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Veteran Feminists of America web-zine
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| MARCH 2011 -SALUTE TO FEMINIST ARTISTS, with Dialogue between Pioneers and Current
Feminists and a memorable art show, in collaboration with the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the
Brooklyn Museum. More information to come. |
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Some words bedevil
me.
Audre Lorde (1962)
Beware how you
contradict prejudices, even knowing them to be such, for the generality of people are much more tenacious of their
prejudices than of anything belonging to them.
Susan Ferrier (1824))
Language, as symbol,
determines much of the nature and quality of our experience. Sonia Johnson (1991)
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CREATING
A FEMINIST LANGUAGE
FLUSHING THE SNEAKY
SEXISM OUT OF LANGUAGE AND TALKING FEMINIST
Rosalie Maggio made a fantastic VFA debut that elicited a great deal of fan mail, a shortened selection (because
of space allotted) of which follows. The subject of a feminist language is something all women---particularly feminists
(and non-feminists certainly should be!)---are passionate about. This column, her second, covers an important but
too-rarely discussed issue.---Joan
Michel
PARENT
 When talking about parents,
here are three recommendations: (1) use "fathers and mothers" or "mothers and fathers" rather
than the inclusive "parents," in order to make both sexes visible. (2) Do not assume "parent"
translates to "mother"; mail on infant care is addressed "Dear Mother" and an ad for an adhesive
tape makes "diapering so easy, even Dad can do it." While the reality is that more women than men are
active parents, it is also reality that many more men than before are becoming involved in parenting and should
be given the name as well as the game. A step in the right direction: some stores now have diaper-changing counters
in both the men's and the women's restrooms. (3) When working with children, do not assume that the child lives
with both parents; many children live with only one parent, with a parent and stepparent, with a guardian, with
grandparents, in a foster home, or with two parents of the same sex. Teacher David Salmela asks his elementary-school
pupils to take notes home to "the adults" at their house. Rosalie Maggio
 Of Sicilian heritage, ROSALIE MAGGIO
was born in Texas, grew up in Fort Dodge, IA, and today lives in Pine Mountain, CA. With her seven fratelli e sorella,
her best friends, she has recently co-authored "Pieces of Eight," a memoir of anecdotes from their past
and e-mail exchanges from their collective present. A graduate of The College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, MN, Rosalie
is married to David Koskenmaki and the proud mother of three. She reads hundreds of books every year and her hobbies
include a daily walk in the woods and collecting inkwells. Among her 20 books of particular interest to feminists
are the "Dictionary of Bias-Free Usage: A Guide to Nondiscriminatory Language," "The New Beacon
Book of Quotations by Women," "An Impulse to Soar: Quotations by Women on Leadership," "Talking
About People: A Guide to Fair and Accurate Language," "Quotations from Women on Life", "How
to Say It," "Nonsexist Wordfinder: A Dictionary of Gender-Free Usage." Coming soon is "Unspinning
the Spin."
More about her at www.rosaliemaggio.com.
Got opinions? Send them to maggio1@juno.com or to womansvoice123@gmail.com
.
Note that discussions on language
can also be found at
(a digest of articles and opinions
on women's equality issues).
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YOU
are being honored by the
NATIONAL WOMEN'S
HALL OF FAME
Betty Friedan
Bella Abzug
Gloria Steinem
Catherine East
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VETERAN FEMINISTS OF AMERICA
July/August 2010
Dear Feminist Friend,
You, yes YOU are being honored by the NATIONAL
WOMEN'S HALL OF FAME along with every feminist activist who fought for our rights in our great revolution of the
1960s and 1970s. The event will take place this August 21st at a special dinner ceremony in Seneca Falls, New York.
How did this happen? VFA suggested that, since
it is impossible to honor each pioneer feminist personally, the Hall honor the incredible generation of pioneer
feminists for their great contributions to women's equality as a group.
Some pioneer feminists are already in the Hall
of Fame - Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Catherine East, Bella Abzug to name a few. Many others have been nominated
several times, to no avail. It may be difficult for the Hall to choose just who belongs in the Hall of Fame --
outside of the "stars"… but they felt that there had to be a way to honor the many feminist activists
who restarted the revolution, inspired the renovation of Seneca Falls and renewed interest in the 19th century
movement. So, with a little encouragement, they created a special award for VFA as a way of honoring all pioneer
feminists.
There are about 100 seats available for $75. If
you'd like to come you must call the Hall and make your reservation ASAP, as seats are going fast.
The invitation/announcement to the August 21st
event is enclosed. In the near future you will be able to order your own honorary certificate from VFA with your
name as the honoree.
That's the good news. The sad news is that VFA's
bank account is very, very low. Perhaps more than ever before, we need the help of our good friends to keep our
organization alive and active.
VFA 's goals are to assure that the Second Wave
and the great feminists who made it happen will be honored and never erased from history. We're grateful for all
you've already done. But if you could possibly send a donation now we'd be deeply grateful.
Thanks again for all you've done and are doing!
