VFA SALUTES FEMINIST AUTHORS
Celebrating feminist writers who changed the world
1966-1985
The Veterans Feminists of America Salute to Feminist Writers, in the words of
Jacqui Ceballos, was another banner event planned by
Muriel Fox and Sheila Tobias. "A
once-in-a-lifetime assemblage of feminist writers gathered under VFA auspices
at
Celebrating feminist authors who changed the world, the day's events started
off with a Luncheon Discussion for Honor Roll writers in Sulzberger Hall. Two
panel discussions, fiction and nonfiction, continued
the celebration from
The first author's medal went to the First Author of the Second Wave. The citation
for Betty Friedan, in the event's program, notes that
The Feminine Mystique probably changed world history more than any other
book ever written.
The Boston Women's Health Book Collective members were next to be honored, for
taking the lead in educating women about their physical natures at a time when
it was "unseemly" to note that we had special physical natures. Ruth
Bell-Alexander, Joan Ditzion, Paula Doress-Waters, Nancy Miriam Hawley, Jane Pincus and Judy Norsigian,
current Executive Editor, were medalled individually
for the collective effort of writing Our Bodies Ourselves, which has
sold more than 4 million copies in 20 languages.
Citations for all the feminist
writers honored at the event are collected in the
The many aspects of women's lives that the Honor Roll writers drew attention to
- - health and reproduction, rape, psychology, homemaking, girls' education and
math anxiety, law, lesbianism, language, woman's image in popular culture,
women's exclusion from public sphere deliberations - - are evidence of the
pervasiveness of the problem that Betty Friedan
crystallized as The Feminist Mystique, and evidence that a multi-faceted social
revolution was underway. Think of the living conditions of women in the 1960's
that evoked all this revolutionary feminist writing work in response.
VFA SALUTES...
Sidney Abbott - Together with Barbara Love, she wrote
the feminist movement's first article and first book by lesbians about
lesbians. Co-chair of
Dolores Alexander - Wrote important documents and press materials while
Executive Director of national
Madeline Amgott - Creator and executive producer
of "
Louise Armstrong - Her writings and lectures have been a major force in
aroused awareness of child sexual abuse, incest and male violence.
Pauline Bart - Her feminist books include Portnoy's
Mother's Complaint: Depression in Middle aged Women, and A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Office.
Mary Kay Blakely - A longtime activist, journalist and author, she has
written three books. Wrote the Hers column for the New
York Times. Now on the advisory board of WomensENews.
Susan Brownmiller - Changed the world's
thinking about rape in Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. A founder of New York Radical Feminists.
Paula Caplan - A feminist psychologist, actor
and author of books and plays. Books include The Myth of Women's Masochism,
and You're Smarter Than They Make You Feel.
Physllis Chesler
- Her Women and Madness revolutionized the attitude of practitioners and
lay people alike in appraising the mental health of women.
Ceil
Eleanor Foa Dienstag
- Her Whither Thou Goest: The
Story of an Uprooted Wife was a best-selling feminist book. An award-winning journalist and columnist.
Muriel Fox - A co-founder of
Marilyn French - Her
1977 novel, The Women's Room, dramatized movingly the plight of
"middle-class women betrayed by men and society."
Carol Gilliga - Her In A
Different Voice is must reading for experts on gender and on the raising of
girls. Her other major feminist books include Women, Girls, and
Psychotherapy, and Reframing Resistance.
Mary Gordon - She has written five highly acclaimed feminist novels,
including Final Payments and The Company of Women. Professor of English at Barnard.
Vivian Gornick - The author of eight books and
several hundred articles, she co-edited the pioneering Women in a Sexist
Society in 1972.
Signe Hammer - With Susan Brownmiller
and others, organized the sit-in at Ladies Home Journal that earned the
historic feminist insert in the August 1970 issue.
Carolyn Heilbrun - A feminist critic, writer
and educator for more than 25 years. On the English faculty
of
Shere Hite - It began with The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality, published in
1976 in cooperation with the
Ruth Hershberger - She wrote about sex discrimination in Adam's Rib
ten years before Simone deBeauvoir and Betty Friedan. She is also a widely respected poet.
