Radical Women (RW) is a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
grassroots activist organization affiliated with the
Freedom Socialist Party
The Freedom Socialist Party is a left-wing socialist political party with a revolutionary feminist philosophy based in the United States. It views the struggles of women and minorities as part of the struggle of the working class. It emerged fro ...
. It has branches in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
, and
Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...
.
History
Radical Women emerged in Seattle from a "Free University" class on Women and Society conducted by Gloria Martin, a lifelong
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
and
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
champion.
As a result of the class, Martin teamed up with
Clara Fraser
Clara Fraser (March 12, 1923 – February 24, 1998) was a socialist feminist political organizer, who co-founded and led the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women.
Biography
Early life and activism
Clara Fraser was born in 1923 to Jewis ...
and Melba Windoffer (initiators of the
Freedom Socialist Party
The Freedom Socialist Party is a left-wing socialist political party with a revolutionary feminist philosophy based in the United States. It views the struggles of women and minorities as part of the struggle of the working class. It emerged fro ...
) and
Susan Stern
Susan Ellen (Tanenbaum) Stern (January 31, 1943 – July 31, 1976) was an American political activist.The Susan Stern Papers.
She was a member of the prominent anti-Vietnam War groups Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Weatherman an ...
(a prominent figure in the local
Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...
) to launch Radical Women in 1967.
In ''Socialist Feminism: The First Decade, 1966-76'' Martin writes that the new group was formed to "demonstrate that women could act politically, learn and teach theory, administer an organization, develop indigenous leadership, and focus movement and community attention on the sorely neglected matter of
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
—and that women could do this on their own."
Radical Women participated heavily in the
anti-Vietnam War mobilization, and has opposed subsequent military interventions initiated by Western countries.
Members worked with African-American women from
anti-poverty program
Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation, is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty.
Measures, like those promoted by Henry George in his economics cl ...
s to initiate the abortion rights movement in Washington State with a historic march on the capitol in 1969.
In the early 1970s, RW helped organize a strike and a union of low-paid employees (mostly female) at the University of Washington.
After working closely with the
Freedom Socialist Party
The Freedom Socialist Party is a left-wing socialist political party with a revolutionary feminist philosophy based in the United States. It views the struggles of women and minorities as part of the struggle of the working class. It emerged fro ...
(FSP), Radical Women and the party formally affiliated in 1973 on the basis of a shared socialist feminist program. Some of its early members, such as
Lynda Schraufnagel, were employed by the FSP's newspaper, ''The Freedom Socialist'', and also wrote for it.
Many Radical Women members worked and organized in the nontraditional trades. At Seattle's public power company,
Seattle City Light
Seattle City Light is the public utility providing electricity to Seattle, Washington, in the United States, and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, No ...
, Clara Fraser was recruited to craft and implement the country's first plan to train women as utility electricians. Three other members of Radical Women,
Megan Cornish
Megan Cornish is an American socialist feminist and labor activist with the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) and Radical Women, as well as a retired electrician with Seattle City Light. Cornish became an electrician after participating in an affi ...
,
Heidi Durham
Hildreth (Heidi) Durham was an American socialist feminist and labor activist with the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women. Durham was one of the first female electricians to work at Seattle City Light, where she faced significant barrier ...
, and Teri Bach, participated in the program and went on to become some of the first women electricians in the country. Just weeks before the program began, however, Fraser participated in a walkout against new rules issued by City Light superintendent Gordon Vickery, which soured her relations with management. After their training, Cornish, Durham, and Bach were laid off in 1975 in an act seen largely as retaliatory against themselves and Fraser. The three women filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination on the basis of
sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...
, and after a year a court ruled in their favor and ordered their reinstatement. Fraser was also laid off in 1975, and she filed her own separate lawsuit alleging discrimination on the basis of sex and
political ideology
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
. After a seven-year legal battle and a massive public relations campaign, Fraser won her reinstatement at City Light.
In 1991, two members of Radical Women, Heidi Durham and Yolanda Alaniz, ran for
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-lar ...
as members of the FSP. The two campaigned together on demands for guaranteed income for families living in
poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...
,
domestic partnership
A domestic partnership is a legal relationship, usually between couples, who live together and share a common domestic life, but are not married (to each other or to anyone else). People in domestic partnerships receive benefits that guarantee r ...
rights for
same-sex couples
A same-sex relationship is a Romance (love), romantic or Human sexuality, sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil ...
, and community control of the
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...
. Alaniz advanced to the general election and finished with 21% of the vote.
Purpose and ideology
''The Radical Women Manifesto: Socialist Feminist Theory, Program and Organizational Structure''
[Radical Women (2001),]
Preamble
, in defines Radical Women's purpose and ideology as follows:
Radical Women is dedicated to exposing, resisting, and eliminating the inequities of women's existence. To accomplish this task of insuring survival for an entire sex, we must simultaneously address ourselves to the social and material source of sexism: the capitalist form of production and distribution of products, characterized by intrinsic class, race, sex, and caste oppression. When we work for the revolutionary transformation of capitalism into a socialist society, we work for a world in which all people may enjoy the right of full humanity and freedom from poverty, war, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and repression.
