Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Awakenings: Developing A Regional Identity Through Women's Writings, Sally Brett

Women's Studies Quarterly

Before you can write about a Civil War mother's letters to her son or edit the courtship letters of a young Tarboro woman, you have first to find the letters. For some researchers, this means finding people—informants—and then, hopefully, the family manuscripts in the attic or barn or cupboard. For my class, I took a different—some might say easier—route: I identified manuscripts of interest in the university's manuscript collection. Actually, that is not as easy as it sounds. Most manuscripts come from prominent men of the region. Thus the emphasis of cataloguing falls on male activities—and male names. What you …

Women's Studies In West Germany: Community Vs. Academy, Tobe Levin

Women's Studies Quarterly

Rape, abortion, homes for battered women—these would appear to be the issues of paramount concern to West German feminists at the present time. But high on the list of priorities for 1978 has also been the question of women's studies, a subject of passionate, often bitter debate in recent months, with sides clearly drawn between proponents of differing allegiances. As in the United States, but with sharp differences, the discussion in West Germany focuses on the relationships among women's studies, the women's movement, and the community.

Activists here have been debating the proposed establishment of a "Women's Research Institute" at …

Daughters And Housework, Laraine Burns, Louis Kampf

Women's Studies Quarterly

Laraine Burns (a pseudonym, as are the other names in the essay below) took my course in Marxism while a senior premedical student at M.I.T. She was one of only two women in the class; the only Black person; the only student from anything other than a solidly middle-class family. It showed: in spite of M.I.T.'s insistent drive to make students forget who they are, she doggedly maintained her sense of social location; she was the only student in class who had a firm sense of what non-elite American life is about.

Sheila Rowbotham's Woman's Consciousness, Man's World was one …

"Mrs. K.": Oral History Of A Korean Picture Bride, Alice Y. Chai

Women's Studies Quarterly

Introduction

In 1923, Mrs. K., a nineteen-year-old picture bride-to-be, left a small mountain village in Kyong-sang province, Korea, to marry a forty-five-year-old Korean immigrant who awaited her arrival in Honolulu, Hawaii. Now seventy-five years old, Mrs. K. has spent fifty-five years of her life as a resident of the island of Oahu.

For Mrs. K., one of the 101 remaining out of 1,000 Korean picture brides who came to Hawaii between 1910 and 1924, life in Hawaii followed a similar pattern to that of other picture brides. She worked alongside her husband at an army laundry service; then she ran …

Review Of Trends In History: A Review Of Current Periodical Literature In History, Florence Howe

Women's Studies Quarterly

Trends in History: A Review of Current Periodical Literature in History, published by The Institute for Research in History, 55 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036. Subscriptions: $12 for individuals; $24 for institutions.

This is, in fact, a journal, but one that will appear twice a year; and because it will be reviewing a changing discipline, it will be as valuable as a book to those who are watching that field.

Nwsa News And Views, Elaine Reuben, Patricia A. Gozemba, Jerilyn Fisher, Liz Birch, Diane Marting, Barbara Fassler, Judy Marcowitz, Barbara Parker

Women's Studies Quarterly

The reports in this issue on the finances of the First NWSA Convention and on NWSA's Project to Improve Service Learning in Women's Studies might serve as Fall reports from the National Office.

Both are about NWSA activities derived from our broad definition of women's studies; both announce long-awaited good news of what we hope will be the first of many successful conventions and projects that will bring women's studies practitioners together to share the work of transforming curriculum and educational institutions.

Newsbriefs, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Big Ten Forms Women's Studies Permanent Consortium, Gayle Graham Yates

Women's Studies Quarterly

A permanent standing panel on women's studies was established early in 1978 within the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), the consortium of chief academic officers of the Big Ten universities* plus the University of Chicago. This action has considerable symbolic significance, for it means the official recognition of women's studies as an emerging academic field by the constituent universities of the CIC, which has regular meetings of various academic officers—academic vice presidents, liberal arts deans, etc.—of the member universities. The practical significance of this action is that now twice-yearly meetings of coordinators or representatives of women's studies in that group …

For The Teacher, Mary Grunwald

Women's Studies Quarterly

Poem.

