The Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS) group has been teaching us about women's bodies since their first stapled and cheaply printed pamphlet appeared in 1970 and started a revolution in women's health.

Founder Judy Norsigian will be visiting Chicago to introduce the latest book from OBOS, Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth. You can meet Judy and buy a copy of the book.

Monday, April 7, 2008 4:00-6:00 pm at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum University of Illinois at Chicago 800 S. Halsted Street, Chicago, IL

Keynote Speakers: Judy Norsigian, Co-author and Executive Director of Our Bodies Ourselves & Carrie Klima, CNM, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, UIC College of Nursing

Please come to welcome the newest book from the creators of Our Bodies, Ourselves, as the presenters explore the history of health care for pregnant women in the United States, beginning with midwives and dramatic change that happened with physicians taking over pregnancy and childbirth, and the movement over the last 30 years to take back some of the control for women over their birthing experience.

If you are in the Washington D.C. area on March 24, 2007, don't miss this one.

The Department of U.S. Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. will host a book launch of Jo Freeman's We Will Be Heard: Women's Struggles for Political Power in the United States on Monday, March 24 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

The discussion will be held at:

5th floor conference room
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20004-3027

The event is open to the public but you must RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Directions are available here. Please allow extra time for security; a picture ID is required. Admission to the discussion and the reception are free but seating is limited.

Former CWLU member This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it attended the memorial service for women's health activist Barbara Seaman held last week. The following is her report. Laura is now a medical journalist living in New York City.

Barbara Rosner Seaman, Sept. 11, 1935 – February 27, 2008

Barbara Seaman’s contributions to the women’s health movement were celebrated last week at a memorial service in New York. More than 300 people attended the service and 25 people were asked to deliver eulogies. Although best known for her book The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill, her friends pointed to many other accomplishments.

Her work in fighting high-dose birth control pills in the early 1970s led to important changes at the FDA, according to Dr. Philip Corfman, who was at the FDA when Barbara began her organizing. As a result of her work, patient package inserts were added to prescription medicines; FDA meetings became open meetings; and the public got safer pills.

Join author Paula Giddings for a reading and discussion of her new book Ida: A Sword Among Lions on March 10 at 6 pm at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum.

Ida B. Wells was one of the most fearless crusaders for civil rights and women's rights in United States history. She was a newspaper editor and publisher, investigative journalist, co-founder of the NAACP, political candidate, mother, wife, and the single most powerful leader in the anti-lynching campaign in America.

Located close to the Capitol building in the heart of the federal city is the Sewell-Belmont House and Museum, the headquarters of the National Women's Party and the former home of women's rights leader Alice Paul.

The Sewell Belmont House now offers a free downloadable guide for a special walking tour of Washington DC women's suffrage history. For a copy, visit the Museum's homepage.

We learned of the death of Barbara Seaman last week from Jennifer Baumgartner's remembrance on Feministing and we are updating our original blog entry with an announcement of a memorial service in Barbara's honor. If you are in the NYC area, please attend if you can.

A memorial service for Barbara Seaman will be held on Thursday, March 6 at 5:30 pm at the Riverside Memorial Chapel at 180 West 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan.

Barbara Seaman was one of the leaders of the women's health movement. Way back in the 1960's, she warned us about the dangers of birth control pills in her magazine articles and in her book The Doctor's Case Against the Pill . It was largely due to her efforts that warnings were placed on the pill and people became aware of the dangers of excessive estrogen ingestion.

As part of its Women's History Month celebration the Chicago History Museum will feature a program on March 6th called "Women On The Move: We Can Do It!" Among the presenters will be Suzanne Davenport of the CWLU Herstory Project . Suzanne was active in the Chicago Women's Liberation Union and has been a film maker and educational reformer.

The Chicago Area Women’s History Council (CAWHC) is launching a new project to help document the Chicago 2nd Wave women's movement. Both oral histories and written documents are being collected so that they may be saved and shared with the public.

The kickoff event will be held at 1:30 on March 16 at the Chicago History Museum. Speakers include:

• Sara M. Evans, Regents Professor of History, University of Minnesota
• Mary Jean Collins, Organizer; Activist; Sr. Vice Pres. People for the American Way
• Erin McCarthy, Oral Historian; History Faculty, Columbia College of Chicago
• Elizabeth Myers, Archivist, Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University

Feminist scholar Jo Freeman has long been one of our most astute observers of the often surreal world of U.S. politics. In her new book We Will Be Heard: Women's Struggles for Political Power in the United States, she collects some of her best essays about women in politics into one volume.

According to the publisher, the book will be hitting the shelves on March 28, 2008. If you order at the prepublication price , you can receive a substantial discount.

From J. Ellen Foster's address to the 1892 Republican Convention to Nancy Pelosi's 2007 election as the first female Speaker of the House, women have worked to influence politics at every level. Well before most could vote, women campaigned for candidates and lobbied to shape public policy. Men welcomed their work, but not their ideas. Even with equal suffrage women faced many barriers to full political participation.

