicine, and they

cured diseases as well as cared for
their patients throughout their illness-

es. Between the 15th and 17th cen-
turies nine million women were burned
as witches because of their healing
abilities. Much of their knowledge

died with them, knowledge which had
previously been passed on from moth-
er to daughter, so as to perpetuate the

art of healing among women.? There
was no discrepancy between “curing”

and “caring” until the practice of
22/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
“modern medicine” in America in the which sells its services at a high price,
early 1900’s. The model for present restricts its membership to a few of the
day nursing was then created when chosen and caters to the demands of
other areas of medicine were closed the upper classes. Becoming a member
off to women healers. Caring was left of a profession is an effective step for
to nurses whereas curing became the those desiring upward movement from
sole responsibility of male, white, one class position to another. The

middle-class physicians, an area which effectiveness of moving upward through
became one of power and control with the acquisition of professional status
the formation of the American Medical has been well established in Hawaii,
Association (AMA). particularly by Japanese and Chinese

The AMA did not arise out of. a immigrants who were brought into
group of well-trained medical practi- Hawaii. to work in the sugar cane and
tioners and a body of modern science pineapple fields. They were able to
as is generally claimed. It was estab- move out of the fields by becoming
lished through the patronage of the lawyers, dentists, doctors, architects,
Carnegies and Rockefellers who rose to and today, some of them are among
the ruling class from fortunes built on the richest and most respected men in
oil, coal, industry and the exploitation Hawaii.
of American workers. They then dis- Nursing is attempting to seek simi-
pensed their wealth through the crea- lar status by- equating equality with
tion of tax-free foundations and pour- professionalism. In doing so, it negates

ed millions into elitist medical schools. the real issue which is keeping nurses
By granting funds only to those schools in subservient roles, that is, sexism
which followed an education pattern throughout the health field. This sex-
of four years of medical school follow- ism duplicates the traditional male-
ing four years of college, they effective- female roles of a class based society.
ly eliminated women, working classes These are firmly established and main-
and poor people from the possibility tained roles which keep men in control
of a medical education. These tactics of power forces and keep women sup-
and the patronage of the wealthy porting and sustaining them. These
established male healers as the medical controls are found not only in medical
profession. Women reformers conse- systems, but in all systems-legal/penal,
quently invented nursing when all legal religious, educational, economic, gov-
forms of independent medical practice ernmental/political and family. Within
were wrested from them in the ensuing these systems women serve, but do not
sexist and class struggles.4 make the decisions by which their
lives are controlled. They serve as

Professionalism mothers, wives, secretaries, aides, nuns,
teachers and nurses, each of these roles
A profession is an elitist union being potentially a position of control

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
if the women who fill them choose to
make them so. It is not necessary to
achieve the status of a profession to

have control over one’s life and one’s
health.
The attempt to achieve professional

status within nursing has led us to
infighting, to the establishment of
differences, to separateness and war-
ring factions among ourselves. These

differences can be felt in the question
that is often asked of nurses, “Are you
a degree nurse or ‘only’ an RN?” We
use this question against each other
in a way which maintains the distance
keeping us from establishing effective

cohesiveness. Its use has generated
categories of expertise—nurse practi-
tioner, clinical practitioner, achieve-
ment lists for those gaining status
through special examinations-labels

which all change yearly as we claw and
scratch our way up the professional
ladder. Some of us may recognize that
in the process of achieving such status,

we hurt other nurses. Few of us recog-
nize how in the process we reinforce

sexism and hurt other women who
could join with us in the struggle for
establishment of women as independent
practitioners of medicine.
Professionalism apes sexism because
it can only be achieved through the
strict control of a profession’s mem-
bership and by the elimination of “less
worthy” or “inferior” others. In the
attempt to achieve professional status,
some women are relegated to a posi-
tion of inferiority by job, intellect,
education, ability or other criteria.
Infighting further perpetuates sexism
24/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
by creating the “Queen Bee Syndrome,” necessarily mean easy. It will take
which says that, “I, a woman, made it courage for nurses to overthrow an
alone in a male world; you can too, identity based on subservient roles and
without help from me.” The Queen
to create radical change in a practice
Bee not only denies help to other wo-
steeped in a tradition of giving to
men but actively works against them to
others while denying one’s own needs.
maintain her own position in the male-
To join with other so-called non-pro-
dominated system.
fessional or lay women to achieve the
Nursing is a healing art which should
goal of independence means using ag-
not require the blessing of the medical
gressive means and acquiring assertive
profession in order to exist. A healing skills, skills which are the antithesis of
art, by its very definition, is also the nursing philosophy. In addition, real
practice of medicine because, by its changes are almost always accompanied
use, people are cured of their diseases,
by personal pain and anxiety, loss of
relieved of their pain and restored to a
support groups and economic security.
state of well-being and wholeness. To
The very aspect of subserviency gives
deny that nurses also practice medicine nursing its job security. Nurses are not
maintains our subservient positions and
usually required to take responsibility
negates our abilities as healers. We can- for making decisions which can mean
not practice nursing effectively as inde- the difference between health and ill-
pendent practitioners within establish- ness, life and death. In contrast, inde-
ed health facilities or in private prac- pendent practice will necessitate that
tice because we are not legitimized by nurses must make many of the decisions
the medical profession to do so. The now made by physicians and must take
AMA controls powerful lobbying forces the responsibility for their decisions.
which influence laws restricting our Nurses need to adopt the philosophy
opportunities to practice independent- of the Feminist Movement--that is, the
ly of the medical hierarchy. Through bonding together of women in sister-
legal controls, doctors continue to hood for strength and control over
supervise us directly and indirectly and our lives. This means not only the
determine which functions we are
bonding of registered nurses, but all
allowed to perform. As more of these women who work in the health fields--
physician-functions are delegated to us, aides, LPN’s, kitchen workers, janitors,

we practice nursing less, assist doctors dieticians, social workers, secretaries.
more and do not even receive the high- The recent strike against four of Hono-
er salaries of bonafide Physician Assist- lulu’s hospitals by registered nurses is a
ants.
specific case in point. Nurses in super-
Nurses could secure control over visor’s roles, LPN’s and aides who con-
their wages and their right to be inde- tinued to work while other women
pendent of medical controls in rela-
walked picket lines were functioning
tively simple ways. “Simple” does not counter to the strike efforts of the

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
nurses when they could have been
acting in support of their sisters’ ef-
forts. Their lack of support was defeat-
ing to themselves as practitioners, and
ultimately to the concept of responsi-
ble patient care as well. If all of the
women in these four hospitals had
bonded together for improvement of
working conditions, their demands

would have had to be met. Medicine,
in its present form, cannot exist with-
out women in serving roles. Health
facilities require womanpower, and

the health system would be paralyzed
without it. However, womanpower

used only in subservient roles has re-
sulted in and will continue to result in
the grossest of discriminatory prac-

tices: the best medical care for the
upper classes and denial of the same

kind of health care to women, to those
with low incomes, and minority or
Third World groups. This condition is
likely to continue because there are
insufficient physicians to provide bet-
ter care and little motivation to change
a medical system which keeps physi-
cians’ fees high and salaries of other

health workers low.
Nurses could also change existing
controls over their job situations by
becoming politically active in joint

efforts with other women health work-
ers. There is presently a bill in the
Hawaii State Legislature which will
require reexamination of all of Hawaii’s
health practitioners for relicensure.
Relicensure should and could give

health personnel the right to practice
independently in their area of exper-

tise through the identification and

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
acceptance of areas of responsibility own body and health experiences. By
determined by the licensing process. sharing the differing knowledges each
Nurses do not have the money or of us possesses, we increase the wis-
cohesiveness for the necessary lobby- dom and health of all people.
ing power to compete with establish- Those of us who work in the Femi-
ed medical controls which affect our nist Movement for change of existing
right to work. A joint effort by all health care practices are presently a
women health workers could, how- minority. Our efforts will not be real-
ever, be a highly persuasive force for ized until all women, patients or prac-
change. titioners, work together for change. It
To make these changes, we as nurses is my belief that the Feminist Move-
must give up our struggle to achieve ment will be the single. most effective
professional status within the medical mechanism for achieving the changes
profession and recognize that all wom- nurses have long talked about and de-
en in the health fields are necessary sired but have been powerless to effect.
for optimal patient care. We must also
recognize, accept and move forward
on the basic premise that no one wom- Rosemary Rodewald is a Registered

an’s job is more important or less im- Nurse studying women’s health con-
portant than anothers’, and that each cerns and helping to establish a Wom-
woman possesses wisdom about her en’s Health Center in Hawaii.
FOOTNOTES years and did not require a high school

education. The attempt to legislate out the
1Read “The Nursing Profession—-Condi- trusted healers of the common people re-
tion Critical” by Trucia D. Kushner, Ms., sulted in a radical uprising in 1830’s and
August 1973, for an accurate view of nurses 40’s called the Popular Health Movement,
through the eyes of some typical physicians. primarily backed by women. By 1840, most
2Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, of the medical practice laws had been re-
Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of pealed through women’s efforts. The Popular
Woman Healers, Glass Mountain Pamphlet Health Movement lost out, however, when
No. 1, The Feminist Press, Box 334, Old feminists opted for respectability and align-
Westbury, N.Y. 11568, 1973. ed themselves with middle-class male healers.
Andrea Dworkin, “What were those Male healers formed the first national organ-
witches really brewing?” Ms., April 1974, ization in 1848 calling themselves the Amer-
pp. 52-55, 89-90. ican Medical Association. During the later
4Although by 1830, thirteen states had part of the 19th century, sectarian prac-
outlawed “irregular” medical practices and titioners and women healers were attacked
established “formally trained regulars” as
the legal healers, there was no popular sup- took the patronage of the ruling class in
port then for a medical monopoly or for the early 1900’s, however, to secure the
the group of middle-class, white males who authority of the laws which were necessary
made up this group of healers. “Formal” for the AMA to become the only legal prac-
training varied from a few months to two titioners of medicine.

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
CLASS
This article is dedicated to Jo organization is to be created, then

Butler, Beulah Sanders, Edith Van we must find concrete ways to incor-
Horn, and Janet Kollias, my mother-- porate class and race issues in a clear
four of the strongest women I know.
ideology. But so far, these topics have
been misunderstood, forgotten, ignored

The Women’s Movement has been or misused. As a result, action around
defined as an educated, white middle- these issues has been minimal and in
class one, and for most of its parti- many cases, has caused further splits
cipants, this definition holds true. within the Movement.
The most obvious reason for this is To be an effective tool for social,
that its middle-class originators or- political and economic change, the
ganized around needs and experiences Women’s Movement must know how
which reflected their background. How- to utilize money, power and organiza-
ever, there are feminist organizers tion. While these skills often are lack-
from lower- and working-class back- ing among middle- and upper-class
grounds, and some of us have tried to women, they are part of the lives of
integrate class consciousness and class- lower- and working-class women. Eco-
oriented issues into the Women’s Move-
nomic conditions have forced many
ment-but not with much success.
of us to develop strong self-concepts,
If a truly representative feminist roots for group identity, and the re-
sponsibility of accountable leadership.

*Edited by Sidney Oliver, et al The Movement has a lot to learn
(thanks go to Sidney’s patience); and from lower- and working-class women,

special thanks to Shirl Smith for typing whether or not they are feminists. But
and class support. An unending thanks until the Movement can project an
to all the women Ive been lucky analysis of feminism which exposes the
enough to meet, who confirm the ideas ways capitalism and racism further
in this article-you all know who I divide and oppress women, it cannot
mean.
expect our further participation.

