Consciousness raising
Encyclopedia
Consciousness raising is a form of political activism, pioneered by United States
feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group of people on some cause or condition.
argued that women were isolated from each other, and as a result many problems in women's lives were misunderstood as "personal," or as the results of conflicts between the personalities of individual men and women, rather than systematic forms of oppression. Raising consciousness meant helping oneself and helping others to become politically conscious. Consciousness raising groups aimed to get a better understanding of women's oppression by bringing women together to discuss and analyze their lives, without interference from the presence of men.
While explaining the theory behind consciousness raising in a 1973 talk, Kathie Sarachild remarked that "From the beginning of consciousness-raising ... there has been no one method of raising consciousness. What really counts in consciousness-raising are not methods, but results. The only 'methods' of consciousness raising are essentially principles. They are the basic radical political principles of going to the original sources, both historic and personal, going to people—women themselves, and going to experience for theory and strategy". However, most c.r. groups did follow a similar pattern for meeting and discussion. Meetings would usually be held about once a week, with a small group of women, often in the living room of one of the members. Meetings were women-only, and usually involved going around the room for each woman to talk about a predetermined subject — for example, "When you think about having a child, would you rather have a boy or a girl?" — speaking from her own experience, with no formal leader for the discussion and few rules for directing or limiting discussion. (Some c.r. groups did implement rules designed to give every woman a chance to speak, to prevent interruptions, etc.) Speaking from personal experience was used as a basis for further discussion and analysis based on the first-hand knowledge that was shared.
Some feminist advocates of c.r. argued that the process allowed women to analyze the conditions of their own lives, and to discover ways in which what had seemed like isolated, individual problems (such as needing an abortion
, surviving rape
, conflicts between husbands and wives over housework, etc.) actually reflected common conditions faced by all women. As Sarachild wrote in 1969, "We assume that our feelings are telling us something from which we can learn... that our feelings mean something worth analyzing... that our feelings are saying something political, something reflecting fear that something bad will happen to us or hope, desire, knowledge that something good will happen to us. [...] In our groups, let's share our feelings and pool them. Let's let ourselves go and see where our feelings lead us. Our feelings will lead us to ideas and then to actions".
Ellen Willis
wrote in 1984 that c.r. has often been "misunderstood and disparaged as a form of therapy", but that it was, in fact, in its time and context, "the primary method of understanding women's condition" and constituted "the movement's most successful organizing tool." At the same time, she saw the lack of theory and emphasis on personal experience as concealing "prior political and philosophical assumptions."
In criticism, "[s]ome feminists ... ["insisted that"] CR meetings ... were 'trivial' and 'non-political.'"
"Consciousness raising" groups were pioneered by New York Radical Women
, an early Women's Liberation group in New York City
, and quickly spread throughout the United States. In November 1967, a group including Shulamith Firestone
, Anne Koedt
, Kathie Sarachild (originally Kathie Amatniek), and Carol Hanisch
began meeting in Koedt's apartment. Meetings often involved "going around the room and talking" about issues in their own lives. The phrase "consciousness raising" was coined to describe the process when Kathie Sarachild
took up the phrase from Anne Forer:
On Thanksgiving 1968, Kathie Sarachild presented "A Program for Feminist Consciousness Raising," at the First National Women's Liberation Conference near Chicago, Illinois, in which she explained the principles behind consciousness-raising and outlined a program for the process that the New York groups had developed over the past year. Groups founded by former members of New York Radical Women — in particular Redstockings
and New York Radical Feminists
, Redstockings founded out of the breakup of the NYRW in 1969 — promoted consciousness raising and distributed mimeographed sheets of suggesting topics for c.r. group meetings. New York Radical Feminists organized neighborhood-based c.r. groups in Manhattan
, Brooklyn
, and Queens
, involving as many as four hundred women in c.r. groups at its peak. Over the next few years, small-group consciousness raising spread rapidly in cities and suburbs throughout the United States
. By 1971, the Chicago Women's Liberation Union
, which had already organized several c.r. groups in Chicago, described small consciousness raising groups as "the backbone of the Women's Liberation Movement" http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/crcwlu.html. Susan Brownmiller (a member of the West Village-One c.r. group organized by New York Radical Feminists) would later write that small-group consciousness raising "was the movement's most successful form of female bonding, and the source of most of its creative thinking. Some of the small groups stayed together for more than a decade".
"In 1973, probably the height of CR, 100,000 women in the United States belonged to CR groups."
