2002 FromCenter the AUTUMN CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY · UNIVERSITY OF OREGON Creativity, Collaboration, Communities— Celebrating the Past, Looking to the Future n this issue of the newsletter, we announce our new annual membership campaign and new Icommunity programs. As we look toward the future, we also look back on three decades of energy, enthusiasm, and innovative scholarship that have built a research center with an international reputation for excellence. Generating, supporting, and disseminating research on women—many readers of this newsletter will recognize these now familiar goals of CSWS. But what does it mean to gener- ate, support, and disseminate research on women? It means forming initiatives to increase knowledge about how gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual identity, and culture shape women’s lives and affect their social well being. It means publishing groundbreaking studies on welfare reform and poverty that are enabling activists and legislators to make informed decisions. It means developing a virtual library of resources on women and history for teachers, students, and researchers, enabling scholarly collabora- tions and classroom access to reproductions of rare manuscripts that were unthinkable before. It means receiving $4 million in government grants to conduct research on women’s reproduc- tive health and to sponsor educational trials for young minorities at risk. It means awarding more than one and one-half million dollars in grants to UO faculty members and graduate students, resulting in completed Ph.D. dissertations, books, and articles. It means more Ph.D. degrees and more tenured and promoted women faculty mem- bers. It means making possible more equitable gender content across the curriculum. It means providing an opportunity for local, national, and international scholars and INSIDE community members to pursue topics of major social impact and common interest—on campus through Research Interest Groups, conferences, presentations, and teaching semi- centerview ...... 2 nars—and across Oregon through a new community lecture series. It means obtaining a four-year Rockefeller Foundation Grant, providing a forum for scholars upcoming ...... 3 and activists from all over the world to engage in dialogue about ecology, spirituality, femi- nism, and the future, a meeting of people and ideas otherwise impossible. rig profiles...... 4 It means bringing high school students together for their own Women’s History Day celebra- kudos ...... 5 tion, an event that inspired a student to remember that “anyone has the power to change the world in some way for the better.” creative center ..... 6 It means looking forward to the future and continuing to build opportunities for creativity and collaboration within and among diverse communities through research, scholarship, and news ...... 8 dialogue. awards ...... 10 CSWS is the only University of Oregon research entity focused specifically on women and gender, and the above represents a fraction of its accomplishments over the years. CSWS members...... 11 makes a difference in the lives of women every day. Won’t you join us? Please join us and help make a difference in the lives of women every day. author’s note ..... 12 2 centerview Talking with Linda Fuller Q: Do you remember your first encounter implications that some people at the center with CSWS? have been involved with for a long, long A: It was when I came for my job inter- time, such as comparable worth. I know that view in [the Department of] Sociology—the that makes a big difference in women’s lives spring of 1989. I began to learn about the outside the university. If the world were up center then, but it didn’t become a force in to me, the center would be even more of a my life until a couple of years later, after I’d presence outside the university. I think that’s been here a while. the situation for every unit on campus. This Q: What has your relationship been with university needs political support among the the center over time? larger populace, and you do that by reaching out. A: I’ve had several formal connections. Since I’m a sociologist, and the director of Q: Do you have more to say about your the center is in the sociology department, I research? participated in the interviews for Sandi A: I’m trying to write about things that Morgen. I received a grant through CSWS literally no one can afford but a very tiny some years later to work on a long-term group of the most wealthy. Emeralds are one project about global inequalities and luxury. of those things. Emeralds are more expensive I was on the executive committee for two than diamonds. Most of them come from years, and on the committee that