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
“class-conscious” people, see all who
are neither upper nor middle class as
the “masses” -or the “working class.”
My purpose is to distinguish among
Sias
these classes in order to show the nec-
essary and consistently overlooked

positive qualities which such women
by Karen Kollias often possess. I can not account for
all lower- and working-class women, or
graphics by Peg Averill provide “the definition” of these three

groups. Nor do I examine the weak-
nesses supposedly inherent in these

I work from three assumptions: class experiences-too much has been
both white and non-white lower- and
said about them already. Instead, I
working-class women need the Wom-
congratulate our strengths.
en’s Movement to further our struggles One critical distinction among the
for change; the Movement has to act
working class, the working poor, and
upon class and race issues to create a the primarily urban lower class is that
powerful base for change for all wom-
for the working class, upward mobility
en; and these struggles must create a is possible, but for the working poor
society -which doesn’t depend upon and the lower class, the chances for
anyone’s oppression. it are slim. Family and economic
This article will define three com-
experiences are most important in
monly lumped-together groups--the shaping women’s lives. I will, there-
lower class, the working class and the
fore, focus on them while examining
working poor; show how strong self class differences among women, show-
concepts, a group identity and leader- ing how varying experiences mold their
ship qualities develop from class exper- perceptions of society.
iences and create a certain perception
of the power structure; point out how The Working Class Family
the Movement has been classist and
Most working class families are
racist in its theories and strategies;
supported primarily by men. The jobs
and finally, provide some suggestions
available to these men are fairly se-
for ways feminists can deal with class
cure, often unionized, and require
and race in developing an effective some level of marketable skill. But
political organization.
at the same time, they offer little or
no room for intellectual challenge or

What We Need To Understand
advancement—and hardly ever, for pow-
er. The family income can vary widely,

Theoreticians from the old Left to
depending on unions and skills, but
present day liberals, as well as many often it is sufficient to meet immed-
Class Realities/29

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
iate necessities as well as modest still supervises her children. No matter
desires. how important the women may per-

ceive their working in the community
Higher education is usually reserved
for the men. Community colleges and to be, it is defined within the house-
hold as secondary. It is not sufficiently

state universities may be possible, but
important that the traditional distribu-
the reality for women is most often a
tion of household chores be re-aligned
high school degree and possibly a
secretarial or vocational school. Most to make more room for it. 1
The mother is the controlling force
working class women are married, and
within the family. She mediates be-
mothers, long before a middle-class
woman receives her B.A. tween the institutions (church, school,
A reasonable economic level often city government) and her family; she
leads to the means for upward mobil- provides moral support to a husband
ity. Parents consciously push their who feels powerless, alienated and un-
children to “be more” and will put out important in his job; she assesses the
larger society and provides both some

more than they can afford for higher
of the money (if she works) and most
education if the opportunity arises.
of the direction in the family’s move
They identify with middle-class fam-
to identify with the middle classes;
ilies in consumption patterns and by
she kecps the family out of the danger
living outside industrial areas. In their
of economic hardship by close manage-
struggle for social acceptance they
ment and distribution of its income;
are likely to emphasize the differences
between themselves and the lower plus she coordinates all the domestic
chores.
classes.
For the women, running the home
is the clearly defined role regardless of The Working Poor Family
other activities. Economically, she may Working poor families are usually
not have to work, but she often does supported by unskilled, male or fe-
so to help in the struggle for upward male jobs, which are relatively inse-
mobility. Her attentions and efforts cure because they are not unionized.
Since fewer males are heads of house-
are spent primarily in the home as wife
and mother. From a limited study of holds, many women must support their
southwest Chicago’s workingclass wom- families alone, on low wages from
en, Kathleen McCourt notes that they exhausting service jobs, such as wait-
resses, sales clerks, or domestic work-
were quick to state not only that their
husbands and children weren’t over- ers. Many hold down two jobs, one of
looked in favor of community activi- which (like sewing or ironing) can

be done at home. All the income is
ties, but in fact, that she:
still has dinner on the table every needed for day-to-day necessities, so
there is little left over for upward
night at the right time. She still
keeps her house neat and clean. She mobility.
30/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
A high school education is common, tend to be strong because they have
but working poor children may be survived hard economic realities, par-
forced to drop out of school to get a ticularly those who can’t depend on
job to help support the family. It is men as an additional means of security
usually the women who are expected or support.
to quit school. Sometimes drop-outs The Lower Class Family

finish high school at night, but be- Lower class family existence is char-
cause of economic need or marriage or acterized by a continuous daily strug-
both, night school often is not possible gle; employment is usually temporary,
or considered vital. Higher education unstable and undesirable. While most
is seldom available and given less stress lower-class families are headed by wom-
than in the working class. en, these women don’t have real con-
Working poor families lack the trol over their situations. They are re-
money to relocate and often stay in sponsible for raising their families by
the same, urban communities for gen- themselves, and many are dependent
erations unless forced out. Even though on welfare for their income. Johnnie
their housing is usually poor, the com- Tillmon, National Welfare Rights Or-
mon conditions of the neighborhood ganization spokeswoman, describes the
as well as family roots have the poten- welfare system:
tial to create strong bonds. A.F.D.C. (Aid to Families with De-

The options for women are few, pendent Children) is like a super-sexist
virtually insuring an early marriage in marriage. You trade in a man for the
the effort to start over, or more simply, man. But you can’t divorce him if he
because there are no other choices.
treats you bad, He can divorce you,
Since finances require her to work, the of course, cut you off anytime he
working poor mother has little time wants. But in that case, he keeps the
or energy to devote to her children’s
kids, not you.
“proper” socialization. Children are Lower class women must take what-
raised more independently than those
ever work they can find to try to meet
of the working class and age quickly,
expenses—usually the unskilled, unor-
soon finding themselves with most of
ganizable jobs which lack stability or
the responsibilities of running the
leverage for further advancement. Many
home, particularly if they are female.
such jobs mean long night shifts. Since
Working poor women, starting at an
capitalism, racism and sexism are inter-
early age, are used to making decisions
related, an extremely large percentage
which affect others and have had to
of lower-class families are non-white.
develop confidence in their ability to While female-headed lower-class famil-
confront day-to-day responsibilities. ies have the least financial resources for
They have to provide needed income,
handling crises (medical disabilities,
often .alone, as well as provide family
break-ins, rapes, drugs, etc.), they are
security and physical welfare. They most vulnerable to them.
Class Realities/31

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
The very young are left alone with race in relation to the power structure.
other children or with older relatives.
Children are responsible for themselves What We Need To Learn
and for others very early; educational <The objective economic conditions
in all three of these classes are neither
opportunities are inadequate and unin-
spiring. Those in school are often pleasant nor desirable. However, they
forced to drop out to find work, or have generated some strengths and atti-
tudes that are essential for understand-
feel the uselessness in any education
which can’t provide immediate cash ing and confronting the power struc-
security. There is little emphasis on ture: a strong self-concept, group iden-
dating and romance, but many younger tity and accountable leadership, all of
women see pregnancy or marriage as a which are closely related and therefore
way out. Daily struggle is their educa- provide continuous, cyclical support
tion more often than not. to each other. Strong self-concepts help
So noticeably absent are male heads build a trusted group identity, which,
that lower-class urban areas often look in turn, provides accountable leaders.
like female communities. Female chil- Similarly, strong leadership can project
dren see their mothers as the root of strong self-concepts and instill the
the family—a model of strength, unlike roots for group identity—and so on.
their middle-class counterparts. Self-Concept
In addition to economic hardships, A political movement will project

lower-class women face constant bour- the strength and confidence of its
geois criticism: “unfit mothers” for representatives through their self-con-
leaving the children unattended if they cepts. And clearly, self-concept is de-
find a job, or “lazy bitches sucking termined by one’s life experiences and
off the system” when they stay home how one handles objective life condi-
to care for the children. Struggle means tions. But while the Movement states
fighting to survive, standing up against that women must be strong, many
these “moral” attacks, and not taking feminists fear strong women and label
anything for granted. The lower-class those with assertive, confident person-
woman has to surface all her strengths alities, too aggressive.

just to survive, and in the process, Lower- and working-class women
develop other positive qualities as well. have been forced to surface their
The further the family is from gene- strengths in order to survive, and often
ral social benefits—a good income, a have had to assume responsibility for
secure and meaningful job-the more others, as well. While most women have
dominant are the women. These condi- some elements of strength within
tions create the experience necessary them, many simply haven’t had to
for confronting and potentially chang- develop it, because of their comfort
ing the system. This also illustrates a and economic security.
relationship between class, sex and One of the major issues of the
Class Realities/33

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
Women’s Movement has been to elimi-
power governing that system. :
nate women’s weakness and replace It follows, then, that women with
it with confident independence. This strong self-concepts should be models
is partly because middle-class women for women seeking that confidence.
who have some kind of protector (a This doesn’t mean that poor women
successful husband or father) feel a should be idolized. It does mean that
lack of control over their own lives a woman might find both a motive
and have felt the need to organize and a model for expanding her self-
around that. This is valid within its concept through the influence of these
own class context. women. However, this strength should
Middle-class models of strength not be mistaken for economic control,
have primarily been men, and strength which is much harder to achieve, while
is usually equated with power. Lower- capitalism still exists.
and working-class women, especially

non-white women, on the other hand, Group Identity
have seldom been able to depend on Group identity allows for commit-
someone else for their decisions or
ment, risk-taking, accountability, and
maintenance. The process of taking the establishment of mutual trust.
active control over their lives, and of These attributes are vital for groups
influencing those close to them, has seeking to be a unified political force.
given them a lifetime of experience Group identity doesn’t just happen;
with decision-making of the most basic there are certain objective economic
nature-—survival. This decision-making and social conditions which are instru-
becomes part of what makes for a mental in helping diverse individuals

strong self-concept. to unite in tight bonds. Sex, class and
In a system run by men, for men, race differences are such conditions
decisive power is naturally equated which can be consciously utilized to

with men. This, perhaps, explains some create a powerful political base.
middle class women’s fear of a decisive, The concept, “sisterhood is power-
strong female. But in a system or sub- ful,” was an attempt to ground femi-
system in which women make deci-
nism in a strong group identity. It
sions, decisive power doesn’t assume
didn’t catch on as widely as was hoped,
undesirable connotations. For the only primarily for the reason offered by the
“masculine” attribute of power comes San Diego Women’s Studies Program:
from the perception that now certain It (sisterhood) came from women in
men control how things are run; power, the movement who were mainly white,
per se, isn’t inherently negative. This middle class women. They believed
can be translated into a political goal: that all women were our sisters. Seeing
women want not only to achieve cer- the commonality of their oppression
tain rights within a system, but also for the first time, they realized that
to get a part of the decision-making what they had gone through was not
34/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
unique or crazy but had a common
common necessity. This form of group
social base. This made them gloss over
identity is potentially quite powerful:
differences, that were real differences
the necessities they’re after are non-
in women’s social realities (class, race,
negotiable. Survival demands watching
sexual preference). Given the fact that
out and caring for their families, neigh-
this idea came from white, middle
bors and friends; these shared responsi-
class women, it is reflective of their
bilities strengthen group identity.
attempt to gloss over differences rather
These two groups illustrate that if
than to deal with them.’
feminism is to strengthen a sense of
It was just too simple. group identity in women, it must allow
Consciousness-raising and feminist for flexibility and work with the
therapy groups were two tools that
differences of women rather than ig-
might have provided roots for group noring them to get to the similarities.
identity in the Movement, but they Women who work on race and/or class
were successful with only a small num- demands should not be criticized as
ber of women. They, too, overlooked
“not feminist enough,” but supported
some important considerations: not for being strong women at work on
only should they be planned political- change. If the Women’s Movement
ly, they should provide and encourage doesn’t recognize these differences,
space to act out of one’s group identi- it will never acquire a larger basis
ty, and their reasons for existing need- for group identity. If it does, it has
ed to be more apparent. the potential to be a revolutionary
Some groups of women have a group coalition of organized, strong groups.
identity, and more important, have
succeeded in utilizing it. Out-of-the- Accountable Leadership

closet lesbians have created strong Leaders are visible representatives
bonds of group identity based on their of ideologies to the public. They are
sexuality. Their solidarity comes from also images of strength, direction, and
the need to depend upon each other enthusiasm for those working around
for survival, because coming out is a that ideology. However, the public
political risk. This provides them with view of the Women’s Movement has
a closer understanding of woman’s been greatly affected by its lack of

class identification in general. Genuine acknowledged leaders. Since the Move-
love and passion for women helps to ment has stifled the development of
strengthen the lesbian’s self-concept leaders, denied their importance and
and to give her a deepened respect for condemned some visible personalities,
and trust of women. the media has created feminist leaders
Black, lower- and working-class to satisfy its audiences. The majority

women, due to pressing economic of these are researchers, authors and
problems, are likely to establish roots other professionals whose primary re-
for identity with one another out of lation to the Movement is their vocal
Class Realities/35

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
or written observation. Others are cluding governing social institutions,
women working on single-issue reforms if everyone is to be free.
or government programs designed to Accountability to and identity with
improve life within the capitalist sys- a broad spectrum of women, and
tem. Most media-created leaders rein- practical experience in utilizing and
force the white, middle-class stereotype gaining power, are essential for leaders.
of the movement. In certain respects, non-white and poor

women have a head-start in these areas.
Real leaders of an effective feminist
organization must be able to combine For example, they understand the rela-
diverse issues and make them relevant tion between money and power—a vital
to many different women. In addition, quality for good leadership. Contrary
they must deal accountably with issues to the bourgeois myth that welfare
that affect some women, but not neces- mothers mismanage money,
sarily all, such as the needs of lower- ...an AFDC mother’s probably got
and working-class women, lesbians, a better head for money than Rocke-
and non-whites, as well as those of the feller. She has to. She has so little to
straight, white, middle class. Leaders begin with that she’s got to make every
are needed who begin with the assump- penny count if she and her kids are
tion that everything must change, in- even going to survive,4 This kindof
AIN
N
36/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
the Women’s Movement, have taken
confrontation with the system forces
poor women to see how society oper- responsibility for bringing to feminists
the issues of class and race.
ates. Once they are politicized these
women offer new perspectives on how

What We Need To Correct
things should be redistributed, pro-
viding visions for future alternatives.

