MAPPING FEMINIST CAMBRIDGE

CAMBRIDGE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN

Inman Square Copyright © July, 2019 1970s-1990s The Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women (CCSW) works in an inclusive manner to promote equity for all women and girls and advocates on their behalf with other City departments and officials, local organizations, and state government to increase opportunities through policy recommendations, program development, and public awareness of key issues affecting women and girls.

The Cambridge Women’s Commission recognizes, supports, and advocates for all who self-identify as women or with womanhood, including transgender, gender fluid, and non-binary persons. We stand with and for women and girls, of all sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, immigration status, or religion.

For more on the Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women, visit our website at www.cambridgewomenscommission.org or contact:

Kimberly Sansoucy, Executive Director [email protected]

Emily Shield, Project Coordinator [email protected]

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Kimm Topping, for their dynamic leadership of this project and for creating a meaningful map for the entire community.

We sincerely appreciate the energy our Advisory Committee devoted to this project. We are grateful for their insights, perspectives, and recollections while reading drafts of the booklet and connecting us to women involved in the organizations highlighted here.

Advisory Committee: Libby Bouvier, Sarah Burks, Gilda Bruckman, Pamela Enders, Pat Hynes, Mary Leno, Jean MacRae, Susan Yanow, Laura Zimmerman.

We extend a special thanks to:

Chris Czernik, Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project, Cambridge Historical Commission, Marian Darlington Hope, Tim Devin, Danielle Dumaine, Mimi Elmer, Linda Gordon, Deborah Haynor, John Hubbel, Anne Kaufman, National Lawyers Guild of , Northeastern University, Judy Norsigian, Joanna O’Brien, Rochelle Ruthchild, , Deborah Silverstein, , Emily Spieler, Norma Swenson, University of Massachusetts , Sheli Wortis, City of Cambridge IT Dept. GIS.

Design by Raegan McCain

Mapping Feminist Cambridge TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

Introduction...... 3 The term second wave refers to the feminist activity and thought that took root in the late 1960s and continued for approximately two decades Map...... 4 primarily in industrialized nations in the West. As the women’s movement Contexualizing the ...... 6 sparked across the the United States, Cambridge became a center of revolution and organizing, much like , San Francisco, and other major U.S. cities Clayground...... 7 twice its size. From a protest of ’s 1970 commencement Bread and Roses Restaurant...... 8 led by Saundra Graham insisting on low-income housing for the Riverside community to the famous 1971 takeover of a Harvard building by local women Women’s Community Health Center...... 10 at 888 Memorial Drive, Cambridge activists were demanding changes locally that were similar to the national movement’s call for greater access to health ...... 12 and child care, ending the , and condemning sexual violence. Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press...... 14 In Inman Square, a feminist-owned bookstore, a credit union, restaurants, and Artemis Productions...... 14 shops became some of the new, essential meeting spaces of the movement. Goddard-Cambridge Graduate Program...... 16 Women who had lived for years in different Cambridge neighborhoods were joined in the movement by an influx of women who found Cambridge to be a Alliance Against Sexual Coercion...... 18 welcoming community.

Combahee River Collective...... 19 In this guide, we highlight feminist, socialist, and educational institutions that Massachusetts Feminist Credit Union...... 20 emerged and thrived in Inman Square from the 1970s through the 1990s and recognize the unique contributions they made to Cambridge feminist history. Focus Counseling and Consultation, Inc...... 22 Oral History Center...... 24 We acknowledge that most feminist organizing has experienced and experiences exclusions of race, class, gender identity, religion, and disability. As ’s Oral History Project...... 25 you’ll learn here, a need still remains to address the intersections of all identity groups and their contributions to the feminist movement. Child Care Resource Center...... 26 Women’s Law Collective...... 28 Learn more about women’s contributions to Cambridge by visiting the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project database at Gypsy Wagon Collective...... 30 www2.cambridgema.gov/Historic/CWHP City Girl Cafe...... 30 Ellary Eddy Mural...... 31 Avengers and LGBTQ+ Seniors Group...... 31

Page 2 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 3 INMAN SQUARE | HAMPSHIRE STREET

1 91 HAMPSHIRE ST Clayground | 1976–2001

2 134 HAMPSHIRE ST Bread and Roses Restaurant 1974–1978

3 137 HAMPSHIRE ST Women’s Community Health Center | 1974–1981

4 186 & 186 ½ Hampshire St New Words Bookstore 1974–2002 Goddard-Cambridge Graduate Program in Social Change 1970–1979 Massachusetts Feminist Federal Credit Union | 1975 Focus Counseling and Consultation, Inc. | 1973–2013