Gertrude (Trudy) Alma Pax, 70, died February 9, 2008, of pancreatic cancer, at her home at Camphill Village Minnesota. Trudy was born March 9, 1937 in Celina, Ohio to Gertrude (Jenniges) and Leo Pax and was the youngest of eight children. Raised on a farm, Trudy attended college at Marquette University, Milwaukee, and graduated with a degree in sociology. After working with a service organization in Brazil for four years, Trudy moved to Chicago and continued her involvement in social justice and political activism. Trudy worked in the steel mills in Chicago from 1975-1980. She married Tom Farr in 1974. Nic was born in 1981 and Daniel joined the family in 1983 when he was 3 years old. Trudy received a master’s degree in ESL and taught adult education classes.

Historian This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it is writing a biography. No, not of Betty Friedan the author, but of The Feminine Mystique, a book: its history and influence.

Stephanie Coontz needs your help.If you are willing to talk about this, or can direct her to someone else who might, you can send her your memories directly, or you can correspond informally by e-mail, or she can send you a few survey questions, whichever is easiest. Please address correspondence to her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . And if you have suggestions of other people for her to talk to, all such suggestions would be gratefully received.

WBEZ radio here in Chicago conducted a phone interview with former "Jane" Judith Arcana on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. Jane was the nickname for the Abortion Counseling Service of Women's Liberation. Jane performed an estimated 11,000 illegal abortions in Chicago before Roe v. Wade legalized the procedure.

You may listen to the interview below. Judith's portion is preceded by a news story about an anti-abortion march down Chicago's Michigan Ave.

You should also check out Judith's pro-choice blogging feature at Words of Choice.

In September of 2004 I lost a dear friend when Ruth Surgal died suddenly after attending a feminist conference. Ruth had been a leader of the Abortion Counseling Service of Women's Liberation, better known as Jane. You can read more about Jane on this website.

I was asked to speak at Ruth's funeral service, so today I'll share with you what I said on that sad day.

Do have some cool NOW stories to tell?

Would you like to sweep up the shards from that glass ceiling you broke and tell the world how you did it? How about that time you went to the big feminist demonstration and you were sure that the next day the walls of discrimination would come tumbling down? OK, maybe they just crumbled a little, but it sure felt good didn't it? What was your "Aha!" moment when you realized that being female was more than just sugar and spice and everything nice? How about the box of old leaflets and NOW chapter notes that you just can't throw away, but is starting to smell a little funny in your basement?

The NOW Oral History Project wants you.

Call for contributions for an edited essay collection on Marjane Satrapi’s works (film, literature, and art).

Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel, Persepolis, was an instant success in France and the U.S. It has garnered numerous book prizes, and the animated film version was awarded the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Satrapi's other texts, including children's books, have been translated into numerous languages and published worldwide.

The proposed collection aims to examine Satrapi's works as literature, art, film and cultural phenomena, bringing diverse ideological and theoretical perspectives to bear on the intellectual and political issues that they raise.

An Our Bodies Ourselves intern, Margaret Spilman, has produced a DVD on the history of the Boston Women's Health Book Collective and Our Bodies Ourselves. Margaret searched through reams of old videotapes from archives and taped new interviews to create a film that highlights the work and achievements of the BWHBC.

Our Bodies Ourselves grew from a local Boston women's health booklet into a global effort with multiple translations already accomplished and more on the way.

You can watch below or download the video here .

 

 

The first annual "Jane Addams Day" will be celebrated all across Illinois on December 10, 2007. AAUW-Illinois is leading the charge and Women & Children First is their official Jane Addams Day bookstore! Visit to the AAUW-Illinois webpage to read their press release, find local events and read background materials.

Then check out the Women and Children First suggested book list. There are book suggestions for all ages and levels of interest: children and teens, novices and scholars.

 

Among many achievements, Jane Addams was:

• A founder and the first president of the Women's International League for
  Peace and Freedom
• A founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• A founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• The first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize

 

EMMA, a play by Howard Zinn about the renowned American anarchist Emma Goldman will be opening at the Trap Door Theater on October 18 in Chicago. For more detailed info please visit their website.

It is being directed by Kate Hendrickson, the daughter of Ayrie Moore, who belonged to the Chicago Women's Liberation Union (CWLU) and Rising Up Angry.

Yes it is and the CWLU doesn't even have a MySpace page. How could it? The organization disbanded in 1977.

But that doesn't stop young people from decorating their MySpace pages with posters from the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective. The most popular ones are "Lesbian Pride", "Sisterhood is Blooming", "Lipstick and Blood" and "Abortion is a Personal Decision Not A Legal Debate".

After months of activity behind the scenes, we've launched the newly designed Herstory website. We really need your feedback as we debug the new site and add new features. Please feel free to comment or send us an This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with your reactions. Special thanks to Dana Simpson for her work in transferring the old content over to the new site.