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#feminist history
chlorinatedpopsicle · 4 months
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A video of "human calculator" Shakuntala Devi solving complex mathematical equations within seconds.
In 1982, she was awarded the Guinness World Record for fastest human computation. She was assigned a multiplication problem with two random numbers of 13 digits each (7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779) and gave the correct answer (18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730) in 28 seconds.
She travelled to several countries for the purpose of having her talents studied. In 1988, her abilities were tested by Arthur Jenson, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Problems given to her included calculating the cube root of 61,629,875 and the seventh root of 170,859,375. Jensen reported that Devi came up with the solutions (395 and 15) before he could write them down in his notebook.
Before all that, in 1977, at Southern Methodist University, she gave the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds. Her answer (546,372,891) was confirmed by calculations done by the UNIVAC 1101 computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation. The computer took longer to solve the problem than Devi did.
Oh, also, in 1979, she wrote the earliest book about homosexuality in India.
(info stolen from Wikipedia)
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gailcarriger · 1 year
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homosexuhauls · 1 year
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For more than half a century, it was just a rumor. As London’s river boat pilots passed by Waterloo Bridge (“The Ladies’ Bridge,” as some of them called it) they’d tell a story about the women who had built the bridge during World War II. But the idea that women had been largely involved in building Waterloo Bridge wasn’t included in any official history of the structure, or detailed in any records. During the new bridge’s opening ceremony, on December 10, 1945, then-Deputy Prime Minister Herbert Morrison had declared that “the men that built Waterloo Bridge are fortunate men.” It wasn’t until 2015 that the hard work of these women could be confirmed, by the historian Christine Wall, thanks to a series of photographs she found.
Eight years prior to her discovery, Wall had collaborated with the filmmaker Karen Livesey on a documentary called The Ladies Bridge. It explores the stories of women working on Waterloo Bridge and records first-hand the experiences of a variety of wartime workers who were women. “There was jobs galore. There was absolutely jobs galore. You could go anywhere,” recounts one woman in the film.
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Watch The Ladies' Bridge here
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profeminist · 1 year
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"A little-known feminist of the seventeenth century, Poulain de la Barre, put it this way: 'All that has been written about women by men should be suspect, for the men are at once judge and party to the lawsuit.'"
Simone de Beauvoir, in her introduction to The Second Sex
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“A butch without Metal” 
The dress code was hard on Gayle, whom the Lesbian-Feminists labeled a “female impersonator” because of her polished nails and make-up. Gayle said she wanted nothing to do with a woman’s “liberation” movement that bound her.  My own chains had become something of a problem. Doing reconnaissance on my favorite chain-link black leather boots, Radical Rita Right On had advised me, “you cant expect to retain a position of leadership with male-identified chain on your shoes.” My dark night of butchdom came around one evening as, with pliers, I pried off the gold chains slung around the ankles of my boots. Looking up at my bedroom wall, I read Judy Grahn’s poster poem, “a common woman is as common as a common loaf of bread.” Snapping the chain off my second boot, I almost cried and wondered if Grahn’s persona, Edward the Dyke, would have like my boots. I reached into the back of my closet, pulled a piece of black velvet out of my sex-toys box, and gently wrapped my chains around it.  Reshod, I stood in requiem in my boots. They were naked. I was stripped. I’d spent my life learning how to take my power through my feet. I’d drawn strength through the ground, through my boots. Felt the energy shoot out through my words, my hands. Now, a link in my butch power chain was severed. What did it mean to live as a butch without chains?  *** “I was sitting there, nervously slapping my hiking boots together, probably lost in a retrograde daze, when I heard a voice call out “Are there any butches in the room?” Subconsciously, I shot my hand up.  A hush swept the room and brought me into the present. I panicked. There was only one other woman in the room with her hand raised. “Damn!” I swore to myself, recalling the leader’s question as I felt my face turn as blue as denim. I’d been nailed by the androgynous imperative!  “This meeting is for women-identified women only. All butches must leave,”  the leader decreed. Having come to accept that all discussions in the women’s movement were collectively decided except when someone actually decided something, I stood and strode.  “This is politics. Don’t take it personally.” The older butch slammed the door in back of us as she put her arm around my shoulder. “They’ll change their minds tomorrow anyway. Come home with me. I know just what you need.” 
