Browse the American Women collection

Part one in a series of documentaries and discussions which focus upon issues of the Women's movement, produced by Kay Lindsey. pt.1. An Introduction to the women's movement (56 min.) Discussion in a group of women regarding realizing they felt oppressed as women, the origin of their awareness, sometimes from participating in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. They also discuss what they think needs to change in society to achieve equality between women and men. The last 12 minutes of the program feature a statement from a woman about the relationship between the black civil rights movement and the women's movement, and what she foresees as the trajectory for the women's movement.

An historical examination of the development of women's societal role traced by Diane Feeley, Coordinator of Women in the Arts Committee of National Organization for Women (NOW), New York. Feeley gives examples of past societies in which women were more productive and played a far more active role than our own. She sees the view of women as being "valueless" as having emerged within the last 150 years, and encourages women to utilize resources to regain their equal social status.

The second half of the excerpted version of the benefit reading held for Ikon Magazine on October 16 1982 at New York University. The event was emceed by poet Patricia Spears Jones. Readers are Lois Elaine Griffith (one of the founding poets of the Nuryorican Poets Cafe), Hettie Jones (b. 1935, ex-wife of Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka), Irena Klelpfisz (b.1941), Audre Lorde (1934-1992), and Susan Sherman (founding editor of Ikon Magazine).

Banded reel of actuality from the Women's Pentagon Action on November 17, 1980, held in Washington, D.C, during which over two thousand women surrounded the Pentagon to protest the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the destruction of the Earth and the oppression of women. Begins with a reading of the Statement of Purpose for the Action (women against imperialist war powers - to stop the production of nuclear weapons), which was drafted by Grace Paley; 8:47--welcome remarks in Washington, DC by an unidentified woman; 9:56--actuality of music, chants at rally; 10:55--Bella Abzug statement to interviewer; 12:25--Eleanor Fowler from Bucks County, PA for WILPF comments; 13:41--Caroline Warren, Quaker and "born again pacifist" comments; 14:38--Nia (no last name given), activist in housing and community development, comments; 16:19--comments by Amy Swerdlow, Women Strike for Peace; 17:43--Developing countries representative (name not given on tape) comments.