5 187 HAMPSHIRE ST Child Care Resource Center 1971–2012 Women’s Law Collective | 1970s

6 204 HAMPSHIRE ST Gypsy Wagon Collective | 1974–1979 City Girl Café | 1997–2019

7 1384 CAMBRIDGE ST Mural by Ellary Eddy | 1976

Page 4 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 5 CONTEXTUALIZING 91 HAMPSHIRE STREET THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT Clayground | 1976­­-2001

1969 The Women’s Liberation Conference. Six hundred women meet at Emmanuel College in Boston where groups like (Female Clayground was co-owned Annie and Carole met at Liberation) and Bread and Roses began organizing. and created by Annie Hoffman Mudflat (a woman-owned and Carole Ann Fer as a pottery studio now located in 1970 The Women’s Strike for Equality March in Washington takes place. “socialistic” pottery business. Somerville) in 1970 and began 1970 Women and Their Bodies, a 193-page booklet, later known as Our The collective offered pottery selling pottery on the streets Bodies, Ourselves is published. at lower prices, had flexible until they had the idea to open hours, and connected with a storefront. In 1976, they rented 1971 The takeover of a Harvard building at 888 Memorial Drive by local other women’s organizations in 97 Hampshire Street until they women to protest the lack of affordable housing in Cambridge and the need for a women’s center leads to the purchase of 46 Pleasant the neighborhood by creating purchased their permanent Street which becomes the Cambridge Women’s Center. commemorative platters and home at 91 Hampshire Street pottery, like anniversary pottery in 1991. Women did all of the 1973 Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) was founded by a group of volunteers and survivors who created and staffed a hotline to answer for New Words Bookstore. It renovations, including electrical calls from rape survivors. BARCC helped organize some of the first also offered workshops and and plumbing. Now a yoga Take Back The Night marches in Boston, along with local students. apprenticeships to women instructor, Annie Hoffman, and became involved in the reflects on the experience as 1976 Transition House, the first domestic violence shelter on the east coast, is born after two women opened their apartment in Cambridge wider Cambridge community deeply formative. “We were as a refuge for other women fleeing abusive relationships. by creating banners for the making vessels. The body is a AIDS quilt and Mel King, a well- vessel, and a house is an outer 1977 The Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women is established known Boston politician and vessel, so learning how to as a department of the city. community organizer. renovate a space was essential 1988 Project 10 East forms at the Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, and empowering for us as becoming one of the first Gay-Straight Alliances in the country. women.” 1989 The Women’s Civil Rights Rally in Boston acknowledges “women who have been victims of male violence.” The space is still owned by Annie Hoffman and is now a 1990 Emory University offers the first Ph.D. program in Women’s Studies. yoga and expressive arts studio named Art & Soul. 1991 Cambridge’s first Pride Brunch takes place at City Hall, organized by the Cambridge Lavender Alliance with support from Mayor Alice Wolf.

1993 The March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi-Equal Rights and Liberation takes place. Annie Hoffman (L) and Carole Ann Fer (R) 1995 The Fourth U.N. World Conferences on Women is hosted in Beijing; in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), and Nairobi (1985).

Page 6 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 7 134 HAMPSHIRE STREET Bread and Roses Restaurant | 1974­­-1978

A gourmet vegetarian The project was launched Twice a month, individual Today, Oleana, a woman-owned restaurant and a center for by selling shares of stock to women artists, many who had restaurant, occupies the space. feminist culture, Bread and 100 women investors, with never shown their art publicly, Roses was co-founded by Pat the Women’s Law Collective were invited to exhibit their Hynes and Gill Gane. It opened providing legal support. Instead artwork. Radical feminist its doors as a woman-owned of tips, Bread and Roses paid speakers and performers, like business for “women and their above minimum wage and Andrea Dworkin and , friends” after five months of chose to donate to a feminist novelists Tillie Olsen and Alice renovating a “dank, dismal” cause each week, such as Walker, musicians neighborhood bar. Except for Rosie’s Place, the first shelter in and Willie Tyson electrified the the plumbing, women did all the country specifically for poor space, as did scientists, and of the architectural design, and homeless women. Every athletes. electrical, carpentry, sheet Sunday evening, leftover meals rocking, plastering, and painting, were given to the newly opened Once, a woman rushed in, with a backdrop of feminist and domestic violence shelter in saying, “I just arrived from lesbian singers/songwriters Cambridge, Transition House. Ireland, and this is the first place playing at full-volume. I wanted to visit!” Before the internet, how did she find out? The name Bread and Roses was adopted from the demand of In 1978 the restaurant sold the women-led textile strikers to young feminists who in in Lawrence, MA in 1912: “We Bread is life’s prose turn opened another one want bread and roses, too.” The named, Amaranth, which when statement was a reflection that Poetry, the rose. sold again became Daddio’s Entrance to Bread and Roses. the goal of the strike was to Bread and Roses restaurant (to which a Cambridge ensure that workers could do city councilwoman quipped, more than meet basic needs. “Given its history, do you have to The women’s restaurant, cultural center, and softball team name it Daddio’s?”. 1974-1978 Stories for Bread and Roses provided by Pat Hynes. Archive is housed at Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.

