LIZ HOLTgMAN ON WELFARE •BARBARA SEAMAN ON BREAS* CANCER iTEE PROGRESSIVE WOMAN'S QUARTERLY* FALL 1997 $3.95 • CANADA $4.95 *"". Silence May Be the Worst Crime of All - by Jan Goodwin jpL Patterns of Power t -flow Women Vote, Run and Winj^ * ' The Suffrage Statue Wars • Molly Haskell on Wasps^ ! The Matriarch Project "Violence at the Wailing Wall the sdr eklr^t U the, smuts iff me \Usckt sutyinal it us Mnovws-eKturKAl, pthttrfttihg, and (fs a Uvz heard fvr twenty j-ew ui the j-ct its entirely AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 16 ON RED HOUSE RECORDS AT FINE STORES EVERYWHERE OR CALL 1-800-69 5-468 THE PROGRESSIVE WOMAN'S QUARTERLY FALL 1997 VOLUME VI NUMBER 4 ON THE ISSUES FEATURES POLITICS Patterns of Power: How Women Vote, Run and Win - 12 United Kingdom: New Labour, New Women - Kelly Candaele - 13 United States: Ain't I a Voter? - Wilma Rule and Stephen Hill - 16 United States: Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Myself! - Judith K Witherow - 20 MEDITATION Meeting the Ghost of Hamlet's Father - Carolyn Gage - 22 A radical playwright challenges the Bard's authorship and life. COVER STORY Rwanda: Justice Denied - Jan Goodwin - 26 Amid the atrocities endured by Rwandan women, the world's silence may be the worst crime of all. PORTFOLIO The Matriarch Project - Suzanne Fiol - 34 A feminist artist transcends the biology of motherhood and redefines creativity. BREAKING RANKS The Welfare Bill Is "Our Bosnia" - 40 An interview with Elizabeth Holtzman on the feminists' fold on welfare. BATTLE LINES Unfinished Business - Janice K. Bryant - 44 In the battle over a monument, 150 years of racial tension resurfaces and a question emerges: Is history written in stone? COLUMNS Front lines - The Costs of Silence - Rosemary L. Bray - 2 Wailing at the Wall - Phyllis Chesler - 10 DEPARTMENTS Feedback - 3 Talking Feminist Animals and Domestic Violence - Patricia A. Murphy - 4 Wonder(ing) Woman — Davina C. Lopez — 5 Take No Prisoners: My Right to Legal Abortion - Kristin Bair - 7 Farewell, Patience and Sarah - Linda Clarke - 8 Books and Film Beyond the Halsted Radical - Barbara Seaman - 48 Ascent, Assimilation and the Selling of a Subculture - Jaclyn Geller - 50 In Brief: When Madness Comes Home - Mahin Hassibi, M.D. - 51 In Search of Pope Joan - Margaret R. Saraco - 52 Film: Visiting With the Wasps, '90s Style - Molly Haskell - 54 Back Page - Private Manfred's Rude Awakening - Joan Hilty - 60 COVER AND CONTENTS PAGE PHOTO: MARTHA RIAL © PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE DONNA WOOIXOLK Cnoss FRO LINES ON THE ISSUES The Costs of Silence Vol. VI • No. 4 Fall 1997 Not too many years ago, I found myself in a restaurant at lunchtime, tired, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Merle Hoffman hungry and late for a meeting. I stood waiting to place my order, zoned out with Editor thoughts of what I ought to be doing. I was so out of it I barely heard an Rosemary L. Bray exchange between the customer in front of me and the woman behind the Managing Editor Portia Hawkins-Bond counter. It concerned an earring, found in a booth two men had previously occu- Art Director pied, and before I knew it, the conversation had degenerated into a discussion Sharon Lee Ryder Editor-at-Large of "those faggots." Phyllis Chester Since then I've asked myself a thousand times why I said nothing to those Special Projects Advisors Julia Kagan, Anne Mollegen Smith people. I could fall back on the obvious reasons, but I have had to face the less Production Assistant obvious, more honest one. I was afraid—afraid to get into an argument, afraid Mary Lou Greenberg Contributing Editors they'd decide to silence me by calling me a nigger, just plain afraid. I've never Sanda J. Balaban, Charlotte Bunch, Irene Davall, forgotten my moment of silence in which I exhibited Katherine Eban Finkelstein, Jan Goodwin, Molly Haskell bell hooks, Flo Kennedy, Harriet Lyons, Julianne Malveaux, behavior I have no respect for in others, and I've vowed Fred Pelka, Marge Piercy, Arlene Raven There is never to repeat it. Advertising Sales Lori Sokol This month Jan Goodwin's heartbreaking and Webmaster much in the enraging article about the genocidal rape of Rwandan Sara Yager women, for example, reveals the shameful silence of a Assistant to the Publisher Donna Matthew wor^ ^at nas kft t'iese women twice abandoned. Marketing Director world that Joy Silver Former congresswoman and lifelong activist Elizabeth ON THE ISSUES Holtzman makes a passionate case for why women The Progressive Woman's Quarterly us to speak, must break their silence to reverse the tide of cynicism A feminist, humanist magazine of critical thinking, dedicated to fos- tering collective responsibility for positive social change. that grips us. And in a special section we examine the to break the ways in which women use—and don't use—the power ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly (ISSN0895-6014) is pub- of the vote to express themselves and their politics. lished quarterly as an informational and educational service of There is much in the world that calls us to speak, CHOICES Women's Medical Center, Inc., 97-77 Queens Blvd., Forest silence, Hills, NY 11374-3317. Fax: (718) 997-1206. to break the silence, to defend ourselves and others, hi World Wide Web Home page: http://www.ech.onyc.com/-onissues our high-tech and hyped-up world, we are bombarded or http://www.igc.apc.org/onissues to defend with the notion that our individual voices do not mat- E-mail: [email protected] Unsolicited Manuscripts: All material will be read by the ter, that what we say or do makes no real difference. It editors. For return, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope with proper postage. Articles should not be more than 2,000 words. AU dflU is a lie that we as progressive women and men should editing decisions are at the discretion of the editors. Feminist car- resist with all our strength. It is our resigned silence toons are also acceptable under the same provisions. On The Issues does not accept fiction or poetry. others. that creates the breeding ground for bigotry and hope- Advertising accepted at the discretion of the publisher. Acceptance lessness, that allows the forces of regression and does not imply endorsement. Publisher's Note repression to thrive. It is our raised voices—and our The opinions expressed by contributors and by those we interview willingness to support our talk with action—that hold out the hope and the are not necessarily those of the editors. On The Issues: The Progressive Woman's Quarterly is a forum where women may have promise of change. their voices heard without censure or censorship. We at On The Issues are great believers in change, both big and small. A Subscription Information: 1 year $14.95; 2 years $25; 3 years $34.95. Institutional rate: Add few months ago, we asked you to look out for a few changes close to home. You $10 first year, $5 each additional year. Add $4 per year for Canadian orders; $7 per year foreign (surface mail) or $20 per year foreign (air hold one such change in your hands—a crisper, more contemporary look for the mail). Send to On The Issues: The Progressive Woman's Quarterly, PO magazine. Our fabulous redesign is a fitting introduction to our new art direc- Box 3000, Dept. OTI, Denville, NJ 07834. Periodicals postage paid at Forest Hills, NY, and additional mailing offices. tor, Sharon Lee Ryder, whose broad-based art and editorial experience is a Customer Service: 1-800-783-4903 delightful addition to OTI. Finally, what looks like a change—the absence of our Advertising and Sales: (718) 459-1888, ext. 270 publisher Merle Hoffman's regular column—is only a temporary sabbatical. Postmaster: Send address changes to On The Issues: The Progressive Woman's Quarterly, PO Box 3000, Merle will be back with us in the next issue. We hope you'll be here, too. Dept. OTI, Denville, NJ 07834. Rosemary L. Bray Copyright © 1997 by CHOICES Women's Medical Center, Inc. fall 1997 2 feedback E-mail: [email protected] Goddess Knows Judaism, Christianity and Mam by reinterpreting their ancient texts I was delighted with Judith Antonelli's critique of the from a feminist viewpoint. But the fact remains that these religions usual feminist reading of the Bible ["Beyond Nostalgia: Rethinking the oppress women. The ancient Goddess religions were not perfect, though Goddess," Summer 1997]. To begin with, there is no historical warrant certainly not as bad as Antonelli would have us believe. Today, however, for believing that the world was or would be a kinder, gentler place with Goddess religions are empowering women to break free from the molds female deities. One has only to look at India, where wife burning is still in which the Big Three—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—have cast practiced. them. That is the important point. No matter the origins and history of The feminist notion that the Bible invented patriarchy is fatuous, Goddess worship, Goddess religions are freeing and empowering as any anthropologist knows. Patriarchy is and has been a dominant women! social institution in 90 percent of civilizations and tribes, from the Stone Nadine J. Daugherty Age to Greek and Roman civilizations, during prebiblical times and Columbus, OH among people who never heard of the Bible. Judith Plaskow complained of such unhistorical reading of ancient history and misreading of the In "Beyond Nostalgia: Rethinking the Goddess," the author justly claims Bible as long ago as 1978 in her article "Christian Feminism and Anti- that male supremacy and militarism did not start with the Hebrews Judaism" (published in Cross Currents, Fall 1978): Her research is incomplete, however, and she is just as inaccurate about "There is a new myth developing in Christian feminist circles.