Boston Female Liberation

{{Short description|Radical feminist organization during the 1960s}}

Boston Female Liberation was an American radical feminist organization founded in Boston in 1968.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/outlawwomanmemoi00dunb/page/126/mode/1up |last=Dunbar-Ortiz |first=Roxanne |title=Outlaw Woman |date=2001 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=0872863905 |page=126 |access-date=2024-11-03 |via=Internet Archive |url-access=registration}} The group published The Second Wave, which described itself as "a magazine of the new feminism." The first issue was in the spring of 1971.

Purpose

The first issue of the organization's The Second Wave included "A Statement About Female Liberation," which states in part:

Female Liberation is an organization which encompasses all aspects of the feminist struggle, including education, consciousness-raising activities, and action around such basic demands of the movement as childcare, abortion and equal pay. No woman is excluded from Female Liberation who is interested in the development of a strong, autonomous women's movement capable of bringing about change on every level.{{Cite magazine |url=https://jstor.org/stable/community.28044433 |title=A Statement About Female Liberation |magazine=The Second Wave |volume=1 |number=1 |page=2 |date=Spring 1971 |access-date=2024-11-03 |jstor=community.28044433}}

Activities

The organization participated in activities in defense of a woman's right to choose abortion{{Cite book |last=Rosenstock |first=Nancy |title=Inside the Second Wave of Feminism |date=2022 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-64259-704-2 |location=Chicago |pages=85–93}} and for free, community-controlled child care available up to twenty-four hours a day.{{Cite book |last=Rosenstock |first=Nancy |title=Inside the Second Wave of Feminism |date=2022 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-64259-704-2 |location=Chicago |pages=72–75}} Female Liberation advocated and promoted self-defense. In September 1970, participating in a "Symposium on Feminism" at the University of Pittsburgh, two members of Female Liberation demonstrated karate techniques.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/pittsburgh-post-gazette-football-wont-h/158395642/ |title=Football Won't Halve Gals, Feminist With Karate Says |first=Ann |last=Curran |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=September 24, 1970 |access-date=2024-11-03 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Boston Female Liberation participated in protests against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and helped to build women's contingents. At a rally in Boston, November 1971, Pat Galligan spoke on behalf of the organization telling the crowd, "American women and the people of Southeast Asia have the same enemy. We want the government out of the war, out of our wombs, and out of our way."{{Cite news |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1971/11/8/thousands-march-rally-in-boston-pthousands/ |title=Thousands March, Rally in Boston |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |date=November 8, 1971 |access-date=2024-11-03}}

The organisation also helped to build conferences on women's liberation at various Boston area campuses. At Boston University in the fall of 1970, sponsoring "a weekend of education and discussion for all women." Workshop topics included, "Black and Third World Women," "Marriage," and "Is Feminism Revolutionary?"{{Cite web |date=November 19, 1970 |title=Wellesley College Digital Scholarship and Archive |url=https://repository.wellesley.edu/object/wellesley9740?search_api_fulltext=11-19-1970}}

References

External links

[https://www.gale.com/intl/c/grassroots-feminist-organizations-part-1-boston-area-second-wave-organizations-1968-1998 Boston Female Liberation 1968-1998]
[https://ourbodiesourselves.org/our-story/the-birth-of-our-bodies-ourselves-remembering-the-1969-female-liberation-conference Remembering the 1969 Female Liberation Conference]

Category:1968 establishments in Massachusetts

Category:Non-profit organizations based in Boston

Category:Radical feminist organizations in the United States