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The Development of Communication Networks Among Women, 1963-1983
by Martha Allen
Chapter 5
SINGLE-ISSUE WOMEN'S PERIODICALS, 1968-1983
Single-issue women's periodicals multiplied rapidly between
1968 and 1983 with some 620 coming into existence during these
years. They fall into five overall categories, indicating the
areas of interest that women were sufficiently concerned about
to begin communicating through networks. Women developed specialized
periodicals on: (1) health and safety, (2) media, (3) education,
(4) politics, and (5) economics. In addition, several other miscellaneous
or overlapping special interest periodicals stood as an important
part of women's sharply increasing periodical publishing activity
in this period.
On health and safety, women established more than 98 periodicals,
including many among women in sports. On media, women began more
than 88 periodicals, some which dealt with specific media, such
as radio, art and theater, music, film, video, and writing. The
most activity occurred in the area of education, with women founding
more than 155 periodicals, including literary publications. On
politics women started more than 104 periodicals during this period
while on economics they founded more than 130 periodicals.
Each of these clusters of periodicals represented a complex network
of women, and altogether they greatly extended the women's movement
to include women active in a multitude of special areas of interest,
concern, and expertise. The significance comes from carrying the
women's movement and its extensive communication networks to women
who would not have been reached by the multi-issue periodicals,
either because of those papers' small circulations, or because
they could not deal in sufficient depth with a particular issue.
These single issue papers were able to relate to the particular
and special area of greatest relevance to women's personal or
professional lives, politically, socially, and economically.
Health and Safety Periodicals
Even in the multi-issue women's media health and safety were
always a primary concern. Therefore it is no surprise to find
so many periodicals focusing specifically on these areas. Sixty-one
periodicals were devoted to health issues. In 1976 the National
Women's Health Network established the National Women's Health
Network News, which tied together this network among women.
Published in Washington, DC, this newsletter provided up-to-date
women's health and medical information and analyzed the impact
on women of federal health policies, Congressional legislation,
and various health programs.
In addition, a network of newsletters arose out of the women's
health centers popping up across the country. In 1974 alone, the
periodicals that arose out of women's health centers included
the Elizabeth Blackwell's Women's Health Center Newsletter,
Minneapolis; Feminist Women's Health Center Report, Los
Angeles; The Speculator in Honolulu, edited by Nancy Moser;
and the Feminists Women's Health Centers Newsletter out
of the Women's Choice Clinic in Oakland, California.
In 1979 two quarterlies appeared. The New Hampshire Feminist Health
Center published Womenwise and the Women's Health Center
in Milwaukee published Irregular Periodical: Newsletter of
the Bread and Roses Women's Health Center. Other health center
newsletters included the Emma Goldman Clinic Newsletter [Emma's
Periodical Rag] which appeared in Iowa City; Half the Sky
published by the Routh Street Women's Clinic in Dallas, Texas;
and The Hot Flash in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which, edited
by Marmika, focused on traditional Spanish and Native American
women healers.
Although many of the women at these health centers may not have
subscribed to a multi-issue women's periodical, they often said
they avidly read their center's periodical on issues of particular
concern to them. These single issue periodicals carried the message
of the women's movement for equality as well as health news and
information, thus extending the concepts of the movement to new
women.
This same extension of the women's movement accompanied the periodicals
begun by and for women working in the health professions. Women
in, or related to, the medical profession had a wide variety of
periodicals through which they shared their experiences. For example,
women in nursing practice, education, research and administration
communicated through Cassandra: Radical Feminist Nurses Network,
published in Williamsville, NY, beginning in November 1982. Medica:
Women Practicing Medicine, edited by Ronni Sandroff in New
York, dealt with the neglect and isolation felt by many women
practicing medicine and addressed non-clinical issues, such as
how to combine family and medical career, the ethics of artificial
insemination and uncovering the history of women physicians. Jane
Ayers and Ina May Gaskin edited the quarterly The Practicing
Midwife News, in Summertown, Tennessee, to provide information
for midwives on health issues and the politics of medicine. Even
wives of doctors had a publication that found the women's movement
addressing their concerns. Medical/Mrs. Magazine, published
in New York, was, as its editor Cynthia Smith noted, "solely
directed to the spouse of a man who is in the position of a near-God."
Still other periodicals, while containing health information for
women in general, also served as a means to communicate their
experiences among each other. The Monthly Extract: An Irregular
Periodical, begun in1972, described itself as a "Communications
network for the Feminist Gynecological Self Help Movement to fire
the revolution by which women will rightfully reclaim our own
bodies." In 1974 the quarterly Healthright appeared
in New York, edited by Carla Cassier and Andrea Boroff Eagan.
The quarterly Hot Flash: A Newsletter for Mid-Life and Older
Women in New York provided women over forty with an information
network on health issues. In 1975 the Coalition for the Medical
Rights of Women published Second Opinion, formerly The
Coalition News, in San Francisco on a bi-monthly basis and
continued publishing well past 1983. The Federation of Organizations
for Professional Women published Women and Health Roundtable,
focused on lobbying and women's health issues, in Washington,
D.C., beginning in 1977. The Women's Legal Defense Fund also in
Washington, D.C., put out the Pregnancy Rights Monitoring Project
News, a free periodical providing information on laws affecting
pregnancy rights in the workplace.
Two journals arose to deal with addictions among women, bringing
the women's movement ideas to thousands more women who probably
never saw a multi-issue paper. For example, in the mid-1970's,
Women for Sobriety began publishing Sobering Thoughts for
women alcoholics. Edited by Dr. Jean Kirkpatrick in Quakertown,
Pennsylvania, this monthly newsletter pointed out that there were
five million such women in the United States. The interdisciplinary
quarterly Focus on Women, Journal of Addictions and Health,
from Philadelphia, covered family violence, child abuse, occupational
hazards, smoking, and drug abuse. The purpose of Feminist Health
Fund, Inc. Newsletter, from Yellow Springs, Ohio, was to accept
money from donors and give it to economically disadvantaged women
during catastrophic illness.
Among the 37 periodicals on women's health, there were at least
24 dealing with the issue of abortion rights. As early as 1969
the National Abortion Rights Action League Newsletter appeared
in Washington, DC, edited monthly by Rebecca Saady Binghamand.
At this same time, the National Association for Repeal of Abortion
Laws published N.A.R.A.L. News in New York. Some women's
health papers linked the issue of abortion rights to all reproductive
rights and some others also to efforts against sterilization abuse.