Warmly,
Jacqui Ceballos, President
VFA
PO Box 44551
Phoenix, AZ 85064
602-684-4446
jcvfa@aol.com
VETERAN FEMINISTS OF AMERICA
Please fill out and return with check made out
to VFA. Mail to:
VFA, PO BOX 44551, Phoenix, AZ 85064
NAME ____________________________________________EMAIL____________________
ADDRESS________________________________________TEL________________________
DEVOTED DONOR $100_________ Super Supporter $250 ___________
Big Time Benefactor $500_________Activist Angel
$1000 ___________
Far Seeing Philanthropist $5000____________
Other $_______________(VFA is grateful for whatever
you give -from $1.00 to whatever.)
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AUCTION
AUCTION!
AUTOGRAPHED PAINTING BY
KATE MILLETT
27" x 38"
Starting Price - $1000
Final Date - AUGUST 31, 2010
www.katemillett.com
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PAINTING BY KATE
Own this ethereal, Japanese style painting by feminist icon, Kate Millett. It is one of Kate's favorites, as it
reminds her of her years in Japan with Fumio, her husband of several years.Kate went to Japan in 1961 to study
Japanese art.
On her return to the United States she became deeply involved in the new feminist movement and her art reflected
her political life. In later years she returned to the ethereal art of Japan.This painting is a statement from
that era.
Kate's gift to VFA to help raise funds for our important work documenting our history.
MILLETT FARM, 20 OLD OVERLOOK ROAD,
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY 12603
Tel: 845-473-9267
Send your offer to
jcvfa@aol.com
or call 602-684-4446
Veteran Feminists of America
PO Box 44551
Phoenix, Arizona 85064 |
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"Muriel is the ultimate executive and is indispensible to the Veteran Feminists of America."
Jacqui Ceballos
VFA President
first public relations
executive to win the Achievement Award of American Women in Radio & Television
\ In 1975 she organized
a meeting between NOW officers and Byoir client "Sesame Street," which obtained the commitment for increased
participation of female characters on the influential TV show.
She also wrote
NOW's November, 1968 letter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission explaining the need to prohibit sex-segregated
Help Wanted ads. Her testimony to Congress included proposed laws to equalize company pension contributions for
women and men.
“I truly believe
that Betty Friedan was the most influential woman, not only of the 20th century, but of the second millennium,”
Business Week Magazine's list of
100 Top Corporate Women in June 1976 described her as the "top-ranking woman in public relations."
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MURIEL FOX - FEMINIST
ICON
CO FOUNDER of NOW, PUBLIC RELATIONS EXECUTIVE, CO FOUNDER AND LEADER OF NOW LDEF/LEGAL MOMENTUM AND CHAIR OF VETERAN
FEMINISTS OF AMERICA
©Linda Stein -- Muriel Fox
Limited Edition
Fine Art Print
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Muriel Fox was born February 3, 1928 in Newark, New Jersey, one of two children of Morris Fox and Anne Rubenstein.
Her father was a grocer, her mother a housewife. She stated at a Mother's Day rally for the ERA in 1980 that her
mother's unhappiness as a housewife was a major inspiration for her activism in the feminist movement. Her brother,
Gerald became a lawyer and served as VP of NOW's NY chapter and was the attorney who met with the New York Times
to persuade them to desexigrate their Help Wanted ads. Jerry died in 1988 at age 55.
Always an A student, Muriel worked after school in her family's grocery store and twirled in her high school's
twirling brigade at football games. "I was terrible," she remembers.
Because of Jerry's rheumatic fever the family moved to Miami Beach. This led Muriel to become a scholarship student
at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. There she became a string correspondent for United Press, covering
events like the 1946 Conference on the Atomic Bomb and World Government. She transferred to Barnard College in
New York City, in 1946, majored in American Studies and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude in 1948.
After college she was an advertising copywriter for Sears Roebuck in New York, then a publicist for Tom Jefferson
& Associates in Miami, Florida, where she headed the Dade County re-election campaign of U.S. Senator Claude
Pepper and helped elect Miami Mayor William Wolfarth.
Applying for a job at Carl Byoir & Associates, the world's largest public relations agency in 1950, she was
rejected by an officer who said, "We don't hire women writers." But she persisted and later that year
another Byoir executive hired her as a publicist in its Radio-TV Department. In 1952 she was head of that department,
and in1956 became Byoir's youngest vice president, and "progressed as far as she could go," she was told,
"because corporate CEOs can't relate to women." There she remained until the 1970's when, with her help,
NOW had changed the laws and the business climate for all women. Muriel became Executive Vice President of Byoir,
the same title as the man who had turned her down in 1950.
Dr. Shepard (Shep) G. Aronson
Receiving VFA Medal of Honor at VFA's 30th Anniversary Celebration of NOW, Barnard College 1996 )
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In 1955 she married Dr. Shepard G. Aronson, a prominent internist. Their children, Eric and Lisa, now Dr. Eric
Aronson and Dr. Lisa Aronson Fontes were born in 1960 and 1961. Muriel continued working until the night she gave
birth and returned to work soon after. Shep, who was a feminist and very supportive of her work was elected Chair
of the board of NYNOW. When someone asked him what he was doing in the feminist movement Shep replied, "I
want my wife to make more money." Shep died in 2003.