Page 8 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 9 137 HAMPSHIRE STREET Women’s Community Health Center | 1974­­-1981

Conceived in 1973, the same WCHC translated all literature Becoming the only women- Upon arriving at the WCHC, year of the landmark Supreme into Spanish and Portuguese and owned licensed clinic in the people completed a “herstory” Court decision affirming a offered Spanish-speaking and state was a success but came form to share information about women’s right to an abortion, lesbian self-help and groups. with staff burnout and public family medical history, current the Women’s Community Health From 1975-76, members of the criticism. The work of WCHC needs, and preferences for care. Center was organized by Cookie collective instructed Harvard lived on through the community They’d meet a health worker who Avrin, Jennifer Burgess, and Terry Medical School students on the members engaged with the was committed to incorporating health education into every step Plumb, along with many others. In pelvic exam after “local women center. of medical care, primarily through 1974, WCHC acquired a physical medical students requested demonstration (“self-help”). space at 137 Hampshire Street the program to change the The Women’s Community Health and incorporated as a non-profit. inadequate and oppressive Center archive is housed at For a breast or cervical exam, The goal was to offer a woman- methods usually employed in Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute. health workers first demonstrated controlled and owned health pelvic instruction.” (Women’s on themselves. Patients, in front of the health worker, could practice center for education, prevention, Community Health Center what they learned to make sure and health services. For seven Second Annual Report). they got it right. They could opt to years, WCHC gave women tools have a doctor perform the exam. to gain control of their health, WCHC provided essential health care, and lives. services to women, including abortions and gynecological The organizers believed that care. It operated with a The Impact of Roe v. Wade health care should not be physician’s license and provided for a profit. Rather employed women doctors. In January 1973, in the Roe v. Wade case, the Supreme Court affirmed than a predetermined sliding In March of 1975, the center the legal right to abortion, declaring that existing state laws restricting scale, there was a suggested began a frustrating process of access to abortion were unconstitutional. The historic court decision fee system. Funding came from applying for a clinic license, followed years of activism for the right to legal abortion. This decision, community support, including which wouldn’t be granted until however, did not create widespread access to abortion. Many of the performances with local poets January of 1981, only months abortion services were developed at women-owned clinics created and singers, a $5000 grant before WCHC had to close to provide holistic women’s health care. Women across the country, from the Boston Women’s its doors. Fenway Community worked together to create safe and affordable feminist options for Health Book Collective (which Health Center provided follow- abortions. The Women’s Community Health Center in Cambridge, the authored Our Bodies, Ourselves), up care to WCHC patients. Women’s Health Center, and Women’s Health and the sale of speculums to Services were some of the first clinics created to provide healthcare for the general public. and by women as alternatives to the traditional medical system.

Page 10 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 11 186 & 1861/2 HAMPSHIRE STREET