Related to these periodicals that were focused on health issues
were at least 16 periodicals dealing with women and sports. Here,
too, special interest periodicals extended the movement's concepts
of equality to a considerable number of women. In addition to
the general sport periodicals like Sportswoman, published
by Amazon Publications in 1973, WomenSports in 1974 in
New York, and Women's Sports in California in 1979, there
were numerous specialized periodicals. The extensiveness of these
developing, national communication networks can be seen in their
titles alone: Camping Women Trails (California and later
Nevada), Through the Hoop (Pennsylvania), Washington
Women Outdoors (Maryland), Women at the Helm Quarterly
(California), Women in Softball (California), and Woodswomen
News. (Minnesota). Had it not been for such periodicals connecting
women through their special concerns, the women's movement would
not have become as pervasive as it is.
Concern about safety also led to a rapid increase in the number
of women's periodicals on this subject and widespread attention
to this problem resulted in such abuse gaining legal recognition
as a form of sex discrimination. Here, again, the single-issue
safety periodicals reached many thousands of women facing or experiencing
violence who had not previously been aware of the existence of
multi-issue women's periodicals until they read about them in
these papers. In this way the networks were extended to many more
women.
Between 1968 and 1983 over 21 periodicals arose to provide communication
networks for exchange of information on violence and abuse against
women and on efforts to deal with it. As these periodicals became
more numerous and more vocal, mass media began to report on women's
concerns for safety, although never enough to provide a substitute
communication network for the one women had now developed. The
issue was not as serious a problem to mass media as it was to
the women who faced it, and therefore women stressed the necessity
to speak for themselves on these concerns.
In 1974, Aegis: Magazine on Ending Violence Against Women,
then under the name Feminist Alliance Against Rape Newsletter,
began, and well past 1983 served as the major communication forum
for women working on issues of violence. Another organization,
Women Against Violence Against Women, published newsletters in
several cities, including Los Angeles and Seattle. These newsletters
served as vital communication networks for women organizing to
affect the level of violence directed against women.
Rape crisis centers across the country also published newsletters
like Caring For Our Own in Washington, DC and the Rape
Crisis Center News in Madison, Wisconsin. Women Organized
Against Rape in Philadelphia began publishing WOAR Newsletter
in1973, dealing with rape prevention, self-defense, lobbying,
counseling, and education.
The number continued to increase through the 70's. In 1976, the
Center for Women Policy Studies began publishing Response to
Violence and Sexual Abuse in the Family in Washington, DC,
and in 1977 the National Communication Network for the Elimination
of Violence Against Women appeared in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
focused on rape and self-defense. That same year the Task Force
on Battered Women and Sojourner Truth House in Milwaukee began
publishing the bi-monthly Outcry on battered women and
pornography.
Women in the self defense movement also saw the close connection
with women's movement concepts, extending them to whole new audiences
of women and girls as they developed communication networks in
at least five notable periodicals. Perhaps the most significant,
and longest lasting of these, was Fighting Woman News,
edited and published by Valerie Eads in New York and covering
women's martial arts, self defense, and sport -- "Fighting
in Sport or Necessity," as Eads wrote. Eads had written feature
articles for Black Belt magazine and other male-owned martial
arts media but learned that she could not rely on the male-owned
media as a means of communication for other women despite its
impressive outreach. In December 1975, she decided to begin her
own periodical.
Three months earlier, in September 1975, Black Belt Woman,
The Magazine for Women in the Martial Arts and Self Defense
had already been launched by Dana Densmore, one of the founders
of the earliest (1968) theoretical journal on female liberation,
No More Fun And Games. The publication emerged to serve
as a communication and information network for all women in the
women's martial arts and self-defense movement. The characteristics
of women's media were particularly evident in the pages of Black
Belt Woman. Densmore, the publisher, stated that the editors
"believe in the power of information and the importance of
communication" and for this reason the editors formulated
a policy "to print essentially everything which is submitted,
unedited, with only a few guidelines." One of the guidelines,
Densmore stated, "is that we want every woman to speak for
herself." This characteristic of women's media was considered
important because without it women could be isolated. Part of
what kept women in the martial arts isolated, Densmore noted,
was the presumption of others, including the male-oriented karate
magazines, to speak for them, to represent them. Another characteristic
of women's media which the periodical stressed was to avoid articles
that dealt in attack. Controversy was acceptable and considered
useful. "Attacks are energy draining, hurtful, and no one
likes to read them," Densmore wrote, explaining the policy
of the periodical. "No one is going to risk expressing her
opinions, and especially not try out new ideas, if she has to
fear she will be attacked." The in-depth explanation of several
of the characteristics of women's media in this specialized periodical
help indicate that they were concerns not only of the multi-issue
periodicals, but also of single-issue periodicals as well.
Karen Lunquist of Washington, D.C. began the third martial arts
periodical, The Girls' and Women's Taekwondo Newsletter,
in 1982 to provide a communication network for women in the Korean
style of martial arts and to expand the concepts of women's equality
to this traditionally male martial art. In California Beth Austin
published the Women in Martial Arts Newsletter and then
later edited the Velvet Fist, published by A.W.A.R.E. (A
Woman's Answer to Rape).
Women's Media Periodicals
Media, as a single issue, itself was the subject of at least
86 women's periodicals arising between 1968 and 1983 and probably
had a greater influence on extending the women's movement and
women's communication than any other of the single group of issues,
excepting possibly education. In this case networks grew through
the double outreach effort of the issue being both a subject matter
and a medium itself -- a periodical print medium about other media,
such as art, music, video, and radio.
The periodical that provided significant analysis of both the
women's media networks in all its forms and also the male-owned
mass media was Media Report to Women, launched in 1972
by the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP), in Washington,
D.C. This periodical not only analyzed and documented the characteristics
of women's media, but it advocated new principles upon which to
base journalistic decisions. One such principle was to emphasize
facts over opinions. "Although entitled to express our opinions,
even without giving the facts on which we based them, we believe
that all people must find, as we do, that others' conclusions
are nearly useless without their facts to enable us to judge the
opinion's merit for ourselves, or to form our own," wrote
the editors. "Conclusions without facts keep us apathetic,
powerless to act, and dependent upon the decision-making of others."
The WIFP's annual Index/Directory of Women's Media, which
emerged in January 1975, not only documented the existence of
women's media in all forms, but in 1977 began including "The
Seven Assumptions for a New Philosophy of Communication,"
written by Donna Allen and Dana Densmore. By 1978 the Directory
was also including WIFP's "Radical Feminist Analysis of Mass
Media," originally published as their "Call For Research."
Media Report to Women published comments by attorney Florynce
Kennedy on media's power to inhibit expansion of the women's movement.
Her insights articulated what many women were experiencing as
to the effects of the mass media on women and the women's movement.