Rather than list all the shortcomings
Since understanding one form of
of the Movement, I will point out a
oppression usually makes it easier to
few attitudes which have resulted in
analyze others, the Movement should
support leaders who are accountable the exclusion of black and poor wom-
to class and race issues as well as femi- en: the “women-as-one-class” analysis;
nism. As Margaret Sloan, a founder of concentration on middle-class-bound
demands within the existing system;

the National Black Feminist Organiza-
and socialist-feminists and reformist-
tion, puts it:
It would be very easy for me if the feminists acting out of a bourgeois
oppressor would split up the week and position.
say from Monday to Wednesday we are Much of the Movement’s political
going to mess over her because she’s analysis has been developed around a
female, and the rest of the week we false sense of women’s equality: all
are going to put her down because women are equally oppressed, have an
she’s black...but it doesn’t happen equal number of problems, and can
that way.” The issues of feminismare change existing conditions by equal
too closely bound with class and race amounts of effort and participation.
issues for some strong women to set Rather than attacking the power struc-
one aside in favor of the other. ture, the Women’s Movement has dealt
Consequently, a comprehensive po- primarily with sex role oppression,
litical analysis will most likely come consciousness-raising, and supportive
from non-white, lower-class women. services. When exposed to the public,
As Geraldine Rickman puts it, the these often get lost between the femi-
black (poor) woman nists who express them and the women
who hear them:
...has the necessary adaptability,
sense of self, and reality orientation. With one exception, nobody I talk-
ed with has articulated an understand-
The high risk involved for the black
woman as a functioning change agent ing of the socialization process and
is equal only to the high stakes to be sex role stereotyping that the wom-
gained by her. Economically, she is at en’s movement is fighting against. Be-
the bottom of the barrel, and as a yond the job sphere, the movement is
group, there’s only one way to go--up.6 perceived as ‘kookie’ or ‘man-hating’
It’s no wonder that those of us from or ‘women who wish they were men’
or ‘bra-burners.” 7
lowet- or working-class backgrounds,
The Movement has been bogged
or who are black, once involved with
Class Realities/37

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
down in abstractions and personal determinants and levels of struggle
confrontations. There is a lack of which shape lower- and working-class
organizing around solid economic de- women. These aren’t found in Marxist
mands applicable to lower-, working-, books of the Left nor are they under-
and even middle-class women. stood in terms of 20th Century, highly
For example, Ellen Willis points out technological American society.
that the Movement’s biggest employ- This oversight stems from the pri-
ment concern has been the lack of marily white, educated, middle-class
career opportunities for educated wom- experiences of many socialist-feminists.
en.8 Economic demands are coming The gap between their daily lives and
from the already privileged, requesting the lives of women of the other classes
the legal authorities to grant them makes it difficult for them to act out
more privileges. Educational reforms their theories. Nevertheless, some dis-
have been geared to the college and cussion groups have politicized social-
university level: higher admission rates, ist women around feminism, and vice-
especially to medical and law schools; versa. For example, women in San
more programs for women; the estab- Diego wrote a good piece on how to
lishment of women’s studies programs, identify and combat their own classist
etc. But the majority of non-white, and racist attitudes. They stated that
lower- and working-class women don’t though many feminists have “political-
have the power to utilize these benefits ly correct” ideas and motivations, in
because their primary, objective eco- daily life they are capable of attitudes
nomic conditions haven’t changed. oppressive to black, poor and working-
class women.10
Socialist-feminists are developing a
class analysis within feminism. (For Reformist women have organized

analysis and criticism of Women’s projects around economic demands
Movement, see the NAM Bulletin.?) but lack an overall analysis that in-
Many still relate to mixed socialist cludes class issues. These feminists, also
groups which instruct them to create primarily middle-class, educated and
feminist caucuses. Even those who
white, work with the objective of
organize independent socialist-feminist winning minimal concessions from the
groups maintain Marxist analyses, view- power structure. Because they have
ing women as “laborers” in the prole- benefited from the system, they mere-
tarian sense only. Little consideration ly try to extend its benefits to some
is given to lower-class women—parti- of the needy, instead of questioning

cularly welfare recipients, the demands the validity of capitalism itself, a
of black women, or the working-class condescending attitude at the least.
wives who are hard to organize. Many Most of their programs concern single-
socialist-feminists romanticize, but issue demands—ones which the govern-
don’t understand the daily life exper- ment can meet, without flinching.
iences, perceptions of society, cultural The majority of reformist women
38/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
(such as those in NOW’s Task Force
feminists, actually have a “feminist
on Poverty or on various “Status of approach to their organizing.”11 They
Women” commissions) aren’t concern- recognize the strengths of women and
ed with eliminating classism and rac- the issues which will be of greatest
ism; they simply help gloss over some
concern to the community. Yet many
“differences” (inequalities). These won’t affiliate with the Women’s Move-
women haven’t felt the necessity for ment, primarily because of the media’s
an ideology which settles for nothing emphasis on the male-female confron-
less than revolution. In fact, reformist, tation and because there is no organiz-
middle-class women may feel threatened structure through which women can
ed by the concrete economic demands state what they need and want from
of black and poor women because they the Movement. We need to develop
have some privileges to lose. those structures.
Many of the political divisions a-

What We Need To Do mong women’s groups are simple dif-
ferences in style and not necessarily

The Feminist Movement must com-
ideology. Studying the styles of var-
mit itself to the absolute necessity of ious organizations should strengthen
an economic and social revolution if
each group and open communication
it is serious about adequately meeting channels; differences in strategies can
the needs of non-white, lower- and serve as a basis for sharing and learning
working-class women. This, of course, more skills. Feminists should assess
would affect everyone. A majority of what groups are organized around

feminists still fail to understand the which issues and work with those
importance of continuous struggle a- which get things done. Parts of the new
round broadly-based issues within a feminist ideology we seek may already
revolutionary context. exist in various forms in other organi-
Most of the work to determine and zations.
activate programs and theories appli-

cable to black and poor women lies a- Re-Evaluate Our Demands
head. I will mention a few general con- We must become conscious of those
cepts and specific questions I feel are demands which are either harmful or
important in the effort to link class irrelevant to black and poor women.
and race issues with the Women’s
A push for women’s studies in higher
Movement.
education, for example, isn’t going to
Many women organizers directly af- reach those it should unless it opens
fect the lives of women by organizing its doors to women in the community
primarily around economic issues. Bev- and gives them free access (or offers
erly Fisher, in a series of radio pro- a sliding scale) to skills-building and

grams, stated that community wom- continuing education. This would help
en who wouldn’t define themselves as
working-class, black and poor women
40/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
to raise their standard of living and For those women who cannot take
carry out more effective organizing. many political risks, there’s the option
As the San Diego women noted: of sharing financial resources. If wom-
...we know of women’s issues that en don’t have the time or energy to
are not anti-capitalist, which in fact actively participate in feminist organi-
hurt rather than help women. Such zations, their financial contributions,
demands might be increasing the num- preferably on a regular basis, should be
ber of women in the military, the pooled into a community women’s

police force or in managerial positions. bank, supervised by representatives of
Oppressive institutions are oppressive women’s groups which organize a-

no matter who staffs them. It is not round class and race related issues. It
in the interest of women to participate is criminal that now (thanks to progres-
in the injustice of arresting other wom- sive capitalism) a single woman may
en for shoplifting, prostitution or for- make up to $25,000 (not to mention
gery when capitalism has forced wom- what a man can make) while an
en to these things in order to survive.12 A.F.D.C. mother is allowed to struggle
This puts another challenge to the with her family on less than $4,000
Women’s Movement-how to secure
yearly. If women are serious about
decent-paying jobs for those who need eliminating class inequities, then they
them, without being forced to oppres- had better start acting out their honest
sive institutions for employment. Some intentions now, not after the revo-
middle-class women can afford to tion.
choose their jobs according to morals
(and also to be downwardly-mobile), Select Tactical Specifics

There are lots of issues which are
but this isn’t true for poor women.
Professional women in jobs oppres- actually “women’s issues” (e.g., wel-
sive to lower- and working-class wom- fare) that the Women’s Movement
en must begin to take risks. Social hasn’t acted on. One such issue is pub-
workers, probation officers and admin- lic housing. The majority of people
istrators in health, psychiatric and forced to live in housing projects are
penal institutions must make demands welfare recipients, most often women
and use their leverage if they believe and children. The government is just
they are there in the interests of wom- as bad as private slumlords. Public
en. They must expose oppression in housing usually doesn’t meet govern-
these institutions, make demands for ment housing standards: it is the most
change, use their skills and position susceptible to break-ins; its women
and children are vulnerable to attacks
for women, and urge others to do the
same. Unless there’s struggle and agita- and rapes; and if they protest, evic-
tion within, the professions--prison tions are easy to process. Since find-
guards of the class system-will not ing other housing is nearly impossible,
voluntarily change. many women tolerate unliveable con-
Class Realities/41

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
ditions rather than live on the streets. haven’t acted around this issue, be-
Yet middle- and upper-middle class cause they don’t have to contend with
women haven’t paid much attention public transportation as part of their
to housing issues. They are in a position survival. Organized women’s groups

to make demands, contribute resources could demand improvements, such as
anl work around community programs more bus stops and frequently-running
in coalitions with other projects (ten- buses in areas where public housing
ants’ unions and welfare rights, etc.),
and therefore have a great deal of po- projects are especially dependent on
tential for producing change. public transportation to get to govern-
Public transportation is another ment agencies, health clinics, etc. Wom-
important issue to lower- and working- en in isolated workplaces should de-
class women who usually cannot af- mand that their employers provide
ford cars. Most cities have inadequate transportation to and from their jobs
mass transportation: no subways, ir- —especially when night shifts are in-
regular and expensive buses, unsafe volved. Strong coalitions of various
stops, and so on. Many working poor women’s groups could gain influence
women are subjected to these unsatis- in decisions made about public trans-
factory conditions. Again, feminists portation, and set a precedent for
organization around other citizens’

issues.
B.A.A.R.
A final problem for women from
the lower classes, black and white, is
the division between those of us who
NEWS
BY are feminists, and those who aren’t.
Many of us got involved in the move-

Feminist Alliance Against Rape
ment through situations not always
Bi-monthly Newsletter
open to our sisters: decent jobs, up-
Over 200 groups worldwide are or-
wardly-mobile marriages, political par-
ganized against rape. Their political
and tactical struggles are of interest ticipation in overtly sexist groups, or
o all feminists. Read F.A.A.R. News

OFr:
higher education. Our “non-feminist”
enews of innovative anti-rape pro- sisters feel the difference. Roots must
jects being developed by women.
e analysis of issues and problems not be forgotten, no matter how pain-
which face women committed to stop- ful the memories, or how critical of
ing rape . .…. prisons, reformism, pro-
essionalism, funding, rape preven- us other feminists may be. It is our
tion, etc.
responsibility to share any resources
Annual subscription rates: (skills, money, property) we may have
$5/individuals, rape groups
$10/institutions gained from newly-acquired privileges-
P.O. Box 21033 particularly since it will be a while

Washington, D.C. 20009 / before most middle and upper-middle-
class women share their resources with-
42/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
out feeling they are being used. tains valuable material. Copies—-in bulk or
singly—are available without charge by writ-
These constitute only a few sugges-
ing to: Office of Information and Publica-
tions. There are many others forming
tions, U.S. Civil Rights Commission, Wash-
in women’s heads, and their ideas, ington, D.C. 20425.
courses of action and programs must 7Kathleen McCoutt, p. 13.
be discussed and expanded. This is SEllen Willis, “Economic Reality and

the Limits of Feminism,” Ms., June, 1973,
only the beginning in re-evaluating the
directions of the Women’s Movement,
p. 91. :
IWomen’s Caucus, New American Move-
its class composition, and its inherent ment, “Notes From a Workshop on Socialist
relationship to self-concept, forms of Feminism,” NAM Bulletin, March-April,
power, and new structures-of organiza- 1974, p. 48.

tion. 10San. Diego Women’s Studies Program,
“Racism in the Women’s Movement,” pp.32-
33 and “Ways Petit Bourgeois Women Can
Footnotes
Struggle with Biases,” pp. 33-36, Three Years
of Struggle.
1Kathleen McCourt, Politics and the 11Radio Free Women, WGTB-FM,

Working-Class Woman: The Case on Chi- Georgetown University. Series on class and
cago’s Southwest Side (Chicago: National the Women’s Movement, leadership, cultural
Opinion Research Center, July, 1972), p. 11. differences, and future visions. Included
2Johnnie Tillmon, “Welfare Is a Woman’s Beverly Fisher, Karen Kollias and Dolores
Issue,” Ms., (preview issue), Spring, 1972, Bargowski. Rita Mae Brown on the leader-
p. 111. ship tape. Series taped in Spring, 1973.
3San Diego Women’s Studies Program, Tapes available through The Feminist Radio
“Working Draft--Socialist-Feminist Paper,” Network, P.O. Box 5537, Washington, D.C.
20016.
in Three Years of Struggle: A History of the
San Diego Women’s Studies Program (San 12San Diego Women’s Studies Program,
Diego: SDSC, May, 1973), p. 14. p. 13.
4Tillmon, p. 112.
5Quote by Margaret Sloan appeared in
“Words on Women,” Civil Rights Digest,
p55.
Geraldine Rickman, “A Natural Al- Karen Kollias, Promotion Editor of
liance; the New Role for Black Women,” Quest, and employed by the National
in Civil Rights Digest, a quarterly of the
Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, is
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Spring,
working on economic issues as they
1974, p. 58. This issue is titled “Sexism and
Racism: Feminist Perspectives,” which con- affect women.,
Class Realities/43

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
Americans have the Dixie-cup men-
tality—if you don’t like someone, then

crumple them up and throw them a-
way. Auto graveyards, prisons and
mental institutions share one thing in
common: all contain society’s cast-
offs. The truly remarkable aspect of
the Dixie-cup mentality is not that
g Americans throw people and things

It S All away but that we assume we can al-
ways get another. Cars are replaceable.
People are replaceable. All you have

to do is look the market over and se-
lect the one best suited to your needs.
To complete the cycle of conspic-
uous abundance and waste we thought

we could replace ourselves. And what
could be more American? Everyone is
out for the best self they can get.