From 1970 to 1990, several feminist-minded groups rented space in international feminists, and activists, that continues to thrive the building, including New Words Bookstore, Goddard-Cambridge a selection of writings on today. Thanks to New Words, Graduate Program in Feminist Studies, Massachusetts Feminist Credit domestic violence. It featured feminist and multicultural Union, and Focus: A Women’s Counseling Center. Mel Chalfen & Judy African American literature, writings are finally a part of most Chalfen inherited the property and their hospitable and conscious including the writings from the bookstores’ inventories. style made it possible for many organizations to thrive sustainably in Combahee River Collective and the space. They later passed the venue to Rob Chalfen, who now runs Kitchen Table: Women of Color Both New Words Bookstore and Outpost 186, an art and music space in the building. Press. By the mid-1980s, the the Center for New Words archive bookstore became a bridge is housed at Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute. between activists and women’s New Words Bookstore | 1976­­-2002 studies programs, supplying Stories for New Words provided by titles for new women’s studies In January 1976, New Words, by women authors, opening Laura Zimmerman, Gilda Bruckman, courses. The bookstore also and Jean MacRae. A Women’s Bookstore, moved publishing houses and forging sold tickets for local events. from Somerville to the first floor national and international of 186 Hampshire Street. The networks. Although Harvard By the late 1990s, after 28 years generous owners of the three- Square bookstore owners in business, the emergence of story building made it possible claimed that New Words would online bookstores and growth for the bookstore, as well as “never find enough titles to fill of large chain bookstores other feminist and progressive the shelves of something called had taken its toll. By 1998, all groups, to call Inman Square a ‘women’s bookstore,’” there other feminist establishments their home. were never enough shelves to in Inman Square had closed, . house their books and music. except Focus Counseling, New Words began with pooled Loyal customers were a source which resulted in a diminished resources of $15,000 from its of wonder to the collective, customer presence. In 2002, the four founders, Rita Arditti, Gilda which by the mid-80s included bookstore moved its mission Bruckman, Mary Lowry, and Madge Kaplan, Kate Rushin, to the newly-created Center Jean MacRae. The bookstore Laura Zimmerman, Doris Reisig, for New Words (CNW), housed was a pioneer in a flourishing and Joni Seager. in the Cambridge YWCA. Then feminist “women in print” in 2010, CNW channeled all cultural revolution. Women were New Words featured hard-to- its resources to support the producing groundbreaking find nonsexist children’s books, Women, Action, & the Media books, newspapers, and hundreds of titles of lesbian (WAM), an online network of journals, re-discovering classics fiction, journals and texts by feminist journalists, authors, and Photo by Ellen Shub

Page 12 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 13 186 & 1861/2 HAMPSHIRE STREET New Words Bookstore | 1976­­-2002 (continued)

Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press

New Words hosted readings for authors from Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, a publication led by Black feminists of the Combahee River Collective, which was founded in the 70s by women of color for women of color. Barbara Smith, Demita Frazier, and co-founded the collective. To solidify the politics of an anti- racist feminist movement, inclusive of lesbian and trans women, the group published The Combahee River Collective Statement (see the excerpt on page 19).

Women of Color Press emerged and flourished through Barbara Smith’s leadership and published books exclusively by women of color, including , Gloria Anzaldúa, and Angela Davis. Smith was a regular visitor at New Words and was involved with several Cambridge-based organizations, including Transition House, Audre Lorde, Kitchen Table Press where she trained staff on anti-. Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images

Artemis Productions

Founded by five women; Emily Culpepper, Linda Barufaldi, Andrea Gillespie, Jean MacRae (a New Words founder), and Betsy York. Artemis organized the first Boston Women’s Music Festival in October 1974. Performers at the festival included The New Harmony Sisterhood Band

(comprised of students from Goddard-Cambridge), Holly Near, Meg Barbara Smith Christian, Chris Williamson, Margie Adam, and others. The group went on to produce other concerts, including the Second Boston Women’s Music Festival at Sanders Theater in 1976.

New Harmony Sisterhood Band - 1974

Page 14 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 15 186 & 1861/2 HAMPSHIRE STREET Goddard-Cambridge Graduate Program in Social Change | 1970-1979

Goddard-Cambridge, an graduate program in the fall of Board of Education. Faculty extension of the parent 1972. From 1974-78 the program members recall that the program of Goddard College in was led by Rochelle Ruthchild evaluation of Goddard- Vermont, had several locations and by 1976, two-thirds of the Cambridge included questions Goddard’s Mission throughout Cambridge and student population had enrolled suggesting that the school was “It will provide the training and eventually found its home at 186 in the Feminist Studies program. trying to convince students to certification for those interested Hampshire Street. Throughout become and Marxists. in combining the theory and Goddard-Cambridge’s history, An ovular on lesbian culture, The idea of sexual orientation as practice of social change; for those programs offered included: possibly the first in the country, a lifestyle choice was, and still whose educational goals cannot be pursued in the established Feminist Studies, Imperial U.S. was offered to students in 1976. is, prevalent in society. universities and conventional at home and abroad, Third Leaflets for the course traveled graduate programs; and for World Studies, and U.S. Social by mail across the country and The Goddard-Cambridge Graduate those presently engaged in social & Cultural Studies. Students caused controversy that led to Program in Social Change archive action who desire to deepen their participated in both faculty- calls to the Massachusetts. has been deposited at the University intellectual resources.” of Massachusetts, Boston. led and student-developed Sample of research and earned a Masters * Goddard’s feminist word for seminar. Feminist Studies Projects in Arts within one year for between $1500 - $2500. The • Black Women & American Society “People’s Council“ made up of • Corporate Power & The Issues of Women faculty and students, governed • Design for a Community Mental Health Course • Feminist Writing Workshop the school and decided on • Lesbian Culture internal policy issues. • Media: The Information Industry • Pawnee Women: Speaking for Ourselves In 1970 the school hosted its • Prostitution As A Form of Female Labor first women’s history ovular* • Study of Menopause taught by Linda Gordon, who • Theory and Practice of Feminist Journalism became a nationally recognized • Towards a Feminist Theory of Sexuality • Women & Therapy historian. The group met twice • Women & Traditional Music a week for 3-5 hours and held the motto “make the invisible visible.” The program officially recognized feminist studies as a