"The press divides us and asks why we're not together,"
she noted, continuing:
"For, as we all know from reading the papers
and watching TV, feminists are nothing more than child-hating,
white, middle-class, lesbians who are mainly interested in burning
their bras and being called "Ms." And, besides, they're
too homely to get a man. We also know from reading ladies' page
profiles and interviews that all women who have "made it"
did it by themselves and are "no women's libbers." They
say so themselves when the reporters ask them. And the reporters
always do.
"One wonders how many child-tolerant, man-tolerant,
non-white, low-income, straight, brat-tolerant women who don't
call anybody "miz" have been drummed out of the women's
movement, and how many never dared join because they saw it on
TV.
"If the feminist movement doesn't do something
about the media soon, we run the risk of more press-provoked splits
-- and fewer members. Already, a women's center in one of the
boroughs which serves mainly working-class women has had to censor
the word "feminist" from its publicity because its organizers
fear no one would come to their programs."
Women across the country who shared these experiences took up
Florynce Kennedy's call to examine the media and organized specifically
around women and media issues.
In Memphis, Tennessee in 1973, the Women's Media Project Newsletter
began one project activating Southern women to negotiate agreements
with local broadcast stations for employment of more women, especially
black women, and for more women's programming. Such newsletters
were the means by which women in media spoke for themselves at
the same time they were extending movement concepts to new women.
The earliest of the media periodicals began in 1969 when Media
Women in New York published Media Women's Monthly. Coming
from media women, this journal covered not only media issues,
but issues such as abortion rights, child care, the Equal Rights
Amendment [ERA], and lobbying. In 1971 the Image of Women National
Task Force Committee of the National Organization for Women published
Electra. That same year the Image of Women Task Force in
Eastern Massachusetts also produced a newsletter. And in 1972
the National Federal Communication Commission Task Force of NOW
published a newsletter in Chicago which covered media, feminism,
the ERA, lobbying and women's rights in general. In 1973 the Feminist
Media Project Newsletter began in Washington, DC. A monthly
critique of women's image in local and national print and broadcast
arose in the mid-1970's in Honolulu, HI, entitled Monitoring
the Media in Hawaii.
On the West Coast in 1973, Booklegger Magazine arose
in San Francisco, reviewing independently-produced feminist materials
and media and publishing a guide in 1978, The Passionate Perils
of Publishing, which included an analysis of the book publishing
industry. Both carried feminist concepts to more women. "Book
publishing, like all industries, is controlled by rich, white,
heterosexual men," it stated. "To retain this power,
their books naturally reinforce status quo attitudes of privilege
and discrimination." In an article on feminists in print,
the author mentioned the "amazing multiplication of women's
periodicals, publishers, distributors and bookstores." Two
of the characteristics of women's media were stressed when she
wrote: "Having realized that information is power and that
this society is media manipulated, we want to speak for ourselves."
Professional media women published their own periodicals. The
National Federation of Press Women, Inc. published Press Woman;
Women in Communications, Inc., Matrix; and American Women
in Radio and Television, Inc., News and Views. All had
chapter papers, such as AWRT's Stand By, the Washington,
DC chapter monthly newsletter featuring news, profiles, career
hints and analysis of government rulemakings in broadcasting.
Chicago Women in Publishing began their newsletter in 1972, including
analysis of publishing trends from a feminist perspective, but
also extending the outreach of other women's movement concerns
with articles on subjects such as self defense for women. The
Committee on Women in Business Communications of the International
Association of Business Communicators published Dialogue, while
the women's committee of the Association for Education in Journalism
put out Status News.
Periodicals also arose among many non-print media, to be discussed
more fully in chapter seven. The Feminist Radio Network published
Calliope in 1978, for example, to assist women in the building
of communication networks through that medium.
Women concerned about pornography communicated through various
forms of media, both print and non-print, establishing periodicals
that discussed common courses of action for all women to influence
and change this form of media abuse of women. Women Against
Violence in Pornography & Media Newspage, for example,
edited by Laura Lederer in 1977 in San Francisco, served as the
monthly newsletter of a 500-member feminist organization active
in fighting abusive images of women in news media, magazines,
advertising, and the openly pornographic print, video, and cable
media.
The rapidly-expanding new media technology also gave rise to periodicals,
extending the communication networks to women involved in and
interested in these new technologies. The Feminist Computer
Technology Project Newsletter in San Diego, California, for
example, reported their efforts to make computer technology available
to more women and to advance the feminist movement. Women in Instructional
Technology, an organization founded to deal with the issues and
concerns of professional women in educational communication and
technology, published the periodical, Platform.
To assist women in getting their messages out, newly risen
women's bookstores across the country shared their experience
and advice with each other through the Feminist Bookstore's
Newsletter, edited by Carol Seajay in San Francisco, which
aided women writers, musicians, and artists in reaching many new
women.
There were also resource periodicals on media. Catalyst Media
Review appeared in New York as a quarterly review of audio-visual
materials dealing with work-related issues of concern to women.
And in 1981 Linda Parker put together the bimonthly Feminist
Periodicals: A Current Listing of Contents in Madison, Wisconsin,
which reproduced the table of contents pages of major feminist
periodicals.
Art and Theater Periodicals
Approximately a third of the 90-some periodicals on media
that arose between 1968 and 1983 dealt with women's art and theater,
ranging from the1971Women and Art, and the quarterly Feminist
Art Journal that began in 1972, both published in New York,
to the West-East Bag (W.E.B.) published in 1972 in Los
Angeles by the International Liaison Network of Women Artists.
The National Organization for Women had numerous women-and-arts
task force newsletters, and other women's organizations also put
out periodicals on women's arts. In 1975 Women Artists Newsletter
was published on a monthly basis by a New York organization of
women committed to combating sex discrimination in the arts. In
1976 The Women Artists Group News began in Seattle as "a
forum for the exchange of ideas and information vital to all women
who care about the arts." Women's art centers also published
periodicals, such as the Washington Women's Art Center News,
in Washington, DC which began a monthly in 1978.
Women founded independent ventures as well. A quarterly titled
Womanart Magazine arose in New York devoted to women in
visual arts with articles of historical and contemporary interest,
exhibition reviews, and reports on current events, and Elisa Honig
Fine published the Women's Art Journal was published in
Knoxville, Tennessee.
The women's art community was replete with consciousness-raising
periodicals, each extending the women's rights movement to a different
area of women's art. Although few of these women may have been
acquainted with the multi-issue periodicals, they sometimes read
about them in their art periodicals. For example, the summer 1977
issue of Women Artists Newsletter contained a national
news roundup covering events by Southern women and by women in
California, New York, Baltimore, Chicago, and Boston. Included
also was a story about the slide presentations selected by Women
Against Violence Against Women primarily from Vogue magazine,
showing images of violence and victimization of women. Art periodicals
and their independent networks served women artists well. Each
had their own feminist raison d'être.
