Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Review Of Women's Studies Programs Funded By Federal Government, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

At the request of the Advisory Council on Women's Educational Programs, Florence Howe has agreed to write a short-range review of the current state of women's studies programs. To do that job, she and research associate Dora Janeway Odarenko will travel to 15 campuses from late September through early December 1976. They will gather specific, first-hand information on the shape and development of women's studies programs, the institutional setting and support structure of these programs and their educational goals. An essay-report of 60 pages, written after the site visits and due in Washington by the end of January 1977, will …

Editorial, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

As we enter our fifth year of publishing the Women's Studies Newsletter, we're confronted by an interesting paradox. On the one hand, people all over the country continue to tell us how important the Newsletter is; how wonderful, useful, crucial to the women's studies communication network and to the future of women's studies. On the other hand, although we can count more than 5,500 women's studies teachers in higher education alone (and our subscribers include libraries and public school teachers), our subscription list numbers less than 2,000. In short, we're praise-rich and subscription-poor! And while it's nice to be …

Alice M. Lord: Labor Organizer, Erika Gottfried

Women's Studies Quarterly

[This article is one of a series on lost women written by Erika Gottfried as part of an independent study project at the University of Washington in history and women's studies. The essay was first printed in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, July 18, 1976.]

Probably few of Washington's workers ever have stopped to wonder who gave them their eight-hour work day. If they had, they would have learned that a large share of credit goes to one courageous woman-Alice M. Lord. Lord, who was instrumental in forming the Waitresses' Union Local 240, was the moving force behind the lobbying …

Black-Eyed Blues Connections: Teaching Black Women, Michele Russell

Women's Studies Quarterly

This is the first in a series of three segments in which this article will appear. The second half of the text will appear in the Winter 1977 issue and thlJ accompanying bibliography in the Spring 1977 issue.]

In Detroit, I am at the Downtown YWCA. Rooms on the upper floors are used by Wayne County Community College as learning centers. It is 10 a.m. and I am convening an introductory black studies class for women on Community and Identity. The 22 women who appear are all on their way from somewhere to something. This is a breather in their …

Louisa May Alcott On The Concord Centennial, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

[This report of the women's role in the Concord, Massachusetts centennial celebration is by Louisa May Alcott. It originally appeared in The Women's Journal of May 1, 1875 with the subtitle, "Unofficial Incidents Overlooked by the Reporters." We offer it in celebration of the American Bicentennial.]

Being frequently asked "what part women took in the Concord centennial celebration?" I give herewith a brief account of our share on that occasion.

We had no place in the procession, but such women as wished to hear the oration were directed to meet in the Town Hall at half-past nine, and wait there …

Women's Studies In The High Schools, Florence Howe

Women's Studies Quarterly

[This article has been adapted from the introduction to High School Feminist Studies, available from The Feminist Press for $5 plus 50¢ postage.]

The high school years are critical for the future of females and males alike, not only for what they enable students to understand about human relations between women and men and among members of families, but also for what they enable students to envision of the world of work. For many students, these are the last years of required schooling, the years preceding important choices: marriage, vocation or college. Half don't or can't choose college; and …

Living/Learning In Women's Studies, Judith Ann Sturnick

Women's Studies Quarterly

You may never have heard of Capital University (2500 students, affiliated with the American Lutheran Church), but I can introduce the character of our campus very quickly: located in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, founded 125 years ago and drawing the majority of its students from Ohio. Befitting its loca tion in this conservative area of the Midwest, the campus too is highly conservative. Nevertheless, in this environment a sustained and dedicated effort has been going on for the past four years to bring a feminist perspective to our campus, to encourage and keep feminist students and to develop a …

Librarians Adopt Proposal On Sexism, Racism, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

The American Library Association's (ALA) centennial convention, held in Chicago, July 1976, and attended by 18,000 librarians, will go down in history as a victory in the battle against sexist and racist attitudes in the library world. The Council on Interracial Books for Children (CIBC) distributed more than 5,000 copies of its Bulletin (Vol. VII, No. 4) which carried their proposal, "An Action Program for ALA." In the course of the week-long convention, the CIBC proposal for librarian action against racism and sexism evolved into a formal resolution that was voted upon by the membership and adopted as official policy …

Grass Roots Women's Studies: Wisconsin Women In The Arts, Estella Lauter

Women's Studies Quarterly

By lucky accident, in September 1974 I saw a brochure announcing a conference to be held that October in Lacrosse, Wisconsin-a city 250 miles across the state. After I rubbed my eyes and looked again, the brochure still said that Elizabeth Janeway and Miriam Schapiro would be the featured speakers. Although I knew nothing about the brand new sponsoring organization, Wisconsin Women in the Arts (WWIA). I resolved to attend. I had assigned Janeway's book in my course that fall and I knew Schapiro by reputation, though I had never seen even a print of her painting, and I had …