In 1963 Muriel, as an officer of American Women in Radio and Television arranged for Betty Friedan, author of The
Feminine Mystique to be their luncheon speaker. After Betty's talk Muriel sent a thank-you note to Betty saying..
"When you're ready to start an organization to fight for women's rights please call me to help."
Betty did call. And Muriel was at the National Organization for Women's founding conference October 29, 1966. In
the next two years, as NOW's public relations director she orchestrated the nationwide publicity effort. An interesting
aside… Shep and their two children were with her in DC and while Muriel was busy at the founding meeting in Washington,
DC, Shep babysat.
From the next few years Muriel was NOW's vice president, then chair of the board, then chaired the National Advisory
Committee. She was also Betty Friedan's main lieutenant and director of operations. She installed Friedan's NOW
secretary at a small desk near her own at the Byoir offices and wrote numerous letters sent by NOW under Friedan's
signature to government officials demanding faster action to reduce sex discrimination - including the letter that
helped persuade President Lyndon Johnson to sign Executive Order 11246 in October 1967, the order that added sex
to Affirmative Action and thus opened up America's corporate pipeline for millions of women.
She also wrote NOW's November, 1968 letter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission explaining the need to
prohibit sex-segregated Help Wanted ads. Her testimony to Congress included proposed laws to equalize company pension
contributions for women and men. Muriel also had to strike a balance between the interests of Byoir's clients and
those of the women's movement. She rescued herself from NOW deliberations whenever they considered suing Byoir
clients. In 1975 she organized a meeting between NOW officers and Byoir client "Sesame Street," which
headed off a planned NOW boycott while also obtaining a commitment for increased participation of female characters
on the influential TV show. 
In 1967 Muriel helped found New York NOW, the first chapter of the national organization. Carl Byoir promoted Muriel
to group vice president in 1974 and to executive vice president in 1979, the first and only female excutive vice
president the company had. At the same time she served as president of Byoir subsidiaries ByMedia (communications
training) and ByMart (smaller accounts). Business Week Magazine's list of 100 Top Corporate Women in June 1976
described her as the "top-ranking woman in public relations." She retired from Byoir in 1985, and served
on the board of directors of Harleysville Mutual Insurance Company from 1976 to 2000, chairing its Audit Committee,
and on the board of Rorer Pharmaceuticals from 1979 to 1993, chairing its Nominating Committee.
Muriel retired as NOW's PR VP in 1969, but remained very active in the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (now
Legal Momentum), which she co founded. In 1979 she created NOWLDEF's annual Equal Opportunity Awards Dinner, and
she chaired it for 22 years with co-chairs including a roster of corporate America's foremost CEOs. She worked
with Elinor Guggenheimer founding in 1974 the Women's Forum, an organization of pre-eminent women from diverse
fields, and was its second president in 1976-78. In a CBS-TV interview she credited the Forum with "transforming
the word network into a verb."
 For VFA she has organized and co-chaired
many conferences, including the Salute To Feminist Authors and Salute To Feminist Artists. She is Senior Editor
of "Feminists Who Changed America," with the biographies of 2,200 pioneers of the Second Wave. She chaired
the November 15, 2006 all-day VFA conference at Columbia University and Barnard College that celebrated the book's
publication by University of Illinois Press.
In speeches Muriel urges successful women to abandon their old roles as "Queen Bee" in a man's world,
and instead to support organizations that combat sex discrimination against all women. To advance this goal she
served on the founding steering committees not only of NOW and The Women's Forum but also the National Women's
Political Caucus, Child Care Action Campaign, the Women's Economic Round Table, American Women in Radio & Television
and Foremost Women In Communications. Her most frequent speech line is a call urging successful women to say, "Yes,
I am a feminist."
For NOWLDEF she organized and chaired The National Assembly on the Future of the Family (1979) convening 2,100
civic leaders in the first public forum that highlighted the modern-day transformation of the once-traditional
American family; and The Convocation on New Leadership in the Public Interest (1981) to win allies for the women's
movement among leaders of business, labor, government and public policy.
Senator Maurine Neuberger
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In 1965-68 she was co-chair, with Senator Maurine Neuberger, of Vice President Hubert Humphrey's task force on
Women's Goals. In 1983-84 she served on the Marketing Committee of President Reagan's Advisory Council on Private
Sector Initiative. She served as a director of United Way of Tri-State, American Arbitration Association and the
International Rescue Committee.
Muriel was elected president of the Rockland Center for the Arts in 2004, and led the Center for four years in
its major campaign for expansion and renovation. She is currently the Center's vice president for administration.
She has appeared on television frequently -- including a two-week debate series against William Buckley on "Firing
Line" on the topic "Resolved: Women Have It Better Than Men." She has lectured throughout the world
on such topics as Communications, Family Trends, the Women's Movement, Networking and "Moving Women Up the
Corporate Ladder."
