THE ECONOMY Women must be enabled to participate in the economy on a basis of equality with men. nature of work in our system is demeaning to human beings, and we do not want merely to upgrade women into the alienated jobs that men now hold. However, we refuse to do the low-grade, low-paid, and service work any more. Such jobs must be shared by men and women; as must housework be shared, and be recognized as legitimate work that deserves pay. We take it to be our right:
1. That all persons, including children, be assured a personal income commensurate with the cost of living and independant of their family status. 2. That all employers immediately be required to comply with the law of the land and pay equal wages for equal work. 3. An end to sex discrimination; which evades the law by defining all desirable jobs in such a way that only men can fill them. Secretarial and executive tasks should be shared between men and women; responsibility should be shared between doctor and nurse. 4. That all employers give priority to the hiring and promotion of women, with preferential hiring to women of races and classes that have been discriminated against. No men must be laid off to comply with this demand. 5. Childcare by men and women, during work hours, provided free by the employers, and controlled by workers and the community An end LO discrimination against temporary workers, who are mostly female or minors, for example, equal fringe benefits and opportunities.
Maternity leave for both guaranteed return and no loss of pay or seniority. CONTROL OF OUR BODIES Women should be able to control their own bodies, to have children if and when they want to, and to refrain from having children if they WATTO. means an end to all laws governing birth control and abor tion, with the exception of legal standards of health and safety. It also meant that if proper health care is to be equally available to all women, we must have free medical care for all people.
We consider these to be our rights: 1. Abortion, birth control devices, and pregnancy tests to be provided on demand to women of all ages, under safe conditions, at no cost.
Women's Liberation Workshop believes that women in our society are oppressed. We are economically oppressed: in jobs we do full work for half pay, in the home we do unpaid work full time. We are commercially exploited by advertisements, television and press; legally we often have only the status of children. We are brought up to feel inadequate, educated to narrower horizons men. This is our specific oppression as women. It is as women that we are, therefore, organizing.
The Women's Liberation Workshop women's role and redefines the possibilities. It seeks to bring women to a full awareness of the meaning of their inferior status and to devise methods to change it. In society women and girls relate primarily to men; any organization duplicates this pattern: the men lead and dominate, the We believe that the mine the manner and place in which they give birth.
trol research; women, since it is their health which is at stake.
regulation of their Prisoners, or others whose lives are not their own.
Free, available women's institutions.
jail and lets their clients go free.
disastrous effects on women population of non-whites.
part-time or THE FAMILY employment men and women, with Wing children and developing independent work.
We therefore demand:
This ultimately 1. Free, community controlled 24 hour child-care centers, staffed equally by paid men and women, young and old. 2. Alternative forms of good, reasonably priced housing, including provisions for cooperative child care, communal cooking, etc, for all people. 3. The establishment of a personal income for all persons, independent of familial status commensurate with the cost of living. women follow and submit.
this pattern, to establish groups and to meet each other over our common experience as women. If we admitted men there would be a tendency for them, by virtue of their experience, vested interests, and status in society, than to dominate the organization. We want eventually to be, and to help other women to be, in charge of our own lives; therefore, we must be in charge of questions our own movement, control. This means that not only those with experience in politics, but all, must learn to take their own decisions both political and personal.
take part in discussion and decisions are the basic units of our movement. 2. Prenatal, maternity and postnatal care to be provided to all women at no cost. Women should be able to deter3. Drastic increases in government funding of birth conresearch priorities to be determined by 4. Higher safety standards for drug company research and profit. An end to drug company imperialism in the form of testing unsafe drugs on third bilities. world women, and then charging exhorbitant prices for them. No testing of dangerous drugs on mental patients, choosing to complete information about bodies, available to them as a right in all marriage 6. An end to the double standard which puts prostitutes in 7. An end to all forms of environmental abuses, particularly an immediate halt to those which have their most Strontium 90 and DDT poisoning which poison mothers' and children, such as 8. While we think population control is essential, it must not be substituted for a sharing of the world's resources between rich and poor countries. Therefore, we want an end to the kind of population control, on the national and international levels, which concentrates on controlling the oppression. necessary:
The family unit should not be seen as the only economically and socially acceptable unity of society. Central to the liberation of women is the provision of and girls to be ladylike. alternatives to the present pattern of child-rearing and housekeeping, which results in each mother's bear.ing virtually the entire responsibility for her children and her untenable choice most women must make between bearThat discriminated against.
to sell products.
The state should not interfere in personal relationWe close our meetings to men to break through our own leaderless Women's heterogeneous, directly, not by remote cing it.
For this reason, groups small enough for all to 127 Lower Marsh, London S.E.1.
We feel that the small 01-928-6125 ships. In this context we demand the abolition of all laws regulating marriage and divorce; the abolition of all laws regulating sexual behavior between consenting persons;
the abolition of all laws regulating living arrangements.
for instance, laws against cohabitation; and an end to the legal concept of illigitimacy. Children should have a choice of living arrangements with relatives, non-related adults, other children, and any combination of these possiThis means civil liberties for minors, they must not be legally penalized or prosecuted by their parents for live with other people, exercising their sexuality, or doing other things that offend their parents sense of propriety. Any number of adults should be able to make legal contracts between themselves other than ceremonies, that will COLICCHI mutual responsibilities for each other and for chilren.
EDUCATION AND CULTURE The educational system and the media in our country perpetuate undemocratic myths about the nature of women, working people, and black, brown, red and yellow people. They also deny these groups any knowledge of their own history. The media and educational system must be redesigned by the people whom they oppress, to express the past and to meet their needs for development in an atmosphere free from psychological With respect to woman, these things are An end to sexual tracking at all levels educational system. By this we mean not only courses specifically designed for each sex, but also the subtler forms of tracking, such as encouraging boys to be smart 2. That all courses be thoroughly revamped by women to end the perpetuation of male supremacist myths 3. That the facts about sex inequality be added as a topic to all school curricula, and that new courses be developed by women in their culture and history counselling in high schools and colleges be totally redesigned so as not to channel women into low status, low potential occupations 5. That trade schools, vocational schools, colleges and graduate school admit one-half women, with preferential tratment of women from races and classes that have been 6. An end to advertising which exploits women's bodies 7. And end to sex-role sterotyping in the media group makes personal commitment a possibility and a necessity and that it provides understanding and solidarity. Each small group is autonomous, holding different positions and engaging groups, Liberation Workshop is essentially incorporating within it a wide range of opinions and plans for action.
The magazine, SHREW, is produced by a diffe rent group each month. Thus, to a certain extent, it reflects the preoccupations of the group produ W.L.W. meets monthly, the small groups weekly. We come together as groups and individuals to further our part in the struggle for social change and the transformation of society.
Black Dwarf 5th September 1970 page 15