gives Columbia. Per carat, they’re much more rare, research grants to faculty [members] and and so I’m doing a segment on emerald graduate students. Informally, I’ve been to consumers, and women are the ones that lots of events that either graduate students consume them. They don’t necessarily buy have organized or that the center has spon- them for themselves, but it’s all mixed up sored or cosponsored. with gender and privilege. At the other end Linda Fuller, professor Q: What difference does it make having of the story, of course, there are women and of sociology, is serving men in dire poverty murdering each other as acting director of the the center on campus? over a flick of an emerald. Clean-up people center fall and winter A: I think it’s tremendously important, there are not just cleaning up the bathrooms terms while Sandra recruiting-wise. It’s unique in so many ways. Morgen is on sabbatical. but literally cleaning up bodies. And now We have women’s studies and we have a I’m doing a piece about furs. I’m trying to tell CSWS Faculty and Staff research center. the story of furs from a particular place in Sandra Morgen, director Q: What difference do you think it makes Linda Fuller, acting director the Northwest Territory, from the point of Judith Musick, associate director to faculty [members] and graduate students? view of indigenous people and from the Jan Emerson, research associate A: A lot of graduate students in sociology Shirley Marc, office coordinator point of view of the animal, of the fur-bearer Lin Reilly, accountant have received financial support, but also itself. Environmental, gender, and race Diana Taylor, office specialist through the center they’re learning to work inequalities are all interconnected there. I’m Project Directors together and for one another. In particular trying to show what a fur coat really costs. Feminist Humanities Project the Social Science Feminist RIG has been Judith Musick Q: What would you like to focus on this Welfare Project invigorating for graduate students who have year in your tenure as acting director? Joan Acker and Sandra Morgen been involved in it—intellectually, cer- Research Program A: I don’t feel like I should have a big tainly—but emotionally and politically as on Women’s Health agenda. I’m going to be here twenty weeks. I well. As for the faculty, in addition to Marie Harvey want to make sure things continue in the offering a community of scholars and way people are happy with them continuing. From the Center is published two collaborating opportunities, CSWS grant I think it’s important that we remember—and times a year by the Center for the programs make it possible to spend more Study of Women in Society at the again I’m speaking as a sociologist, but time on research—that is vital to faculty University of Oregon. It is edited by gender in sociology is very western—that Jan Emerson with assistance from [members] at all levels. Cheri Brooks and Shirley Marc, gender is international; gender is about all CSWS, and designed by Lori Q: Does the center make a difference in different kinds of women. There’s a whole Howard and copy-edited by the local community, in Oregon? world out there of women and gender to talk Frances Milligan and Scott Skelton, A: I know that it does. I’m well aware of Office of University Publications. about. So if I had my druthers, I would For more information: some of the research with important policy broaden what gender means. (541) 346-5015 http://csws.uoregon.edu 3 CSWS Fall–Winter Calendar upcoming Wednesdays at Noon Noon–1:00 p.m., Jane Grant Room, CSWS 330 Hendricks Hall, University of Oregon. For more information, telephone CSWS, (541) 346-5015. FALL 2002 October 23 “Southwestern Ecotone: A Zone of Literary Resistance and Environmental Justice— Images of the Land,” Barbara Cook, graduate teaching fellow, English November 6 “Gender, Ethnicity, and National Identity in Hawaiian Women’s Writing,” Judith Raiskin, associate professor, women’s and gender studies November 20 “The Transition to Motherhood: Psychology and the Transmission of Social Vulnerabilities across Generations,” Jennifer Ablow, assistant professor, psychology December 4 “Representations of Sub-Saharan African Women in Colonial and Post-Colonial Novels,” Ramonu Sanusi, graduate teaching fellow, Romance languages WINTER 2003 January 15 “Teenage Mothers in School Tell Their Stories,” Jane Gathoni Njoora, graduate teaching fellow, special education January 29 “Precursors of Men’s Physical and Sexual Abuse of Women and Girls,” Kathryn Becker Blease, graduate teaching fellow, psychology February 12 “Reducing Academic and Social Risks in Middle-School Girls,” Debra Eisert, Left to right: Imelda Bacuda, research associate, Center