Mother called it, “Turning over a new
leaf.” Religious folk call it, “Rebirth.”
Madison Avenue sells it as a “New
You.” Psychology gravely refers to it

as an “Identity Crisis.” It’s all Dixie-
cups to me.
Bad as our used car lot attitude
toward other people may be, our atti-

tude toward ourselves is even more
treacherous. We throw away parts of

ourselves we consider unpleasant. Con-
sequently, we suffer head-on collisions
with the ghosts of our former selves
driving down a twisting road that turns

in on itself before we can hit the
brakes. Identity becomes a construct-

G0 tied item. The need for conscious iden-
to Me % Rita Mae Brown

graphics by Jacqui Linard

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
tity is a manufactured item. The fact power through language. Naming is an
that so many people are dismantling expression of status. For those of us
and refurbishing themselves turns this who fall into the many oppressed
phenomena into a bizarre assembly groups we were named according to

line. our distinguishing feature: nigger, dyke,
The moment a person dissociates kike, trash etc. Our early consciousness
herself from her self, she becomes a involved the knowledge that we were
“less” or second class.
spectator to her own life. She becomes
schizophrenic. Reality retreats under Through self consciousness we be-
screening room scrutiny. The self is gan to look at our selves. By becoming
then once removed from experience. a spectator to our own lives, by com-
If you aren’t your self then, for you, paring, by narrowing our selves, we
no one else can be a self either. You'll become removed from our experiences.
So removed, we are more in need of
be too busy looking for your self to
external cues to tell us who we are
see other human beings. Youll catch
narcissistic paralysis. supposed to be. We become vacant
There is another self beneath the and vulnerable, easy targets for manip-
social self. Social self is self conscious- ulation. This vacancy or uncertainty
ness through comparison. What makes as to place in the social order is one
the bedrock self, the root self, so diffi- reason advertising is so successful. Con-
sumerism bulldozes a short-cut to iden-
cult to define is that we owned our
self before the moment of comparison. tity. It’s an echo of school days. You
have answers, only now you buy them.
Can you remember your first mo-
ment of self consciousness? More than The more you buy, the more “right”
likely, that moment involved some you are. Objects replace emotions.
kind of comparison. Perhaps you dis- When the object becomes dated or
covered you were black. (Whites didn’t wears out, you get another one or you
lose status. Under these conditions it
discover they were white until 1964.)
becomes hard to tell the difference
Or perhaps you found out you were a
woman. Maybe someone told you between other humans and objects.
your coat was raggedy and suddenly Worse, we objectify ourselves. We too
you knew you were one of the poor. become dated as we get older. We
aren’t as valuable if we aren’t lovely,

For precious few folk the first moment
etc.
of self consciousness was not negative.
Self-Service Factories such as Esalen
The people who fell into that group
arose in reaction to consumerism. Here
discovered they were “better.” They
discovered they were men, or rich, or one buys the tools to forge a new self.
both. Adam knew he was different It’s psychological consumerism. Phrases
from the beasts of the land: but that from the Self-Service Factories, such
self consciousness was not negative. as, “get in touch with your feelings,”
He got to name the beasts, which is “gut reaction,” “I hear you,” and
It’s All Dixie Cups to Me/45

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:5n 1976 12:34:56 UTC
46/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
others too numerous to mention per- your hateful past and as for a collec-
meate middle class America. Thanks tive past, dip into the mists of matri-
to television (vicarious identity), those archy, at least life was better then.
concepts are available to anyone with With the help of your sisters you too
the stamina to watch “Marcus Welby, can build a new and stronger self.
M.D.” and other media wonders. There When in doubt pray to the Great
is something uniquely American and Mother in the Skies or Isis or Sappho.
contradictory in self factories: thou- And here is where we hurt ourselves,
sands search uniformly for individuali- intellectually and organizationally.

ty, for identity. And whose interests How are we to reach others if we deny
does it serve to have vast numbers of our past, personal or collective? We
the population bellowing the primor- must remember our old, oppressed
dial scream in unison? selves. We must resolve the pain of our
Such fashionable psychological con- mothers. We can’t blot out that past by
cepts seeped into the Women’s Move- ignoring the thousands of years of male
ment. Consciousness-raising utilized supremacy and nodding out in the haze
pop psychology in attacking a female of pre-recorded history—matriarchy.

We need to unearth that matriarchal
identity created in oppressive condi-
tions. But consciousness-raising, the past but it is of the utmost importance
double edged sword of feminism, also that we don’t forget for one minute
perpetuated the idea that one can build what came between us today and ma-
an identity. triarchy. We need to understand our
past and use it for the future. One of

the earmarks of humanness is a con-
Identity Within The Movement
ception of the past and a possibility of
the future.
The Movement was and is correct
Identity, selfhood, cannot be bought.
in stating that women’s collective past
bled a river of pain. The Movement sought or given. A lover, a therapist,

the Women’s Movement will not make
tried to call out what is strong in wom-
en. We tried to find examples from a “new” you. A certain degree of re-
the past. It’s still hard for many wom- evaluation will provide insights into
en to grant that strength to a living why you did what you did, possibly
woman in their midst. Woman-hatred even helping you see patterns in your
behavior. But even that won’t tell you
again, dead women are more lovable
than living women. Identifying with who you are. The chilling point is:
other women proved rocky at first but Why ask? You are you when you “for-
over time it became easier. get” you. Not reject you, not throw
Recognizing that our collective past your self away like a living Dixie-cup
or a worn out Studebaker. Stop look-
was as painful as our individual pasts,
the Movement sought a solution to all ing for a car when you’re driving one.
Earlier, I noted that we suffer head-
that pain and desolation. Toss away

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
48/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
on collisions with the ghosts of our mental danger. Fear is reactive. Love is
former selves. There’s a difference active. Love is the root emotion.
between inspecting your self/past and To return to root self we must
discarding your self/past. Another way return to love, a difficult journey in a

to look at it is to think of your past country that hates women. That is
and the collective past as a boomerang. why women-identification, women lov-
Throw it away, turn your head and ing other women, putting women first,
watch out, the boomerang will come putting themselves first is so crucial to
back at you. For instance: suppose our finding our root selves and to us
before you became a feminist you were finding the power of our movement.
a dogmatic Lutheran. Now after femi- Love’s reality is that it eats away at
nism you are a dogmatic Lesbian. You social structure, at control, so it must
won’t see this repeating pattern be- be suppressed. Think of the furor over
cause you think you threw the Dixie- black-white couples. Love threatened
cup away. Your friends may see the a necessary part of racism, that the
pattern. Any mention on their part races remain separate. Or what about
will probably be resented because you cross-class friendships. These are frown-
thought you’d cut the thread to your ed upon, “Stay with your own kind,”
oppressed past and your former be- because in essence, the emotion dis-
havior.
rupts oppression.
Only by telling who we were and Love is the enemy of unequal social
where we came from can another structure. When people really love
woman know the truth of our journey. they become disobedient. And by love
Only then can she trust us for we’ve I don’t just mean sex because that’s a
given her a roadmap. tiny fraction of the love we are capable
Feminism, the root self, isn’t one of. Sex has been used to confine love
magic moment of understanding then because it serves male supremacy to
life becomes easy. Feminism begins a limit love to a biological function
process that brings us closer and closer which keeps us in our place.
to you/our goal. You'll come home. After woman-identification, people
Home to your root self. Home to the usually return to some activity they
self before social consciousness of self. discarded because it was discouraged,
The root self, for me, develops Dixie-cupped by parents, teachers, the
from two bases: Emotion and Work. old gang of psychological thugs. Rein-
Emotion is the toughest to pin down forced by other women and by increas-
especially when writing in English. ing feelings of strength a woman re-

We’re told that there is a whole or- turns to earlier, lost interests. Re-dis-
chestra of emotions. True enough, but covering a happy part of childhood is
I think all emotions spring from two one more step toward the self before
sources: Love and Fear. Fear in its social consciousness of self.
purest stage is a response to physical or Through my observation, this re-

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
discovery is linked to some form of one-sided. Once a woman makes the
work. Just as a knowledge of past and great breakthrough to woman-identifi-

future mark us off as human so does cation, to discovery of worth, the
the need for fulfilling work, for pur- road becomes smoother although it
pose. A squirrel buries her nuts by isn’t always safe. We still don’t know
instinct. She is born knowing what to exactly how a woman becomes woman-
do and how to do it. We have to learn. identified although we do know the
What we learn depends on sex, class more contact she has with strong,
and race. Before we suffered con- positive women the more likely this
sciousness of categorization most of us will happen.
expressed some preferences about what The Women’s Movement, forall

we liked doing. We liked music or we our mistakes, is right to hold a mirror
took clocks apart or whatever. Those up to our faces. By clearly seeing our-
pre-school desires, I believe, are close selves we can use the jolt of self
to the root self. An adult going back awareness as an oppressed person to
to that early desire may or may not lead us back to our past and simultan-
be able to make a career ọf it but eously to our future. By identifying
she’ll be getting closer to her self. That with other women, with ourselves, we
renewed strength helps her face a hos- gain a definite goal: Freedom. Our
self is linked with other selves. The
tile world. It also means she is not go-
ing to be content with oppression. ultimate act of humanness, identifying
She will no longer settle for less. If a with others, guides us. Slowly, heighten-
ed self-consciousness fades as we con-
woman can make a living from her ear-
ly work drive she is in an enviable posi- nect, understand, love and breathe
tion. She will be especially able to help the lives of our sisters. By identifying
her sisters since her time won’t be with other women some of them begin
divided into earning a wage vs. doing to identify with us, giving us the love
what she.wants. and faith to pursue our work. Within
The amazing thing about work is the goal of women’s freedom we find
that the more you enjoy your work our more personal goals.
the harder you work and the less self- And one day, in good time, you'll
conscious you are. You get very close glance in your mirror and discover it’s
to that root self. a window. Welcome, Sister, you've
Returning to the root self under come home at last.
male supremacy is a tremendous battle
for we must fight the entire Western

world as we know it. Under male su-
premacy love for other humans is

labeled irrational, frivolous and so on
unless love is within the context of Rita Mae Brown is an author, poet,
marriage and family where love is and political theorist.
50/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
SUZY & jane & gregor
& me
“you’re just like suzy” they tell me when i don’t
agree.
(suzy is a dead friend who cut her wrists because
no one agreed with her.) (except me)
“why can’t you be like jane” they tell me when i don’t
do what they want.
(Jane is a dull friend who went to college because
everyone told her to.) (except me)
“i want to be like gregor” i tell them when i don’t
know what else to say.
(gregor is a man who turned into a cockroach because

kafka wrote it that way.)
no one understands. (except me)
by Naomi Rachel
Suzy & Jane & Gregor & Me/51