Page 16 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 17 186 & 1861/2 HAMPSHIRE STREET Goddard-Cambridge Graduate Program in Social Change | 1970-1979 (continued)

The Emergence of Women’s Studies Combahee River Collective | 1977 – 1980

In 1990 the first Women’s Studies Ph.D. degree was offered at Emory “Above all else, our politics our lives during four centuries initially sprang from the shared of bondage in the Western University thanks in part to the work of feminist and women’s studies belief that Black women are hemisphere. programs in the 70s and 80s. Today, women’s studies are viewed as inherently valuable, that our essential learning to many sociology, psychology, and history programs. liberation is a necessity not as an We realize that the only people Cambridge housed one of the first feminist studies programs in the adjunct to somebody else’s but who care enough about us country at the Goddard-Cambridge Graduate Program in because of our need as human to work consistently for our Social Change. persons for autonomy. This may liberation are us. Our politics seem so obvious as to sound evolve from a healthy love for simplistic, but it is apparent that ourselves, our sisters and our Alliance Against Sexual Coercion no other ostensibly progressive community which allows us to movement has ever considered continue our struggle and work.” The demands and concerns of the present day #MeToo movement our specific oppression as a — Excerpt from “The Combahee River have long been present in feminist writing, organizing, and services. priority or worked seriously for Collective Statement,” Freada Klein, a faculty member at Goddard-Cambridge and a the ending of that oppression. Cambridge resident, received funding for her research on sexual Merely naming the pejorative harassment in the workplace. In 1976 along with Elizabeth Cohn- stereotypes attributed to Black Stuntz and Lynn Wehrli, she founded the Alliance Against Sexual women (e.g. mammy, matriarch, Coercion, which referred women to legal, vocational, and emotional Sapphire, whore, bulldagger), counseling resources, in addition to helping determine their eligibility let alone cataloguing the cruel, for unemployment compensation. Other groups provided domestic often murderous, treatment violence support and rape crisis interventions. Each of the founders we receive, indicates how little was involved in education, both locally and nationally. Lynn co-taught value has been placed upon a course titled “Rape and U.S. Institutions” at the Women’s School, located at the Cambridge Women’s Center. Elizabeth and Freada collaborated with the Feminist Alliance Against Rape which published national bi-monthly newsletters.

Black Feminist Organizing in the 70s & 80s

Page 18 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 19 186 & 1861/2 HAMPSHIRE STREET Massachusetts Feminist Federal Credit Union | 1975

In the year following the Equal while some groups wanted Economic Independence Credit Opportunity Act, the non- to make decisions based on profit Massachusetts Feminist leadership, others wanted full Groups like the Massachusetts Feminist Federal Credit Union helped Federal Credit Union (MFFCU) consensus from every member women to obtain loans and financial education. The Boston Women’s opened in January as one of the group. Fund, which still provides grants to community-based organizations, of seventeen feminist credit started at 186 Hampshire and supported many local feminists. unions across the country. The By 1976, MFFCU had 850 local Credit Union hosted educational members and had granted In 1968 job advertisements specifying gender became illegal. Before events, including “The Language $258,000. The credit union then, it was common to see ads titled “Help Wanted – Female.” In 1974 of Money and Investing: A eventually disbanded (date not the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed, which made it possible for Primer for Women,” co-hosted available.) single, widowed, divorced women to take out a loan without needing a with Harvard Women’s Law man to cosign. Even so, women still faced many challenges in gaining Association in 1980. Loans economic independence. were made to members based on their need and ability to repay, and members had to “The problem, of course, is that be involved with one of five it is hard to run a business built selected women’s organizations on consensus, especially when in the area. Deposits to MFFCU the process takes so much were insured for up to $40,000 time. But many white middle- class feminists did have time by the National Credit Union to devote to the process, which Administration. was as important as results in many of their organizations. In 1975, the feminist credit Working-class women and unions met to found the mothers could resent the Feminist Economic Network assumption that everyone had and the Feminist Economic free time.” (Spain, 2011) Alliance, which represented thousands of credit union members across the country. Contention among the groups which reflected issues of the feminist movement at the time; Bay State Junior College Ad, 1973

