Browse the American Women collection

Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 - August 22, 2007), feminist writer, reads poetry at the San Francisco Women's Building on June 22, 1980 in a benefit for the War Resisters League. In Part 1, Paley reads the poems Two villages, Connections: Vermont Vietnam, and That country, and a short story, The story hearer. Also performing that night was Judy Grahn (see AZ0456). Part 2 of the recording also contains Grace Paley reading at U.C. Extension, Berkeley on June 19, 1980. Paley reads the stories The used-boy raisers and Enormous changes at the last minute. Part 3 of the recording is a question and answer period from when Paley was at U.C. Berkeley (audience questions not miked). Contains sensitive language. 

Gloria Steinem, feminist and co-founder of Ms. Magazine, speaks about deep-seeded sexism and racism in America at the College of Marin on January 17, 1973. She instructs the audience on the importance of organizing, discusses the origins of political subjugation of women, and encourages women to overcome differences to work together against ruling-class divisions. Recorded by Katy Butler and produced by Laurie Simms.

A documentary that looks at the development of ideas that shaped the radical women's movement, mainly focusing on the movement in the 1970s. Includes bits of movie soundtracks, speeches and interviews with the women who made history. Topics covered in the program are women and labor unions in the early 20th century, the return to the home after WWII, women in the civil rights movement, the New Left and the beginning of the autonomous women's movement, the formation of women's liberation groups, the emergence of radical lesbian groups such as the Furies, the United Nations International Women's Year Conference of 1977, feminist health clinics and other women's centers, organizing women household workers, grand jury investigations of members of the women's movement, racism within the women's movement. Among those voices heard are Alix Kates Shulman, Fannie Lou Hamer, Leslie Cagan, Cynthia Funk, Joan Byron, Betty Friedan, Carol Downer, Gerri Traina, Edith Barksdale Sloan, Jill Raymond, Donna Keck, and Cynthia Washington. Produced by Moira Rankin and Deborah George. A presentation of the Sophie's Parlor Media Collective.

Emily Lewis, public health nurse and wife of Berkeley doctor Reuben Lewis, and Lillian Rubin, research assistant in sociology at the University of California, and the wife of a Berkeley restaurant owner, talk with Elsa Knight Thompson about their jail experiences. Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Rubin had just been released from Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center, where they, and many others, including Joan Baez, had been confined for their war-protest activities at the Oakland Induction Center in December. Emily Lewis served during WWII in the US Army Nurse Corps and later joined the World Health Organization.