Women in the theater and performing arts had several periodicals
through which to communicate with each other. In 1975 they could
read Women in Performing Arts Newsletter, and in 1983 they
could turn to Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist
Theory. Edited by Jill Dolan and Judy Rosenthal, Women
& Performance, discussed feminist issues in theater, dance,
film, video and ritual, and noted the inhibiting effect of mass
media. "We are tired of our absence from established media
-- an omission that prevents us from communicating," they
wrote. "Creating this journal begins to give women a louder,
more articulate voice everywhere in culture." The journal
was to serve "as a vehicle for discussion and analysis of
our past, present and future activities," the editors wrote.
In studying the portrayals of women in films, Jane Dowd found
a "flawed image, an illusion of liberation, an illusion of
a metamorphosis." She stated that most female protagonists
were still trapped in old film myths that reward the passive and
punish the strong. It was clear to them that women had to produce
their own media.
Women's theater groups sometimes also published their own newsletters,
as did The Los Angeles Feminist Theatre in 1971 and At The Foot
of the Mountain, a women's theater in Minneapolis, in 1978.
Music Periodicals
Eight women's periodicals dealt specifically with music, two
of them arising in 1974. Founded and edited by Dorothy K. Dean
in Milwaukee, the quarterly Paid My Dues included in its
first issue "The Herstory of Women in Music," interviews,
record reviews, the words and music of four songs, and other articles.
It also included a call urging women to send in articles to share
their music and knowledge in a network section that would enable
musicians to link up with others. The other 1974 periodical was
Indra Allen's Musica: A Newsletter About Women in Music and
the Music in Women out of San Francisco. Its first
issue included the names of women's recording companies, a list
of records already out, and of women interested in recording and
playing with, or for, other women. It also included a few news
items and information about where women were playing.
Exhibiting the characteristics of other women's media, each of
these music periodicals applied the non-attack approach to the
question of whether music reviews should pass judgment on other
women's music. They sought to have women musicians speak for themselves.
Dorothy Dean wrote in Paid My Dues that thus far she had
reviews done only by people who were impressed by the albums,
and asked her readers what they thought of this. Musica editor
Indra Allen printed information about women's music performances
and albums, insisting that it be written by the musicians themselves.
"Most reviews as they exist now consist of the opinion of
a person who feels required to pass judgment on someone else's
work," she wrote. "Just being another person is supposed
to give impartiality. Too often a critic judges according to her
or his own tastes, or by comparison," she noted. "But
who's the better informed on the music that someone does than
that someone?" In Musica, women's reactions appeared
as various individual's opinions, rather than as a judgment passed
by the editor or someone else who was supposed to be "objective."
Potentially most crucial to making women's music a network and
greatly extending the women's movement to these new women, were
the producers, managers, and distributors of women's music. Their
international newsletter Music Women was published out
of New York, with the express purpose of creating a network to
share skills and set up tours.
Other women's music periodicals were Clara, begun in 1977
as a bimonthly newsletter and research report on women's music;
the monthly Boston Women's Music Newsletter, also begun
in 1977, which provided information on women's music, especially
in the Boston area; the newsletter of the American Woman Composers,
Inc., which served composers and musicians with articles on performances
of women's music, grants and competitions, record and book reviews;
the International League of Women Composers Newsletter, quarterly
publication of that organization; and The International Congress
on Women in Music Newsletter, published quarterly in Los Angeles
beginning in January 1983. Scarcely a facet of the women's music
world was without its communication network. Scarcely an aspect
was untouched by the women's movement or failed to make a contribution
to it.
Periodicals of Writers' Groups
For the woman writer, there were five significant women writer
periodicals appearing in this 1963 through 1983 period. The Feminist
Writers' Guild published a national newsletter in Berkeley beginning
in 1978, as well as numerous chapter newsletters. The Association
of Women Writers' monthly Bylines was edited in Honolulu
by Roberta Caperoon. Network was the publication of the
International Women's Writing Guild founded by Hannelore Hahn
in New York. The National League of American Pen Women published
a monthly magazine in Washington, DC. A nationally distributed
newsletter, Women Writing, appeared in western New York
in the mid-1970's "to increase communication with and mitigate
isolation of women who are writing."
Film and Video Periodicals
Seven periodicals dealt with film and video issues. As early
as 1972 Siew-Hwa Beh and Sawnie Sayler edited the tri-annual Women
& Film in Berkeley. In 1974 in Boston a group called Filmwomen
published the monthly Workprint, to provide "a forum
and communications network for the community." The women's
film company, Women Make Movies, published a newsletter in New
York; and Camera Obscura: A Journal of Feminism and Film Theory
appeared tri-annually out of Berkeley, beginning in 1976.
Washington Women in Film and Video, Inc. published a monthly newsletter
in D.C. for its members working professionally in film or videotape;
and the Women's Access Coalition published a quarterly bulletin
on women's programming in the local cable systems in the Greater
Boston area.
Educational and Literary Periodicals
The largest single issue area of network-building through
periodicals, and the most extensive expansion of women's movement
outreach, was to be found in the educational and literary periodicals.
More than 154 periodicals arose during this period. Of these 154
periodicals, 58 were literary and 96 centered on educational areas
in women's studies, women's history, interdisciplinary approaches,
equality in education, continuing education, and research periodicals.
Women's studies periodicals sprang up across the country in the
1970's, including many notable ones. As early as 1970 the Feminist
Press began publishing Female Studies, edited by Florence
Howe. Howe also edited the Women's Studies Quarterly, published
jointly by the Feminist Press and the National Women's Studies
Association in 1972. Feminist Studies, founded in 1969
by Ann Howard Calderwood, began publishing in 1972. It later became
a quarterly edited by Claire Moses at the University of Maryland
in College Park, and covered critical, scholarly and speculative
essays and studies in all areas of feminist inquiry. Also in 1972,
Sara Stauffer Whaley founded Women Studies Abstracts in
Rush, New York, as a quarterly. It continues as an invaluable
research tool. In 1973, Wendy Martin began the tri-annual Women's
Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal in Flushing, New York
as a forum for presenting critical scholarship about women in
such fields as literature, history, art, sociology, and science;
she included poetry, fiction, and book reviews. The University
of Michigan Papers in Women's Studies, an interdisciplinary
academic quarterly journal, published between 1974 and 1978.
In 1975 several more women's studies periodicals appeared. The
Women's Studies Program at the University of Colorado in Boulder
began publishing Frontiers; A Journal of Women's Studies, while
Indiana University in Bloomington published Women's Studies
in Indiana. From the Apple to the Archive of Columbia, Maryland,
published from 1975 to 1983. In 1978 the Feminist Press began
publishing Women's Studies International Forum, originally
as a quarterly and later twice yearly.
