American Women Making History and Culture: 1963-1982

  • Twelve years of lesbian activism / produced by Ginny Z. Berson and Susan Elisabeth.

    Twelve years of lesbian activism. Part one gives a history of lesbian life and activism in the United States, with a particular emphasis on 1969-1981. Movements and events are described with relevant songs, music, and actualities interspersed. The program is in part celebrating the opening of a new West Coast Lesbian Collections (now the June…

  • Melody Ermachild, private eye / interviewed by Philip Maldari

    Melody Ermachild, a forty-year old mother, describes how she got started doing private investigation, who she worked for, the kind of work she does (interviews, research, research in libraries, skip tracing, polling juries), some of the famous cases she’s worked on (Geronimo Pratt, Larry Layton/Jonestown, Hell’s Angels), and her opinions about the nature of the…

  • Cancer / produced by Michael Singsen and Peggy Stein. (Episode 3 of 5)

    Cancer–it can be caused by the work we do. But how much? What causes it? Who is to blame? What is safe exposure to a carcinogen? What is OSHA’s involvement? Heard in this report are Dr. Samuel Epstein, professor of occupational medicine at the University of Illinois Medical School and author of Politics Of Cancer;…

  • Genetic hazards / produced by Michael Singsen and Mary Shinoff. (Episode 4 of 5)

    How do the jobs we do affect our unborn generations? What are genetic toxins? How can we protect our children? Why is this not just a women’s issue? How can this issue be used to discriminate against women in the workplace? This program explores all of these topics, plus the American Cyanamid Plant in Willow…

  • Women on the global assembly line / produced by Mary Sinclair and Maggie Geddes

    This half-hour documentary focuses on a dual theme: the increasingly internationalized manufacturing strategy of multinational corporations, especially in Mexico and Hong Kong, and their equally strategic employment of women, both here and in the Third World. Explores why they often hire women, especially minority women, and what working conditions are like for women working on…

  • The war against choice / Deirdre English interviewed by Adam Hochschild

    Deirdre English attended the 1980 Convention of the National Right to Life Committee in Anaheim, California. She talks about the way that Committee is organized, who they are, why abortion rights is not a single issue movement, and what it means for American women. She also discusses motivations, thinking, and world view of anti-abortion advocates.Includes…

  • Health and safety in the automated office: VDTs / produced by Mara Liasson

    This short documentary examines the impact of the machine that best represents the automation of office work: the video display terminal. The program includes music, sound effects, and interviews with office workers and female trade unionists in San Francisco, as well as experts in the field of occupational safety and health. Health topics include stress,…

  • Is there sex after 64? / Dr. Earl Marsh and Mickey Apter ; hosted by Peggy Stein.

    A discussion that challenges the myth that, thanks to our society’s emphasis on youth and beauty, older people are uninterested in and incapable of enjoying sex, stressing the importance of touch and affection, the differences and lack of them in the sexuality of elders. The participants are Dr. Earl Marsh, gynecologist and psychiatrist and medical…

  • Rosie, the red riveter / William Mandel.

    Inspired by viewing the documentary The Life And Times Of Rosie The Riveter, Mandel explores the topics of women in the workforce, women in typically male-filled jobs, and unions, contrasting the status of women in the United States with that of women in the Soviet Union. Linking of fight for women’s rights in the work…

  • Women speak at the Democratic Convention

    Sonia Johnson (Mormons for ERA) rallies for ERA ratification; Paulina Cardenas provides a personal account in favor of abortion and reproductive rights, especially as it relates to underprivileged people and people living at the poverty level.