"Butches, Lies, and Feminism" by Jeanne Cordova, The Persistent Desire, (edited by Joan Nestle) (1992)
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Source: Sinister Wisdom 43/44 ( The 15th Anniversary Retrospective)
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haggishlyhagging · 10 months
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“Florence Nightingale was subjected to a ‘ladylike’ upbringing of enforced idleness with the most constructive activities allowed being those of company and visits, (Strachey says she was not even permitted to read to herself, but was read to, a practice which Nightingale describes as ‘like lying on one's back and having liquid poured down one's throat’ (ibid., p. 19).) It was against the uselessness and the despair of such an existence that Nightingale revolted and engaged in a continual battle with her parents. Her mother, who insisted on Nightingale's vacuousness in order that she might be marriageable, relented slightly as Nightingale grew older, rejected proposals, and passed the acceptable marriageable age. It was this relaxation of control, as well as Nightingale's determination, which led to her being able to break out from her suffocating existence and to pursue what she perceived as her vocation. But before she was able to make her move, she had to endure for more than thirty years the repressive regime of a leisured and unmarried woman, 'shut up tight within the conventions which forbade independent action to a woman' (ibid.). It was from this experience that she wrote about and analysed the position of women.
Florence Nightingale recognised that men insisted that women should be happy, and that women therefore were required to assert that they were happy — no matter what the circumstances of their lives — for men took it as a personal offence if the women whom they 'supported' declared themselves unhappy, with the result that women who wished to continue to be supported continued to state that they were happy even when they were most miserable. (This is a point taken up by Jessie Bernard in The Future of Marriage (1972), though, of course, she does not suggest that this is a fairly old idea and one put forward by Florence Nightingale.)
That it is obligatory for a woman to be happy, to present a contented and cheerful disposition to her master in order that he can feel satisfied with the arrangement and secure in the knowledge of his own psychological (as well as financial) indispensability, is a lesson that mothers unwaveringly teach their daughters, argues Nightingale. The only way such a lesson can be taught successfully is by the systematic denial and removal of passion from women. If emotion were allowed to reside in women, says Nightingale, women could not bear their lives, so women go round teaching ‘their daughters that "women have no passions." In the conventional society, which men have made for women, and women have accepted, they must have none, they must act the farce of hypocrisy, the lie that they are without passion — and therefore what else can they say to their daughters, without giving the lie to themselves?’ (Strachey, 1928, p. 396).
And the daughters, taught to deny the existence of any passion, to deny the existence of any will or force in themselves to cultivate a smiling, serene veneer, which reinforces men's images of themselves, try to find amusement, fulfilment, meaning, in the most 'escapist' activities. This is why women read novels, states Nightingale, for in a novel, the heroine has generally no family ties (almost invariably no mother), or, if she has, these do not interfere with her entire independence (ibid., p. 397); and the reader can dream. Women thus ‘wish their lives away’ because their daily existence denies them purpose, meaning, commitment, aspirations and action. They simply exist to cater for the psychological and physical needs of men and are permitted no life of their own. 'Passion, intellect, moral activity — these three have never been satisfied in a woman', says Nightingale. ‘To say more on this subiect would be to enter into the whole history of society, of the present state of civilisation' (ibid., p. 398), for women are given neither time, opportunity nor sanction to develop their own resources for themselves. (Mary Beard, 1946, had a great deal more to say on this subject.)
'Women are never supposed to have any occupation of sufficient importance not to be interrupted, except "suckling their fools", she continues, and women themselves have accepted this, have written books to support it, and have trained themselves so as to consider whatever they do as not of such value to the world or to others, but that they can throw it up at the first "claim of social life". They have accustomed themselves to consider intellectual occupation as a merely selfish amusement, which it is their "duty" to give up for every trifler more selfish than themselves (Strachey, 1928, p. 401).
So she continues, explaining why it is in a sense, women do not exist as individuals, why it is that women cannot pursue any intellectual activity, systematically, why it is that women's time is not considered valuable, and why it is that they do not have any. 'Women never have half an hour in all their lives (excepting before or after anyone is up in the house) that they can call their own, without fear of offending or of hurting someone' (ibid., p. 402), for they must always be available. And 'for a married woman in society, it is even worse. A married woman was heard to wish that she could break a limb that she might have a little time to herself. Many take advantage of the fear of “infection” to do the same' (ibid.).
