Boston women's health book collective

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective is a nonprofit, public interest women's health education, advocacy, and consulting organization which was formally established in 1972 and published Our Bodies, Ourselves in 1973.

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, a non-profit women's health education, advocacy and consulting organization, began in 1969 when a small group of women gathered after a workshop on women and their bodies at a Boston-area female liberation conference to talk about some crucial health issues and to confront a medical establishment viewed as paternalistic and condescending. Perhaps best known for their pioneering handbook Our Bodies, Ourselves (1971 and subsequent editions and international adaptations), the Collective helped to create worldwide networks of women involved in health education and advocacy. They also produced Ourselves and Our Children (1978), Changing Bodies, Changing Lives, A Book for Teens on Sex and Relationships (1980), and Ourselves, Growing Older, Women Aging with Knowledge and Power (1987 and 1994), among others.

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, a non-profit women's health education, advocacy and consulting organization, began in 1969 when a small group of women gathered after a workshop on women and their bodies at a Boston-area female liberation conference to talk about some crucial health issues and to confront a medical establishment viewed as paternalistic and condescending. Perhaps best known for their pioneering handbook Our Bodies, Ourselves (1971 and subsequent editions and international adaptations), the Collective helped to create worldwide networks of women involved in health education and advocacy. They also produced Ourselves and Our Children (1978), Changing Bodies, Changing Lives, A Book for Teens on Sex and Relationships (1980), and Ourselves, Growing Older: Women Aging with Knowledge and Power (1987 and 1994), among others.

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective began in 1969 when a small group of women gathered after a workshop on women and their bodies at a Boston-area female liberation conference to talk about some crucial health issues and to confront a medical establishment viewed as paternalistic and condescending. Perhaps best known for their pioneering handbook Our Bodies, Ourselves (1971 and subsequent editions and international adaptations), the Collective helped to create worldwide networks of women involved in health education and advocacy. They also produced Ourselves and Our Children (1978), Changing Bodies, Changing Lives, A Book for Teens on Sex and Relationships (1980), and Ourselves, Growing Older, Women Aging with Knowledge and Power (1987 and 1994), among others.

In the spring of 1969, civil rights and anti-war activist and social worker Nancy Miriam Hawley led a workshop on women and their bodies at a Boston-area female liberation conference. The issues raised--particularly abortion (illegal at the time), childbirth, and sexuality--were so provocative to some of the women that they began a discussion that has lasted a lifetime, and spread throughout the world. At first calling themselves the Doctor's Group, the women began meeting to share information about obstetricians and gynecologists. They developed a questionnaire about women's feelings about their bodies and their relationship to doctors. Describing their beginnings in Women and Their Bodies: A Course (1970), the group wrote: "We discovered there were no 'good' doctors and we had to learn for ourselves. We talked about our own experiences and we shared our own knowledge. We went to books and to medically trained people for more information. We decided on the topics collectively....We picked the one or ones we wanted to do and worked individually and in groups to write the papers. The process that developed in the group became as important as the material we were learning. For the first time, we were doing research and writing papers that were about us and for us. We were excited and our excitement was powerful. We wanted to share both the excitement and the material we were learning with our sisters. We saw ourselves differently and our lives began to change."

They met throughout the summer of 1969, shared their research, and rewrote papers in response to each other's comments. In November, they offered a course to other interested women and taught others how to teach the course themselves. The group's description continued: "After the first time around, those of us who had worked out the course originally, plus women who had taken the course, got together in an enlarged group to rewrite the papers so they could be printed and shared, not only with women in Boston, but with women's groups across the country. Other women wanted to learn, other women's health groups wanted to compare and combine our work and theirs." The group spent a year revising the papers before having them issued on newsprint in December 1970 by the New England Free Press. They clearly state, however, that the papers "are not final. They are not static. They are meant to be used by our sisters to increase consciousness about ourselves as women, to build our movement, to begin to struggle collectively for adequate health care, and in many other ways they can be useful to you." They also stressed one of their key tenets: that process was as important as content. "It was exciting to learn new facts about our bodies, but it was even more exciting to talk about how we felt about our bodies, how we felt about ourselves, how we could become more autonomous human beings, how we could act together on our collective knowledge to change the health care system for women and for all people." They concluded that the course was not a finished product, but must continue to be revised and expanded: "The course will be best changed by the corrections and additions sent by those who use it."