on Human Development Veronica Brady, Lynne February 26 (tentative) “Innocent Women and Children: Gender and the International Politics Fessenden, and Shirley Marc at the final Ecological of Rescue,” R. Charli Carpenter, graduate teaching fellow, political science Conversations program. March 12 “Women in Public in Early Republican China,” Bryna Goodman, associate professor, history 2002–3 CSWS Executive Committee Please Join Us for Teaching and Tea! Barbara Altmann Romance Languages A monthly series of informal seminars whose purpose is to facilitate teaching about women, Sandra Ezquerra past and present, to encourage collaboration among high school and university teachers, and to Sociology make use of new digital technologies to enhance the teaching of gender in history. Linda Fuller 4:00–5:30 p.m., Jane Grant Room, CSWS CSWS 330 Hendricks Hall, University of Oregon Margaret Hallock For information, e-mail or telephone Jan Emerson, [email protected] or Wayne Morse Center (541) 346-2263. for Law and Politics Ellen Herman FALL 2002 History Sandra Morgen November 5 “Minding the Gaps: The Feminist Humanities Project Continues,” Judith Musick, CSWS associate director, CSWS Judith Musick December 5 “Hildegard of Bingen: The Scivias Images,” Jan Emerson, research associate, CSWS CSWS Jane Gathoni Njoora Education WINTER 2003 Barbara Pope January 16 “The Virgin of Guadalupe: From Criolla to Guerrillera,” Stephanie Wood, research Women’s and Gender Studies Ellen Scott associate, CSWS Sociology February 11 “Gender and Terrorism in Modern German Culture,” Susan Anderson, associate Merle Weiner professor, Germanic languages and literatures Law March 13 “Poster Girls of the Middle Ages,” Barbara Altmann, associate professor, Romance Shelley Winship languages School of Architecture and Allied Arts Naomi Zack Philosophy 4 rig profiles Native American Communities RIG ormed in 1996, the Native American engaged in. But they welcomed me, encour- FCommunities Research Interest Group aged me to keep coming, and let me know that is still thriving. As NAC RIG member Az they would be interested in hearing about my Carmen put it, “It seems that a good idea work as well. The RIG provides a safe and is timeless and that even though the nurturing environment to develop my ideas. numbers may fluctuate, it remains a Debra Merskin powerful force in the lives of the women Associate Professor, who have been involved.” Carmen, journalism and coordinator of Native American enroll- communication ment services at the UO admissions office, My interest in the RIG adds, “The Native American RIG is a began in 1996 when wonderful way for new and continuing several of us participated students to connect with other indigenous in the women’s research peoples in an environment based upon group “Widening the Circle.” We created, the principles of inclusion. The more To learn more about the through CSWS, a RIG that would focus on opportunity a student has to be involved Native American Communities Native research. Members of the RIG have RIG, contact coordinator in the campus community, the more provided terrific feedback on my research, Donna Ralstin-Lewis, inclined that student is to be successful.” which has to do with misrepresentations of [email protected], Among tribal affiliations represented by Indians in the mass media. I look forward to or Margaret Knox, NAC RIG members are the Barbareno great conversations, research projects, and [email protected]. Chumash Coastal Band of the Santa activities in the future. Details on joining or starting a Barbara Channel Region, the Chickasaw Donna Ralstin-Lewis RIG may be found online, Nation of Ada, Oklahoma, Cherokee, Graduate Teaching Fellow,
The 2002–3 Road Scholars and their topics Mothers of the Disappeared and follow: Indigenous Rebels: Women and Social Movements in Latin America Lynn Stephen, professor, anthropology
Confess or Deny? What’s a ‘Witch’ to Do in 1692? Dear Lizzie: Memoir of a A Poetry of Science: Jewish Immigrant Woman The Life and Works of Hildegard of Bingen Elizabeth Reis, assistant professor, Jan Emerson, research associate, CSWS women’s and gender studies
Poster Girls of the Middle Ages Frida Kahlo: Mexican Artist—World Icon Barbara Altmann, associate professor, Stephanie Wood, research associate, CSWS Romance languages, and acting director, Oregon Humanities Center
Into Our Own Hands: The Women’s Health Movement in the United States Telling Our Stories—Preserving Our Pasts: Sandra Morgen, director, CSWS, Native Communities and the Rise of Cultural and professor, sociology Preservation Work Deana D. Dartt (Barbareno Chumash-Coastal Band), graduate teaching fellow, anthropology