Florence Nightingale gives every indication that she understands why the two sexes are required to behave in the manner that they do, and why it is that women's loss is men's gain. If it was this aspect of the woman question that she had in mind when she stated that she didn't expect much from the vote, her assessment was completely justified and her conventional portrayal as anti-feminist is then cast in a very different light. The changes that she sought (and which to some extent she managed to procure for herself — as did Harriet Martineau) were so radical that there was little likelihood that the vote would have been of much assistance in bringing them about.”
-Dale Spender, Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them
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intersectionalpraxis · 2 months
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I've seen a lot of (usually white) feminists talk about how western/European women should also replicate/do '4B' as well just as Korean women have -without recognizing or understanding the context with which 4B arose.
The current very right-wing South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, is very much responsible for continuing to put the health, well-being, as well as safety of Korean women at risk. Whether it be through him vehemently stating gender discrimination no longer exists to attempting to abolish the ONLY organizing that focuses on supporting women -the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.
He has also only added a handful of women into his cabinet AFTER he was criticized for not having done so in the first place. When he was elected back in 2022, my solidarity has and will always remain with women and folks who experience marginalization in South Korea, such as those in the LGBTQIA+ and disability community, among many. I will, nor should NO ONE ever forget how this man campaigned/how he was elected in mass by misogynistic men.
President Yoon Suk Yeol also remarked about creating incentives for MEN by lowering their mandatory military service if they have more children with their wives... needless to say, 4B is specific to the lived experiences and realities of living under patriarchy in South Korea in many elements of her daily life. I stumbled on this video on my fyp, and this Creator gives SO much great context to 4B, and for those who can watch/listen I highly recommend this video as a start to understanding Korean feminism.
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spiderfreedom · 6 months
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historical revisionism of second-wave feminism
I'm wondering where this idea that "second-wave feminism" didn't bring up race came from. It seems to be conflating liberal feminism, starting with Betty Friedan's "The Feminist Mystique", for the entire movement. But "second-wave feminism" refers to an entire era of feminist organizing, including lesbian feminism, socialist feminism, radical feminist, and numerous Black feminist works with multiple intersections. Why should Friedan and NOW's 'liberal feminism' be the representative of an entire era of feminist writing? What do we have to gain from pretending that there were no Black feminist writers during the second wave?
The US women's movement has always had ties to anti-racist movements like abolitionism and the civil rights movement, as well as the New Left and socialist/anti-war movements. White feminists tried to include racial analysis in their books - to mixed effect, e.g. Susan Brownmiller's book "Against Our Will" proved to be contentious for its treatment of interracial rape of Black men against white women (example).
It feels like there's been a wave of historical revisionism to make the second-wave seem more limited and single-issue focused than it really was, in order to make "third-wave" feminism seem novel, exciting, and necessary. It's resulted in a whole generation of feminist writers and cultural critics who don't read or quote or engage with the feminist works of the second wave. They are dismissed out of hand as irrelevant or limited. It feels like another way to say "stop paying attention to women's history, just believe me when I say the first and second waves were irrevocably damaged and that the third wave is the only way to go."
I think this article does a good job of capturing one of the reasons why an interracial feminism failed to form, which is that white women assumed Black women also wanted an interracial feminism, when many Black women, especially at the start of the movement, were not interested in solidarity with white women. The fantasy of a racially integrated society was often much more important to white organizers than to Black organizers, who may have instead wanted Black self-determination. I disagree with some of the points of the article (can elaborate if anyone is interested) but I recommend reading it anyway for a retrospective on why white attempts to reach out to Black women failed - white feminists did attempt to reach out, but failed to focus on issues that were relevant to Black women, failed or were offensive in their racial analysis, and failed to understand the importance of racial solidarity for Black women.
Correcting the record on the racism and failures of white feminists in the second-wave is necessary work to building a strong movement. But there's a difference between correcting the record and pretending that white feminists didn't try to talk about race at all. They did! They were participants of anti-racist movements! But they failed to understand their own racism. They failed to understand the complex dynamics between white men, white women, Black men, and Black women. They failed to focus on issues that resonated with Black women. They were failures of bad attempts, not that no attempt was ever made... and that's the part I find weird.
The idea that there was no racial analysis made during the second wave, by white women or Black women, flattens a complex history. Like fun fact - the Combahee River Collective Statement which is the foundation of intersectional feminism and third wave identity politics? Is a second wave text! It was published in 1977, in the late era of second wave activism in the US!
