Redstockings were an early radical feminist group most active during the 1970s. The word is a neologism, combining the term bluestocking, a perjoritive term for intellectual women, with "red", for its association with the revolutionary left.
The group was founded in 1969 after the breakup of New York Radical Women. Founding members included Ellen Willis, Carol Hanisch, and Kathie Sarachild. The group was mainly active in New York City and in Gainesville, Florida, where the groups founding members resided. A group called Redstockings West was started in San Francisco in 1970, but was independent of the East Coast group. Redstockings went through several phases of activity and inactivity, being formally refounded in 1973 and again in 1989. As of 2006, the group is active and operates a website, though Kathie Sarachild is the only original member still active with the group.
The group is a strong advocate of consciousness raising and what it refers to as "The Pro-Woman Line". Its relationship to other strands of radical feminism of the 1970s was complex. On one hand, they were strongly opposed to liberal feminist groups like the National Organization for Women, whom they viewed as advancing women's liberation only as a type of political and legal reform while ignoring interpersonal issues between men and women. On the other hand, they were also strongly opposed to lesbian separatism, seeing interpersonal relationships with men as an important arena of feminist struggle, and hence seeing separatism (and at times even lesbianism itself) as escapist. The Redstockings were also more influenced by Marxism than other radical feminist groups, though the did not view themselves as socialist feminists.
Notable essays associated with the group include "The Redstockings Manifesto", "Program for Consciousness-Raising", and "The Politics of Housework"; these and a number of other essays were published in a 1979 anthology, Feminist Revolution. In 1975, they published a controversial report on Gloria Steinem's involvement with a liberal youth group that was later revealed to have been funded by the CIA. This publication created a lasting rift between members of Redstockings and feminists who were close to Steinem.
External links
- Official site
- "The Politics of Housework" by Pat Mainardi, 1970.
References
Echols, Alice. (1989). Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967–1975. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0816617872