Women's studies periodicals with particular focuses, such as history,
arose during the later years of the 1968-1983 period. The Company
of Women Newsletter focused on 18th Century American women's
history. In 1973 Folklore Women's Communication began publishing
tri-annually in various locations, primarily in the South. The
Women's Caucus for the Modern Languages published Research
in Progress in numerous locations, several as early as 1971.
Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society began
in 1975 as a quarterly international, interdisciplinary forum
for research and discussion about women. Trivia, A Journal
of Ideas, published in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1982, described
itself as a magazine devoted to radical feminist thinking, publishing
that thinking in the form of theory, scholarship and reviews.
In 1983 Women's Diaries: A Quarterly Newsletter began,
edited by Jane DuPree Begos, to meet the needs of scholarship
in the field of women's diaries, including feature articles, book
reviews, bibliographic notes, comments from readers, scholars'
queries, and notices of exhibits and workshops.
Libraries published several periodicals edited by women describing
resources by, for and about women. In 1972 Ohio State University
published Women Are Human [since 1979,Women's Studies
Review ]. In Madison, the University of Wisconsin published
New Books on Women and Feminism, edited by Linda Parker,
beginning in 1979. They also published a quarterly beginning in
1980, Feminist Collections: Women's Studies Library Resources
in Wisconsin.
Equity in education was a concern of women. As early as 1971
Bernice Sandler edited On Campus With Women, published
by the Project on the Status and Education of Women in Washington,
DC, covering sexism in education, minority women, lobbying, sports,
career development, and international news. In 1977 The Women's
Equity Education Communications Network in San Francisco published
the quarterly Network News & Notes, promoting women's
educational equity.
In 1978 a free quarterly national newsletter, In The Running,
published by the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL) Fund
in Washington, DC, focused on sex discrimination in sports, reporting
news from all states of sex discrimination complaints and decisions.In 1981 Vicki Bortolussi and Diane Meredith Volz published
and edited a quarterly newspaper, Women in Education, in
Ventura, California, featuring women involved in the educational
process including teachers, administrators, students, staff, and
parents.
Literary Periodicals
More than 58 literary periodicals arose between 1968 and 1983.
As early as 1969 three pioneering women's literary periodicals
came into existence. Aphra, a quarterly in New York, stated
in its preamble: "Women have more to give the world than
babies. Whole areas of life, of consciousness, a magazine free
of ulterior motives, interested only in giving women a chance
to express themselves to see themselves." They wrote, "Rebelling
against male-hierarchical coterie magazines, we seek work that
is electrifying and makes us feel more alive, exposes previously
unexplored aspects of women's experience, and has authenticity."
Remember Our Fire, published by Shameless Hussy Press in
Berkeley featured poetry by women. The third pioneering journal
was Moving Out published by Wayne Women's Liberation at
Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. "We are committed
to reflecting the experiences of all kinds of women," the
editors wrote. "We like to reflect what is new and original."
Two pioneering literary periodicals arose in 1971. Earth's
Daughters, in Buffalo, New York, appeared as a feminist arts
periodical specializing in unusual formats. Black Maria arose
in Chicago, published by the Black Maria Collective, as a quarterly
dealing with essays and articles about current issues in the women's
movement.
The following year, in 1972, three more important periodicals
appeared. Shameless Hussy Press began publishing Shameless
Hussy Review in Berkeley. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Woman
Becoming appeared as a bi-yearly feminist literary journal
including political analysis and stories about adolescence, lesbianism,
and motherhood. The editors described it as a journal "established
for women to communicate with other women." The Department
of English at Douglass College at Rutgers University in New Brunswick,
New Jersey published Women & Literature, a quarterly
devoted to reviews, articles and review-essays on literature by
and about women, including an annual bibliography.
In 1973 Ellen Marie Bissert edited the semi-annual 13th Moon
in New York, a women's literary magazine publishing poetry, fiction,
reviews, and graphics by women. In 1974 Chomo-Uri, in Amherst,
Massachusetts, began on a tri-annual basis as a women's multi-arts
magazine offering perspectives on a changing society and committed
to maintaining a relationship between artistic integrity and political
expression. A semi-annual poetry journal by and for the women
of Wisconsin appeared in Oconto in 1974, entitled Primapara,
followed the next year by Aurora: Speculative Feminism,
in Madison, Wisconsin, devoted to discussion of science fiction
and fantasy from feminist points of view. Sibyl-Child, a women's
arts and culture journal, in Maryland, presented women's work
in all the arts, and The Wild Iris, a Berkeley, California
journal of women's writing, also appeared.
Nor did the pace lessen in 1976 when at least four more journals
came into existence. The Bright Medusa appeared in Berkeley
as a quarterly feminist journal of prose, poetry, art, essays
and interviews. Calyx, A Northwest Feminist Review arose
in Corvallis, Oregon as a journal of art and literature by women
published three times a year. Room: A Women's Literary Journal
appeared in San Francisco semi-annually, edited by Kathy Barr
and Gail Newman, including prose, poetry, humor, interviews, book
reviews, with emphasis on diversity of style and content. Terri
Anderson edited Solana, published by Androgyny Press in
St. Louis, Missouri covering fiction, poetry, art, and photography.
In 1977 Blue Collar Press published The Sow's Ear in Pittsburgh,
California, edited by Edith Lloyd on a tri-annual basis. The next
year, in 1978 Sing Heavenly Muse was founded in Minneapolis
on a semi-annual basis to foster the work of women poets, fiction
writers, and artists. In 1979 two periodicals still publishing
today arose -- Helicon Nine, A Journal of Women's Arts and
Letters, published in Kansas City, Missouri as a tri-annual
publication of women's accomplishments in the fields of literature,
music, the visual and performing arts, and Kalliope, A Journal
of Women's Art, providing a forum for women in the arts, published
in Jacksonville, Florida. In the early 1980's women's literary
periodicals were still pouring out. Maenad, a women's literary
journal appeared in 1980 as a feminist quarterly of prose
and visual arts, welcoming controversial manuscripts, and published
in Gloucester, Massachusetts. New Moon: A Quarterly Journal
of Science Fiction and Cultural Feminism emerged in Madison,
Wisconsin, in 1981. In 1982 Rebirth of Artemis appeared
in Methuen, Massachusetts as an annual publication of poetry written
by women, about women. Hurricane Alice appeared in 1983
in Minneapolis as a quarterly seeking to provide a forum for feminist
writings that were not publishable in more traditional or professionally
oriented journals, and it included reviews of culture, women's
stories and letters.
Political Periodicals
Peace and freedom issues of the early sixties remained subjects
of primary concern to women in the 1970's and 1980's. Increasingly
women published periodicals focusing on women's equality issues,
both educational and legislative. Promotion of women's electoral
campaigns and support for the Equal Rights Amendment were also
among the political goals of this period. More than 104 women's
periodicals dealing with political issues and perspectives came
into existence between 1968 and 1983.