In 1991 the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund created the Muriel Fox Award for Communications Leadership Toward
a Just Society. The first winner of the "Foxy" was Muriel Fox herself. In 1996 the Fund surprised her
with an "Our Hero" award "For a Lifetime of Dedication to the Cause of Women's Equality." She
was the first recipient of New York State NOW's Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Award, in 1985; and that same year
Barnard College selected her to receive its Distinguished Alumna Award. She was the first woman to receive the
"Business Leader of the Year" Award from Americans for Democratic Action and the first public relations
executive to win the Achievement Award of American Women in Radio & Television. She received the Matrix Award
from New York Women in Communications and the Woman of Accomplishment Award from the Wings Club. She received the
Distinguished Citizen Award from the Rockland County Family Shelter, the Woman to Women Award from New York State
NOW, and the Carolyn Lexow Babcock Award from Rockland County NOW. Today, at age 82, Muriel Fox continues as one
of the most active and important leaders in the feminist movement.
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AUGUST 2010
FEMINIST of the MONTH
DR. BARBARA J. BERG
As a child I'd heard the stories
of my Great Aunt Rose's twelve year old passage across the Atlantic Ocean with her younger sister, (my Grandmother
Gertrude), their faces turned away from Odessa and memories of the Easter Pogrom which killed their parents and
every last vestige of childhood.
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Thick plumes of smoke were billowing
out of the eighth floor window of the Triangle Shirt Waist Company, the floor in the same factory where until that
very morning they'd sat at sewing machines. People were yelling to the girls hanging out the windows,
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But all the doors had been locked
to prevent the workers from taking breaks. That day when my Great Aunt and Grandma stood in horror as 146 of their
friends and co-workers perished hideously formed the master narrative of my family.
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Aunt Rose became a factory inspector,
focusing on the terrible conditions of female operatives, and later an officer of the International Ladies' Garment
Workers' Union
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I started graduate school at
the City University of New York in 1971. The Vietnam War was raging and I joined the CUNY anti- war group. Working
on my doctorate was the fulfillment of a long time dream, but it was a tough time personally. My marriage was unhappy
and I experienced a hefty dose of gender discrimination at school.
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I started teaching women's history
at Sarah Lawrence College with Gerda Lerner, a pioneer in the field. Sarah Lawrence was the first school to offer
an MA in Women's History.
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Gerda Lerner with landmark sign
designating Sarah Lawrence College the home of the first graduate program in women's history.
Photo: Courtesy Gerda Lerner
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I took a fulltime job at The Horace
Mann School in Riverdale New York, in 1991 and started a women's history program. The school had been coed for
twenty years but in many ways it retained the feel of an all boys' school.
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DR. BARBARA
J. BERG, HISTORIAN, WRITER, SPEAKER, ADVOCATE FOR LANGUAGE EQUALITY, ABUSED WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WOMEN PRISONERS.
 My life was shaped by the women of
my family who struggled against the privations of their sex. As a child I'd heard the stories of my Great Aunt
Rose's twelve year old passage across the Atlantic Ocean with her younger sister, (my Grandmother Gertrude), their
faces turned away from Odessa and memories of the Easter Pogrom which killed their parents and every last vestige
of childhood.
The sisters were taken in by cousins on Bayard Street in New York. Within a week they were working in a factory
twelve hours a day, followed by night school to learn English. When classes became more demanding, they asked their
foreman if they could leave an hour earlier one evening. He refused, but they left anyway, thinking they could
make up the time. The next morning the factory door was shut in their faces.
They immediately began looking for jobs in the neighborhood. Later that afternoon they were swept up by a crowd
shoving them towards the intersection of Green and Washington Streets. Thick plumes of smoke were billowing out
of the eighth floor window of the Triangle Shirt Waist Company, the floor in the same factory where until that
very morning they'd sat at sewing machines. People were yelling to the girls hanging out the windows, "Get
to the stairs." "Go up on the roof." But all the doors had been locked to prevent the workers from
taking breaks. That day when my Great Aunt and Grandma stood in horror as 146 of their friends and co-workers perished
hideously formed the master narrative of my family.
Aunt Rose became a factory inspector, focusing on the terrible conditions of female operatives, and later an officer
of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. She trained as a social worker and joined the Jewish Board
of Guardians helping young women acclimatize themselves to America. Gertrude married a young union rep, a fiery
The International Ladies' Garment
Workers Union (ILGWU Local 25) began a strike against the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Most of the workers were
young Jewish and Italian women.
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orator, who ran for Alderman on the Socialist Party ticket. His proudest memory was carrying Eugene V. Debs' suitcase.
While other children learned Itsy-Bitsy Spider, I learned Union Maid and other songs of my mother's youth. And
I understood why to look for the union label and why we needed Solidarity Forever.
My parents met in the library of Columbia University. My mom, a history major at Barnard College, worked nights
at Macy's to supplement her scholarship, and my dad was getting his doctorate in psychology at Columbia. Their
relationship was forged in the fiery caldron of progressive policies of the 1930s.
From my earliest days, I received the traditional 1950s- white-male-power-kind of education at public schools in
Brooklyn, and the untraditional all-inclusive-struggles of the powerless-kind from my own family. Did my grandparents
and parents use the term feminist? Probably not, but the injustices against women were an ongoing theme of my informal
lessons.
Every summer, with twelve other families, we vacationed in Vermont on the shores of Lake Champlain. College professors,
school principals, teachers, created an idyllic equalitarian community. Families lived in small cabins with ice-chest-
refrigerators, kerosene stoves, no telephones-and shared chores and much of the childcare. During those years I
experienced a gender-blind world and saw first hand the artificiality of sex-linked roles.