Page 20 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 21 186 & 1861/2 HAMPSHIRE STREET Focus Counseling and Consultation, Inc. 1973­­-2013

Focus Counseling for Women In the mid-1970s, Focus lesbian and gay support, and Their Friends, founded collaborated with other mental grief and bereavement after by Bonnie Engelhardt, Sarah health organizations to form a suicide, sexual addiction, and Greenberg, Beverly Sclar, and larger collective. With several early childhood emotional Libby Zimmerman, started with therapy practices emerging development. a mission to offer a feminist at the time, the goal of this approach for clients seeking “Collective of Collectives” was In the 1990s, Focus moved away counseling, and provide a to be supportive rather than from an economic collective feminist community for the staff. competitive. Organizations to a group practice model but Focus welcomed clients of all included the Somerville stayed in community with one sexual orientations and gender Women’s Mental Health another through supervision identities. It wasn’t until 1973, the Collective, the Women’s Center meetings, shared office space, year Focus was established, that in Cambridge, Tapestry, Libra, business meetings, and a homosexuality was removed and others. shared commitment to provide from the Diagnostic & Statistical quality psychotherapy services Manual (DSM) as a pathological From 1985-1995 Focus created within a feminist perspective. diagnosis. and hosted a speaker series, “Families in Focus,” that touched During the 1970s collectives on topics of feminist thinking and Shifts in Theory & Practice were a common approach relational perspectives. CEU’s to organizations involved in were offered to practitioners. Throughout history, women have been pathologized and sent to feminist work, and Focus was no psychiatric hospitals at significantly higher rates than men. Women’s exception. The practice started As members joined and left emotions were often seen as deficits rather than strengths; a pathology as an economic collective the practice, a core group rather than a reaction to oppression. During the 1970s, new theories and where each therapist was paid emerged who offered general perspectives emerged, which worked to validate women’s psychology an equal hourly wage regardless psychotherapy and support and brought about a shift in therapeutic practices, particularly for of academic or clinical degree. on issues that were often women. Feminist Theory was being integrated into psychotherapy Sliding scale fees were offered marginalized or stigmatized, practices. These once radical theories conceptually termed, “Relational to ensure that clients would not such as infertility and adoption, or Self-in-Relation Theory” by Jean Baker Miller and her colleagues be turned away due to financial at the Wellesley College Stone Center, are now integrated into constraints. mainstream psychology practice.

Page 22 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 23 186 & 1861/2 HAMPSHIRE STREET Oral History Center | 1980­­-1992

The Oral History Center They interviewed each other The Oral History Center cared emerged in 1980, envisioned about their quilt and a group deeply about community by oral historian Cindy Cohen, of youths worked with singer accountability, and it involved as a collaboration between the and songwriter Betsy Rose to community members in the Cambridge Arts Council and compose a ballad about the design and evaluation of each the Cambridge Social History quilt. In 1985, the quilt was program. Resource Center. The goal was exhibited in Nairobi, Kenya at the to build stronger communities World Conference to review and The Center hosted folk art not only by documenting appraise the Achievements of exhibits and educational events oral histories but by bringing the UN Decade for Women. which grew beyond Cambridge people together, in one-on- into Boston and around the one interviews, to overcome Eventually, the Center’s work world. Several projects arose out stereotypes and prejudices, evolved into a curriculum that of the Center, such as “A Passion believing that “...the lives of could be used in classrooms for Life: Stories and Folk Arts of regular people are important and and other community settings. Palestinian and Jewish Women,” deserve to be documented.” Workshops were provided to and The “Griots of Roxbury,” 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade teachers a publication that explored violence in the lives of five Examples of interview pairs from of Cambridge Public Schools to Cambridge Women’s Quilt Project Cambridge, Roxbury, Lawrence, incorporate oral history into the generations of Roxbury residents. and Central America included: social studies curriculum. High school girls and older The Oral History Center archive is housed at Northeastern University. women; Spanish-speaking and This project lasted for five years, English-speaking youth; Jewish documenting 80 stories that and Palestinian women; Public were compiled into a book, “The and parochial students; and Mango Tree.” A partnership with Black Women’s Oral History Project Mayan, Creole, and Garifuna Northeastern University’s Center women. for Innovation in Urban Education “Differences are used to create separations and fear because itis (where the Oral History Center differences which are used to legitimize the unequal distribution of resources.” (Oral History Center, 1990). Beginning in the 1970s in One of the Center’s first projects would move to in 1995) led Cambridge, oral histories became a community organizing tool. of the Oral History Center was to professional development The Oral History Center and the Black Women’s Oral History Project the Cambridge Women’s Quilt. workshops for Boston Public highlighted the importance of communicating across identities and Sixty women and girls, ages 8 to Schools teachers. By 1990, a documenting everyday people. The Black Women’s Oral History Project 80, sewed quilt patches together curriculum guide was developed included interviews with 72 African-American women from Cambridge. to document their individual lives. for national distribution. Transcripts and audio files are available through the Schlesinger Library.

