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Feminist Manifestos: A Global Documentary Reader

Feminist Manifestos: A Global Documentary Reader is an assortment of feminist manifestos collected and complied by academic Dr. Penny A. Weiss.

The manifestos date over the past three centuries and were developed within feminist spaces, groups, organizations and meetings which represent over 50 countries. These manifestos address how, across generations and geographies, individuals and groups have collectively and constructively both understood oppression and potential solutions towards social justice

Publisher: New York University Press

Date of Publishing: April 3, 2018

Part II: The Nineteenth Century

Figure 1: "Constitution" by the Lowell Factory Girls Association (1836)

Manifesto 8: Lowell Factory Girls Association, “Constitution.” (October 1836)

Accessible at Page 53

Mill owners like Francis Cabot Lowell industrialized textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts during the 1830's at the cost of female workers' well-being. Young women from throughout New England aggregated first under the shared need for housing and wages. According to Thomas Dublin, at one point in the earliest decade of the mills' operations, 70% of Lowell's workforce between the ages of 15 and 29 was comprised of women, and those who worked in the mills experiences significant segregation. As soon as adverse conditions and unfulfilled promises of independence created a sense of objectification among the community of disappointed workers, the Lowell Mill Girls united under the Lowell Factory Association.

Community Action

In reaction to subordination from male factory owners, decreasing wages, rising housing fees, excessive working hours of 73 hours per week, assault, and unsafe working and living conditions, the association became the first women's labor movement in the history of the United States to organize a strike. After their first strike in 1834 and a larger "turn out" at a later strike in 1836, the Lowell Factory Girls Association's collaboration on a Constitution (accessible at Figure 1 to the right and within Dr. Weiss's Feminist Manifestos: A Global Documentary Reader) led to a wave of labor strikes throughout the remainder of the decade.

Leading Figures

As noted in the third article of the Lowell Mill Girls Association's Constitution, 7 officers were selected to lead the association's earliest action beginning in 1836. Other key figures are noted below:

• Lucy Larcom (see Figure 2)
• Harriet Hanson Robinson
• Elizabeth Emerson Turner

  

  Figure 2: Lucy Larcom (1824-893), Officer of the LMGA

Manifesto 10: Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, “Preamble” and “Constitution.” (January 1845)

Accessible at Page 64

Rising from the same community of women who were enticed to work at the mills where the Lowell Mill Girls Association developed, Dr. Weiss details the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA)'s redefined focus on legislative lobbying. As a community who existed at intersection of sexism and poverty, the disenfranchised workers amassed petitions among their growing organization. Calling for change to working conditions, the association fought for the 10 hour work day limit and increased wages. The organization eventually disbanded after the successful legislation in Massachusetts state law of a 10-hour workday limit. Ultimately, the suffering endured by mill workers introduced women to a malleable and reformable issue, and more recent feminist discourses on this issue center the aspect of dualism, with the contrast between vices of women's exploitation and virtues of reform movements

Leading Figures

As noted in the second article of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association's Constitution, the following officers were selected to lead the LFLRA's earliest political action in January of 1846:

Officers

• Sarah Bagley, President
• Hannah C. Tarlton, Vice President
• Mary Emerson, Rec'g. Secretary
• Huldah J. Stone, Roc's Secretary
• Sarah A. Young, Cor. Secretary
• Mary A. K. Tarlton, Treasurer
• Climena Butler
• Miss Gilman
• Abbey Kemp
• Catherine Maxey

Board of Directors

• Mary J. Robinson
• Eliza Simpson
• Elizabeth L. True
• Elmira B. Stone

Part IV: 1950-1980

Jewish Feminism

Jewish women are starting to view themselves within their culture and religion in a more intersectional sense. This resulted in an interest and jump into the feminist movement and creating a Jewish feminist movement within the greater context. By taking this intersectional approach, these women were able to make the feminist movement more inclusive and intersectional. It also highlighted the ways in which gender inequities and biases were widespread throughout religions and cultures such as Judaism and had been normalized throughout time. It should be acknowledged, however, that these problems people were facing were not all encompassing across the religion and the practices vary across the religion. There are four main branches of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist.

Jewish Women Call for Change

This document was organized by ten Jewish women who coined themselves the Ezras Nashim (or Ezrat Nashim), which refers to the women's division of the Orthodox synagogues, which is more Conservative in their morals. This document was organized to combat the discriminatory practices that were occurring within their religious communities, especially in terms of mistreatment towards women from men. Ezrat Nashim's "Call for Change" was presented to the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement on March 14, 1972.

Combahee River Collective

The Combahee River Collective is a queer Black feminist organization that was founded by Barbra Smith, Beverly Smith, and Demita Frazier in 1974. It is named after the 1863 military action led by Harriet Tubman along the Combahee River in South Carolina. The Combahee River Collective Statement was developed by the organization and has been a key component of the Black feminism movement. The collectives politics have been described as radical, socialist feminism, lesbian feminism, and Black nationalism. This organization established a socialist agenda in order to bring attention to the oppression that Black women face. The Combahee River Collective views feminism through the lens of being Black and female to understand their oppression as stemming from capitalism and neocolonialism. The emergence of identities such as sexism, racism, and homophobia has created how Black women experience oppression. During their time as an organization they have worked to not only clarify their own politics but, they have also worked with other progressive organizations and movements while simultaneously fighting against the oppression that all women of color face.