Back Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Images Of Women In Medieval Literature: A Selected Bibliography, Susan Schibanoff

Women's Studies Quarterly

This bibliography focuses on images of women in medieval literature rather than on medieval women writers for several reasons. First, the study of literary images of women can provide a real sense of the climate in which the individual medieval female artist might have lived, a necessary first step in evaluating her contributions. Second, the problem of identifying the authorship of anonymous medieval literary works is a large one. It is becoming apparent, however, that there were probably more good medieval women writers than those few we currently identify—Marie of France, Eleanor of Aquitane, Margery Kempe, Christine de Pisan, the …

Corrections: Regional Women's Studies Associates, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

We made a mistake in our reporting on the Northwest Women's Studies Association in our Spring 1976 issue ("Regional Women's Studies Associations," page 2). The NWSA was formally organized in January 1976 (not fall 1975) when representatives from schools in Oregon and Washington met and approved a statement of purpose and set current definitions and goals.

Corrections: Grass Roots Women's Studies: South Carolina, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

The author of "Grass Roots Women's Studie s: South Carolina" in our Summer 1976 issue was incorrectly identified. The author is Leslie Todd, a graduate assistant at the University of South Carolina.

Margaret Fuller Mystery Continues, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

In the Winter 1976 issue, we challenged our readers to identify the woman in picture one, whom we had incorrectly captioned Margaret Fuller. We have received six entries to date: three identifying the woman as Alice B. Toklas, one identifying her as Helen Keller and two identifying her as Dame Edith Sitwell.

Women's Studies Dissertations In Hispanic Literatures, Phyllis Zatlin Boring

Women's Studies Quarterly

Hispania, the journal of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, annually publishes listings of completed dissertations and of dissertations in progress in the fields of Hispanic languages and literatures. The most recent listing reports the titles of doctoral theses from 135 departments of Spanish and Portuguese and 45 departments of linguistics . A brief survey of these listings indicates a continuing interest in women's studies topics.

Part-Time Teaching: Some Problems And Recommendations, Sharon Dean

Women's Studies Quarterly

Although several studies have been done on part-time teaching, a need still exists for more thorough and up-to-date information.* The most recent statistics available appear in a report by the Modern Language Association's Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission found that in 1971, 57 percent of the part-time teaching positions in the modern languages were held by women. It also found wide variation in the treatment of part-time faculty. Thirty-three percent of the departments surveyed determined salary on a per course basis, usually $1000 to $2000, figures substantially lower than a per course breakdown for full-time faculty. Only …

The Maimie Letters, Patricia M. King

Women's Studies Quarterly

Relevance in history today is often identified with the discovery of the history of the nonelite classes, those men, women and children of the past who belonged to the vast but inarticulate majority. With the aid of the computer, the scanty evidence: birth, marriage and death dates in town, county or church registers; addresses in city directories; and entries in hospital, prison and census records is yielding information on the economic and social conditions, geographic mobility, and marriage and childbearing patterns of the lives of those who hitherto have been silent because they left no traditional written sources for historical …

Grass Roots Women's Studies: The Nashua, New Hampshire Area, Jeannine Dobbs

Women's Studies Quarterly

While the rest of the state is still dependent on tourists, textiles, apples and chickens, southern New Hampshire looks and sounds more like Massachusetts, especially suburban Boston. Nashua, New Hampshire exemplifies the border communities: Massachusetts is a ten-minute drive from downtown; 20 percent of Nashua's labor force commutes to jobs in Massachusetts (most to Lowell, Boston, the Route 128 industrial belt or Boston suburbs) ; another 20 percent commutes to Nashua jobs from homes in Massachusetts.

Nashua is the state's second largest city (population 63,000), and it is growing rapidly. A number of bedroom communities (Hudson, Amherst, Hollis, Merrimack and …

Planning Continues For The National Founding Convention, Sybil Weir

Women's Studies Quarterly

On June 9, and intermittently throughout the Berkshire Conference at Bryn Mawr College, a Continuations Committee met to plan further aspects of the Founding Convention of the National Women's Studies Association. Each of the regions was represented by at least one person, and in a few cases, two. Despite a heat wave and everybody's end-of-the-semester exhaustion, the good feelings generated at Philadelphia in March continued to sustain us as we realized that the convention and the National Association were indeed becoming a reality.