Page 24 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 25 187 HAMPSHIRE STREET Child Care Resource Center | 1971­­-2012

Founded in 1972 by Mav Pardee, By 1976, the center referred an The center expanded to manage Quaker Case, Maggie Sears, average of 100 people each voucher subsidies and work and Heidi Urich, the Child Care week, which meant matching directly with employers. As the Resource Center (CCRC) started families based on cost, location, cost of child care increased, CCRC services in response to families’ pressing more businesses needed to cultural responsiveness, and • Locate programs based on family needs needs for affordable childcare other factors using the first invest in support of employee- • Arrange playgroups and childcare exchanges options. Their mission was database of child care providers childcare costs. • Financial assistance “dedicated to the expansion of maintained on index cards. parent and worker-controlled Mav Pardee, an experienced • Services for children with special needs daycare, and to working with business consultant, encouraged • Workshops and support groups for providers staff and parents in ways that businesses to offer child care • Job board for providers support its commitment to options and tax exemptions to • Licensing support for providers child care services that are reduce employee turnover. In • Monthly newsletter the 1980s, CCRC became the first non-sexist, non-racist, and • Partnered with Community Schools programs economically mixed.” CCRC R&R in the state to use computers published “A Study of Family Day to run voucher programs and Care Systems in MA,” proposing their providers’ database. solutions to issues families faced in accessing childcare. The Child Care Resource Center archive is housed at Schlesinger CCRC was one of the first Library, Radcliffe Institute. R&R (resource and referral) CCRC Staff organizations in the country. The Cost of Childcare

In 1983 in Massachusetts, it cost $110 a week for infant child care and $80 a week for toddler child care. At the time, the minimum wage was $135 a week, which meant that nearly all of a caretaker’s income could be spent on childcare. With more women entering the workforce and seeking outside childcare since the mid-1960s, the disparity presented a significant challenge for institutions and families. In 2019, Massachusetts is still the 2nd most expensive state for childcare with an average cost of $1,422 a month and a roughly $500 weekly minimum wage. Organizations like the Child Care Resource Center created the first database with childcare options, allowing families to research all CCRC Workshop Brochure options before committing to a single provider.

Page 26 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 27 187 HAMPSHIRE STREET Women’s Law Collective | 1970s

The Women’s Law Collective access to restraining orders Law Communes started at 678 Massachusetts and other supports. Lawyers Avenue and relocated to in the collective represented “These communes practiced law in a new way, involving themselves Hampshire Street in 1982. It was Our Bodies Ourselves, workers’ directly in anti-war and community work as participants on the front one of many law collectives unions, and same-gender lines. They rejected all hierarchy – especially distinctions between in Cambridge and Boston at couples before the marriage lawyers and non-lawyers. They functioned as the groups they served: the time, but the only one equality act. egalitarian collectives making decisions by consensus. The lawyers led entirely by women. The rejected class distinctions, taking turns answering the phones while collective started as a course, The collective contributed to the sharing desks and administrative tasks.” “Women and the Law,” with law revival of the National Lawyers students as founding members. Guild in Massachusetts, which Students from Harvard and Boston University started the first law Their goal was to raise women’s now supports local activists and communes in Central Square, Cambridge, later joined by The Women’s awareness about laws related works to eradicate racism and Law Collective. Radical Boston College law students met informally in a to their everyday lives. They other forms of discrimination. church in Boston’s South End while another law collective was formed provided representation for The Women’s Law Collective in Dorchester.” cases such as divorce, abortion, eventually dissolved (date not workers’ rights, and welfare. available). — A history of 1970s law collectives from the National Lawyers Guild Massachusetts Chapter. www.nlgmass.org/nlg-mass-history While several iterations of the group existed over the years, Holly Ladd led the Hampshire Street collective in the early The first women’s 1980s. The Women’s Law suffrage office in Collective’s work addressed Cambridge was located legal issues which impact at 177 Hampshire St. women and families today. Notably, it co-drafted the Abuse Prevention Act, which allows 2020 marks the domestic violence survivors 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States. Holly Ladd