Then illness upended our summer vacations and all else in our lives. I came home from school one day to dreadful
news. My 46 year old father had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. "I wish it were me, I wish it were
me," my mother kept sobbing.
I didn't understand. Why in the world did she want to be the sick one?"
"Because Daddy would be able to take care of you and Lucy (my older sister)," she explained. "What
will I be able to do? I have no job, no income. How will I get him the best treatment? How will I support us?'
Then she looked at me gravely and said, "You must always be able to work? Do you understand what I'm telling
you?"
And I did.
My mom became a history teacher, then school librarian, taking care of my sister and me and getting my father into
the first clinical trials in the country for L-Dopa, the then new miracle drug which kept him mobile until his
death at age 73.
Like my mother, I studied history in college and worked. I found a job as a waitress; most of my co-workers were
older than I and their stories dramatized the cultural noose ghettoizing women into the low-level positions. I
knew then that my future would be dedicated to trying to improve women's lives in any and everyway that I could.
Before I'd graduated from the University of Rochester, I decided to go on for a doctorate in history, but I needed
to save money first. Married to my college boyfriend, who was in dental school, I taught for two years at a junior
high school in Brooklyn while doing my first 30 credits part time. What sad lives my students had! Not having enough
food to eat on a routine basis, girls 15 years old and younger were taking care of 3 or 4 siblings and frequent
"catting out " (riding the New York City subways all night). I set up small mentoring groups to help
them and met my students during free periods several times a week.
When the girls told me that riding the subways was a way to avoid physical and sexual abuse at home I sprung into
action, notifying the school administration, the Board of Education, social services. The only way I could protect
some of my students from abuse was to have them sleep on the pull-out in my living room for weeks at a time. Domestic
violence wasn't acknowledged as a problem then, and only later, when I became involved in the Women's Movement,
did I learn that there were others who had also set up shelters for the abused women.
I started graduate school at the City University of New York in 1971. The Vietnam War was raging and I joined the
CUNY anti- war group. Working on my doctorate was the fulfillment of a long time dream, but it was a tough time
personally. My marriage was unhappy and I experienced a hefty dose of gender discrimination at school. My contributions
weren't taken as seriously in seminars and I had to put up with comments from male colleagues who'd say things
like:" What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" It was the same attitude in the Anti-War Movement;
no matter how much women contributed, no matter what risks women endured, we were still "chicks and babes."
In 1970 a woman I'd worked with asked me to join a Consciousness Raising Group, Supported by other women, I finally
had the courage to leave my husband and although it meant taking on more teaching assignments, I had greater emotional
energy to devote to my studies.
 Researching and writing my doctoral
dissertation in those heady first years of the Women's Movement joyfully directed my attention to the lives of
nineteenth century women. My dissertation and first book, The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism established a nascent, but vibrant feminism in the earliest years of the New Republic
among urban women who banded together to help the downtrodden of their sex. Signing their letters, "Thine
in the Bonds of Sisterhood," they advocated for female prisoners and prostitutes at a time when these women
were considered barely human. . My book documented a feminist consciousness in America years before it was thought
to have originated, among groups of women who didn't yet have any connection to abolitionism. It stirred controversy,
but became a standard text of women's history courses.
In 1971, I married Arnold Schlanger, an attorney and a wonderful man, who shared my passion for social justice
and women's rights, and had a delightful 3 year old daughter. I started teaching women's history at Sarah Lawrence
College with Gerda Lerner, a pioneer in the field. Sarah Lawrence was the first school to offer an MA in Women's
History. Our days were filled with teaching, conferences, mentoring students, working on policy papers. I threw
myself headlong into the Women's Movement, joining just about every women's organization I could find.
Then a personal loss.
Before I'd started at SLC I'd suffered a miscarriage (a baby girl) in my fifth month of pregnancy. I became pregnant
again, but learned in the seventh month I'd have to stay in bed until I delivered. The school bused my students
to my house twice a week until the end of the year. My husband carried me from the bed to the sofa (I felt like
a nineteenth century invalid); the experience bonded me even closer with my students who made the baby a patchwork
quilt of women's history.
Then, without warning I went into labor at the end of my eighth month and delivered a baby girl, stillborn. I was
devastated and disturbed by the callous treatment of the male-medical establishment. As for the hospitals, they
were in the Dark Ages in dealing with women who lost babies. I took a leave from SLC and began to research medical
textbooks to see if I could understand what had gone wrong, but also to get a sense of what doctors were learning.
And I got it, all right. The books contained egregious sexist language and sentiment, mortifying and dismissive
to women about what went on in our own bodies.
 Now I had two projects: Having a family
and trying to change the medical culture. My approach to the latter was through writing, speaking and teaching:
My second book Nothing to Cry About, (the title taken from the insensitive comment my doctor
made when I burst into tears during my miscarriage at the news it was a girl and she was perfectly normal) was
an indictment of the medical profession's treatment of women. I was invited to talk about the subject on television
talk shows, radio, and at perinatal bereavement conferences. We adopted an infant girl when I was pregnant again
(seven months in bed, the last three in a hospital this time), and with the birth of a healthy baby boy we now
had two children less than seven months apart!
