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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971

1970-07-10 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 1

"The man over there says women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages or over puddles, or gives me the best place - and ain't I a woman? 
"Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns and no man could head me - and ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! and ain't I a woman?
"I have born thirteen children and seen most of 'em sold into slavery and when I cried out my mother's grief none but Jesus heard me - and ain't I a woman?"
Sojourner Truth - 1851

[hand drawn image]
Ain't I a Woman?
a midwest newspaper of women's liberation Vol.1 No.2 July 10, 1970 25c published by the publications collective, iowa city w.l.f.
to meet the needs of women
Women are an oppressed majority in this society. Although we constitute 51 per cent of the population, women are only one per cent of the nation's engineers, three per cent of its lawyers, seven per cent of its lawyers, seven per cent of its doctors. Most women have the same job - housewife - despite the individual differences among women. 
This society culturally views women as weak, passive, not too intelligent, emotional, maternal, belonging in the home and with the children. And this society trains women to be weak, passive, not too intelligent, emotional, maternal and to be good housewives and mothers. We are not given the training or encouragement needed to pursue other roles. Working women earn less than men doing the same work and, if they are married, work longer hours, since the unpaid household labor awaits them each evening. If they are not married, society views them as misfits. 
Women are shown their image as either unpaid household laborer or sex object on TV, in the schools, in magazines and newspapers: they begin to believe in their own inferiority. The position of women in this society benefits the men they clean for and sleep with, the bosses they break strikes for, and accept lower wages and boring jobs from. 
We recognize our oppression as benefitting the U.S. Imperialist system just as the oppression of black and third world peoples has benefitted this system, creating reserve labor and resources to be used at the discretion of the rich. A woman, however, can achieve a financially stable position through dependence on a man. We realize that a male supremacist system whose main purpose is to accumulate profit for the few will not willingly grant the following demands. We realize that we will have to take the following through collective struggle, to form a society that serves all the people. 
1. WE DEMAND THAT A SYSTEM OF DAY CARE CENTERS BE ESTABLISHED. These centers should be open 24 hours a day. They must be staffed equally by men and women. They must meet the needs of children and must be controlled by the parents and children who use them. 
2. WE DEMAND THAT FREE ADEQUATE HEALTH CARE BE AVAILABLE FOR ALL PEOPLE. Medical attention is a human right, not a right of only the rich. All women must be able to receive free contraceptive devices that are safe, free abortions upon request and adequate care during pregnancy. Research must begin to develop safe contraceptive devices for both women and men. 
3. WE DEMAND THAT WOMEN BE GIVEN FREE SELF-DEFENSE AND PHYSICAL TRAINING. Women have not been allowed to grow strong and healthy. Their physical development has been stifled by their socialization into being "ladies." They must be trained beginning at a young age to be strong and capable of defending themselves. The rapes and beating of women will end only when it becomes just as dangerous to attack a woman as it is a man. 
4. WE DEMAND THAT WOMEN RECEIVE EQUAL PAY, EQUAL WORK AND EQUALITY IN THE JOB MARKET. Women must be given opportunities for advancement and on the job training. All fields of employment must be open to women, and we must have the opportunity to engage in productive work that is meaningful to us rather than the work which we are now given - subservient, service-type jobs - secretary, hostess or domestic laborer. All people should have work that they find meaningful. 
5. WE DEMAND THAT EVERY INDIVIDUAL IN THIS SOCIETY RECEIVE A GUARANTEED ADEQUATE INCOME. To live decently, no individual should have to sell her labor or body. The necessities of life should be supplied free to all people. No woman should have to marry for financial security, nor should any woman be forced to face the degradation of the present welfare system. This income must be based on the individual, not the family unit, and must be enough to allow an individual to live comfortably and decently. 
