Women's Health After helping found the CWLU she helped organize the Action Committee for Decent Childcare (ACDC) to challenge the powerful Richard J. Daley political machine's indifference to childcare.
This project began after the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which legalized abortion. Abortion was illegal and women seeking them risked death and injury at the hands of incompetent quacks.
Small circles of women would meet to help each other overcome the psychological and social effects of sexism. This distinguished them from reform feminists like the National Organization for Women (NOW), who while dedicated to gender equality, did not seriously question the capitalist system. The contents of the leaflet rejected some of the CWLU's most basic principles. Our Band of Sisters It was 1969 and the founding conference of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union … CWLU was formed in 1969 and played a leading role in the women’s liberation movement in Chicago during the 1970s. Women were denied credit by banks and states could bar women from sitting on juries. Men made the decisions while women made the coffee. The founders of the CWLU had come of age in the 1960's, a time of sit-ins, freedom rides, peace marches, strikes, riots and assassinations. "The Chicago Women's Graphic Collective." Members of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union (CWLU) march in the International Women's Day Demonstration in Chicago on March 9, 1974. "- from the CWLU founding conference. This newspaper publicized struggles at Stewart-Warner, Campbell's Soup, and other workplaces in and around Chicago. Web. Activist Links Today former CWLU members are working in social services, education, law, publishing, manufacturing, electronic media, politics, healthcare and other varied fields. For example, socialist feminist wanted to integrate the recognition of sex discrimination with their work to achieve justice, equality for women, working classes, the poor and all humanity. N.p.. Wherever women are fighting for their liberation I am there. Teaching Modules CWLU members usually concentrated on their day to day project organizing, but the group also did a lot thinking about political strategy and theory. It also distinguished them from the radical feminists who were more hostile to men and often drawn toward utopian female separatism. "Ask For Jane" Movie Estelle Carol, a young University of Chicago art student, decided that art had been done all wrong by men and helped found the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective to decorate the walls of America with colorful messages of women's revolution.The Chicago Women's Liberation Union: An IntroductionFor the most part they have kept the values that they learned in the women's liberation movement. There was a strong emphasis on democratic process and open discussion, which inevitably meant many long and often frustrating meetings. Rape Crisis Centers and Domestic Violence Centers were no longer being seen as "counter-cultural" institutions. Losing support, the remaining members voted on April 24, 1977 to end the organization altogether. The Chicago Women's Graphics Collective was first organized in 1970 to provide high quality feminist posters for the growing The CWLU did not participate in electoral politics, instead work groups took on the city government to advocate for women's rights. Many are parents and grandparents. The CWLU was an all-woman organization, but men were usually welcome at its public events and the group carefully aimed its attacks on male chauvinism, not on men as a group. The CWLU was recognized as a model for socialist feminist organizing and the group had strengthened its ties with other Midwest Women's Unions. Women typed the speeches so that men could speak the words. "A Short History of Women's Studies at UIC." The CWLU Herstory Website. The CWLU Herstory Website. The Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, hereafter Union or CWLU, was a feminist union that operated in Chicago, Illinois, from 1969 to 1977 and was the first and largest union, at the time of its operation, focused on women’s issues. Women's Studies Program Newsletter. About Us Support Us Yet throughout most of its history, the CWLU recognized that diversity was essential to its unity.Yet in this struggle for freedom, women were not free. A few examples:By the mid 1970's, the CWLU could see the changes that the women's liberation movement had helped set into motion. She then helped organize the Chicago Women's Liberation Rock Band to shake up the sexist world of pop music. Naomi Weisstein, a brilliant research scientist, had written "Psychology Constructs the Female" which demolished generations of male supremacist pseudo-science. Academic Links 19 Nov 2013. Long before there was anything like Women's Studies, Vivian Rothstein conceived of a Liberation School where women could learn how to free themselves from their oppression. "Prison Project." CWLU leaders pointed to the group's growing involvement with women of color. The CWLU went into a deep internal crisis over how to deal with the situation. 19 Nov 2013. The CWLU partnered with countless organizations including The National Black Feminist Organization, Women Employed (WE), Chicago Herstory Website Editorial Committeehttp://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUAbout/prison.html,, ed.