When my children were babies I wrote about health, women's in particular, for The New York Times' Magazine; M.;
Parents, and many other publications. I started the course Medicine and Literature at Mount Sinai Hospital to teach
medical students to become more sensitive to their patients. A large part of the curriculum focused on women. I
ultimately taught the course at Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, Yale Medical School and The Academy
of Medicine. One of my most enduring connections-going on now for thirty years- was to become a member of the Mount
Sinai Community Board whose mission is to bring quality health care to the East Harlem community. We've held conferences
on domestic violence and parenting skills, sponsored women's health days, and raised awareness about breast cancer,
diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
 As a working mother with two young children
at home, I was experiencing some of the difficulties confronting other women: lack of affordable quality childcare,
bosses (in my case editors and department chairs) who made no allowance for sick children, workplace harassment
and lower pay than my male colleagues. Still I was one of the fortunate ones. What about women across the nation?
What were their difficulties and struggles? I sent out a questionnaire, received nearly 1,000 responses, then interviewed
several hundred more women. The results formed the basis of my book, The Crisis of the Working Mother. I traveled across the country speaking and holding workshops on the difficulties women,
especially mothers, faced in the workplace and how to tackle them, and I began to push for reformed government
and corporate policies. I used my writing as a platform for my views, my articles appearing in magazines like Working
Mother, Working Woman and Savvy-in one piece (1986) I called for an end to the "Mommy Wars."
In the late 80s, my husband lost his position as General Counsel to a corporation, and, like many Americans then
was having difficulty getting a new one. I took a fulltime job at The Horace Mann School in Riverdale New York,
in 1991 and started a women's history program. The school had been coed for twenty years but in many ways it retained
the feel of an all boys' school. My second year there I became a dean of students in addition to my teaching. The
first thing I did was have male language "as we men go forth etc…" in the school Alma Mater changed,
then I took on sexual harassment which had been going on unchecked for years. Convincing the rest of the administration
that we needed a policy was no easy matter; but finally I prevailed as long as I was willing to write it. I did
and served as a point person for eight years, successfully overseeing several complicated cases.
At many high schools, young women suffer from lack of self-esteem, eating disorders, risky behaviors, and subtle
forms of discrimination. Horace Mann was no different. I started a Women's Issues Club where we could address these
issues and founded periodical Folio 51 (which has won several national awards) to remedy the male bias of the school
newspaper. Every year the Women's Issue Club sponsored a Christmas Party for Sanctuary for Families' domestic violence
shelter.
My revelations of discrimination at HM led to my appointment as Director of Co-Education K - 12 for three years.
I looked at everything from the kindergarten play area to elementary school readers to the songs at commencement
to the number of times girls were called on in classrooms compared to boys; my report was used as a model by other
high schools. During that time I was the recipient of numerous grants to make high school curricula more gender
neutral and wrote The Women's Movement
and Young Women Today to remedy
the lack of books on this topic for middle schoolers. In 1995 I received The Distinguished Teacher Award (one of
50 nationwide) from President Bill Clinton.
I left HM , with regret, to spend more time with my mom who was becoming physically frail and to dedicate myself
to writing, but I was asked by the school to devise Leader Training Seminars for young women, so I had an opportunity
to continue some of my work with the female students.
 In 2009 I wrote Sexism in America: Alive, Well and Ruining Our Future to debunk the myth that we are a post-feminist society.
Starting a with an account of the second wave women's movement, the book draws on medical research, legislation,
movies, television shows, advertisements, and hundreds of interviews to reveal the extent to which misogyny is
the new Come-Back-Kid, even considered cool and camp in many quarters. It tells the stories of women who faced
discrimination in school and at work, thinking they were the only ones. The success of a few women seduce us into
thinking that all the battles have been won. In reality, sexism insidiously, but pervasively has short-circuited
the legacy of the women's movement in every aspect of our lives. My book also provides a blueprint of what we can
do to secure our rights.
In addition to my work at Mount Sinai as co-chair of the program committee, I'm a vice president of the New York
Correctional Association, the oldest prisoner-rights organization in the nation and one of two with a mission of
prison-oversight. My work is largely around issues concerning incarcerated women, visiting them, holding focus
groups to ascertain their needs and advocating for policy change. For example, when it became apparent that the
healthcare books in the prison libraries were woefully out of date, we organized a book drive and added to the
collections of all seven female correctional institutions in New York. I am also on the board of the National Women's
History Project which is responsible, not only for Women's History Month, but for keeping women's history a vital
part of the curriculum at schools across the nation.
I wrote Sexism in America as a wake up call. We all can envision a more equitable
world for our daughters and sons than the one we are living in. Now we have to make it happen!
(pictured left: Barbara and Family enjoying a day at the beach)
Barbara J. Berg's website is www.barbarajberg.com
Comments: Jaccqui Ceballos: jcvfa@aol.com
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BLAST
from the PAST
...was told his company
was going to be picketed because of some toys manufactured by a subsidiary, he said somewhat jokingly that he'd
like to put Jacqueline Michot Ceballos in a cage.