During the first year and a half, there was some turnover in the group's composition, as well as in their name. Known variously as the Doctor's Group, Women and Their Bodies Group, Women and Our Bodies Group, Boston Women's Health Collective, Boston Women's Health Course Collective, and Our Bodies Ourselves Group, the final name was chosen when the group incorporated in 1972: the Boston Women's Health Book Collective (BWHBC). The Collective lists its founders as Ruth Davidson Bell (later Bell Alexander), Pamela Berger, Vilyuna ("Wilma") Diskin, Joan Sheingold Ditzion, Paula Brown Doress (later Paula Doress-Worters), Nancy Miriam Hawley (later Nancy Press Hawley), Elizabeth MacMahon-Herrera, Pamela Morgan, Judy Norsigian, Jane Kates Pincus, Esther R. Rome, Wendy Coppedge Sanford, Norma Swenson and Sally Whelan. Most of this group remained together for more than twenty years, sharing their personal and professional lives, producing books, pamphlets, and articles; organizing conferences on women's health in the United States and abroad; lecturing in a variety of venues throughout the world; serving on advisory boards for a wide range of organizations, from local women's health centers to national advocacy groups to scientific/medical task forces; providing information on health issues to the general public, the media, and medical personnel; creating international networks to share information; and in numerous other ways shaping and expanding the women's health movement.

The success of the newsprint version of their course (more than 200,000 were sold through counter-culture channels, especially the Whole Earth Catalog ) brought commercial publishers to their doorstep in the summer of 1971. Months of discussion ensued. After weighing all the pros and cons of using an established commercial publisher, and detailed examination of several possible publishing firms, the Collective chose Simon and Schuster. In order to sign the contract, they had to incorporate; their first meeting as the Boston Women's Health Book Collective took place January 11, 1972. According to their minutes, Wendy Sanford was designated President "because her address is used [as BWHBC address]," Esther Rome as Treasurer "because she will handle $ and sign checks," Nancy Hawley as Clerk "for no reason?" and Paula Doress as Trustee. Their contract with Simon and Schuster had several stipulations, among them that non-profit clinics and other organizations providing health counseling could purchase the books at a 70% discount to give away to low-income clients. Several hundred thousand copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves (1973) were distributed in this way.

The first book to provide information about women's health and medical issues in clear, direct language, with contributions from numerous readers about their personal experiences with health issues and the medical care system, Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS) was a commercial success, and has been revised and expanded numerous times (see below). Although it has been as important for raising the consciousness and level of knowledge among medical personnel as among the general public, it has not always been universally embraced. Beginning in the early 1980s, and continuing over the years, the Collective has had to fight back attempts by various conservative groups to ban the book from schools and libraries (see especially #156.6). These battles, in turn, generated further publicity. The Collective used their royalties to support other women's health projects, to eventually rent office space and open the Women's Health Information Center, and to do advocacy work. Included in the supported projects were HealthRight, a women's health quarterly published between 1976 and 1981; "Taking Our Bodies Back," a film about the women's health movement; Porcupine Women's Health Collective in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, for women's health workshops and community education; Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas, the U.S. Spanish language edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, towards production and distribution costs; Women's Community Health Center, the only women-controlled health center in the Boston area (1974-1981), for operating support; the 1975 Conference on Women and Health, the first such national meeting; and the National Women's Health Network, towards printing expenses of a newsletter and production costs of nine Health Resource Guides published in 1979.

Members of the Collective have served on numerous boards, and cooperated with other organizations in a variety of outreach and advocacy efforts.

The following brief chronology for 1969-2001 is taken from several BWHBC timelines, and highlights some of their major events and accomplishments. For additional information, see Series I (History and Organization) and Series XXV (Publicity and Outreach).

In the spring of 1969, civil rights and anti-war activist and social worker Nancy Miriam Hawley led a workshop on women and their bodies at a Boston-area female liberation conference. The issues raised--particularly abortion (illegal at the time), childbirth, and sexuality--were so provocative to some of the women that they began a discussion that has lasted a lifetime, and spread throughout the world. At first calling themselves the Doctor's Group, the women began meeting to share information about obstetricians and gynecologists. They developed a questionnaire about women's feelings about their bodies and their relationship to doctors. Describing their beginnings in Women and Their Bodies: A Course (1970), the group wrote: "We discovered there were no 'good' doctors and we had to learn for ourselves. We talked about our own experiences and we shared our own knowledge. We went to books and to medically trained people for more information. We decided on the topics collectively....We picked the one or ones we wanted to do and worked individually and in groups to write the papers. The process that developed in the group became as important as the material we were learning. For the first time, we were doing research and writing papers that were about us and for us. We were excited and our excitement was powerful. We wanted to share both the excitement and the material we were learning with our sisters. We saw ourselves differently and our lives began to change."