Women's peace organizing accounted for the earliest of the political
efforts, continuing down through the contemporary women's peace
encampments. More than 19 women's peace periodicals arose during
these years to add new voices to the already strong movement of
the 1960's. Some were new local newsletters of branches of such
organizations as the International League for Peace and Freedom
and Women Strike for Peace, and others were temporarily published
for the duration of specific actions such as the 1971 newsletters
of the United Women's Contingent in Washington, DC and the Women
United for November 6 Newsletter in San Francisco.
The Feminist Party News, periodical of Flo Kennedy's Feminist
Party in New York and San Francisco, focused on the importance
of women and other oppressed groups demanding that the media,
particularly television and radio, "produce programs that
meet the needs and are relevant to our interests and concerns.
In 1974 the periodical described the Feminist Party's demand that
the commercial TV networks, educational TV, and all affiliated
stations of both, cancel all programs scheduled for Mothers' Day,
May 12th, and "devote all of their resources to producing
programs for, by and about women." The newsletter urged their
150 chapters across the country to join in the same demands to
the networks and to the various local stations.
The National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), founded in 1970,
contributed greatly to the communication networks on political
issues through its national periodical in Washington, D.C. Begun
as a newsletter in 1972, it jumped from a circulation of 350 to
an audience of 15,000 in 1976 when it changed to a tabloid format
as the Women's Political Times. NWPC Chapter periodicals
also sprang up across the country.
A number of periodicals dealt with women's issues in Congress,
such as the Washington, D.C. publications Clearinghouse on
Women's Issues in Congress, The Woman Activist, Women's Lobby
Quarterly, Alert of the Women's Lobby, Inc., The
Right Woman--Congressional News for Women & the Family, Eleanor
Smeal Report, and Women's Washington Representative. Other
periodicals addressed legislative issues in various states, such
as The New Broom, A Legislative Newsletter for Massachusetts
Women, in Boston, Capitol Alert, in Sacramento, California,
and Women for Legislative Action Bulletin, in Los Angeles.
The Women's Equity Action League (WEAL) in Washington, DC published
the WEAL Washington Report, in 1971, and the WEAL National
Newsletter beginning in 1973, as well as chapter newsletters
such as WEAL Texas Newsletter in Dallas and the NJ W.E.AL.er
in Old Bridge, New Jersey.
One of the state legislative bulletins also provided radio newscasts
to stations, organizations and individuals in Pennsylvania. Another
state legislative report, Alert, Women's Legislative Review,
in Middletown, Connecticut, arose in 1973 after the Equal
Rights Amendment was voted down by the Connecticut State Legislature
which also adopted a new restrictive anti-abortion law. Alert
described organizing efforts of media women in the state, which
culminated in a state-wide organization of media women. The women
editing Alert gave it an activist orientation, joining
with eight other group New Haven area groups to form the Feminist
Committee for Media Reform, "in response to the negative
portrayal by so much of the major media today." Alert
gave significant coverage of media sexism and women's efforts
to make changes, particularly covering the work done in the media
field by the National Organization for Women and efforts to obtain
women's cable channels, such as the one initiated by Memphis women.
Many other periodicals focused on political issues arose during
these decades covering a wide variety of concerns, including:
Equal Rights Monitor, in Sacramento, California; The
ERA Times, in Madison, Wisconsin; Women's Newsletter on
Socialist Feminism of the Charlotte Perkins Gilman chapter
of the New American Movement in Durham, North Carolina; Public
Policy Bulletin of the Federation of Organizations for Professional
Women in Washington, DC; Susan Saxe Defense Committee Newsletter
in West Somerville, Massachusetts; and the Women's Legal
Defense Fund Newsletter in Washington, DC.
Periodicals With Economic Focus
Many working women considered communication networks to be
vital for improving their lives. If women had insufficient support
networks in the economic sphere, other areas of their lives, such
as politics, health and safety, and social concerns, suffered.
Whether women made connections with each other in traditional
or untraditional careers, the communication networks were felt
to be crucial to progress for women, as evidenced by the fact
that 130 periodicals focused on economic issues, with 65 of these
from the perspective of professional women. The improvement in
personal lives that resulted from economic independence made the
economic networks paramount.
Working women communicated through numerous kinds of periodicals.
The National Committee on Household Employment began publishing
N.C.H.E. News in 1970 to protect and extend the rights
of domestic workers. The Coalition of Labor Union Women issued
their quarterly in 1975, and local chapter newsletters like The
Union Maid in Madison, Wisconsin sprang up across the country.
Union W.A.G.E. published by the Union Women's Alliance
to Gain Equality in the San Francisco Bay area arose in 1971.
This coalition of women consisted of union and unorganized women
interested in fighting sex discrimination on the job and promoting
unionism among women. Women in the trades communicated through
such journals as Tradeswomen Magazine: A Quarterly Magazine
for Women in Blue-Collar Work in San Francisco, a magazine
which described itself as by and for tradeswomen, and Women
in the Trades in New York. A national coalition of farm women's
organizations began The Voice of the American Agri-Woman
in 1975 in Illinois to serve as their communications link-up.
FarmWoman, published and edited by Nedra Bayne Carpel in
Washington, D.C., was a twice-monthly report of Congressional,
regulatory and women's issues.
Some periodicals encompassed of a wide range of fields of work,
while others were more focused. The National Commission on Working
Women in Washington, D.C. published Women at Work: News About
the 80%, focusing on employment rights of women in clerical,
service, sales, factory and plant jobs. Women's Work [Connections],
a national bi-monthly published in Washington, DC, focused
on all aspects of women and work. The National Association of
Office Workers published 9 to 5, formerly Working Women,
in Cleveland, Ohio, a bi-monthly covering the activities of
women office workers around the country. The Woman's Advocate
Newsletter, published monthly in Sacramento, California, was
a national newsletter that focused on women in non-traditional
careers and how women could start their own businesses.
Women in business turned to Ava Stern's Enterprising Women,
which began in New York in 1975 as a monthly with financial, legal,
and practical information for self-employed, freelance, and professional
women. The National Association for Female Executives published
a bimonthly magazine in New York focusing on career advancement
and financial planning for independent female entrepreneurs. The
Executive Woman began in 1973 in New York as a monthly covering
career developments and concerns of the executive woman. Some
of the periodicals on women in business were locally or regionally
oriented, such as the BusinessWOMAN magazine, a magazine
for women in Northern California which contained information on
career development, profiles of successful businesswomen, and
listings of area networks.