Grass Roots Women's Studies: South Carolina, Leslie Todd, Linda Todd

Women's Studies Quarterly

Although big industry is changing South Carolina's standing as a mainly agricultural state, its population is still generally rural—and conservative. Several major corporations have built plants in recent years; the attendant influx of upper middle-class families has created pockets of comparative wealth. Despite these new population clusters, however, the state's educational standards reflect a "small-town" ethos, particularly at the secondary level. Most of South Carolina's liberal arts colleges are located around its more densely populated cities: Columbia (the state capital, located in the center of the state; population approximately 114,000); Greenville (in the northwest corner, population approximately 62,000) and Charleston …

Berkshire Conference Report, Jane Williamson

Women's Studies Quarterly

Anyone who has been confronted by a student, teacher, colleagueor friend with the remark—hostile, ignorant, or both—that "women never did anything in history" should find enormous comfort and pride in the Third Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. The 157 papers that were presented in 70 sessions over three days to an audience of nearly 1500 demonstrated not only the scope of women's participation throughout history, but also the vast amount of work that women historians have done in uncovering that participation. And if the sheer size were not impressive enough, the creativity and scholarship of the work, and …

Grass Roots Women's Studies: Chicago, Cathy N. Davidson

Women's Studies Quarterly

The women's studies offerings on college campuses in the Chicago area seem, at first glance, disappointing. the University of Chicago has no courses in this field; neither Northwestern University nor the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle allows an undergraduate major. But despite such inauspicious indications of a general lack of commitment to women's studies in the Second City, there are still a number of more or less established programs available. For example, both Chicago Circle and Northwestern, although they give no degree in women's studies, do staff courses that would almost allow one. At Circle, approximately 80 women each …

Advice From A Chinese Revolutionary, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

The following comes from a speech made by Ting Ling on the occasion of International Women's Day in 1942 to the women of Yenan, then the center of Communist insurgency in mainland China. It is available in a pamphlet from Femintern Press, c/o Takagi Sawako, 7-22- 18 Nishishinjuko, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Books From Canada, Wendy Keitner, Lois Gottlieb

Women's Studies Quarterly

Mother Was Not a Person compiled by Margret Andersen. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1972; 2nd ed. 1974. 253 pages $3.95 paperback.

Women in Canada edited by Marylee Stephenson. Toronto: New Press, 1973. 331 pages. $4.50 paperback, $9.95 hardcover.

Privilege of Sex: A Century of Canadian Women edited by Eve Zaremba. Toronto: House of Anansi, 1974. 173 pages. $3.50 paperback, $8.50 hardcover.

Women at Work. Ontario, 1850-1930 edited by Janice Acton, Penny Goldsmith and Bonnie Shepard. Toronto: Canadian Women's Educational Press, 1974. 405 pages. $6.00 paperback, 12.50 hardcover.

Back Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Review Of We Become New: Poems By Contemporary American Women, Florence Howe

Women's Studies Quarterly

We Become New: Poems by Contemporary American Women edited by Lucille Iverson and Kathryn Ruby. Bantam, 1975.

An anthology of 43 contemporary poets, this one is frankly "feminist" in its orientation. The editors chose poems that define "those themes at the core or root of the new and vital image of woman emerging from our present women's movement."

Letters To The Editor: Coeducation?, Elizabeth Newman

Women's Studies Quarterly

Dear Ms. Howe,

I am a junior at Hunter College High School, and am taking a social studies course entitled Women in American History. I am working on my term paper for the course American Women in Science and I came across your paper in Women and Success: The Anatomy of Achievement edited by Ruth Kundskin. I was particularly attracted by your suggestion of "separatism" in the schools, a means by which young males and females can meet with members of their own sex for consciousness-raising sessions.

Back Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Review Of Women's Films: A Critical Guide, Jane Williamson

Women's Studies Quarterly

Women's Films—A Critical Guide. Indiana University, 1975. Available from Audio-Visual Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47401. This attractive paperback is an excellent source for teachers, students or anyone else who is unable to cope with the problems in finding and choosing films about women. From January to June 1974, Indiana University students, teachers and counselors—men and women—met to view and evaluate films on women. Their evaluations were incorporated into annotations by film critic Carolyn Geduld.

International "Feminology" Conference, Barbara Rubin

Women's Studies Quarterly

[FEMINOLOGY n. 1. a Danish term used for scholarship concerning women's position in society, past and present; 2. an interdisciplinary field of study and research about women]

It was a European first: The Dutch/Scandinavian Symposium on Woman's Position in Society. I stumbled onto the conference plans while researching international feminism in Amsterdam, received an invitation, and soon was en route to the University of Nijmegen, a conservative Dutch institution where women comprise only 23 percent of the student population—an ironic sponsor for a conference whose events would become strongly political and thorny during June 8-11, 1975.