"Sick Toys For
Children Make A Sick Society !"
"A Toy Should
Be A Toy! A Toy Is To Grow !"
"Sadistic Toys
Make Violent Boys."
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NABISCO PICKETED
OVER MONSTER TOYS
NEW YORK TIMES NOV 16, 1971
ORIGINAL FROM JENNIFER MACLEOD, Ph.D.
Last Friday when Farish Alston Jenkins, 56,senior vice president at Nabisco, Inc., was told his company was going
to be picketed because of some toys manufactured by a subsidiary, he said somewhat jokingly that he'd like to put
Jacqueline Michot Ceballos in a cage.
But when Jacqueline Ceballos, the 46-year-old head of the New York chapter of the National Organization of Women,
turned up with 11 other picketers at Nabisco's headquarters at 425 Park Avenue yesterday, Mr. Jenkins wasn't there
to carry out his
joking threat.
He, Robert M. Schaeberle, the president,and Lee S. Bickmore, the Nabisco chairman, had left town to attend a biscuit
convention in San Diego.
The pickets - including one dressed as a hangman - were representatives of N.O.W., Parents for Responsibility in
the Toy Industry and Women Strike for Peace. They walked up and down for an hour and a half in the rain carrying
signs saying, "Sick Toys For Children Make A Sick Society !" and "A Toy Should Be A Toy ! A Toy
Is To Grow !" and chanted :"Sadistic Toys Make Violent Boys."
What they were objecting to were eight different Monster Scenes kits made by the Aurora Products Corporation -
in particular the "Hanging Cage" and the "Pendulum" whose production was stopped when Aurora
merged with Nabisco. However, kits can still be found on store shelves.
CALLED SEXIST, TOO
PHOTO AND CAPTION : Demonstrators
outside Nabisco, Inc., headquarters protesting sale of what they termed "torture kits" by company's subsidiary,
Aurora Products Corp
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The women's rights group also objected to what it termed "sexist kits" made by Aurora, particularly "Vampirella"
(modeled after a comic book character) and the "Pendulum," in which a semi-nude woman victim is strapped
to a platform.
Nabisco's reluctant involvement began last May when it acquired the Aurora Products Corporation, which makes the
Monster Scenes kits.
"These toys depict violence, why encourage it ?" said Mrs. Yvette Williams, a Lever Bothers secretary,
as she watched the picketers who were carrying some of the toys. "I wouldn't have bought any for my child
when she was younger."
Questioned Friday about the planned demonstration, Mr. Jenkins had said, some-what testily : "The facts are
these. Four days before we acquired this company last May, some publicity appeared in a New York paper and a church
paper about these toys. We reviewed them and then stopped them. I know they're not making them now."
40,000 KITS SOLD
The president of Aurora, Charles Diker, said 40,000 of the "Hanging Cage" and "Pendulum" kits
had been sold before production was stopped. "Since '65 we've been making 'Frankenstein' kits, the 'Hunchback'
and 'Godzilla,' well-known concepts in folklore,"he said.
"Children do not see the same things in the toys that an adult would," said Richard Schwarzchild, Aurora's
vice president of marketing, noting the company had received about 120 letters of complaint and some phone calls.
"We've had more letters from youngsters and parents suggesting additions tothe line," he said.
"We had a basic series of monster figures, then we decided to make movie-like sets for them. The kids said
they wanted us to expand the line - that's how they came into being," he said, adding that 800,000 of the
monster kits had been sold altogether.
"If you really look at them, you'll see they're torture kits," said Mrs. Victoria Reiss, chairman of
Parents for Responsibility in the Toy Industry.
She said she'd bought the "Hanging Cage," "Pendulum" and "Vampirella" kits in the
hobby shop at Macy's last week. The first two cost $ 1.88 each, she said, and "Vampirella" $ 1.23.
"We want Nabisco and Aurora to stop making all the kits and to remove them from all the store shelves,"
said Mrs. Reiss, the mother of three sons.
Aside from "Dr. Deadly," "The Girl Victim," "Frankenstein" and "Vampirella,"
there are the "Pain Parlor" and "Gruesome Goodies" kits - all in production for eight months
now.
HEARING GRANTED
Two Nabisco officials who didn't go to the biscuit convention yesterday were W.Glenn Craig, director of publicity,
and Harry Schroeter, vice president in charge of communications. They ushered about 10 picketers who had requested
a hearing into a conference room on Nabisco's fifth floor and said :
They felt it was unfair they hadn't been given any notice of the demonstration by its planners; that it would be
very difficult to remove the toys from the market; that they'd take a good look at the situation, as no one wants
to get the kind of publicity they'd received ; that Monster Scenes kits were a terrible embarrassment to Nabisco
and had been since the day they found out about them.
"We'll present what the group has told us, their feelings and objections, to our chief officers when they
return, and we'll come out with a statement later this week, I'm sure," Mr. Schroeter said.
In the meantime, the picketing groups said they plan to launch a national boycott against Nabisco and Aurora and
will distribute leaflets and picket department stores that carry the kits during the Christmas buying season.