Some periodicals dealt with women in poverty or with homemakers
and working mothers, such as the New Mexico chapter of the National
Organization for Women's Sisters in Poverty, published
in Albuquerque. As early as 1972 the organization for single mothers
in Venice, California published monthly Momma; the Newspaper/Magazine
for Single Mothers. Homemakers communicated through the Homemakers'
Equal Rights Association Newsletter, published in Bellevue,
Washington and through Martha Matters, published in 1976
in Arlington, Virginia. Launching Martha Matters, the editors
wrote that it was "perhaps the most important part of our
organization."
"It is one sure way we can stay in touch
with each other, something we always need to do. One of our greatest
assets as homemakers is our ability to touch each other with understanding,
appreciation and insights; we often do it better than anyone else.
We also have knowledge and experiences to exchange with one another.
And there's other knowledge that we seek in order to better ourselves.
In all these areas, the newsletter will aim to serve."
Evident in these sentiments expressed by the editors was that
the existence of a network was the most important aspect of the
periodical, allowing individuals to communicate with each other,
rather than simply receiving useful information.
Professional Periodicals
Newsletters of professional women's organizations sprang up
in almost every field -- women in history, political science,
sociology, psychology, social science, social work, architecture,
engineering, mathematics, anthropology, modern languages, law,
science, geoscience, biology, libraries and archives, personnel,
civil service, business and economics, instructional technology,
academia and others. More than 65 of these periodicals focussing
on professional women's concerns arose between 1968 and 1983.
Special Interest Periodicals
Other single issue periodicals emerged with special interests
in a particular area of life. The Braille Feminist Review,
for example, appeared in the late 1970's in New York as a quarterly
publication in Braille for blind women. It consisted of selections
from feminist periodicals throughout the country.
Several periodicals addressed the needs of the mature woman. The
first was Prime Time, begun in 1971 in New York by Marjory
Collins. As a national independent feminist monthly for the liberation
of women in the prime of life, it soon reached a print run of
3,000 and brought women's movement ideas to a then whole new audience
of women. It was followed the next year by The OWL Observer
published by the Older Women's League. Women in Mid-stream
Newsletter, arising from the Menopause Study Group of the
University of Washington YWCA in 1973, ran for five years. Also
in 1973, the NOW Task Force on Older Women issued a quarterly
newsletter. A major and continuing publication began in San Francisco,
in1978, Broomstick, a monthly national periodical by, for
and about women over 40, set out to explore their experiences,
politics, thinking and lives within basic feminist principles.
The movement communication networks were reaching women in prison
as well. Women constitute only five percent of prison populations,
but since the early 1970's they have had communication networks.
Women in prisons, for example, communicated through Inside/Outside,
published in 1974 in Philadelphia; The Insider, in Clinton,
New Jersey; Through the Looking Glass: A Women's & Children's
Newsletter, published since 1975 in Seattle; and No More
Cages: A Bi-Monthly Women's Prison Newsletter, published in
New York since 1979 by Women Free Women in Prison.
Single issue publications included a variety of other special
interests. Motorcycle Woman, A Newsletter for women who rideor
want to, provided a forum of instruction and exchanges of
information among some of the 700,000 women motorcyclists in the
U.S. For Us Women Newsletter, a bimonthly by Shakurra Amatulla,
arose in May of 1983 in Washington, DC, to provide information
on grants and other resource information for women.
More than 17 periodicals appeared with perspectives that arose
out of their geographical focus. MAW: A Magazine of Appalachian
Women was begun in 1977 in West Virginia in order to provide
a communication network for women in this region to share their
information and experiences. It carried a regular column entitled
"Womanspeak" in which women were able to communicate
directly with each other, speaking for themselves. "We invite
your commentaries and inspiration for this space," the editors
wrote. An article about women against violence in pornography
and the media, appearing in the fifth issue of MAW, indicated
that the films, record albums, billboards and other forms of media
which depicted violent and degrading abuse of women were of serious
concern to women in Appalachia, as well as elsewhere in the country,
and reflected the universality of women's analysis of mass media
as helping to keep women in oppressive conditions. In late 1979,
MAW, renamed Appalachian Women, became a quarterly,
published by the Council of Appalachian Women, who had purchased
it the previous year from its original editor-publisher, Miriam
Ralston. "When the Council was established in November 1976,"
wrote Jane Weeks in the first issue of Appalachian Women,
"one main goal was to set up a communication network for
women in the region."
Country Women, "a feminist magazine for women who
live in the country or want to," appeared in 1973 to discuss
rural life. It included articles about personal experiences and
country skills. Rural American Women News Journal, a bi-monthly,
also provided a forum for these women, as did the monthly Something
About the Women in Kansas, a feminist newspaper serving women
in smaller communities and rural areas, and the quarterly Southern
Rural Women's Network Newsletter, Jackson, Mississippi. Founded
on the premise that rural women working together could affect
social change, the Southern Rural Women's Network Newsletter
sought ways to develop the leadership potential of Southern rural
women. Neighborhood Women appeared in 1977 to provide a
communication network for community women in the cities. Seacoast
Woman, in New Hampshire, and Sea Wench Times, in Florida,
concentrated on issues indigenous to coastal living.
Some women focused on issues with an international perspective.
As early as 1971, The Fourth World, An International Women's
Paper was founded in Oakland, California, edited and published
by Fran Hoskin in Lexington, Massachusetts. In 1972 the Women's
Caucus of Action Latin America in Cambridge, Massachusetts, published
Revolution Within the Revolution. The monthly NAJDA:
Women Concerned about the Middle East, edited by Audrey Shabbas,
appeared in the early 1980's in Berkeley, covering all aspects
of the Arab world including material not widely circulated in
the United States. Begun in New York in 1980, Seeds reported
on women's income-generating projects, with primary focus on the
developing world.
In 1981 a collective in Oakland, California produced a quarterly
journal of translations by, for and about women entitled Connexions
. "Connexions is the collective product of feminists
of diverse nationalities and political perspectives committed
to building an international women's movement," the introductory
issue stated. Articles in the periodical were all written by women
from other countries, most direct translations of single articles
and interviews. The editors wrote that they were interested in
passing on, as directly as possible, women's writings generally
unavailable in the United States. Describing their story of how
and why they came into existence, they wrote:
"There is a lack of information in the
U.S. about other parts of the world. Often the viewpoints presented
in the U.S. press vary greatly from what we learn through friends
abroad and foreign publications. As we read and read to get a
grasp on what is happening elsewhere, we find that there is never
enough about women, and what little there is, is rarely written
with a feminist perspective.
"In 1979, a few of us decided to do something
about this lack of coverage by putting together an international
women's reader. For months we worked together, combing through
magazines from the international feminist press, discussing all
kinds of ideas and concepts."
The result was Second Class, Working Class, published in
November 1979 by the women's printshop Up Press, which concentrated
on working women. It sold well, and people asked them when the
next issue would come out. They began thinking about a sequel.