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
What I- have to say about women numbers, rage and immobility. When
and childraising is harsh. I know of no they strike we will come up with them
other way to get the message across, or they will take us down. That is how
so mucked up are we in fear, myth,
I felt. Two years later in an impatient
romance and historical ignorance of surge toward individual liberation I
the world’s oldest and most significant gave up custody of my three children.
female vocation-motherhood. The As a result, I am a mother and then
harshness comes from a sense of urgen- again I am not. Non-mothers or the
cy. Unless we untangle the real fea-
childfree measure their words in my
by Lucia Valeska graphic by Mary Smith
tures of childraising, the feminist presence, and since I’ve left the fold,
movement will fail to jump its most
most mothers find me fundamentally
difficult hurdle.
suspect. But the view from renegade
Three years ago in the midst of the
bridge is enlightening.
contemporary lesbian rebellion, as a
I see three distinct but occasionally
mother I turned to my lesbian sisters
overlapping political camps: 1) The
and said: “Mothers will be next and
childraisers, 2) The children, and 3)
lesbians will look like silly putty in The childless or childfree. These camps
comparison.” Mothers outweigh us in share a common oppression but they

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
are also in direct conflict with one
uniquely influence the self concept of
another. Each situation carries a series
your basic mother of eleven. The single
of contradictions and concomitant am- mother who works a nine hour shift in
bivalencies, complicated by the separ- order to support her four children will
ate realities of sex, race, and traditional
have a different self image. What we do
class divisions. The job of untangling well tends to create a solid self con-
the conflicts, of forging a common cept. What we do poorly results in
struggle is nearly beyond comprehen- the opposite. How well we do anything
sion, but we must start digging some- directly depends on the economic and
where.
social environment in which we do it.
The crunch in childraising comes when

The Childraisers
you realize that poor mothering and
faulty childcare are currently built-in

Mothers are not the only child- givens in the North American social
raisers. Included in this group are and economic system.

lovers, housekeepers, babysitters, nur- Specific signs of decay are readily
sery, elementary and secondary school apparent. To begin with, we are all
teachers, communal mothers, relatives, familiar with the dreaded question:
friends, feminist aids, and an occasion- “And what do you do?” (a) “I’m a
al father. There are what can be broad- mother” (b) “I’m a lawyer” or (c)
ly defined as primary and secondary “Pm a pig farmer.” As a mother I was
childraisers with much variety and always tempted to answer with ‘c’
several degrees in between. A primary because there are some interesting

childraiser is the primary source of historical parallels. The primary differ-
emotional and economic support for ence boils down to the fact that pig
her children. The secondary childraiser farming went out a little earlier than
is only one of a group of people who motherhood and so you pick up an

is economically and emotionally re- extra point or two on its antique
sponsible for the children. value. Not even the middle class Amer-
Whether you are a primary or secon- ican supermom with the greatest re-
dary childraiser and what else you do sources at her private command can
with your time makes a big difference. beat the inevitable failure. As the femi-
The myth tells us simply that you are nist movement legitimizes rebellion,
a mother or you are not. But the facts supermom after supermom throws in
cast the deciding vote, especially re- the towel of her discontent and as
garding the strength or poverty of the often as not returns to school.
self image you derive from child- If being with children is a joy why
raising. Ethel Kennedy affords a ready aren’t we fighting harder for the privi-
illustration. Tennis, horseback riding, lege? Why is it when you ask for child-
golf, a huge houseful of surrogates and care volunteers everybody in the room
the Washington cocktail circuit can contemplates their boot laces? Why is
If All Else Fails, I’m Still a Mother/53

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
it the mothers and a handful of politi- were treated as “small adults” and
cal stalwarts are inevitably left with were a constant presence in the daily
the job of consciousness raising (chil- life of the community. It’s not a bad
dren are human beings too) and or- idea. We could gather up all the chil-
ganizing childcare for meetings, jobs, dren and go marching through the
community, wherever. factories, business offices, medical

The signs are real. The message is schools, cocktail lounges, libraries, col-
clear. If you’re looking for a solid lege administrations, board meetings,
self, don’t be a mother, or an elemen- nuclear laboratories, saying: ‘“Here’s
tary school teacher, or a childcare three for you and three for you and
center aid at all. Since failure is built three for you; keep them safe, happy’
into childraising in our society, there and intelligent; we’ll be back for them
is no such thing as a good mother and in 25 years.”
no such thing as a good self concept The description of an integrated
emerging from this work. The situation society these writers present resembles
goes beyond the sole dictates of male an historical truth, which in many
supremacy. It has nothing whatever to parts of the world still prevails. But
do with any individual childraiser’s it is the entire social, technological
advanced skill at maneuvering. There and economic fabric of these periods
are a number of ingenious, if partial, and places that makes the integration
escape routes that the more privileged of children a viable reality. Many of
work out for themselves. But there you these integrated children vitally con-
go; it is an escape—something to get tribute to the economic life of the
away from. That something transcends community: they work from sun-up
good or bad mothering. What is it? to sun-down. But most significantly,
their relationship to their mothers is
The Changing Economy Of relatively casual.

Motherhood In any economic setting with an
extended family, the mother’s rela-
Early one morning everybody in the tionship to her children is automatical-
world woke up and decided in unison ly secondary. That is, the children will
to hate children. Hence the cure: we all be raised and economically supported
wake up tomorrow morning and decide by a group of people of which the bio-
to love children. Stripped of its ration- logical mother is simply one member.
al facade this is the kind of solution This is generally true for all classes,
which too often prevails. Many contem- races, and cultures.
porary writers (Jill Johnston, Shula- The economic settings which main-
mith Firestone, Germaine Greer, Jane tain a secondary relationship between

mothers and children cover an enor-
Alpert) talk of returning to the good
old days when children were “inte- mous range and variety in life style.
grated” into adult society, when they They irclude nomadic communal gath-
54/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
ering and hunting peoples, agrarian but also fits the requirements of capi-
societies, feudal societies and early talistic consumption. Thus the ideal
industrial societies. Since these eco-
nuclear family boasts one producer
nomic forms have prevailed for most of and several (but not too many lest
human history, many of the contem- the labor force explode) consumers.
porary expressions of motherhood are It is a middle class ideal and the norm
outgrowths of an economic existence held out for all classes. Even though
which is now obsolete in most parts of the working class family rarely achieves
the U.S.A. and generally in any ad- the ideal, it too believes this is the way
vanced industrial setting. life is supposed to be. In the “good”
Here’s the deal: the nuclear family family, the man “works,” the woman
is the result of an economic system is wife, mother and homemaker.
which has come to depend upon small, The nuclear family provided stable
tight, economically autonomous, mo- family units for the advanced indus-
bile units. It is essential to capitalism trial state for a number of years. Now,
because it not only meets the peculiar the very mobility it arose to feed is
turning around and killing it. The

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
means of stabilizing and sustaining the Talk about credibility gaps, here we
old family have progressively disinte- have a possibility gap. Welcome, ladies,
grated: neighborhoods, churches, mini- to the working class.
sters, relatives, etc. New institutional But long ago, they moved middle
class women out of the extended fam-
buffers have taken their place: T.V.,
psychiatrists, psychologists, social work- ily, Mexican, Irish, Italian, Jewish
ers, family counselors, school counse- neighborhood. Mother still lives in
lors, and a huge educational system. Pocatello, Aunt Jean is in an institu-
By keeping the nuclear family limp- tion up in Rhode Island; so who now
will watch the kids? Arise the new
ing along, these adjustments have eased
the new primary relationship between child care center: haphazard, unfund-
mothers and children. But short of to- ed, disorganized, and expensive. A col-
tal fascistic control (no divorce, no lege educated woman earns less than a
abortion, no childcare) the attempt is male with two years of high school
economically doomed. The US. gov- training. If you even find a job, do you
ernment has failed to salvage an insti- grasp the size of the pay check coming
tution which served it well. The stop- in, minus babysitting, childcare, gro-
gap adjustments have not been suffi- ceries, moving, housing and medical
costs? This is a framework for built-in
cient. Psychiatrists no longer even
failure.
attempt to “save” marriages: they
help people through “transitions.” The Take a good look at the rhetoric
divorce rate soars, giving the nation a surrounding the issue of motherhood.
new choice and women and children a The term “childless” represents our
new deal. Either the old nuclear pro- society’s traditional perception of the
situation. Since motherhood was the
vider supports two, three, or four
families, which most men can’t or primary and often only route to social
won’t afford, or middle class women and economic well-being for women,
join the labor force with unmatched having children was a material asset,
vengeance. All this at a time when the and to be “childless” was historically
number of jobs is rapidly shrinking. negative. Indeed the term was often
Meanwhile, back at the homestead, directly equated with “barrenness”.
the children are waiting to go to school Few women were autonomous; survi-
to make this new deal possible. For a val depended on marrying and bearing
mother of three that’s a minimal wait children. No man wanted a barren
of nine years on diaper duty before she woman. So under these circumstances
no “sane” woman chose not to have
is free to look for “work.” Upon find-
ing that job, she also finds she must children. To be childless still carries
be away from home for at least eight a negative stigma even though the so-
hours a day not including travel time. cial and economic reality has drastical-
Most children’s school days run two ly changed. Consequently the question,
must we be childless, is loaded.
to four hours short of this requirement.
56/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
The term “childfree” represents a ly paying women not to have children.
new perception of reality in the U.S.A. Ford will follow Nixon in refusing the
Not only is motherhood no longer the necessary funds for childcare. Like
only route to social and economic well Nixon he will call it “economizing
being, it has become a real detriment- and preserving the American family.”
a detriment which is clearly visible The new deal for children and mothers
when a mother looks for a job, a place amounts to no deal at all. They are
to live, babysitters or childcare, when- being forced into an economic and
ever she tries to fake her children social transition which is doomed to
failure from the start.

any place she goes.
Women must for the first time in
herstory leave the nest in order to gain Consequences And Strategies

an identity and a living wage. Yet a
mother cannot leave the nest because The situation portrayed presents
she is the children’s sole remaining legal, distinct consequences and strategical
economic, and emotional representa- possibilities for the three political
tive. When children are barred from camps: mothers, children, and the child-
free. We must recognize the contem-
any productive role until they are 25
porary condition of women and child-
years old, it makes the job of represen-
tative ten fold what it was in the past. ren as a complex product of economic
history. The problem is far more com-

To be a good representative you must
be economically solvent, have a solid plicated than just the result of bad
men in places of power. The grim fact
self concept (gained elsewhere), and
that women in feminist collectives re-
have a great deal of time on your
fuse to deal with the dilemma unless
hands.
On another level, the debate be- mothers literally put them up against
tween “childless” and “childfree” is the wall, is one indication that our
purely rhetorical. Clearly, with or with-

out children, women are not free in
our society. Even more important, as
long as children exist it is a delusion
to speak of being free of them. They

are still all out there, impatiently
clamoring for recognition and support.

Meanwhile the government takes its
own stand. It has already paid farmers
P0. BOX T
not to grow food and workers not to
work past a certain magical age. It A PUTNEY, VT. SN

pays students not to join the labor
force and fathers to stay away from
home. Now the government is implicit-

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
situation is not a simple by-product of
the ideology of male supremacy.

Think. In general the feminist move-
ment has benefited its members. It has
given them .a collective identity which

in turn has made them stronger as in- Mothers
dividuals. Women have given of them-
selves freely and deeply, in order to Mothers must make it militantly

develop this new strength. Of course clear that they are not expendable.
we’ve had our casualties, but in general The economic changes which have
the prize has been worth the cost. In made motherhood a national disaster
the case of childraising the prize does area can be changed. National and lo-
not yet equal the cost. We reflect cal budget priorities and consciousness
society’s perception that mothers, chil- can be rearranged to suit job, educa-
dren, and childcare are expendable. tional, and childcare needs. Of course
The “expendability” is often expressed the privileged, be they men in power

in statements such as: “Childcare is a or your so called childfree sisters, will
58/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
never give up their advantages out of one I consulted rose up out of his
chair and shouted: “You can't do
the goodness of their hearts. They
need to know that the price of not that.” Fortunately, I disregarded this
dealing with your situation is greater “advice” and proceeded. What women
than the cost of dealing with it-that need is some one or group to share
whatever endeavor they are involved positively both the decision and the
transition with them.
in simply cannot proceed without
meeting your needs. You are raising No mother makes this choice easily.
Both the social taboo and the mother’s
their children; they must provide the
resources to do the job adequately. entire conditioning conspire to keep it
Mothers everywhere must caucus, or- out of the realm of serious possibility.
ganize unions, and put an end to their Another obstacle is the false assump-
isolation through collective action. tion that the decision will be complete
There is a lesbian mothers union, and irrevocable--a “here today, gone
based in California, and mothers should tomorrow” finality. Such is not usually
use this as a beginning model for col- the case. The details, including psycho-
lective effort. logical consequences for both mothers
In the meantime, if an individual and children, will vary with the individ-
mother’s situation is unbearable, and ual situation.
if the option of custody transfer is Whether a child is raised by her
remotely feasible, she should give this uncle, her grandmother, two people or
option serious consideration. It is the a group of people, and what kind of
surest, quickest, most effective strategy people they are makes all the difference
available for personal survival. It is also in the world. My own three children
a political statement. It says in no un- have two sets of parents (one lesbian,
certain terms: “If my community will one heterosexual), and four function-
not provide me with the freedom I ing grandmothers. They spend summers
need to rebuild my life, then I will with my lover and me, and the school
take it for myself.” For a growing year with their father and another
number of women, custody transfer mother. The transition was gradual.
My oldest child moved in with his
The potential tragedy is not that father three years ago. A year later the
children and mothers are lost to each two younger ones joined him.
other, but that the decision is made In our case the change was a neces-
in a social vacuum. There is virtually sity, economically and emotionally.
no community support. The so called Perhaps we could have scraped by eco-
experts—psychologists, counselors- nomically, although I had no vocation-

al skills and was still working on a
paint an invariably gloomy future for
you. Even the most liberal, non-judg- college degree. But emotionally the
situation for me as a single mother
the mention of custody transfer. The was disastrous. My two year stint in
If All Else Fails, Im Still a Mother/59