I have more to say later, but for the moment, I'd like to present you with some examples of second-wave feminist texts written by Black women. Read them, and avail yourself of another myth - that there is One Black Feminism. Black Feminists have always had internal disagreements, which frightens white feminists, because white feminists want to know The Correct Answer On Race. I highly recommend reading these (and modern Black feminist texts too!) to understand the situation Black feminists faced in the 60s and 70s. All of these texts were published between 1960 and 1980. They are all essays or excerpts - links provided where possible.
Black Women’s Liberation group of Mt. Vernon, New York - Statement on Birth Control
Mary Ann Weathers - An argument for Black Women’s Liberation as Revolutionary Force (https://caringlabor.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/mary-ann-weathers-an-argument-for-black-womens-liberation-as-a-revolutionary-force/)
Frances M. Beal - Double Jeopardy: to be Black and Female
Doris Wright - Angry Notes from a Black Feminist (https://yu.instructure.com/courses/49421/files/1918241/download?wrap=1)
Margaret Sloan: Black and Blacklesbian
Alice Walker - In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens
Angela Davis: Joan Little: The Dialectics of Rape (https://overthrowpalacehome.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/ms.-magazine-from-the-archives.pdf)
Michele Wallace: A Black Feminist’s Search for Sisterhood (https://www.amistadresource.org/documents/document_09_03_010_wallace.pdf)
The Combahee River Collective (https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/combahee-river-collective-statement-1977/)
Barbara Smith - Racism and Women’s Studies (https://hamtramckfreeschool.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/smith-barbara-racism-and-womens-studies.pdf)
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campgender · 15 days
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Lesbian feminism’s negative valuation of butch-fem communities also seems to be a response to the explicit sexuality these communities expressed through butchfem roles. From the beginning, lesbian feminists tended to downplay sexuality between women in an attempt to free lesbians from the stigma of sexual deviance. They separated lesbians from gay men, primarily with respect to the place of sexual expression in men’s and women’s lives. This trend, which became fully elaborated in the 1980s, was central to the identity around which lesbian-feminist politics was built and to the debates that developed around sexuality throughout the entire feminist movement.
In 1980 and 1981, the publication of two works had a powerful impact on the shape of lesbian feminism and on research about lesbian history, Adrienne Rich’s “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” and Lillian Faderman’s Surpassing the Love of Men. Both works privileged passionate and loving relationships over specifically sexual relationships in defining lesbianism and explicitly separated lesbian history from gay-male history. Rich’s work is not intended to be an historical study; nevertheless, it proposes a framework for lesbian history. She establishes a “lesbian continuum” that consists of woman-identified resistance to patriarchal oppression throughout history. The lesbian transcends time periods and cultures in her common links to all women who have dared to affirm themselves as activists, warriors, or passionate friends. The place of sexuality in this resistance is not specified and the butch-fem lesbian communities of the twentieth century, because of their use of gender roles, are considered, at best, marginal to women’s long history of resistance to patriarchy. Thus, in this formative work for lesbian feminism, the only group of women in history willing to explicitly acknowledge their erotic interest in women are not central to the definition of lesbian.
from Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy & Madeline D. Davis (2nd ed, 2014; originally published 1994)
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chlorinatedpopsicle · 3 months
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The Ovarian Sisters were an Australian feminist band active in the 1970s and 1980s.
They formed in 1977 and first performed to support a public meeting about abortion rights. The group initially used British and American songs by various artists, re-writing the lyrics to suit the messages they wanted to convey. It wasn't so much of a band as much as a collective with many participants.
In 1979, the group was refined to six members, and they started writing their own original songs.
👆This is just a snippet of info taken from their Wikipedia page. It's real neat. :)
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auxryn · 2 months
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The Lavender Menace. My sibling suggested this one for the theme of 'femme/queer Space Marine Chapters.' The logo is based on the logo used by the OG menaces back in the day.
It was my first time printing on transfer paper and I had expected it to be transparent, rather than giving a white background. I will be able to do a better job on my next project.
This was also my first experience using Agrax Earth with basing. Lots of fun possibilities there. I want to add some flocking to the base when I get the chance.
I made antenna detachable and magnetized but two still snapped off and broke on my first outing. Such is the life of the modeler.
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unapologeticallygay · 4 months
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Martha Shelly is a Jewish activist lesbian and feminist.
She was involved in many forms of activism including the Vietnam anti war protests and was an ally to the Black Panthers. She joined the Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian civil rights group, in 1967, and later went on to become president of the New York chapter. While working as a secretary in the office of fundraising for Barnard College, she joined the Student Homophile League.