The women described how the international women's conference in
Denmark spurred the founding of their periodical:
"In July 1980, two of us went to the alternative
women's conference in Copenhagen to discuss with other women how
to create an international feminist network. The beginning dialogue
between women of industrialized countries and third world women
made us more aware of our differences. Yet, it also helped us
understand the similarities we share. We realized once again the
importance of learning about each other and of exchanging information."
After Copenhagen we formalized our plans to start a women's journal
of translations from the international feminist press. We talked
to women outside of our group; many responded and joined us. We
are women of diverse backgrounds. Some of us are from the U.S.,
many have lived abroad; some of us are from other countries. Our
different languages allow us to read and translate foreign publications.
We all speak English, and share a range of journalistic skills.
An important part of their goal was to "contribute to the
growth of a worldwide network connecting women working on similar
projects by researching, establishing contacts and exchanging
information." The first issue was a focus on women organizing
against violence.
Summary
The more than 620 single-issue periodicals, exhibiting the
characteristics of women's media, played a very important role
in the development of communication networks among women. While
the multi-issue periodicals connected women in the movement and
gave an overall understanding of the character of the women's
movement at any given time, the single-issue periodicals provided
both depth and breadth crucial to the growth and survival of the
women's movement. Women all over the country were making connections
with others sharing similar concerns as well as discovering that
they were part of a broader movement to make changes in the lives
of women. And women with special interests, in publishing their
single-issue periodicals, were discovering that by networking
with the multi-issue papers they could connect with other women
who shared their particular interest. It benefited both the single-
and multi-issue periodicals to exchange ads and tell their readers
about each other's periodicals. There was no sense of competition;
they all knew that the way to reach more women was to support
the existing periodicals in building ever-larger networks of communication
among women.
Women with special identities were also communicating during these
years, providing perspectives that would otherwise be missing
from public understanding, perspectives that were particularly
important for the women's movement as it assessed its priorities
and strategies. The next chapter discusses these periodicals.
_____
Chapter Five Footnotes
1
1979 Index/Directory of Women's Media (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, 1979), p. 5.
2
The Monthly Extract: An Irregular Periodical, September/October
1976, p. 1.
3
Valerie Eads, "The 'Fighting Woman' Story," Black
Belt Woman, The Magazine of Women in the Martial Arts and Self
Defense, March/April 1976, pp. 18-19.
4
Dana Densmore, "Editorial Policy," Black Belt Woman,
March/April 1976, inside front cover.
5
Dr. Donna Allen and Martha Leslie Allen, "Female Journalism
Is Something Different," Media Report to Women 4 (January
1, 1976): 2.
6
Donna Allen and Dana Densmore, "Seven Assumptions for a New
Philosophy of Communication," and "Call For Research,"
1977 and 1978 Media Report for Women Index/Directory
(Washington, D.C.: Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press,
1977 and 1978), pp. 32,55.
7
"Flo Kennedy on Media Deterrent Power," Media Report
to Women, January 1977, p. 1.
8
Valerie Wheat, "Booklegger's Guide to: The Passionate Perils
of Publishing," and "Feminists in Print," Booklegger,
Summer 1978, pp. 6,51.
9
Regina Wells Morgan, "May Meeting: Self Defense for Women,"
Chicago Women in Publishing, May 1982, p. 1.
10
1978 Index/Directory of Women's Media (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, 1978), p. 24.
11
"Women Artists Newsletter U.S. News Roundup,"
Media Report to Women, August 1977, p. 5.
12
"Editorial Voices," Women & Performance: A Journal
of Feminist Theory, Spring/Summer 1983, p. 3.
13
Jane T. Dowd, "Images of American Women in American Films:
A Method of Analysis," Women & Performance, Spring/Summer
1983, p. 50.
14
1975 Index/Directory of Women's Media (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, 1975), p. 14.
15
1978 Index/Directory of Women's Media (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, 1978), p. 17.
16
Some of the many other women's literary periodicals not described
in this section include Clear Beginnings Quarterly, published
poetry, personal essays and fiction from women's writing workshops
in Ohio; Elima: A Journal of Writing, published and edited
twice-annually contemporary poetry produced by a collective of
published women poets meeting weekly for workshops, in Hartsdale,
New York; The Greater Golden Hill Poetry Express, poetry
publication of the Feminist Poetry and Graphics Center in San
Diego, California; New Space: New Time, published twice
yearly in Landenberg, Pennsylvania including feminist art, essays
and poetry by local women; Primavera, A Women's Literary Magazine,
published by the University of Chicago Feminist Organization as
a compendium of prose, poetry, graphics and photographs by women;
Snippets, A Melange of Women was edited and published by
Roberta Mendel in Shaker Heights, Ohio as a poetry monthly touching
on varied aspects of the feminine condition; and, Up Against
the Wall, Mother appeared as a quarterly poetry journal for
women in crisis, published in Alexandria, Virginia.
17
"Preamble to Aphra," Aphra (September 1969):
2-3;1975 Index/Directory of Women's Media (Washington,
D.C.: Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, 1975), p. 13.
18
Moving Out, Feminist Literary & Arts Journal, Vol.
4, No. 2.
19
1975 Index/Directory of Women's Media (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, 1975), p. 14.
20
Feminist Collections, Winter 1984, p. 21.
21
"Feminist Party Mother's Day Spectacular Proposals,"
Feminist Party, March 1974.
22
"NWPC Newspaper A Proposal," Women's Political
Times, May 1976, p.2.
23
Rita Townsner, "Media Reform,", Alert, Women's Legislative
Review, May 1975, p.1; Anne E. McAloon, "Media Women
Organize," Alert, February 1975, p.8; "Alert's
Story," 3-page flier, Alert office.
24
"N.O.W. Fights Media Sexism," Alert, May 1974,
p.2; Louisa MacLeod Avery, "Sexism in Newsprint," Alert
May 1974, p.2.; Patricia Strong, "Women in Cable TV,"
Alert, May 1974, p.3. (See Chapter Seven for a description
of the efforts to gain a women's cable channel.)
25
"Martha Movement Publishes Number 1 of Newsletter, 'Martha
Matters,'" Media Report to Women, November 1976, p.
11.
26
"Motorcycle Woman' Is New Paper For Women Who RideOr Want
To," Media Report for Women, June 1976, p. 2.
27
" 'Connexions' To Build International Movement On Direct
Communications," Media Report for Women, 1 July 1981,
pp. 1, 10.
28
" 'Connexions' To Build International Movement On Direct
Communications," Media Report for Women, July 1981,
p. 10.
29
" 'Connexions' To Build International Movement On Direct
Communications," Media Report for Women, July 1981,
p. 10.
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