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
the women’s movement'had allowed a their ghetto-the American Public
vast reservoir of rage to surface. The School System—we cannot avoid bump-
open resentment at being trapped being into them, because there is trouble
gan to far outstrip the pleasures of brewing in the ghetto.
mothering, and the daily burden was Like other oppressed peoples, chil-
too great for me or my kids to bear. dren have begun to organize, to de-
That a healthier situation was available mand basic rights and responsibilities
was a stroke of luck and privilege for commensurate with their abilities. As
which I shall be forever grateful. with other oppressed groups who begin
to rebel, society has reacted negatively

Children to these initial efforts. Just as rape
has become a national sport, razor
A key feature of industrialization blades and arsenic in halloween treats
is that the “work place” is far removed and armed guards in the corridors of
from the home, which gradually leads our best middle’ class Junior Highs
to the segregation of children from have become standard. These rein-
the “business” of the world. As indus- force the children’s own conclusion
trialization and technological develop- that they live in a state of siege.

ment proceed, the discrepancy between Segregation of children has had one
adult and child spheres grows. Children potentially liberating consequence: it
must be set aside for longer and longer significantly dilutes the impact of
periods of their lives before they can where they lay. their heads at night.
play any integral, responsible role in It is no longer possible for adults to
the life of the community. At the same stamp out pint-sized replicas of them-
time, increased mobility combines with selves through the nuclear or tradition-
super media to expose children to a al family. The individual child’s destiny

constant flow of new situations and a is increasingly determined by her own
complex environment which demands community. In this respect, children
that they grow up more quickly than are in part seeing to their own libera-
ever.
tion. But their situation is still unique
In essence, we have mass produced a for two reasons. First, their condition
nation of young people who are ex- is temporary by definition. Secondly,
tremely sophisticated, while we have they are by nature to some extent de-
simultaneously denied that sophistica- pendent on the adult community.

tion any serious expression. Because That’s where we come in.
children are segregated and constantly A well-developed industrial system
held down, they have developed their changes children from an advantage to
own culture, with values, codes of a deficit. Under other economic sys-
honor and means of social control that tems, children materially contribute
clash with the adult ones. Even though to a family’s wealth and well being and
children are packed neatly away in eventually the young take care of the
60/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
old. Not so today. This change has We have begun this transition—wit-
tremendously influenced both our per- ness the education industry. But we
ception and treatment of children. No are dragging our heels all the way. If
amount of sweetness and light, inno- we compare need with designated re-
cence or charm can outweigh the fact sources, the educational establishment
that they are a pain in the ass and cost today is a mere welfare program. By
a lot of money. Since our perception and large the treatment of children in
of children comes from a specific social it is comparable to the treatment of
and economic environment, it can only welfare recipients. Imagine how dif-
be changed by altering that environ- ferent funding for education and child-
ment. The cost of childraising can no care would be, if the grandchildren of
longer be shouldered by private indi- our national Congress people were in
viduals. Childraising must move from public childcare from three months of
the private to the public sphere, from age up!
the individual to the local and national In making the transition from my
community. My children must become children to our children, we can and

our children.
If All Else Fails, I?m Still a Mother/61

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
sisters first. And then, we change the ity of the childfree should be encour-
nation. But society’s perception of aged to take on at least one existing
children will not change until we child, part time or full time. Love that
create a viable role for children and child, teach her something she might
give them the resources to fulfill that otherwise never learn, show her resepct
new role. she might not find elsewhere. Oh yes,
In the meantime, childhating must and be consistent. Let one child in
go. It should not be replaced with old your community grow to expect and
platitudes on the natural virtues of rely on your coming just as she relies
children or life with them. Rather, it on the air she breathes. You should
should be replaced with a firm under- not do so because the experience will
standing of why children are ‘“unaccept- be joyful but because it is politically
able” in our society, and a concrete necessary for the growth of all women
strategy to include children in our and- children. Then if joy comes,

thoughts and actions. halleluja!
Any organization or gathering is To have our own biological children
practicing childhating if it does not today is personally and politically ir-
arrange for quality, feminist childcare responsible. If you have health, strength,
by the “childfree.” Furthermore, any energy and financial assets to give to
person who says: “But I don’t particu- children, then do so. Who then will
larly like children,” is practicing child- have children? If the childfree raise
hating. She is letting society’s negative existing children, more people than
stereotype of children take over her ever will “have” children. The line
mind. There is as much variety among between biological and non-biological

children as there is among individual mothers will begin to disappear. Are
women. How can you dislike all of we in danger of depleting the popula-
them? The statement comes from one tion? Are you kidding?
who perceives children as an inferior Right now in your community there

group that is not worthy of her per- are hundreds of thousands of children .
sonal recognition or time. Struggles and mothers who desperately need

against racism and sexism have set our individual and community support. It
minds bolt upright on these issues. is not enough for feminists to add to
The casualness with which childhating this population and then help out in
statements are made and received is a their spare time. A growing number of
measure of our lack of consciousness young women are indeed beginning to
of this issue.
resist having their own 'biological chil-
dren-mostly from a sense of self-preser-

The Childfree vation. But the new childfree must not
only take conscious control of their
All women who are able to plot reproductive organs, they must also
their destinies with the relative mobil-
see that true self-preservation depends
62/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
upon the survival of their entire com-
7Æ| 12 W. 25th Street
munity—one which includes living chil-
Baltimore, Maryland
diana 2P
dren.
We must develop feminist vision
and practice that includes children.

We must allow mothers and children a
press
Diana Press wishes to thank the
way out of the required primary rela-
subscribers of Quest for their gener-
tionships of the nuclear family. This
ous response to our fire and belated
can only be done by forging new rela-
calendar and datebook. If you have
tionships, with economic and emotion-
not ordered the calendar and/or
al underpinnings, between children and
the childfree. At this historical moment datebook, we still have copies avail-
able. All the repair work on our

the goal is a moral imperative only.
building has been completed and
Moral imperatives have a habit of
we have almost caught up with our
hanging out there in thin air until hell
backlog of work. We appreciate your
freezes. It is the responsibility of
continued support.
non-mothers to end the twin tyrannies
of motherhood and childhood as they Datebook

are lived today, but the childfree will The Day Before 3.50
not do so until mothers and children
Calendar
light a big fire of their own. Garland: 1975 2.50
Poėtry Books
Songs to a Handsome Woman 2.00
Rita Mae Brown
The Hand that Cradles the Rock 3.00

Rita Mae Brown
These Days 1.00

Lee Lally
Forty Acres and a Mule 1.00

E, Sharon Gomillion
Essay Anthologies
Women Remembered 2.25
Class & Feminism 2.25
Lesbianism and the Women’s
Movement 2.25
Postcards
Set of 12, each with a different draw-
ing from The Day Before 1.25
Lucia Valeska is a lesbian mother in Include 15% extra
Albuquerque, working on a disserta- for postage & handling.
tion on female separatism.

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
THE ONLY MAGAZINE
that focuses on positive approaches to social change. What’s

being done and what might be done. New political strategies.
Policy alternatives and ideas for action. Speculation on Amer-
ica’s future — and on the future of ‘‘the good society.’ Nearly
100 pages of reports, proposals, and reviews in each issue.
By writers like: Richard Barnet, Richard Flacks, Barbara Gar-

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Christopher Lasch, Staughton Lynd, Lee Rainwater, Emma
Rothschild.
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64/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
WWWW yam
ANGEIA DAVIS
An
by San dra Flo Wers graphic by Cheryl Walker

There is so much to say about this book that it is difficult to isolate the
factors which make it such important reading. The key, however, comes
about halfway through the book when, in discussing how her afflilation
with the Communist Party led to her firing from the UCLA faculty, Davis
says, “...I realized that the personal goals I had set for myself were about to
collide head-on with the political requirements of my life.” The recount of
this particular woman’s collision and its aftermath is what makes this book
so important. For, whether or not we articulate it so well-if at all-meshing
our own personal goals with the political requirements of our lives is the
confrontation we all must survive before our purpose and commitment can
be defined.
While Davis never proclaims herself a feminist, many who read this book
will assign that designation to her. Predictably, as a woman activist, her

political life has been one long sexist experience. Some things were so com-
mon, so condescending, that we can now, with a raised consciousness and
recognition of institutional stupidity, laugh at them. In prison, for instance,

Davis found, “All prisoners--whether they were sixteen or sixty--were re-
ferred to as ‘girls.’ ” Too,
One other jail “outlet” was overwhelmingly sexist. It was the stubborn pres-
ence of the washing machine, clothes dryer and ironing paraphernalia...The

“reasoning” behind this was presumably that women...lack an essential part
of their existence if they are separated from their domestic chores. The
men’s linens and jail clothes were sent elsewhere...the women were expected
to tend to their own.
Written Word: Angela Davis/65

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
There was more vigorous sexism, however, during Davis’ pre-prison
activism in Los Angeles: `
It was a period in which one of the unfortunate hallmarks of some nationalist
groups was their determination to push women into the background. The
brothers opposing us leaned heavily on the male supremacist trends which
were winding their way through the movement...”
Sadly, these trends, though somewhat more subtle, still exist within the
black community and often undermine the political activism of black women.
One of the most important insights to be gained from Angela Davis’
autobiography (beyond the close scrutiny of a remarkably strong woman) is

the way in which the book suggests directions for political activism. These
insights should be useful for political activists of either sex, any race or any
political persuasion. One especially noteworthy comment is, “When white
people are indiscriminately viewed as the enemy, it is virtually impossible to

develop a political solution.” This is not to suggest that all whites will
immediately be embraced by Third World peoples. However, the word
“indiscriminately” is crucial, because through it, that statement may open
closed minds and doors which have previously precluded effective and/or
lasting alliances.
Just as the above statement suggests thinking which can promote within
black feminists a heightened responsiveness to white feminists, there are
counterpoints in the book to which white and/or “middle-class” feminists
should pay close attention: 1) the racism described throughout the book
(most easily perceived in the discussion of Davis’ early schooling); 2) the
strong group-identity and refutation of class divisions which are apparent in

the sections on Davis’ prison experiences.
First, in relating her elementary school experiences, Davis exposes the
core of racism--the manner in which Third World children are victimized by

it and programmed to accept a lesser lot in adult life. The academic achieve-
ments which Davis herself attained can be more fully appreciated when con-
trasted to the inauspicious conditions of her early education. In spite.of a

racist school system which relegated (and relegates) black children to condi-
tions least conducive to learning, Davis’ curiosity and encouraging parents
prompted her to be a sincere scholar. The “school” she attended was actually
a community of dilapidated houses with mud yards, leaky roofs, and pot-
bellied stoves. Textbooks were few and incomplete. There were no black
people on the Board of Education. Until their own ‘black library’ was built,
blacks could only gain access to library books through a daring black librarian
who smuggled them out.
L
66/ Quest, vol. I no. 3, winter 1975

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
As oppressive as these conditions were, and even as they facilitated racist
programming of genetic and social inferiority, Davis cites the disadvantage

turned to advantage—the opportunity to fill the void created by disregard
for what black children learned with a thorough and constant exposure to
black history. It was in this way that black southerners came to have such a
strong sense of community and self.
Obviously, this is a strategy which the women’s movement does not have
an opportunity to utilize against sexism in early education. It does, however,
present an explanation of why Third World and poor women have not come
to the movement in greater numbers: Because of the movement’s general
lack of commitment to the specific concerns of racially and economically

oppressed people, the divide and conquer technique continues to be success-
fully utilized to keep women from uniting.
Second, it has often been said that the women’s movement is patterned
on the black movement in terms of the concepts of consciousness and group
identity. Angela Davis’ pre-prison activism in Los Angeles provides an analogy

to substantiate that supposition. Through the same techniques of self-
knowledge, organizing and autonomy, both movements enhanced the oppor-
tunities for their groups to move more freely in society. Perhaps the commit-
ment necessary ¢o endure in the face of such opposition as Davis encountered
in Los Angeles is an extreme example when speaking of commitment to the

goals of the women’s movement. Nevertheless, as Davis told an audience after
her acquittal on the charges of murder and kidnapping, her presence