Kinship by Design: The History of Child Adoption and Why It Matters Ellen Herman, associate professor, history Renewing Welfare Reform: Will Getting Tougher Reduce Poverty? Joan Acker, professor emerita, sociology 8 newsCSWS Initiatives Expand Activities
he Feminist Humanities Project (FHP), Principal investigator Marie Harvey has Tnow in its sixth year, continues its launched the second phase of this study, looking commitment to advancing research and at young women at risk for HIV and other teaching about women and gender in all STDs who have never used a diaphragm. areas of the humanities. Besides offering CSWS received a $135,699 research another impressive lineup of speakers and supplement for phase three of the study from new digital teaching units, to be showcased the National Institute for Child Health and in the Teaching and Tea presentations Human Development. This funding has throughout the year, we will be making a allowed the program to hire Ernestine Duncan, concerted effort to push forward our Gender assistant professor at Hampton University, in History materials collections, namely who has joined the team as a research associ- Medieval Women Online and the Virtual ate. Duncan’s cultural background, prior Nahuatl Archive (for accessing information experience, and perspective as a woman of on early gender ideology among the Nahuas color will contribute to the research goals of of Mesoamerica). For each of these collec- the study. The third phase of the study will tions, we will be designing a portal site for compare the acceptability of the diaphragm to accessing primary texts and images held by spermicides and the male condom among 200 an array of libraries and archives around the young African American men and women at world. In some cases, we are visiting the risk for HIV, STDs, and unintended pregnancy. archives to assist with digitization and to Members of the Women in the Northwest work out agreements for sharing resources. Initiative have been busy in continuing FHP Director Judith Musick, Knight Library research projects and disseminating that Director of Special Collections James Fox, research at academic conferences and to and new FHP Coordinator Stephanie Wood policymakers. For example, the legislation that will be in Mexico for this purpose in Novem- restructured welfare in 1996 is up for congres- ber. We’ll keep you posted on our progress! sional reauthorization, and members of the The CSWS Research Program on CSWS Welfare Research Team have been Women’s Health is continuing its three-year working to distribute our research results to study to learn whether at-risk women will members of the U.S. Senate. Two members of use the diaphragm as a potential way to the Indigenous Communities RIG attended a combat sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) conference in New Zealand, and one of them, Work, Welfare, and Politics, and HIV. Although the male condom is Deana Dartt, presented her work there. This edited by Frances Fox Piven, effective in preventing STDs, some men are fall, members of the Women, Work and Joan Acker, Margaret Hallock, not willing to use the device. Female- Economic Restructuring RIG will follow up and Sandra Morgen, is controlled methods such as the diaphragm— last June’s productive visits of Pierette available from the University which has been shown to be effective in Hondagneu-Sotelo and Alice O’Connor with of Oregon Press. You can preventing STDs and which can be used discussions about future research efforts on order it by calling (866) 672- without a partner’s cooperation—are needed. low-wage work, immigration, and poverty. 8574 or online at www.uopress.com. Welcome to Our New Staff Members Stephanie Wood is a CSWS welcomes Kevin long-time community Van Driesche, graduate affiliate of the center and teaching fellow for the has been an adjunct Wired Humanities Project. assistant professor in Kevin is a second-year history, Romance languages, student in the law school. and women’s and gender Prior to attending the studies. Stephanie has University of Oregon, he accepted a position as research associate with received his M.A. in English and American the Feminist Humanities Project and coordi- literature at Concordia University in Montreal, nator of the Wired Humanities Project. She Quebec, and his B.A. in creative writing from will be advancing the Gender in History Santa Clara University. A former employee of materials collections, particularly the Gender PC World and Outside magazine online, his in Early Mesoamerica text and image database. areas of focus are web design and production. 9 Transitions news CSWS bids farewell to the talented people showcased here and thanks them for their vital contributions to the center. We wish them all the best and continued success in the future!
