Amy Erdman Farrell - Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism

Linda K. Kerber

Nell Irvin Painter

1998
The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of
the Council on Library Resources.

Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Farrell, Amy Erdman.
Yours in sisterhood: Ms. magazine and the promise
of popular feminism / by Amy Erdman Farrell.
p. cm. (Gender and American culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8078-2424-0 (cloth : alk. paper).
ISBN 0-8078-4735-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Ms. 2. Ms. (New York, N.Y.: 1990)
3. Feminism United States History 20th
century. 4. Feminism History 20th century.
5. Women United StatesHistory20th century.
I. Title. II. Series: Gender & American culture.
PN4900.M77F37 1998
051.082dc21 97-50228
CIP

02 01 00 99 98 5 4 3 2 1

THIS BOOK WAS DIGITALLY PRINTED.

As I complete Yours in Sisterhood it is a joy to acknowledge those who have helped me. Numerous institutions and funding sources have supported this project from its initial stages. A research grant from the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women at Radcliffe College allowed me to travel to Cambridge and read the collection of unpublished and published letters readers wrote to Ms. magazine. The University of Minnesota supported my research with a McMillan Travel Grant, a Dissertation Special Research Grant, and an American Studies Dissertation Writing Grant. The School of American Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, provided me with office space during the 1990-91 school year. An NEH Travel to Collections Grant and a Dickinson College Research Grant in 1992 financed my initial trip to the Sophia Smith Archives at Smith College, where the Ms. editorial files are collected. Finally, a generous grant from the Aspen Institutes Nonprofit Sector Research Fund allowed me to return to the Smith Archives and to take a full years leave for writing the final manuscript.

I could not have done this research without the fine Ms. collections at the Schlesinger Library and the Sophia Smith Archives. I wish especially to thank Amy Hague, assistant curator of the Smith Archives, who guided me skillfully through the Ms. Collection.

A number of former Ms. editors and writers generously gave their time and thoughtfully answered my questions. I wish to thank Patricia Carbine, JoAnne Edgar, Jo Freeman, Marcia Ann Gillespie, Elizabeth Forsling Harris, Suzanne Braun Levine, Harriet Lyons, Mary Peacock, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Gloria Steinem, and Mary Thorn. Their multiple and often conflicting accounts of the Ms. project provided me with invaluable insight into the dynamic and contested nature of the magazine from its origins. I also wish to thank Mollie Hoben, copublisher of the Minnesota Womens Press, for sharing her taped interview with Anne Summers. My greatest debt goes to the thousands of women who wrote to the magazine, expressing quite eloquently their own stories of changed consciousness and their own hopes for and doubts about Ms. Their letters attest to both the strength of their attachment to this magazine as a resource for the womens movement and the formidable power of the women around the country seeking to change our country.

I have found it a pleasure to work with the editors of the University of North Carolina Press, particularly Kate Douglas Torrey, who first encouraged me to submit my manuscript, Barbara Hanrahan, who worked with me at the early stages, and Sian Hunter White, who saw it through to the end.

Many colleagues, friends, and faculty at the University of Minnesota helped me with the early stages of this research. Ruth-Ellen Joeres, Elaine Tyler May, David Noble, Riv-Ellen Prell, Paula Rabinowitz, Janet Spector, and, especially, George Lipsitz and Sara Evans, pushed me to define my questions, suggested important areas of inquiry, provided methodological guidance, and gave me their own models of fine scholarship. Betty Agee and Karen Moon steered me through the bureaucratic maze with ease and efficiency. I wish also to thank the members of the Feminist Studies Writing Group and the American Studies Writing Group, especially Michiko Hase, Mark Hulsether, and April Schultz.

My friends and colleagues at Dickinson College have been key to the completion of this manuscript. The list here is entirely partial; I could cast the net much farther to name all those who have supported me. I wish first to thank the members of the Birds, the womens writing group, particularly Mara Donaldson for organizing our monthly meetings. I wish also to thank Lonna Malmsheimer, the chair of American Studies, for supporting my research, Sharon Stockton, for talking theory with me, and Susan Rose, for being a companion extraordinaire on our inspirational trip to the Fourth World Conference on Women. I wish to thank the secretarial staff of Denny Hall, Anna McPherson, Elaine Mellen, and Vicky Kuhn, and, especially, Barbara McDonald for all her work in preparing the final manuscript. Finally, I wish to thank the director, Jane Seller, and the teachers of the Dickinson College Childrens Center, most recently Katie Adams, Marsha Fraker, and Jody Geiling, who provided me with the peace of mind to know that Nick and Catherine were being loved and cared for while I was in my office.

I have been fortunate to have had many readers of my work. I wish to thank Myra Marx Ferree, Patricia Yancey Martin, Joyce Rothschild, and two anonymous readers, all of whom provided useful suggestions and commentary. Sharon OBrien, another of my colleagues at Dickinson, read my manuscript in its entirety and provided the comments I needed to make my final revisions. Wendy Kozol has read numerous drafts of this manuscript, commented extensively, and bolstered me with her phone calls and friendship.

My family has been a source of strength, laughter, and love as IVe worked on this book. Maxine Bloom, Sidney Bloom, the late Geraldine Aaron, and Jim Bloom have enthusiastically embraced my project and provided me with clippings from around the country about the changing status of Ms. I have shared in minute detail the many ups and downs of this project with my sister Ann Farrell Midgley, and I thank her for her unflagging sense of humor, warmth, and friendship. The entire Midgley familymy sister Ann, my brother-in-law Pat, and their children, Allison, Patrick, and Amyand my brother Kirby Farrell, his wife, Laura Farrell, and their children, Jake and Griffin, gave me encouragement, love, and asked tactful questions about the status of my book. My parents, Lois and Jim Farrell, gave me the freedom to develop in my own direction from an early age. I wish to thank them both for their unfaltering love, my mother in particular for her quiet confidence in my work, and my father for his clipping service and cranky questions about my book. My husband and soulmate, John Bloom, cooked spectacular meals, read and commented on many, many drafts of this book, made sure I had the time to work, and buoyed my spirits when discouragement threatened. His companionship and love sustain me on a daily basis. Our son, Nicholas Farrell Bloom, now six, kept me on track with his regular inquiries about how my book was coming, and provided welcome distraction with his questions about life and sports. Our daughter, Catherine Ann Farrell Bloom, is now a year old and our chief family mischief-maker. An endless source of joy, Nick and Catherine inspire me to imagine a better future for all of us. This book is dedicated to John, and to our children, Nick and Catherine.