Exhibits At The Convention, Nanette Bruckner

Women's Studies Quarterly

Nearly 100 registered exhibitors utilized 72 reserved tables at NWSA's First Convention. In addition, five "free tables" allowed for the spontaneous participation of countless other individuals and organizations. In many respects, the displays area was a busy microcosm of the larger Convention. Exhibitors ranged in size from an independent poet showing her solitary book of verses to a large publishing house displaying more than 100 titles in women's studies. Books included scholarly anthologies and "pop" paperbacks. Indeed, almost every idea endemic to women's studies could be found somewhere. Several political organizations also reserved space to share their concerns, and a …

Emma Willard: Feminist, Anne Firor Scott

Women's Studies Quarterly

Anne Firor Scott gave the Cum Laude Address at the Emma Willard School (originally the Troy Seminary) in May 1978. We have cut the lecture only slightly to fit our space and audience. It is, as she wrote to us, "an example of trying to persuade a group of students to look at the past of their own institution, and learn from it." "I gathered," Scott added, "that the students were expecting some kind of high-minded exhortation, and were pleasantly surprised."

Front Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Review Of Women's Studies: A Recommended Core Bibliography, Florence Howe

Women's Studies Quarterly

Women's Studies: A Recommended Core Bibliography, by Esther Stineman, with the assistance of Catherine Loeb, Libraries Unlimited, Inc., PO Box 263, Littleton, CO 80160. $27.50.

This is the single most useful reference tool in women's studies published thus far. The volume annotates 1,748 books and monographs in approximately 17 areas and sub-areas:...

Editorial, Florence Howe

Women's Studies Quarterly

Toward Women's Studies in the Eighties: Part One

In this and the next issue, we will celebrate accomplishments of the first decade of women's studies and outline new challenges. In the Winter 1980 issue, we will publish the new list of declared women's studies programs, now well over 300. We will also publish an annotated list of more than 21 research institutes for the study of women. We will continue our feature on graduate programs and our reporting on women's centers.

The omissions from these reports indicate the gaps in our knowledge as we approach the eighties. We do not …

Readers' Speakout, Joan Huber, Fanny Rinn, Alicia J. George, Dawnel C. White, Shirley Morahan

Women's Studies Quarterly

Dear Florence Howe:

Devoting an entire issue to the First Annual Convention of the National Women's Studies Association was enormously helpful to those of us who could not attend. The reports on the Convention indicated that it was simply first-rate. Nothing in the issue, however, helped me to understand why some delegates trashed the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and scapegoated its representative, Kathleen Staudt. I had hoped to learn why because a number of colleagues returned from the Convention with the story that everyone agreed that AID had no business being there. But no one could explain why. …

From The National Office, Elaine Reuben

Women's Studies Quarterly

During the final weeks of preparation for the First NWSA Convention last spring, various National Office tasks and concerns had to be postponed to a less hectic time we called "After Kansas." There was such a peaceful moment: it lasted just about as long as it took for the National Office staff to return from Lawrence to begin counting down days and deadlines "Before Indiana."

"After Kansas / Before Indiana" we have been responding to congratulations received on our first Convention and to suggestions for the second ; filling requests for information or materials from the 1979 meeting and beginning …

Some Thoughts On The Integration Of Diversity, Elizabeth Schultz, Janet Sharistanian

Women's Studies Quarterly

In contrast to the 1977 Founding Conference, when a much smaller number of participants concentrated, of necessity, on structural and definitional issues, the Lawrence Convention offered 246 sessions on an impressively wide range of topics to over 1,000 participants from most states and several countries. With twelve or more sessions running simultaneously at any time, the program could and did reflect the diverse constituencies within the NWSA.

Sometimes, indeed, it almost seemed that there was too much diversity; those working backstage were chagrined to see how often individual lifestyles and preferences were translated into demands for alterations in practical arrangements …

The Delegate Assembly, Shirley Frank

Women's Studies Quarterly

The 1979 NWSA Delegate Assembly, a body made up of more than 300 regional, caucus, and group member representatives, met for a full day at the NWSA Convention to hear reports on the state of the Association since its founding and to continue the process, begun in San Francisco, of developing governance structures and organizational priorities.

Reports were presented by Jan Meriwether, who spoke for the 1978-79 Steering Committee and described the activities of the Coordinating Council over the past two years; by Elaine Reuben, NWSA Coordinator, who reported on the efforts and accomplishments of the National Office in its …

Front Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

College Board Exam Places "Imprimatur" On Women's History, Mildred Alpern

Women's Studies Quarterly

There is a payoff in studying women's history. European History Advanced Placement high school students learned this in May 1978, when they had a chance to demonstrate knowledge of women's history in answering a document-based question dealing with the education of women from the time of the Renaissance to the early eighteenth century.