, anti-religion activist Richard Dawkins
uses the term "consciousness raising" for several other things, explicitly describing these as analogous to the feminist case. These include replacing references to children as Catholic, Muslim, etc. with references to children of the adults who are members of these religions (which he compares to our using non-sexist terminology) and Darwin as "raising our consciousness" in biology to the possibility of explaining complexity naturalistically and, in principle, raising our consciousness to the possibility of doing such things elsewhere (especially in physics). Earlier in the book, he uses the term (without explicitly referring to feminism) to refer to making people aware that leaving their parents' faith is an option. In a video entitled "The Four Horsemen" starring Dawkins, Sam Harris
, Christopher Hitchens
and Daniel Dennett
, Dennett refers to consciousness-raising amongst philosophers regarding the distinction between puzzles and problems as a better way of referring to "mysteries". Dawkins has since discussed consciousness-raising with regards to religion by making comparisons to hypothetical seemingly absurd scenarios, such as geographical distributions of scientists' beliefs about the extinction of the dinosaurs, scientists defending their hypotheses in terms of revelation
and dogma
, and young children having strong political views.
activists, who formed the first "coming-out groups" which helped participants come out
of the closet
among welcoming, tolerant individuals and share personal stories about coming out. The idea of coming out as a tool of consciousness-raising had been preceded by even earlier opinions from German theorists such as Magnus Hirschfeld
, Iwan Bloch
and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
, all of whom saw self-disclosure as a means of self-emancipation, the raising of consciousness among fellow un-closeted individuals and a means of raising awareness in the wider society.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group of people on some cause or condition.
Process
Early feministsFeminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
argued that women were isolated from each other, and as a result many problems in women's lives were misunderstood as "personal," or as the results of conflicts between the personalities of individual men and women, rather than systematic forms of oppression. Raising consciousness meant helping oneself and helping others to become politically conscious. Consciousness raising groups aimed to get a better understanding of women's oppression by bringing women together to discuss and analyze their lives, without interference from the presence of men.
While explaining the theory behind consciousness raising in a 1973 talk, Kathie Sarachild remarked that "From the beginning of consciousness-raising ... there has been no one method of raising consciousness. What really counts in consciousness-raising are not methods, but results. The only 'methods' of consciousness raising are essentially principles. They are the basic radical political principles of going to the original sources, both historic and personal, going to people—women themselves, and going to experience for theory and strategy". However, most c.r. groups did follow a similar pattern for meeting and discussion. Meetings would usually be held about once a week, with a small group of women, often in the living room of one of the members. Meetings were women-only, and usually involved going around the room for each woman to talk about a predetermined subject — for example, "When you think about having a child, would you rather have a boy or a girl?" — speaking from her own experience, with no formal leader for the discussion and few rules for directing or limiting discussion. (Some c.r. groups did implement rules designed to give every woman a chance to speak, to prevent interruptions, etc.) Speaking from personal experience was used as a basis for further discussion and analysis based on the first-hand knowledge that was shared.
Some feminist advocates of c.r. argued that the process allowed women to analyze the conditions of their own lives, and to discover ways in which what had seemed like isolated, individual problems (such as needing an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, surviving rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, conflicts between husbands and wives over housework, etc.) actually reflected common conditions faced by all women. As Sarachild wrote in 1969, "We assume that our feelings are telling us something from which we can learn... that our feelings mean something worth analyzing... that our feelings are saying something political, something reflecting fear that something bad will happen to us or hope, desire, knowledge that something good will happen to us. [...] In our groups, let's share our feelings and pool them. Let's let ourselves go and see where our feelings lead us. Our feelings will lead us to ideas and then to actions".
Ellen Willis
Ellen Willis
Ellen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, activist and pop music critic.-Biography:...
wrote in 1984 that c.r. has often been "misunderstood and disparaged as a form of therapy", but that it was, in fact, in its time and context, "the primary method of understanding women's condition" and constituted "the movement's most successful organizing tool." At the same time, she saw the lack of theory and emphasis on personal experience as concealing "prior political and philosophical assumptions."
In criticism, "[s]ome feminists ... ["insisted that"] CR meetings ... were 'trivial' and 'non-political.'"
History
"Consciousness raising" was first used by Mao in the Red Army mobilizations of the 1920s and 1930s during the Cultural Revolution's "speaking bitterness" campaign."Consciousness raising" groups were pioneered by New York Radical Women
New York Radical Women
New York Radical Women was an early second-wave feminist group that existed from 1967–1969.NYRW was founded in New York City in the fall of 1967, by Shulamith Firestone and Pam Allen. Early members included: Ros Baxandall, Carol Hanisch, Patricia Mainardi, Robin Morgan, Irene Peslikis, Kathie...
, an early Women's Liberation group in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and quickly spread throughout the United States. In November 1967, a group including Shulamith Firestone
Shulamith Firestone
Shulamith Firestone , is a Jewish, Canadian-born feminist. She was a central figure in the early development of radical feminism, having been a founding member of the New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists...
, Anne Koedt
Anne Koedt
Anne Koedt is a United States radical feminist and NY based author of The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm, 1970, the classic feminist work on women's sexuality...