6. WE DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE END TO THE SEXISM WHICH PERMEATES OUR CULTURAL MEDIA. The news and entertainment media, an extremely influential institution in socialization, has consistently stereotyped females as sex objects or domestics. The stereotypes of women in the media today are comparable to the black "shoe-shine boy" of 15 years ago. We demand a stop to this sexism, substituting instead images of women as creative and intelligent human beings. 
7. WE DEMAND AN END TO TRACKING IN THE SCHOOLS AND THE IMMEDIATE ESTABLISHMENT OF FREE AND RELEVANT EDUCATION. Relevant education should help individuals to become self-sufficient, self-respecting human beings. Women can't have much self-respect when they never study their own history, when all their examples of achievement are male. We cannot be self-sufficient if we are not given the knowledge for controlling our own lives. We must be given adequate training in useful trades such as carpentry, mechanics, etc. 
8. WE DEMAND AN END TO THE DEFINITION OF INDIVIDUALS IN TERMS OF THEIR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS. Individuals should be treated on their own terms, regardless of whether they are old or young, married or unmarried, homosexual or heterosexual or asexual, living alone or communally. 
9. WE DEMAND AN END TO THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT which presupposes the submission of the female to the male. Marriage and the nuclear family is the acceptable living situation today. Because of this the single woman is severely limited and children are treated as property of their parents. All people (including they young) must be treated as individuals with individual social and economic rights. 
10. WE DEMAND AN END TO THE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST OUR LESBIAN SISTERS. We recognize that this oppression is political, and that it is directly linked to our oppression as women. Women refuse to be defined only in terms of their sexuality and demand to be recognized as thinking, feeling human beings. We refuse to be defined and limited by arbitrary social standards based on unacceptable authorities which suppress human needs common to all people. 
11. WE DEMAND THE RIGHT OF SELF-DETERMINATION FOR ALL PEOPLE. There must be an immediate end to the exploitation of women, blacks, third world peoples. All forms of oppression and exploitation must be ended. We demand our freedom as women, but not at the expense of the freedom of other people. Being rich by making others poor, being free by enslaving others, is not worth fighting for. We demand that all people be liberated. Power to all the people or none.

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"The man over there says women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages or over puddles, or gives me the best place - and ain't I a woman? "Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns and no man could head me - and ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! and ain't I a woman? "I have born thirteen children and seen most of 'em sold into slavery and when I cried out my mother's grief none but Jesus heard me - and ain't I a woman?" Sojourner Truth - 1851 [hand drawn image] Ain't I a Woman? a midwest newspaper of women's liberation Vol.1 No.2 July 10, 1970 25c published by the publications collective, iowa city w.l.f. to meet the needs of women Women are an oppressed majority in this society. Although we constitute 51 per cent of the population, women are only one per cent of the nation's engineers, three per cent of its lawyers, seven per cent of its lawyers, seven per cent of its doctors. Most women have the same job - housewife - despite the individual differences among women. This society culturally views women as weak, passive, not too intelligent, emotional, maternal, belonging in the home and with the children. And this society trains women to be weak, passive, not too intelligent, emotional, maternal and to be good housewives and mothers. We are not given the training or encouragement needed to pursue other roles. Working women earn less than men doing the same work and, if they are married, work longer hours, since the unpaid household labor awaits them each evening. If they are not married, society views them as misfits. Women are shown their image as either unpaid household laborer or sex object on TV, in the schools, in magazines and newspapers: they begin to believe in their own inferiority. The position of women in this society benefits the men they clean for and sleep with, the bosses they break strikes for, and accept lower wages and boring jobs from. We recognize our oppression as benefitting the U.S. Imperialist system just as the oppression of black and third world peoples has benefitted this system, creating reserve labor and resources to be used at the discretion of the rich. A woman, however, can achieve a financially stable position through dependence on a man. We realize that a male supremacist system whose main purpose is to accumulate profit for the few will not willingly grant the following demands. We realize that we will have to take the following through collective struggle, to form a society that serves all the people. 