After witnessing the Stonewall riots and seeing the public reaction Martha was inspired to organize a protest. With the DOB and the Mattachine Society they organized the first gay protest march in America, shortly after that, they formed the Gay Liberation Front. She became the face of the movement, going on tv programs and speaking at public events.
As a young adult her therapist put her through a conversation therapy of sorts, she insisted she try to be bisexual as to not “give up on half the world in her dating pool”. She tried for a while, getting with other gay men put in this program and went on to date bisexual activist Stephen Donaldson. But after her working with the GLF and getting more involved with her community she accepted herself as a lesbian.
At the time lesbians were considered a threat to the feminist movement. The president of The National Organization for Women Betty Friedan called lesbians in the movement a “lavender menace” and the organization distanced themselves from lesbian causes and even omitted the sponsorship of the DOB. Women from DOB and the GLF, including Martha, joined together to create the group ‘Lavender Menace’ in response. Together, dawning shirts and signs they protested at a NOW event for lesbian causes to be included.
My job was to jump up on the stage and grab the mic. I explained that we were here because lesbians had been excluded, and we wanted to talk about our issues. Then I put it to the audience. "Let's take a vote how many want to continue with the panel discussion? How many want to hear what we have to say?" The women voted overwhelmingly to hear from us. Then other Menaces marched down the aisle and stepped up onto the stage, while a few remained in the audience. A freewheeling discussion ensued. At their next annual conference NOW revised their platform to include lesbian rights.
The group was soon after renamed the Radicalesbians.
Despite members of the group partaking in it, Martha did not consider herself a lesbian separatist. She liked the idea of lesbian only spaces but thought that splitting the gay movement into smaller groups would weaken the movement as a whole.
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Sources:
We Set the Night on Fire: Igniting the Gay Revolution by Martha Shelley (2023)
Martha Shelley - Wikipedia
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our-queer-experience · 11 months
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emma goldman was the blueprint for feminism and she did it the best out of everyone and i will die on this hill.
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going thru the archives and came across this in a newspaper from 1901(?). I’m being really Normal about it, btw. in case u were wondering.
[IMAGE ID: We have the history of the Prodigal Son, returning and the killing of the fatted calf, but there is no mention of the rejoicing at the return of the Prodigal Daughter. She has never been allowed to return. END OF IMAGE ID]
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cendrillonmedousa · 2 years
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Notable, Present-day, Radical Feminists
As a second wave feminism, we assume that radical feminists are hard, if not impossible, to find in today's world. Here is a list of notable women you can still interact with today.
Chude Pam Allen, co-founder of New York Radical Women
Ti-Grace Atkinson, author of Amazon Odyssey
Kathleen Barry, co-founder of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Linda Bellos, first Black lesbian member of Spare Rib feminist collective
Julie Bindel, co-founder of Justice for Women
Jenny Brown, author of Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women's Work
Professor Judith C. Brown, pioneer in the study of lesbian history
Susan Brownmiller, author of Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape
Professor Phyllis Chesler, co-founder of Association for Women in Psychology
D.A. Clarke, known for her development of feminist theory
Nikki Craft, creator of the Andrea Dworkin Online Library, Hustling the Left website, and No Status Quo website
Christine Delphy, co-founder of the French Women's Liberation Movement
Professor Gail Dines, author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality
Melissa Farley, founder and director of Prostitution Research and Education
Marilyn Fyre, author of The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory
Carol Hanisch, best known for "the personal is political"
Merle Hoffman, co-founder of the National Abortion Federation
Professor Shelia Jeffreys, author of The Spinster and Her Enemies
Lierre Keith, founder of Women's Liberation Front
Anne Koedt, author of The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm
Marjorie Kramer, editor of Woman and Art Quarterly
Professor Holly Lawford-Smith, author of Gender-Critical Feminism
Dr. Catharine Alice MacKinnon, author of Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case for Sex Discrimination
Robin Morgan, creator of Sisterhood Is anthologies
Dr. Janice G. Raymond, author of The Transsexual Empire
Kathie Sarachild, coiner of term "Sisterhood is Powerful"
Alix Kates Shulman, author of Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen
Gloria Steinman
Michele Faith Wallace, author of Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman
Dr. Marilyn Salzman Webb, co-founder of the first feminist consciousness-raising groups in Chicago and Washington D.C.
Harriet Wistrich, founding director of Centre for Women's Justice
Laura X, led the campaign behind making marital and date rape a crime in over twenty countries
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