, Kathie Sarachild (originally Kathie Amatniek), and Carol Hanisch
Carol Hanisch
Carol Hanisch is a radical feminist and was an important member of New York Radical Women and Redstockings. She is best known for popularizing the phrase "The Personal is Political" in a 1969 essay of the same name. She was a leader of the feminist movement that protested the Miss America Pageant...
began meeting in Koedt's apartment. Meetings often involved "going around the room and talking" about issues in their own lives. The phrase "consciousness raising" was coined to describe the process when Kathie Sarachild
Kathie Sarachild
Kathie Sarachild, born Kathie Amatniek in 1943, is an American feminist writer and campaigner. She played a leading part in the Consciousness-raising movement in the 1970s.- References :...
took up the phrase from Anne Forer:
On Thanksgiving 1968, Kathie Sarachild presented "A Program for Feminist Consciousness Raising," at the First National Women's Liberation Conference near Chicago, Illinois, in which she explained the principles behind consciousness-raising and outlined a program for the process that the New York groups had developed over the past year. Groups founded by former members of New York Radical Women — in particular Redstockings
Redstockings
Redstockings, also known as Redstockings of the Women's Liberation Movement, is a radical feminist group that was founded in January of 1969...
and New York Radical Feminists
New York Radical Feminists
New York Radical Feminists was a radical feminist group founded by Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt in 1969, after they had left Redstockings and The Feminists, respectively. Firestone's and Koedt's desire to start this new group was aided by Vivian Gornick's 1969 Village Voice article, "The...
, Redstockings founded out of the breakup of the NYRW in 1969 — promoted consciousness raising and distributed mimeographed sheets of suggesting topics for c.r. group meetings. New York Radical Feminists organized neighborhood-based c.r. groups in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, and Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, involving as many as four hundred women in c.r. groups at its peak. Over the next few years, small-group consciousness raising spread rapidly in cities and suburbs throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. By 1971, the Chicago Women's Liberation Union
Chicago Women's Liberation Union
The Chicago Women's Liberation Union was a women's liberation organization based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The organization served as an umbrella organization for numerous groups who worked within communities nationwide to bring awareness, programming and opportunities to women...
, which had already organized several c.r. groups in Chicago, described small consciousness raising groups as "the backbone of the Women's Liberation Movement" http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/crcwlu.html. Susan Brownmiller (a member of the West Village-One c.r. group organized by New York Radical Feminists) would later write that small-group consciousness raising "was the movement's most successful form of female bonding, and the source of most of its creative thinking. Some of the small groups stayed together for more than a decade".
"In 1973, probably the height of CR, 100,000 women in the United States belonged to CR groups."
In 21st-century atheism
In The God DelusionThe God Delusion
The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, professorial fellow of New College, Oxford, and inaugural holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that...
, anti-religion activist Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
uses the term "consciousness raising" for several other things, explicitly describing these as analogous to the feminist case. These include replacing references to children as Catholic, Muslim, etc. with references to children of the adults who are members of these religions (which he compares to our using non-sexist terminology) and Darwin as "raising our consciousness" in biology to the possibility of explaining complexity naturalistically and, in principle, raising our consciousness to the possibility of doing such things elsewhere (especially in physics). Earlier in the book, he uses the term (without explicitly referring to feminism) to refer to making people aware that leaving their parents' faith is an option. In a video entitled "The Four Horsemen" starring Dawkins, Sam Harris
Sam Harris (author)
Sam Harris is an American author, and neuroscientist, as well as the co-founder and current CEO of Project Reason. He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Stanford University, before receiving a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA...
, Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
and Daniel Dennett
Daniel Dennett
Daniel Clement Dennett is an American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the Co-director of...
, Dennett refers to consciousness-raising amongst philosophers regarding the distinction between puzzles and problems as a better way of referring to "mysteries". Dawkins has since discussed consciousness-raising with regards to religion by making comparisons to hypothetical seemingly absurd scenarios, such as geographical distributions of scientists' beliefs about the extinction of the dinosaurs, scientists defending their hypotheses in terms of revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
and dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
, and young children having strong political views.
In LGBT rights
In the 1960s, consciousness-raising caught on with gay liberationGay Liberation
Gay liberation is the name used to describe the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in North America, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand...
activists, who formed the first "coming-out groups" which helped participants come out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
of the closet
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
among welcoming, tolerant individuals and share personal stories about coming out. The idea of coming out as a tool of consciousness-raising had been preceded by even earlier opinions from German theorists such as Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld was a German physician and sexologist. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which Dustin Goltz called "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights."-Early life:Hirschfeld was born in Kolberg in a...
, Iwan Bloch
Iwan Bloch
Iwan Bloch was a Berlin dermatologist.Born in Delmenhorst, Germany, he is often called the first sexologist. He discovered the Marquis de Sade's manuscript of The 120 Days of Sodom, which had been believed to be lost, and published it under the pseudonym Eugène Dühren in 1904...
and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
for the periodical directory, see Ulrich's Periodicals DirectoryKarl-Heinrich Ulrichs , is seen today as the pioneer of the modern gay rights movement.-Early life:...
, all of whom saw self-disclosure as a means of self-emancipation, the raising of consciousness among fellow un-closeted individuals and a means of raising awareness in the wider society.