“signified nothing more and nothing less than the tremendous power of
united, organized people to transform their will into reality.”
This “power” did not come about because 1,000 strong people were
engaged in disjointed efforts to free Angela Davis. Rather, it was because
hundreds of thousands of people shared a group identity—-that of people who
were oppressed and repressed and who recognized that Angela Davis’
imprisonment typified the battle that was being fragmented by inability to
act cohesively. This strong group identity was further illustrated in the
reception Davis invariably received from co-inmates-the prisoners joining in

her hunger strike in protest of being kept in solitary confinement; the mes-
sages smuggled to her by sympathetic matrons; the inmates chanting

“Free Angela” slogans along with the demonstrators in the street; and num-
erous other instances in which solidarity grew out of a recognized priority.
This is where the women’s movement needs to be—and certainly hopes to
become-more effective. Certain passages in Davis’ book make the value she
places on group identity apparent. In one of her much publicized letters to

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
George Jackson, she talks about collective action and insists that “...individual
escape is an evasion of the real problem.” Further, “Women’s liberation in
the revolution (black) is inseparable from the liberation of the male.” It is
critical for the women’s movement to reach this understanding, because
Third World women have long since realized that they cannot be free unless
Third World men attain freedom as well. Is this a commitment the women’s
movement is able to concede...and then act upon?
The beginning of this review talks about the collision course Davis found
herself on when her personal goals were confronted by the political respon-
sibilities of her life. This collision course was actually set in motion some
years before her political emergence when, at 15, her academic goals, lifestyle
and politics were all realigned by her move from Birmingham to a white
family’s home in New York. During the several years following that move,
the civil rights movement was approaching its zenith while Davis, by that
time in Europe, pursued her studies in philosophy and “felt cheated” by her
geographical separation from the movement. It was the contradiction of

securing the most liberal education attainable while becoming increasingly
agitated to be involved in the civil rights movement which first mandated for
Davis the meshing of her personal goals and political responsibilities.
68/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
Black political activism was at its peak in the summer of 1967-Martin
Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Huey New-
ton and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense; Stokely Carmichael and the
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; black power. Plunging into

this male-dominated movement, Davis made arrangements to continue her
doctoral studies at the University of California in San Diego and soon found a
political base which combined campus activities in San Diego and community
organizing in Los Angeles.

As Davis points out in her Preface, “...with a little twist of history, another
sister or brother could have easily become. the political prisoner whom
millions of people from throughout the world rescued from persecution and
death.” That “little twist”, however, stems in large part from the fact that
Davis was an activist in the most turbulent days of black activism in Los
Angeles. The author gives a vivid account of the repression and persecution
which black activists were subjected to. The black communities of Los An-
geles were in effect militarized war zones with police utilization of Vietnam
veterans to subdue and harrass the community organizing which was being
attempted. Comrades were killed or wounded, and later, when her Communist
Party affiliation became known, Davis was assigned a body-guard in reaction
to the many threats against her life. With the killing of Jonathan Jackson in
August of 1970, Angela Davis’ personal goals began an inalterable subjugation
to her political responsibilities.

It is at this point that Davis actually begins her story. The book opens
with an account of Davis’ underground experiences while she was on the

FBI’s “ten most wanted criminals” list. If one has any sense of empathy, it is
not at all difficult to feel the fear and despondency she describes during
those months. Even though we know how the book will end-with her acquit-
talit is almost a relief when the capture finally takes place; at least she is
safe and the fear of pursuit can be shaken off.

There is no relief to be found, however, in the months of imprisonment.
There is the sisterhood which exists within the prisons and the compassion of
some of the matrons. But there is also the degradation, the racism, and the
cruel severities of prison life.
There is Davis’ persistent faith and dignity—after a particularly annoying

encounter with one matron, Davis firmly tells her, “You may leave now.”
But there is also the empty sadness as Davis relates her feelings when George
Jackson was murdered in San Quentin. This was the occasion in which
Angela Davis’ personal goals and political responsibilities finally collided and
painfully but surely reconciled themselves in her life: “George’s death would

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
be like a lodestone, a disc of steel deep inside me, magnetically drawing
toward it the elements I needed to stay strong and fight all the harder...He
was gone, but I was here. His dreams were mine now.”
Certainly this book meets the first of Davis’ objectives in writing it--to
make clear the rationale and intensity of her commitment. We should hope
that it will meet the second-to inspire others to join the growing community
of struggle. After the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis had
raised the cash to set her free on bail just before her trial, Davis reflected on
what had been accomplished:
Back in my cell, I lay down feeling a profound sadness. Why me and not the
others? I could not get rid of a sense of guilt. But I knew that my freedom
would be significant only if I used it to push on for the freedom of those

whose condition I had shared.
Hopefully Angela Davis’ book will help us see the urgency of maximizing
our strength by realigning our own personal goals with the political respon-
sibilities of our lives. Perhaps in that way the women’s movement can broaden
its horizons and develop new perspectives and priorities.
in the women’s movement.
the second wave

A MAGAZINE OF THE NEW FEMINISM
Box 344, Canıbridge A

Cambridge, MA 02139
vol3no3 prison
play
santa cruz bust
corporate child care

y NaMe with issue no.—
$3* for a year sub (4 issues). Start my sub
3. address ——$.75+$.25 postage for 1 copy of issue no.—_

city state zip *add $1. outside of USA; $7.50 airmail overseas
70/Quest

84.88.74.219 on Mffff:ffff on Thu, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC
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84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
-e BRIEFLY
by Gerri Traina
photographs by Victoria Eves
Once upon a time, about ten years a part of the anti-imperialist radiclib
ago, there wasn’t a women’s move- counter-culture-now called the “male
ment; the media hadn’t coined the left.” Then, our heroes were all who
sneer phrase, “women’s lib.” Women defied the establishment-from Abbie
got unequal pay for equal work and Hoffman to Dr. Spock, from the Wea-
didn’t protest; corporate annual re- thermen to the Black Panthers and the
ports did not brag that their companies Young Lords, from Julian Bond to
had affirmative action programs for Mark Rudd. We sailed with the Ven-
minorities and women; Jack Parr could ceremos Brigade, defied police in Chi-
comment about the size of a woman’s cago, extolled Ho Chi Minh, carried
breasts without a peep from his aud- the red flag of revolution. We wore our
ience; housewives who ran for public jeans and army shirts defiantly and
office were an oddity; and even in marched and chanted down barricaded
burgeoning radical nooks across the streets. And, funny thing, within this
country, “the girls can do the typing” subculture, we still typed, and cooked,
was heard.
and wiped the noses of our children.
Women have come from different I lived a very schizophrenic life
places and taken different routes to back then, sophisticated New York
get to feminism. But it is important professional by day, aspiring revolu-
to understand why and how we got tionary by night; the contradictions
from there to here; it is particularly were overwhelming. During involve-

important to see how our individual ment in a CR group for more than a
political history relates to gaining the year, these contradictions became
self-confidence necessary to carry out more and more apparent, and more
the things we need to do. and more unlivable. While other wom-
During the 60’s, a few of us became
en had already joined and confronted
72/Quest, vol. I no. 3, winter 1975

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
each other within N.O.W. or engaged that made possible my dawning aware-
in more militant actions, I stayed with- ness of those political realities that I,
in the security of my male-left spawn- as had so many women, previously
ed CR group. I was not ready, able, or ignored, avoided, or felt helpless to
willing to give up certain of the privi- deal with. CR enabled me to confront
leges that I had fought so hard for, myself and challenge the way I lived
since I came from a working-class, my life. It did for me what some
ethnic minority background. months of shrinking, many months
Certain realities, however, could of introspection, much glorious avoid-
not be ignored. I had no more status ance, and sporadic mattress time with
as a woman within the male left sub- men never did...the women in that CR
culture than I had within my family, group helped me confront my sexual-

my traditional job, or my relationships ity and state publicly, “I am a lesbian.”
with men. I sat on my hands during Stating publicly that I was a lesbian
interminable political meetings just as enabled me to state privately what I
I sat on my hands at professional was as a woman...a first and major
meetings. If I ever got the nerve to step towards freeing me to struggle
speak, I wasn’t listened to within our politically as a feminist. It took ano-
political group in the same way that I ther year to cross over from the male-
wasn’t listened to by any man with dominated Miami Convention Coali-
whom I had a relationship. tion to the Miami Women’s Coalition
My CR group provided the climate during the summer of 1972. Why did
it take so long? Conceptual change is a
painful process—you question what you

have been, what you have done with
your life until then. You want to keep

holding on to a piece of it because
you're fearful that you may get cast
adrift. Leaving the security of family,

leaving the security of a professional
job, leaving the security of being a

male-identified woman was-and is-
not an easy thing to do. Gut and brain
had to come together. It was not easy
to accept that I would no longer be on
the inside. Even though I was a politi-
cal radical, I was still embraceable by

some parts of society. Once, however,
I refused to function as a heterosexual,
once I focused my political energies on

the white, ruling-class male, on the
Looking Backward...Briefly/73

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patriarchal establishment that rules part of a community of women that
my life and the life of the world, then shares our commitment, that supports
I would be an outsider. And that is us, that works together politically in
sometimes a very lonely place to be. situations, where we get into women’s
music, when we get into our bodies
A Community of Women on varied playing fields, when we move
en masse to a women’s happening.
We “outsiders” who were trying to Within the community that is Wash-
define our politics needed to commune ington, D.C., even though we do differ-
with others like ourselves. So, by de- ent things and think different ways,
grees, we split, separated ourselves we know we are not alone, that there
from the male’s world and became a is a tremendous supportive network
living, working part of an all-women’s that keeps providing the momentum
world; we joined women’s communes, to propel us forward.
worked in women’s trade collectives, Of course, our community is also
socialized only with women, slept only very insular and can have within it
with women, joined women’s political components of destructiveness that
caucuses, started women’s centers and not only can damage self but also
women’s health collectives and wom- forestall, tarnish or even destroy our
en’s newspapers. political efforts. I have been used and
We were separatists and semi-separa- abused by some in the women’s move-
tists who needed time-—tirñe to`develop ment. I have felt that I was a flunky,
a sense of self that was positive and a patsy, a warm body that was needed
strong, to develop a feminist politics to accomplish a particular task. I have
that was viable, to overcome the years been angry and hurt by such treatment,
of conditioning that had prevented and I have known others who were
us from achieving our full potential. angry and hurt and got lost for awhile
We experimented with new ways to trying to sort things out. I suppose,
get things done. We had endless poli- then, that even when such abuse comes
tical discussions where we encouraged/ down on us, being sure of ourselves

forced every woman to participate; and what we are working towards is
we argued, we challenged, we remained crucial. That sureness of commitment
silent, we were divisive, we made ene- to a future which is beyond self is a
mies among ourselves, we trashed our quality of strong self concept since it
leaders, we were trashed by others, we allows us to keep doing and not be
were heavies, we were stars, we dropped inordinately affected by personal slings
out of the movement, we fought or and arrows. I contemplate my navel
gave up the fight...and some of us rarely; I would rather offer up my
survived,..and grew stronger. body daily to the not-so-genteel tug of
For many women, one contributory war that is the women’s movement in
aspect of a strong self-concept is being Washington than spend time with my
74/Quest

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chin leaning on my clenched fist dream- grown? How did we overcome all those
ing about Amazon takeovers. negatives that had been bred in us
Sometimes it becomes necessary to daily, those ever-building walls which
retreat to a private place to think and threatened to entomb us and throw
not just cry. But if we’re strong enough, off shadows that crept increasingly
we don’t stay in that private place for between us and the one ray of light
too long, because we may begin to like that kept us struggling? That ray of
it too well; it becomes so comfortable, light was our selfhood, the whole
such a nice refuge from harsh reality. woman that was in each of us, fighting
How many women do you know who
to stay alive and not give in to the
have retreated into the snugness of a shadows.
marriage, of an isolated woódlánd, of What did wedo? One thing some of
a university, or a relationship (with us did was to build a kind. of invisible
woman or man), who will never come cocoon around ourselves, a cocoon that
out again? allowed in the light rays but kept out

the shadows. We wore clothes that hid
A Metamorphosis our bodies so we would be less objecti-
fied as sex symbols, clothes which also

