New York Radical Women was an early feminist group that existed from 1967–1969.
NYRW was founded in New York City in the fall of 1967, by
Shulamith FirestoneShulamith 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...
and Pam Allen. Early members included: Ros Baxandall,
Carol HanischCarol 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...
, Patricia Mainardi,
Robin MorganRobin Morgan is a former child actor turned American radical feminist activist, writer, poet, and editor of Sisterhood is Powerful and Ms. Magazine....
, Irene Peslikis, Kathie Sarachild, and
Ellen WillisEllen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, and pop music critic.-Biography:...
.. The New York Radical Women were a group of young, 20 something friends who stood for the New Left. They had grown tired of the male led civil rights era, and the men who still preferred their female counterparts to stay at home..
New York Radical Women was an early feminist group that existed from 1967–1969.
NYRW was founded in New York City in the fall of 1967, by
Shulamith FirestoneShulamith 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...
and Pam Allen. Early members included: Ros Baxandall,
Carol HanischCarol 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...
, Patricia Mainardi,
Robin MorganRobin Morgan is a former child actor turned American radical feminist activist, writer, poet, and editor of Sisterhood is Powerful and Ms. Magazine....
, Irene Peslikis, Kathie Sarachild, and
Ellen WillisEllen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, and pop music critic.-Biography:...
.. The New York Radical Women were a group of young, 20 something friends who stood for the New Left. They had grown tired of the male led civil rights era, and the men who still preferred their female counterparts to stay at home.. The New York Radical Women wanted to re-invent the idea of feminists, a better, more positive view. Unlike other feminist groups of its time, they actually wanted to make a difference; they were actively seeking to change things unlike many other groups at the time.
The first major protest NYRW attended was the Jeannette Rankin Brigade Protest in Washington, D.C., on January 15, 1968. Members of NYRW led an alternative protest event - a burial of traditional womanhood, held in
Arlington National CemeteryArlington National Cemetery, in Arlington County, Virginia is a military cemetery in the United States, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a descendant of Martha Washington. The...
. The protest was designed to be against the women who supported the Vietnam War.. Protestors were sent inviations telling them not to bring flowers or even to cry at the 'burial' but to be prepared to bury the traditional female roles.. However, many women were 'disgusted' by this ceremonial burial and the protest was not as successful as their second protest.
NYRW participated in the first major Women's Liberation Movement (WLM) demonstration, the
Miss America ProtestNo More Miss America was the title of a brochure distributed in support the Miss America protest that took place outside of the Miss America competition in Atlantic City, NJ in 1968. The brochure listed ten points that the organizers of the protest believed that the Miss America Pageant did to...
in Atlantic City, NJ, on September 7, 1968. The Miss America Pageant was originally established by a group of businessmen to boost the moral of the troops in Vietnam ‘and projecting an image of pure womanhood’. This of course was portraying woman in a degrading fashion and feminists groups were angered as women were paraded like pieces of meat. The image that the women in these pageants were forced to portray was the controversial ‘Madonna/Whore’ image; the contestants had to look seductive in skimpy bikini’s but then also had to look pure and demure in order to fit in with society. One main protest statement that was used during this time was,
‘Atlantic City, a town with class-They raise your morals while they judge your ass!’ The women took a leaf out of the Yippie book and like the presidential pig, the New York Radical Women crowned a sheep Miss America. They also insisted to speaking to only female journalists and created a ‘freedom trash can’ where they burned their bras, make up, wigs and high-heeled shoes. On top of renouncing beauty items, copies of women’s magazines and Playboy, a magazine which again portrayed the Madonna /whore image; showing pictures of naked women with texts alongside describing their wholesome attitude. The protest against the Miss America pageant of 1968 was not only feminist but was also racially motivated as there had never been a black Miss America.
By 1969, the various ideological tendencies within the group had coalesced into a radical feminist faction and a socialist feminist (or "politico") faction. Tension between the two factions ended up splitting the group in January 1969; the socialist feminists, such as
Robin MorganRobin Morgan is a former child actor turned American radical feminist activist, writer, poet, and editor of Sisterhood is Powerful and Ms. Magazine....
, left to form Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (W.I.T.C.H.), while the radical feminists around
Shulamith FirestoneShulamith 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...
started
RedstockingsRedstockings, also known as Redstockings of the Women's Liberation Movement, is a radical feminist group that was most active during the 1970s...
.
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