Showing papers in "Feminist Studies in 1985"

Front and Rear: the Sexual Division of Labour in the Israeli Army

Abstract: In recent years the role of women in the military has been widely debated. While some feminists are opposed to women’s participation in military activity of any kind, others favour the integration of women into the ‘male domain’ of the armed forces. The largest feminist organisation in the United States, the National Organization for Women, for example, argues that if men are drafted into military service, women should be as well. In NOW’s view, women’s equality means an equal share in both the ‘rights’ and the ‘duties’ of society.2

Housewives, socialists, and the politics of food: the 1917 new york cost-of-living protests

Abstract: In mid-February 1917, an independent working-class housewives' movement erupted right in the heart of the Socialist party of America's great stronghold, New York City. Thousands of immigrant Jewish women burst into violent street protests against the high cost of living; they instituted a boycott on chickens, fish, and vegetables which shut down much of the city's foodstuffs marketing for two weeks, riveting public attention on the food price issue and sending public officials scurrying to and fro in panic. Yet this uprising of working-class housewives fits neatly into neither of the Socialist party's customary spheres of struggle, electoral work and trade union organizing. These were the two strategic rocks on which the Socialists had established themselves by early 1917 as a major political presence in New York City, claiming two New York State assemblymen and a U.S. congressman, as well as a major role in building many of the strongest unions of the decade, including the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.' New York Socialists seized the opportunity for agitational work presented by this women's uprising. They jumped quickly into the food protest fray of February 1917 and themselves organized an extensive series of cost-of-living protests designed to direct the movement toward Socialist goals. Forming a new consumer organization, the Mothers' Anti-High Price League, Socialists undertook daily visits to city officials to call for food relief measures, pressured Albany and Washington, D.C., for action on the issue, and staged a series of neighborhood-level protest meetings. Their activities climaxed in a Madison Square demonstration of over 5,000 women, which spilled over into an attack on the Waldorf

“Abnormal Intimacy”: The Varying Work Networks of Chicana Cannery Workers

Abstract: the conditions that create variation in the structure and functioning of women's kin and social networks, conditions which allow women to cooperate with one another even in extreme instability, or which create conflict among women.' Further, the meaning provided by support networks of kin and friends varies by race and class. Middle-class white women of the nineteenth century found meaning, love, and support for community moral reform,2

The catholic bishops' pastoral letter on war and peace: a feminist perspective

Abstract: The American peace movement has witnessed several significant developments in recent years. The active, vigorous participation of women in leadership positions as well as in grass roots activities, although not unprecedented, is impressive and noteworthy; Greenham Common, the Seneca Falls Peace Encampment, Peacelinks, Women's Pentagon Action; Helen Caldicott, Frances Farley, Randall Forsberg, and numerous other individuals and groups -all are evidence of the involvement of women in war and peace issues. And the adoption in 1983 of a pastoral letter on war and peace by the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States marks a new development in the American peace movement. Two years after publication, it is clear that the life of this pastoral statement has only begun. Catholics and others are using it as a basis for further statements and sometimes for public demonstrations against nuclear escalation. I propose in this essay to discuss the Catholic bishops' pastoral letter from a feminist perspective. A feminist perspective in this context means a consideration of the role of women in the consultative process that produced this letter and a content analysis of the letter itself to assess its impact, where appropriate, on questions of justice and equality of the sexes. Because women have been so prominent in the peace movement at both grass roots and leadership levels, one is naturally inclined to inquire about the participation of women in the formulation of the bishops' statement. Those familiar with the institutional church will not be surprised to learn that women's involvement was minimal. It would appear that, from a feminist perspective, the customary perception of the Roman Catholic church as a patriarchal,