activists to work in residence at CSWS over the last four years. “I saw my job as creating a venue for a multiplicity of voices,” Lynne says. “My take home lesson is that true dialogue doesn’t happen in a weekend retreat, or a week-long conference, or even a one-term seminar. The gift of this program was that it allowed for time to nourish appreciation for the diversity present.” Lynne, who has a Ph.D. in biological ocean- ography, is now working for the Science and Environmental Health Network. Dan Gilfillan, Ph.D., was a research associate for the Feminist Humanities Dan Gilfillan, Lynne Fessenden, and Cheri Brooks. Project, where he helped to develop, design, and promote a series of online teaching and Sheryl Thorburn Bird, research units with a focus on women and Ph.D., joined CSWS in gender in history. “The work involved in 1996 with a courtesy designing the Digital Teaching Unit collec- appointment. Since 1997, tion allowed me to explore how the WWW she has been a Research medium could be brought to bear on impor- Scientist with CSWS’s tant issues in women’s history and women’s Research Program on experience. It brought me into contact with Women’s Health (first many exciting teachers and researchers, and known as the Women’s Health and Aging demonstrated the possibilities that creative Written by UO professor Research Initiative). While at CSWS, she collaboration engenders.” Dan also served as emerita Joan Acker, CSWS conducted research on reproductive health, coordinator for the Wired Humanities Director Sandra Morgen, and frequently in collaboration with Marie Project, designed to promote and support the Lisa Gonzales, CSWS, with Harvey. Recently, she received a grant from use of technology among UO humanities Jill Weigt, Kate Berry, and NICHD to study conspiracy beliefs, per- faculty members. In August Dan began a Terri Heath, Welfare Restruc- ceived discrimination, and sexual behavior. tenure-track position in the Department of turing, Work & Poverty: Policy Sheryl is now associate professor in the Languages and Literatures at Arizona State Implications from Oregon, is available from CSWS for Department of Public Health at Oregon State University as assistant professor of Informa- $10. Call (541) 346-5015. University. tion Literacy and German. Cheri Brooks served as newsletter editor Eric Lawson worked for and dissemination specialist at CSWS for the the Wired Humanities past year. This fall she began law school at Project authoring web the University of Oregon. Cheri enjoyed pages, administering WHP working with the wonderfully supportive, and CSWS servers, and interesting, and intelligent women and men offering general trouble- at the center. “CSWS is an oasis of humane, shooting and support civilized, and progressive discourse,” she assistance across the says. She looks forward to developing new spectrum of computer applications. Eric skills and increasing her effectiveness as an received his master’s degree in Classics this advocate through legal scholarship. past spring. He is currently obtaining a TEFL Lynne Fessenden, director of the Ecologi- (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) cal Conversations Rockefeller Foundation certificate and is now teaching English for fellowship program, oversaw the logistics of the Cambridge Bilingual School (http:// bringing fifteen visiting scholars and cbs.knsh.com.tw/english/first.asp) in Taiwan. 10 awards Recipients of CSWS Spring Grants By Marie Harvey and Meredith Roberts Branch The Center for the Study of Women in Society awarded one Jane Grant Dissertation Fellow- ship and nine Research Support Grants during the spring funding cycle. We extend our congratulations to the awardees and our sincere thanks to the members of the review commit- tee. The recipients, amounts received, and proposal titles follow. Jane Grant Dissertation Fellowship Charli Carpenter, sociology, $10,000. “‘Innocent Women and Children’: Gender and the International Politics of Rescue.” Carpenter’s project examines the effects of the gendered construction of the innocent civilian on the political environment in which humanitarian policies are generated, justified, and enacted. Her study has policy implications for aid strate- gies and broadens the scope of gender studies in international security. Research Support Grants P. Lowell Bowditch, associate professor, classics, $6,000. “Roman Love Elegy and the Eros of Empire.” Bowditch will analyze the images of Roman imperial power and geographic expan- sion as perceived through the erotic lens of elegiac love poetry, a genre that flourished in the CSWS Grant Deadlines, verse of Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid, during the early and middle years of the Augustan 2002–3 regime in ancient Rome. Laura Fair, associate professor, history, $6,000. “Commercial Cinema and the Construction Research Support Grants of Gendered Modernities in Colonial