"If Nabisco had bad cookies, they'd certainly take them off the shelves, wouldn't they ?" commented one
picketer's husband gruffly.
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SECOND
CHANCE FOR SECOND-WAVE FEMINISTS
If you are not included in the much-praised Feminists
Who Changed America,1963-1975
(University of Illinois Press), you can still be included if you active quickly. Barbara Love, the editor, is taking
questionnaires for a second edition/supplement.
The second opportunity will only be open for a short time. You deserve to be included in this reference work documenting
our contributions. So CLICK
HERE for the questionnaire,
You can Print it, fill
it out and send it to Barbara at Pioneer Feminists Project, c/o Barbara Love 82 Deer Hill Ave., Danbury, CT 06810. or
fax to: 203-826-9701
The first edition included biographies of over 2,200 second-wave feminists and has sold more than 3,000 copies,
many to libraries and universities. This is a project in partnership with Veteran Feminists of America and VFA
receives royalties. So do it now and send the questionnaire to your friends and and other activists who improved
the lives of women and girls in America.
Contact Barbara Love: bjlove@msn.com
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VFA OFFICERS
Jacqui Ceballos, President
Sheila Tobias - Co-President
Muriel Fox - Board Chair
Joan Michel, VP/Public Relations
Judith Kaplan - Vice-Pres
Gracia Molina-Pick -VP
Virginia Watkins - Secretary
Amy Hackett, Treasurer
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FINDING LOVE ON THE INTERNET
HAS JUST GOTTEN EASIER!
BARBARA LOVE ANNOUNCES THAT FEMINISTS WHO CHANGED AMERICA IS ON GOOGLE'S BOOK SEARCH.
 Millions
of people will now have access to biographies OF PIONEER FEMINISTS.
GOOGLE''S Book Search is used by librarians, scholars, booksellers, and readers worldwide. Book Search gives browsers
a taste of the book, much like browsing in a bookstore or library. In Limited Preview mode users can search the
full text for relevant terms, but they can see only 10% or so of the book's content.
*Feminists Who Changed America ~ 1963 - 1975 edited by Barbara J. Love of the Pioneer Feminists Project in partnership
with Veteran Feminists of America, a tax-exempt organization created to document feminist history, inspire younger
generations, and rekindle the spirit of the feminist revolution. The book that documents the contributions of more
than 2,250 feminist women and men is now a reality after a decade of effort. Feminists Who Changed America, 1963
-- 1975 has been published by the University of Illinois Press, a press with "a good feminist consciousness."
Here is the Google Book Search record for Feminists
Who Changed America:
Feminists Who Changed America Google Book Search
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Contact: jcvfa@aol.com
Veteran Feminists of America
Jacqui Ceballos
VFA
PO Box 44551,
Phoenix, AZ 85016
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KNOW YOUR HEROES....
GREAT FEMINISTS OF A GREAT GENERATION 1963 to 1983
Introducing PIONEER FEMINIST OF THE
MONTH
Each month we're featuring one or two of the great feminists featured in FEMINISTS WHO CHANGED AMERICA... We hope to get to everyone, but there are over 2000 in the book, and it would take
100 years and none of us will be here! So we're hoping that this rakes up so much interest that each one of you
will get your local newspapers to write about you and everyone from your state. This way you'll not only be honoring
local heroes of our great ongoing revolution, but it will call attention to VFA's work at documenting and preserving
the history of the Second Wave, and encourage younger women to continue where we left off.
CONTACT JACQUI CEBALLOS: jcvfa@aol.com
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CONTRIBUTE $200
receive a FREE COPY
Betrayal
by Merikay McLeod
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Faces of Feminism
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Are
You On The Cover of Feminists Who Changed America?
 This cover photo was taken at
the Houston Conference in 1977 by famed photographer of the early movement, Bettye Lane.
Many of us have wondered just who are these women and men? If they recognized themselves, why don't they tell us
who they are, where are they today, and what are they doing? At the March 19th celebration in Dallas - Bonnie Wheeler, who organized the event, announced that she is the passionate, young woman in glasses, waving her fist at the bottom of the page. Today she is Associate Professor of English, Director
of Medieval Studies at Southern Methodist University and editor of Arthuriana. She is still a passionate feminist
and a member of VFA's board.
If you are on this cover, or know who others are, please
get in touch with VFA at jcvfa@aol.com. |
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Veteran
Feminists of America
 VFA
is a nonprofit organization for veterans of the Second Wave of the feminist movement. The goals are to enjoy the camaraderie forged during those years of intense
commitment, to honor ourselves and our heroes, to document our history, to rekindle the spark and spirit of the
feminist revolution and act as keeper of the flame so that the ideals of feminism continue to reverberate and influence
others.
Contact VFA: jcvfa@aol.com
Veteran Feminists
of America
PO Box 44551,
Phoenix, AZ 85064
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Search Engine Submission - AddMe
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VFA is a nonprofit organization for veterans of the Second Wave of the feminist movement. The goals are to enjoy
the camaraderie forged during those years of intense commitment, to honor ourselves and our heroes, to document
our history, to rekindle the spark and spirit of the feminist revolution and act as keeper of the flame so that
the ideals of feminism continue to reverberate and influence others.
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