1. WE DEMAND THAT A SYSTEM OF DAY CARE CENTERS BE ESTABLISHED. These centers should be open 24 hours a day. They must be staffed equally by men and women. They must meet the needs of children and must be controlled by the parents and children who use them. 2. WE DEMAND THAT FREE ADEQUATE HEALTH CARE BE AVAILABLE FOR ALL PEOPLE. Medical attention is a human right, not a right of only the rich. All women must be able to receive free contraceptive devices that are safe, free abortions upon request and adequate care during pregnancy. Research must begin to develop safe contraceptive devices for both women and men. 3. WE DEMAND THAT WOMEN BE GIVEN FREE SELF-DEFENSE AND PHYSICAL TRAINING. Women have not been allowed to grow strong and healthy. Their physical development has been stifled by their socialization into being "ladies." They must be trained beginning at a young age to be strong and capable of defending themselves. The rapes and beating of women will end only when it becomes just as dangerous to attack a woman as it is a man. 4. WE DEMAND THAT WOMEN RECEIVE EQUAL PAY, EQUAL WORK AND EQUALITY IN THE JOB MARKET. Women must be given opportunities for advancement and on the job training. All fields of employment must be open to women, and we must have the opportunity to engage in productive work that is meaningful to us rather than the work which we are now given - subservient, service-type jobs - secretary, hostess or domestic laborer. All people should have work that they find meaningful. 5. WE DEMAND THAT EVERY INDIVIDUAL IN THIS SOCIETY RECEIVE A GUARANTEED ADEQUATE INCOME. To live decently, no individual should have to sell her labor or body. The necessities of life should be supplied free to all people. No woman should have to marry for financial security, nor should any woman be forced to face the degradation of the present welfare system. This income must be based on the individual, not the family unit, and must be enough to allow an individual to live comfortably and decently. 6. WE DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE END TO THE SEXISM WHICH PERMEATES OUR CULTURAL MEDIA. The news and entertainment media, an extremely influential institution in socialization, has consistently stereotyped females as sex objects or domestics. The stereotypes of women in the media today are comparable to the black "shoe-shine boy" of 15 years ago. We demand a stop to this sexism, substituting instead images of women as creative and intelligent human beings. 7. WE DEMAND AN END TO TRACKING IN THE SCHOOLS AND THE IMMEDIATE ESTABLISHMENT OF FREE AND RELEVANT EDUCATION. Relevant education should help individuals to become self-sufficient, self-respecting human beings. Women can't have much self-respect when they never study their own history, when all their examples of achievement are male. We cannot be self-sufficient if we are not given the knowledge for controlling our own lives. We must be given adequate training in useful trades such as carpentry, mechanics, etc. 8. WE DEMAND AN END TO THE DEFINITION OF INDIVIDUALS IN TERMS OF THEIR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS. Individuals should be treated on their own terms, regardless of whether they are old or young, married or unmarried, homosexual or heterosexual or asexual, living alone or communally. 9. WE DEMAND AN END TO THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT which presupposes the submission of the female to the male. Marriage and the nuclear family is the acceptable living situation today. Because of this the single woman is severely limited and children are treated as property of their parents. All people (including they young) must be treated as individuals with individual social and economic rights. 10. WE DEMAND AN END TO THE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST OUR LESBIAN SISTERS. We recognize that this oppression is political, and that it is directly linked to our oppression as women. Women refuse to be defined only in terms of their sexuality and demand to be recognized as thinking, feeling human beings. We refuse to be defined and limited by arbitrary social standards based on unacceptable authorities which suppress human needs common to all people. 11. WE DEMAND THE RIGHT OF SELF-DETERMINATION FOR ALL PEOPLE. There must be an immediate end to the exploitation of women, blacks, third world peoples. All forms of oppression and exploitation must be ended. We demand our freedom as women, but not at the expense of the freedom of other people. Being rich by making others poor, being free by enslaving others, is not worth fighting for. We demand that all people be liberated. Power to all the people or none.