and Postcolonial East Africa.” Fair will examine cinema $2,500 maximum for graduate as a zone of cultural debate as well as a physical and imaginary space in the lives of women students, $6,000 maximum for and men in seven East African towns and cities. faculty members Rachel Goldsmith, graduate student, psychology, $1,200. “Abuse Awareness and Mental CSWS Laurel Award Health: A Feminist Approach.” Goldsmith’s project investigates relationships between adults’ $2,250 for a graduate student experiences of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; the labels they attach to their experi- and one-term tuition remission ences; and their psychological health. The study emphasizes the social context of interpersonal Jane Grant Dissertation trauma and seeks to understand whether and how labeling abuse facilitates recovery. Fellowship Linda Long, associate professor, Knight Library, Special Collections; $3,472. “The Elizabeth $10,000 awarded to one Orton Jones Oral History Project.” The primary goal of Long’s project is to conduct an oral history graduate student of revered children’s literature author Elizabeth Orton Jones. Long plans to collect additional Deadline for the submission of material from Jones, which has been waiting to be accessioned to the existing collection. applications is Monday, February Jane Marcellus, graduate student, journalism and communication, $2,500. “Women, Work, 3, 2003, 5:00 p.m. The single and Femininity: Representation of Female Wage Earners in U.S. Women’s Magazines, 1918- grant deadline gives equal 1939.” By exploring the intersection of paid work and idealized femininity as depicted in opportunity for all applicants to be women’s magazines during the interwar period, Marcellus will combine historical research judged at the same time. with critical textual analysis to discover how paid labor was portrayed in women’s magazines RIG Development Grants during this era. (only for CSWS Research Christa Orth, graduate student, history, $2,500. “The Working-Class History of the Lesbian, Interest Groups) Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender (LGBT) Movement in the Pacific Northwest, 1970s to Present.” $6,000 maximum Orth will explore the history of the LGBT working-class movement by examining how they Deadlines for submission negotiated working-class issues within the gay rights movement; how response to the AIDS Fall Term: December 2, 2002 epidemic facilitated activism; and how the case study of the Northwest AIDS Foundation Winter Term: February 17, 2003 resulted in class and identity conflicts when gay workers organized a gay workplace in 1989. Spring Term: May 5, 2003 Kumarini Silva, graduate student, journalism and communication, $2,100. “Communication Applications must be received by and Identity Formation in New Social Movements: A Case Study of the Sarvodaya Movement 5:00 p.m. on dates stated. of Sri Lanka and Association for India’s Development.” Silva’s project focuses on so-called Grant applications may be picked empowerment movements, (e.g., grass-roots movements) and identity formation, namely a up from the CSWS office, 340 feminist identity, in a specific cultural context. She will explore the communication, politics, Hendricks Hall. Request a copy by and structure of these movements and how they respond to development and globalization. campus mail: send e-mail to Christina VanderVorst, graduate student, Romance languages, $2,500. “Reading Gender in [email protected] or call Central African Literature of War.” Through her project, VanderVorst will explore constructions 346-5015. Download and print an application from our website, of gender in Central African literature of war from 1960 to the present, examining the vital http://csws.uoregon.edu. intersections between gender and geography in representations of postcolonial war. Travel Grants, Executive Grants, Eileen Vickery, graduate student, East Asian languages and literature, $1,021. “Disease and and Speaker Grants are not the Dilemmas of Identity: Representation of Women in Modern Chinese Literature.” Vickery’s available this year due to budget research looks critically at the notion of the Chinese “new woman” as it challenges China’s cuts. modernization project. Vickery will explore how the plight of women highlights the incongru- ities of individualism, the notions of female identity, and the weight of traditional familial responsibilities. 11 A Conversation with Jan Eliot— csws CSWS’s First Community Member