The Advanced Placement examination is divided into three parts: a multiple-choice section testing knowledge of the narrative history of Europe from 1450 to the present (75 minutes); one essay chosen from six topics dealing with major themes (45 minutes); and a required essay based on carefully selected …

West German Feminist Book Publishers, Mary Grunwald

Women's Studies Quarterly

Feminist publishers are the sensation in the German book trade. Fifteen participated in the October 1978 Frankfurt Book Fair—up from five at the previous year's fair; but even five had created a stir in the establishment. The entire phenomenon has sprung up in four years, a measure of the great accomplishment of the women's movement in a society that, compared to that of the United States or England, holds women in open contempt.

Far and away the biggest, most stunningly successful enterprise is the Frauenoffensive Verlag in Munich. Its rise to a snug place among established publishers was aided by …

Editorial: Hard Choices, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

Oberlin College, November 24, 1978

HARD CHOICES

Many of us deal with hard choices by refusing to choose: we decide that "both" are necessary and we divide our time, our resources, our energies, our love and commitment. And such decisions are, of course, necessary. We cannot usually choose between our families, our lovers and friends, and our work. We cannot make those choices because they are, in fact, unreal: our lives and our work are one. It is not that there are no tensions, no "obligations," no problems. But they are felt as such, and what one usually needs is …

Letter From The Road... At Oberlin College, Midway Point..., Margaret Randall

Women's Studies Quarterly

For three months last fall, Margaret Randall, American-born writer now resident in Cuba and well known for her bestselling Women in Cuba, toured more than 40 U.S. campuses. She began in mid-September at the universities of New Mexico and Arizona, and San Francisco State University, and concluded in late November at M.I.T., Wellesley, and Amherst. Her tour, coordinated by Phyllis Vine, historian at Sarah Lawrence College, testifies to the women's studies community's concern about feminism internationally, and to a broad campus interest in Cuba. At Oberlin, Randall, never a college student herself, taught a one-credit, one-week-long intensive course to 45 …

Centers For Research On Women, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

The preliminary listings that follow were kindly supplied by Mariam Chamberlain, Program Officer, The Ford Foundation. In a subsequent issue, we plan to provide annotated information about the work of the centers.

Brief, A-Mazing Movements: Dealing With Despair In The Women's Studies Classroom, Cheri Register

Women's Studies Quarterly

Women's studies majors at the University of Minnesota are required to take two quarters of a course called Women's Studies Seminar some time in their junior or senior year. While the theme of the seminar varies from quarter to quarter , its underlying purpose is constant: "to allow students to direct knowledge and methodology gained from courses and experience toward topics of an interdisciplinary nature with a focus on women." The variant that I taught in the fall of 1978 was called Feminist Learning: The University and Beyond. Its intent was to help students become conscious of the learning process …

Review Of Third World Women Speak Out: Interviews In Six Countries On Change, Development, And Basic Needs, Florence Howe

Women's Studies Quarterly

Third World Women Speak Out: Interviews in Six Countries on Change, Development, and Basic Needs, by Perdita Huston, with a foreword by Arvonne Fraser. Praeger Publishers, 1979, $17.95 cloth; $4.95 paper.

The photographs are compelling, and the text does not allow you to put the book down until you have read it from cover to cover. The six countries are Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Mexico; and the voices are women's: "Now go back and tell."

Review Of Mla Directory Of Periodicals: A Guide To Journals And Series In Languages And Literatures, Florence Howe

Women's Studies Quarterly

MLA Directory of Periodicals: A Guide to Journals and Series in Languages and Literatures, 1978-79 edition, compiled by Eileen M. Mackesy, Karen Mateyak, and Diane Siegel, with the assistance of the MLA Bibliography staff. Price: $65 to libraries, and $30to MLA members. Write to MLA, 62 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011.

To be updated biennially, this volume annotates 3,000 journals and series, and answers questions for the researcher or writer seeking a publisher for an essay or review.

Women's Studies In England, Helen Taylor

Women's Studies Quarterly

The following report was written for the Women's Studies Newsletter last spring, and hence omits several new developments at the University of Kent at Canterbury and at Oxford University that we will be covering in future issues. For further information about women 's studies in Great Britain, write to the Women's Research and Resources Centre (WRRC), 190 Upper Street, London, NJ, England.

A Roundup Report On 1979 Summer Institutes In Women's Studies, Shirley Frank

Women's Studies Quarterly

Summer Institutes have become a tradition in women's studies, although, compared to the hundreds ofNDEA Institutes in the '60s, the numbers are still painfully few. This year Summer Institutes were held in Alabama, Arizona, New York, and Pennsylvania. Their goals were all similar: to give participants—primarily, but not only, teachers—an education in the history and literature of women, which were not part of the curriculum when they received their formal training; to acquaint them with new materials and methodologies developed by feminist scholars and educators; and to provide them with a supportive network within which to continue the work of …

Newsbriefs, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.