Page 28 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 29 204 HAMPSHIRE STREET 1384 CAMBRIDGE STREET

Gypsy Wagon Collective | 1974­­-1979 Mural by Ellary Eddy | 1974­­-1979 Gypsy Wagon, a craft collective In 1979, the owners changed As you reach the intersection The mural includes George that operated on consignment, the business to Dirtworks, a of Hampshire Street and Washington and Benjamin was led by Diane Walbridge, cleaning company. Cambridge Street, you will find Franklin, who served as Diane Bellamy, and Karen the Inman Square Fire House volunteer firefighters in their Copeland. Aside from selling with a mural painted on its lifetimes. The mural was crafts, Gypsy Wagon offered side. In 1976, Ellary Eddy (a refurbished in 2002. Ellary woman artist), painted the 40- continues to create art and has classes including macramé, foot mural of Engine Company recently published a collection knitting, crochet, loom weaving, 5, in celebration of the nation’s of essays, titled “Her Argument.” basket weaving, lampshade bicentennial. (See photo page 32.) workshops, as well as voice and music lessons. As in other collectives, the people involved and LGBTQ+ Seniors Group were volunteers. The shop employed one paid staff person. Until 1998, the Lesbian Friday before Boston’s pride Sadly, the collective’s inventory Avengers had weekly poetry parade. slams and other events at Ryle’s was robbed within its first year Gypsy Wagon Collective Jazz Club, the oldest jazz club Across the street at S&S, of operation. in Cambridge and the second another Cambridge restaurant oldest in the staple, a LGBTQ+ seniors group area (closed in 2018). The group meets weekly sponsored by the City Girl Café | 1997­­-2019 was focused on lesbian visibility Cambridge Somerville Elder and they were known for their Services. City Girl Cafe was a favorite graduated from the Cambridge spontaneous public skits such gathering place for local School of Culinary Arts and as passing out Hershey Kisses The Lesbian Avengers archive is feminists. The restaurant, which partnered with Schwartz. In on the subway for Valentine’s housed at The History Project. opened in Inman Square in 1997, 2008, the cafe was purchased Day while wearing Lesbian offered Italian lunch, dinner, by Khavala Macken-Fraizer (also Avengers shirts. After 1998, they and catering. Merry Moscato the head chef) with her friend, rented meeting space at Boston GLASS, an organization that still and Cheryl Schwartz started it Lauren Anderson. Khavala provides mentorship programs as a catering service, ‘City Girl and Lauren maintained the to LGBTQ+ youth of color. Gourmet Cafe,’ in 1993. Merry restaurant’s original name and Lesbian Avengers was involved Moscato (nicknamed “city girl” much of the menu. in the founding of March in by her brothers) Boston beginning in 1996 which still happens every year on the

Page 30 Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women Mapping Feminist Cambridge Page 31 LEARN MORE

PUBLICATIONS

Devin, T. (2017). Mapping out utopia: 1970’s Boston-area counterculture (book 1: Cambridge). Free the Future Press, Somerville, MA.

Feminist Footsteps Around Cambridge. Ribe, Cambridge, MA.

Hogan, K. (2016). The movement: Lesbian antiracism and feminist accountability. Duke University Press, Durham, and London.

Morgen, S. (2002). Into our own hands: The women’s health movement in the United States, 1969-1990. Rutgers University Press, Piscataway, NJ.

Smith, B. Ain’t nobody gonna turn me around: Forty years of movement building with Barbara Smith. Jones, A. and Eubanks, A. (Eds.). State University of New York Press, Albany, NY. Mural by Ellary Eddy — Photo by Carl Calabria, intersection of Hampshire & Cambridge Streets Spain, D. (2011). Gender and the city: The awful being of invisibility. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 32(1), pp. 152-178.

WEBSITES

Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project www2.cambridgema.gov/Historic/CWHP

The History Project www.historyproject.org

FILMS

Left on Pearl www.leftonpearl.org

Taking Our Bodies Back: The Women’s Health Movement www.cambridgedocumentaryfilms.org/filmsPages/taking.html

A Moment in Herstory www.catherinerussodocumentaries.com

Mapping Feminist Cambridge