Q: When did you first learn about CSWS? A: I went to the Jane Grant lecture and opening in Special Collections at the library. That was when I first got a clear picture of what was being done at CSWS. I was really interested in finding out more about what the center did, and I got on the mailing list so I could get the newsletters. Q: Why do you want to support the center? A: Well, I think there’s a notion that feminism has become tired. But we still live Cartoonist Jan Eliot in her studio. in a country that does not elect women to the CSWS is honored to highest office. We still live in a country that Q: When did you know that you wanted welcome UO graduate speaks a language that is not—I don’t need to be a cartoonist? and Eugene cartoonist the language to be gender-free, but I need for A: I started cartooning in 1979. I very Jan Eliot as our first someone to start incorporating “humankind” quickly became addicted to doing the community member. into our language instead of “mankind.” cartoons because it was fun and it was a way Eliot’s creativity, wit, and “Chairperson” and all those other things are to get out my frustrations and also my often cranky, less-than- what people consider to be frivolous little opinions. And then, Eugene was plunged perfect characters battles that we fight, but if you really look at into a major recession, and it was very hard entertain readers daily in our language, it’s a fight that needs to happen to make money here. I got this fantasy that I 130 newspapers because it shapes who we are and how we could become syndicated, and earn a living nationwide. from Eugene. Fortunately I didn’t have view ourselves in the world. The world is still anyone to tell me how difficult it would be a very bad place for women in general, and I In future issues of the or I might not have even tried. think it’s important that centers like this exist, newsletter, this page will Q: Did this have something to do with not only to keep the issues in the forefront but be devoted to member being a woman? also to do real scholarly work around it, so it profiles, updates, activi- A: Well, first of all, there are only 250 isn’t just assumption and hearsay—that we’re ties, and announcements. syndicated comic features in the United really looking at what it’s like to be a woman States. The competition is extremely fierce. in this society and in the world. Most syndicates get five to eight thousand Q: Do you have anything else you want to submissions a year, and they might launch say? one, two, or at the most three features. So it’s A: I think that getting out to the public is just hard for anybody—but, out of the 250 really important, and I look forward to there syndicated features at the time I started being more connections between the commu- exploring this, there were only three by nity and CSWS. I just think it’s really valu- women. Even now, out of 250 features, only able. I want to stay in touch and know what’s eight are by women. going on. Women are buried in history every Q: What in particular inspires you? single day. Every time someone rewrites a A: The real basis for the strip is my ten history book, a few more women get buried. years as a single mom of two daughters. The So keep up the good work. financial struggles, the emotional struggles, the time struggles are just burned into my brain. I mean, it really formed me as a person because it was very hard. So that’s the core of the strip. My women’s studies education at UO gave me a lot of who I am, and a lot of what the strip is comes out of my feminist studies and my exposure to all Stone Soup © 2002 Jan Eliot. Distributed by Universal Press those wonderful women. Syndicate. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. 12 author’s note Into Our Own Hands: The Women’s Health Movement in the United States, 1969–1990 By Sandra Morgen. Rutgers University Press, 2002
ecent history has witnessed a revolution women’s health movement organizations in Rin women’s health care. Beginning in the early 1990s; and ethnographic fieldwork. the late 1960s, women in communities Sandra Morgen focuses on the health clinics across the United States challenged medical born from this movement as well as how the and male control over women’s health. Few movement’s encounters with organized people today realize the extent to which medicine, the state, and ascendant these grass-roots efforts shifted some of the neoconservative and neoliberal political power and responsibility from the medical forces of the 1970s to the 1980s shaped the establishment into women’s hands as health confrontations and accomplishments in care consumers, providers, and advocates. women’s health care. As women struggled to Into Our Own Hands traces the women’s put their political ideals into practice, they health care movement in the United States. faced challenges from without and from Richly documented, this study is based on within, especially political struggles over more than a decade of research, including race and class. The story of the movement interviews with leading activists; documen- comes alive as Morgen weaves history with tary material from feminist health clinics an analysis that evokes the meaning and and advocacy organizations; a survey of experience of feminist activism.
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