Beverly Jones - She and the late Judith Brown, both
Merle Hoffman - Founded and edited "On the Issues," an
intellectual feminist magazine, for 17 years. In 1982 she produced the
documentary "Abortion: A Different Light." She has founded
several women's health centers.
Erica Jong - Her first novel, the best-selling
Fear of Flying, championed the right of women to proud, unabashed
sexuality and self-expression. She has published six volumes of poetry, all
feminist, funny and empowering.
Jurate Kazickas
- She and Lynn Sherr created "The Liberated
Woman's Appointment Calendar and Survival Handbook," now known as
"The Women's Calendar."
Mim Kelber -
A journalist and activist for nearly five decades, she co-founded Women Strike
for Peace and was a speechwriter and policy advisor for Bella Abzug from1971.
Suzanne Braun Levine - She edited Ms. Magazine from its 1972 inception
until 1988. She recently edited its 30th anniversary issue, "The Best of
Ms."
Harriet Lyons - A member of Ms. Magazine's original editorial staff. She
co-edited "Decade of Women: a Ms. History in Words and Pictures."
Catherine MacKinnon - Mackinnon's writings in feminist law have produced
major legal changes throughout the world. Her book, The Sexual Harassment of
Working Women (1979), awakened victims and opinion leaders to this
long-overlooked form of sex discrimination.
Rosalie Maggio - Her book NonSexist
Word Finder, Bias-Free Word Finder promotes language that doesn't discriminate
against women and other groups.
Kate Millett - Wrote Sexual Politics, which was
hailed as a manifesto on sexism in Western culture. In other books she explored
feminism and homosexuality from personal, scholarly and artistic perspectives.
Letty Cottin Pogrebin - Her eight books include Growing Up
Free, and Deborah, Golda, and Me, a memoir about reconciling
feminism and Judaism. A founder and co-editor of Ms.
Rosetta Reitz - Her
book, Menopause: A Positive Approach, has received 13
printings over 20 years. She organized "Menopause Workshops" to bring
information to women.
Judith Rossner - In her numerous stories and articles
and her lectures on psychotherapy, she has brilliantly advanced the perspective
of a realistic feminist.
Marlene Sanders - More
than any other newswoman, Marlene Sanders has fought for feminist causes while
also earning top jobs in radio and TV. She chairs the board of WomensENews.
Barbara Seaman - Her 1969 book, The Doctor's Case Against the Pill, led to Congressional hearings, the birth
of the women's health movement, and ultimately a safer birth-control pill with
only one-tenth the hormone dose of the original version.
Alix Kates Shulman - Her book, Memoirs of and ex-Prom Queen, (1979) sold more
than a million copies and was the first major novel of the women's liberation
movement.
Catharine R. Stimpson - Founding editor of
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, considered to
be the most widely recognized feminist academic journal in the field.
Her selection of essays on literature, culture and education, Where the
Meanings Are, appeared in 1988.
Kate Swift - Swift and the late Casey Miller
pioneered in feminist analysis of the English language. Their Handbook of NonSexist Writing suggested ways to change English
usage to treat women fairly.
Sheila Tobias - Her 11 books and many articles instruct women on ways to
understand and survive the Patriarchy. Her 1997 book, Second Wave, Faces of
Feminism: An Activist's Reflection on the Women's Movement clarifies the
"why" as well as the "how" of our movement.
Joan Tobin - Since 1973 she has been publishing fiction and articles
that appeared in leading newspapers as well as various
Ellen Willis - A free-lance writer since 1966 and an
early radical feminist leader. Willis wrote countless articles and
books. Now director of Cultural Reporting and Criticism
Concentration in the NYU graduate program.
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ATTENTION!
Videos Available - The two videos are wonderful and historical. To order please make out checks to VFA and mail to VFA,
VFA members can get a copy of
this once-in-history gathering, this once-in-a-lifetime event PROGRAM, Salute
to Feminist Authors, by sending a self-addressed 9X12 envelope to:
E-Mail Joan Tobin: joantobin@optonline.net
Joan Tobin
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