Radical Women takes a multi-racial, multi-issue, working class and
anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economi ...
approach to
women's liberation
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism that emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great ...
. It advocates for free
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
on demand, an end to forced sterilization of women of color, and for affordable, quality, 24-hour childcare. Early efforts include the Action Childcare Coalition, the Feminist Coordinating Council (an umbrella organization made up of the whole spectrum of women's groups in Seattle), and the Coalition for Protective Legislation (a labor and feminist effort to extend female-designated workplace safeguards to men after passage of the Washington State
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...
).
Radical Women has played a leading role in
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender liberation struggles. Members have helped build militant lesbian/gay rights organizations and have been involved in many coalitions devoted to preventing
forced AIDS testing, opposing ballot-box attacks on gay rights, lobbying for state gay rights bills, and more. In the 1980s Radical Women leader
Merle Woo
Merle Woo is an American academic, poet and activist who has been described as "a leading member of the Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party". Her essay "Letter to Ma" was selected for inclusion in the 1981 feminist anthology ''This Br ...
, a college lecturer, writer and
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...
lesbian spokesperson, won a case against the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
, which had fired her, charging discrimination on race, sex, sexuality, and political ideology.
Further reading
Archives
Freedom Socialist Party Seattle Branch Records 1984-1992. 3.14 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Freedom Socialist Party National Office (Seattle) Records 1976-1998. 3.09 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Radical Women Seattle Office Records 1991-1997. 0.37 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Radical Women National Office (Seattle) Records 1976-1998. 1.28 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Melba Windoffer Papers 1910-1993. 7.42 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Megan Cornish Papers 1970-2003. 10.26 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Clara Fraser Papers 1905-1998, 36.70 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Heidi Durham Papers and Oral History Interviews 1937-2017, 1.57 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Articles and Interviews
Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, 2005.
* Megan Cornish Interview with Nicole Grant and Alex Morrow, October 20, 2005, ''YouTube'', uploaded by Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, September 9, 2016
Megan Cornish - YouTubeMegan Cornish, Conor Casey, and Ellie Belew Interview with Mike Dumovich "We Do the Work," ''KSVR'', February 22, 2019.
* Nicole Grant
Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, 2006.
* Ellie Belew Interview with Mimi Rosenberg, ''YouTube'', uploaded by Radical Women - U.S., uploaded March 28. 2019
HIGH VOLTAGE WOMEN: Interview & slideshow
Books
* Ellie Belew, ''High Voltage Women: Breaking Barriers at Seattle City Light'', Red Letter Press, 2019.
Additional Material
Radical Women Official siteFreedom Socialist Party affiliates
This collection contains leaflets and newspapers that were distributed on the University of Washington campus during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Includes ephemera from Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party.
A Report from the U.S. 2008 Radical Women Conferencesubmitted to the
International Museum of Women The International Museum of Women (IMOW), headquartered in San Francisco, California, is an online museum that covers women's issues worldwide. Since March 2014 it has been part of the Global Fund for Women.
Creation and expansion
I.M.O.W. was f ...
.
See also
*
Freedom Socialist Party
The Freedom Socialist Party is a left-wing socialist political party with a revolutionary feminist philosophy based in the United States. It views the struggles of women and minorities as part of the struggle of the working class. It emerged fro ...
*
Clara Fraser
Clara Fraser (March 12, 1923 – February 24, 1998) was a socialist feminist political organizer, who co-founded and led the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women.
Biography
Early life and activism
Clara Fraser was born in 1923 to Jewis ...
*
Heidi Durham
Hildreth (Heidi) Durham was an American socialist feminist and labor activist with the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women. Durham was one of the first female electricians to work at Seattle City Light, where she faced significant barrier ...
*
Megan Cornish
Megan Cornish is an American socialist feminist and labor activist with the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) and Radical Women, as well as a retired electrician with Seattle City Light. Cornish became an electrician after participating in an affi ...
*
History of feminism
The history of feminism comprises the narratives (chronological or thematic) of the movements and ideologies which have aimed at equal rights for women. While feminists around the world have differed in causes, goals, and intentions depending ...
*
Marxist feminism
Marxist feminism is a philosophical variant of feminism that incorporates and extends Marxist theory. Marxist feminism analyzes the ways in which women are exploited through capitalism and the individual ownership of private property. According ...
*
Socialist feminism
Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles ...
Notes
{{Authority control
Feminist organisations in Australia
Feminist organizations in the United States
Trotskyist organisations in Australia
Trotskyist organizations in the United States
Far-left politics in Australia
Far-left politics in the United States
Socialist feminist organizations
Women's wings of political parties
Women's political advocacy groups in the United States
Organizations established in 1967
Freedom Socialist Party