How have some of us survived, and gave us a freedom of movement to

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climb those mountains which our high Fairy” (Quest, Vol. I, No. 1), feminists,
heels had forbade, freedom to hurl ob- and particularly lesbian feminists, move
jects and to propel our bodies forward unselfconsciously, are comfortable with
without the restriction of “foundation their bodies, care for their bodies—are
garments,” freedom to look, act and “young” in very different ways than
be tough while we built up the strength are their male-identified peers who
wear the clothes and the accessories
to match the image we were putting
forth. that they think will keep them looking
We stayed young. “Youngness” is “young” and therefore attractive to

men.
a quality of self-concept. No matter
We surrounded ourselves with wom-
what a feminist’s chronological age,
be it 18, 38, or 58, the “youngness” en to give us space to let our ideas
of women whose energies and lives are grow and take form without getting
future-directed is markedly different shot down before they were fully for-
from the youth fetishism of our socie- mulated. There was space to read, to
ty, whose victims are mini-skirted challenge, to reject, to expand-space
grandmothers and women who haunt to put all the broken, shattered frag-
cosmetic counters. As Rita Mae Brown ments back together again, fragments
intimated in her article, “The Good of self that the male world tried to

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keep us from piecing into a unifying get flustered on the phone by male
whole. imperiousness, we didn’t fall apart
We created women’s centers and when “officials” in school systems or
women’s health clinics and women’s unions or law enforcement or business
presses where we had free rein for the slapped us on the wrist, implying that
first time in our lives to accomplish we should go home and be the wives
something without some male looking and mothers that we were “supposed
to be.”
over our shoulder telling us that we
were doing it all wrong, that they knew We are not dependent on men fora
easier, more effective ways to do it, definition of what we are. A male
that our emotions got in the way of doesn’t tell us what the limits of our
production; that there was no real abilities are. No longer do we need to
profit that would surface from our play the “office/coquette/ sociał rou-
energies. lette” games that are so ego destructive.
We were able to put more than two In fact, we are prepared to deal with
sentences together, then more than men only on our terms, not on theirs.
five, then mnore than ten, until we This means not wasting our energies
could stand up iri a room full of people confronting male sexism in speech,
and insist that we be heard. We didn’t action or the written word every time
we see it. This means not having to
put in “she” for “he” on all office

memos or argue when some male’s
conditioning has him open a door for
us. What a strong self-concept does in-
sure is a quality of ease that lets us

feel the assurance of our abilities, lets
us create our own space to learn, to
initiate, without constantly deferring

to “him” to “know” if we have been
successful. A strong self-concept is a
sense of freedom to deal honestly with
both men and women and to give free

rein to ideas with the confidence that
they will be discussed on their own

merit.
Different women have taken differ-
ent routes—or were forced by class cir-

cumstance to take different routes—
than I have. Many could not afford to
split from the man’s world; they had
to stay there and earn a living in order

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to survive. Some who have made the
split intend to stay there, either be- goals for women up front and tó dearn
cause they are involved in women’s alļ ‘the skills we- can’ from. that: orld.
businesses and are beginning to carve Factories, as such, may not exist in a
Á%
out the women’s institutions necessary futur:

‘society, but we mušst:learn what
towards creating a new society, or be- makes’ them work. Financial institu-
cause they prefer to live in a lesbian tions may not exist in their present
subculture where constant reinforce-
form x years from now, but we still
ment of their separatist life-styles is must learn how they function. Political
their only way to go. patties may be anachronistic, but we

I have chosen to reenter the male’s must know how they are structured
world on my own terms. No longer will and'why they appéar to survive.

I remain silent. I will insist that I be
listened to and paid for my efforts. I The Looking Glass Barkens

can write, I can talk, I can influence,
I can accomplish, I can produce, I can Where have we come to? Now that
succeed—and I also can learn those we have begun to hone ourselves to
things that are necessary to changing the sharpest edges of ourselves, where
the world. do we go from here? It is not enough
“Re-entry” is another process that to beat our fists against our breasts
can be destructive. We are not reenter- and proudly proclaim, “I Am Woman.”
ing the male’s world to get our own Our personal accomplishment is as
78/Quest

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nothing when compared to the work
that has yet to be done. Achieving a

more positive self-concept is just the
beginning, the first stage of an evolu-
tion that in the end must produce a
society where eveyone’s self-concept

is a positive one. We can’t sit back and
congratulate ourselves--or be isolated
from-those who attack us or denigrate

us or point at us with shame. -
We have to think harder and push

each other to think harder, have to
work harder and push each other to
work harder, have to get up off our

private ass while we shove each other
to get off our collective asses; we have
to put our private money where our

movement is before we can tell each
other what to do with our collective
money; we have to deal in the real
world with men on every level while

we plead with each other not to run
away and hide from that real world; the business done. Contemplating our
we have to pull our heads up out of navel is not going to move us any closer
the sands of yoga, hari krishna, jesus towards where the power is.
or zen...or men.
A strong self-concept is not for Gerri Traina is a women’s move-
playing games or filling up our hours ment organizer and management con-
or doing busywork to get us by, or sultant to community groups.
being the ultimate volunteer. Or for
getting us a fat media contract as
the up-and-coming feminist star. Get-
ting power is our goal and getting

Errata:
power is serious business, not for
powderpuff derby entrants. Amazons? Quest regrets the following errors
No. Serious women able to take respon- which appeared in the article by Vicki
sibility? Yes. A strong self-concept is Gabriner, “ERA: The Year of the

crucial to positive leadership, both on Rabble” (vol. I, no. 2). Unforgiveably,
the individual as well as the collective her name was misspelled twice; also,
ALFA is the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist
Movement level. Taking on the mantle
of leadership is necessary to getting Alliance, not ALF-Liberation,

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
Future Visions and Fantasies Theories of Revolution
The development of feminist ideol- Theories of Revolution recognizes
ogy requires a clear sense of the future; that the broad range of feminist politi-
a sense of where we are going, and cal activity across the country has gen-
what we want. For many of us the erated many questions. Is there a need
initial energy for involvement in the for feminist revolution? Can feminist
women’s movement was anger aimed ideology unify our individual and col- ,
at destroyinginstitutions which oppres- lective, local and national, personal and
sed women: capitalism, patriarchy, and political, organized and unorganized
white supremacy. Now that we are also approaches towards change? What is
trying to build a new society, we need the link between unity and pluralism?
a different kind of energy—energy What is the dynamic between feminist
grounded in our visions of the future. theories of revolution and our survival?
The relationship between vision and We chose the word theory because
struggle is at the core of the Move- it presupposes a willingness to create
ment’s development. Our visions will action-oriented critiques, demands, vi-
provide a measure of our successes sions and strategies for feminism. We
and a source of energy for a continu- see theories of revolution as basic to
ing commitment to struggle. the women’s movement because it

We need all kinds of visions and deals with the complex questions that
fantasies to spark our energies. Visions face us in our struggle for social, eco-
may deal with alternative forms of nomic and political change.
power relationships, work, social inter- Women are recognizing the limita-
action among people, supply and dis- tions of existing theories—socialist, re-
tribution systems for necessities such formist, anarchist, lesbian-separatist,

as food, clothing, health care, etc. But culturalist-and are seeking to create
beyond that, the women’s movement new models, directions, and definitions
needs its dreams and fantasies. We
for feminist theory, action and con-
must liberate our minds to soar into sciousness.
these outer limits, to create our own Theories of Revolution points to a

body of science fiction, myth, and new possibility of building feminist
other forms of the fantasy world. Our visions for change grounded in the real-
dreams may lead to concrete realitites, ity of the present. We seek your par-
may release unknown energy, may ticipation in that re-definition of our
reach women in ways that our concrete struggle.
visions cannot.
80/Quest

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Notes for prospective contributors
We would like to describe our processes for handling material

for each issue. About 9 months before an issue comes off the
presses, a small development committee prepares a list of ques-

tions and ideas which we hope that particular issue will cover. This
list is available to anyone who is considering submitting ideas for
the issue, outlines for potential articles, manuscripts, poetry, gra-
phics, etc. We accept unsolicited material and seek out writers and
artists known to have definitive political perspectives on issues
related to the theme.
All material is reviewed by several staff members. If it is not

appropriate for Quest purposes the manuscript or graphic will be
returned to the author. If a manuscript is to be considered, it is
then assigned to one Quest editor. This editor is responsible for
working with the author through whatever processes of rewriting
and editing required. This process includes soliciting comments and
suggestions from various Quest staff and Advisory Committee
members. Authors will receive final edited manuscripts for review
before printing.
Manuscripts should be double spaced on 8% by 11 paper, using

a black ribbon, submitted in duplicate (original plus one copy).
Where appropriate, bibliographic footnotes should be collected
and typed at the end of the paper in numerical order. All manus-
cripts, poems, and graphic material must be accompanied by a
stamped, self-addressed envelope. Only original, unpublished
manuscripts and graphics are acceptable.
Graphics, cartoons, photographs are requested. For information
concerning graphic specifications, please address all correspon-
dence to the attention of Alexa Freeman.

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC
futurė issues
WOMEN and SPIRITUALITY
vol. I no. 4
The spiritualism of women has to do with a commonality of spirit,
the affirmation of life, joy, a new world vision, and a new self, a spiritu-
ality that increases our power to fundamentally change human relation-

ships and society’s institutions. Areas for articles include: feminist
theology and philosophy; feminist visionaries and mystics; religious
forms for women in music, art, dance, sports, witchcraft, and astrology.
Copy Deadline: December 1, 1974
FUTURE VISIONS and FANTASIES

vol. II no. 1
What do we want?”—what are women’s visions of a new society,
what are our projections for new ways of living and working that meet
our needs for love, friendship, security, growth, freedom and fulfill-
ment. Areas for articles include: what kind of political system do we
want; what kind of economic system; what cultural and spiritual forms;
how should society be reorganized? Copy Deadline: March 1, 1975
THEORIES of REVOLUT ION

` vol. II no. 2
How do we get what we want?—will we need a revolution to achieve
new political and economic systems, new cultural and spiritual forms,
and if so, what kind of revolution. Areas for articles include: defini-
tions of revolution; what ingredients are required for revolution in
different societies; what is the role of leaders and political parties in
change; what are the steps necessary and obstacles to women taking
power to change society. Copy Deadline: June 1, 1975
ORGANIZATIONS and STRATEGIES

vol. II no. 3
Feminists have experimented with various organizations and strategies
for the past ten years; now we need to evaluate these closely and de-
termine what approaches are next. Areas for articles include: examina-
tion of different structures in terms of goals, successes, and failures;
tactical strategy charts and directions; the role of leadership, of national
and local organizations, parties, coalitions, and communications net-
works; problems of community control, participatory democracy,
gaining power, and goal achievement. Copy Deadline: September 1, 1975

84.88.74.219 on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:09:50 UTC

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Quest: A Feminist Quarterly

Source: Reveal Digital , 01-01-1975

Licenses: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial

This item is openly available as part of an Open JSTOR Collection.

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The SELFHOOD of WOMEN

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IT’S ALL DIXIE CUPS to ME

Copyright © 1975 by Quest: a feminsit quarterly,

is strictly prohibited. Quest: a feminist quarterly is pub-

lished four times a year in January, April, July, and Octo-

ber by Quest: a feminist quarterly, Inc., 1909 Que St.,

N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009, U.S.A. Application to mail at

second-class postage rates is pending at Washington D.C.

Printed by Diana Press, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

$8.00/year in Canada and Mexico; $10.00/year overseas;

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response will further debate on issues raised previously as well as

a feminist quarterly. Bulk rates available upon request.

Advertising rates and deadlines available upon request.

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picture, write a list, make an airplane, or

assignment, I draw a multi-layered pie

the process, I discovered a lot about

how I saw myself.

self that were given, out of my control:

my sex, race, class background, family

physical make-up. All told, these social

givens constitute a large part of my

termined, yet influenced by external

temperament, likes and dislikes, emo-

traits. Overlaying the entire drawing Bunch

these givens and traits. I discovered graphics by Ginger Legato

self-concept. mane policies all over the world. Simi-

For example, I am a female-that is larly, I looked at my training and indi-

2/Quest, vol. I no. 3, winter, 1975

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aspects and emphases resulting from

our strengths and weaknesses. I am not ly determined and circumscribed by

a psychologist determining motivation her functions: preoccupation with

ually and as a movement. The Western philosophical tradition

Self Definition and Political Survival/3

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just that--man’s search-the prerogative old patriarchal conditions that deter-

on-going struggles of everyday people. time to change ourselves, to change

and the accompanying self-concepts as a woman, but from her “superiority”

find themselves caught between old determination without a struggle. We

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as well as a personal one, must develop. survive as oppressed peoples: endurance

self-concepts. Conventional liberal wis-

women are the most oppressed and

areas. In my experience, many of the

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to devote as much energy to her art as political strengths.

a middle or upper class woman. A”similar paradox exists among les-

Yet, the very demands of everyday bians, whose self-concept is affected

oppression, we can examine the so- economically and emotionally. Except

in women’s status that accompanied sexual women, to develop strengths

Or have they further weakened us, greater clarity concerning self-concept

black family any further away from cue or support them.

strengths to create new possibilities usually closer to the working class

en’s selfhood, feminism, race, and professional degree is very different

a high school diploma. It is true how-