They met throughout the summer of 1969, shared their research, and rewrote papers in response to each other's comments. In November, they offered a course to other interested women and taught others how to teach the course themselves. The group's description continued: "After the first time around, those of us who had worked out the course originally, plus women who had taken the course, got together in an enlarged group to rewrite the papers so they could be printed and shared, not only with women in Boston, but with women's groups across the country. Other women wanted to learn, other women's health groups wanted to compare and combine our work and theirs." The group spent a year revising the papers before having them issued on newsprint in December 1970 by the New England Free Press. They clearly state, however, that the papers "are not final. They are not static. They are meant to be used by our sisters to increase consciousness about ourselves as women, to build our movement, to begin to struggle collectively for adequate health care, and in many other ways they can be useful to you." They also stressed one of their key tenets: that process was as important as content. "It was exciting to learn new facts about our bodies, but it was even more exciting to talk about how we felt about our bodies, how we felt about ourselves, how we could become more autonomous human beings, how we could act together on our collective knowledge to change the health care system for women and for all people." They concluded that the course was not a finished product, but must continue to be revised and expanded: "The course will be best changed by the corrections and additions sent by those who use it."

During the first year and a half, there was some turnover in the group's composition, as well as in their name. Known variously as the Doctor's Group, Women and Their Bodies Group, Women and Our Bodies Group, Boston Women's Health Collective, Boston Women's Health Course Collective, and Our Bodies Ourselves Group, the final name was chosen when the group incorporated in 1972: the Boston Women's Health Book Collective (Boston Women's Health Book Collective). The Collective lists its founders as Ruth Davidson Bell (later Bell Alexander), Pamela Berger, Vilyuna ("Wilma") Diskin, Joan Sheingold Ditzion, Paula Brown Doress (later Paula Doress-Worters), Nancy Miriam Hawley (later Nancy Press Hawley), Elizabeth MacMahon-Herrera, Pamela Morgan, Judy Norsigian, Jane Pincus, Esther R. Rome, Wendy Coppedge Sanford, Norma Swenson and Sally Whelan. Most of this group remained together for more than twenty years, sharing their personal and professional lives, producing books, pamphlets, and articles; organizing conferences on women's health in the United States and abroad; lecturing in a variety of venues throughout the world; serving on advisory boards for a wide range of organizations, from local women's health centers to national advocacy groups to scientific/medical task forces; providing information on health issues to the general public, the media, and medical personnel; creating international networks to share information; and in numerous other ways shaping and expanding the women's health movement.

The success of the newsprint version of their course (more than 200,000 were sold through counter-culture channels, especially the Whole Earth Catalog) brought commercial publishers to their doorstep in the summer of 1971. Months of discussion ensued. After weighing all the pros and cons of using an established commercial publisher, and detailed examination of several possible publishing firms, the Collective chose Simon and Schuster. In order to sign the contract, they had to incorporate; their first meeting as the Boston Women's Health Book Collective took place January 11, 1972. According to their minutes, Wendy Sanford was designated President "because her address is used [as Boston Women's Health Book Collective address]," Esther Rome as Treasurer "because she will handle $ and sign checks," Nancy Hawley as Clerk "for no reason?" and Paula Doress as Trustee. Their contract with Simon and Schuster had several stipulations, among them that non-profit clinics and other organizations providing health counseling could purchase the books at a 70% discount to give away to low-income clients. Several hundred thousand copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves (1973) were distributed in this way.

The first book to provide information about women's health and medical issues in clear, direct language, with contributions from numerous readers about their personal experiences with health issues and the medical care system, Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS) was a commercial success, and has been revised and expanded numerous times (see below). Although it has been as important for raising the consciousness and level of knowledge among medical personnel as among the general public, it has not always been universally embraced. Beginning in the early 1980s, and continuing over the years, the Collective has had to fight back attempts by various conservative groups to ban the book from schools and libraries (see especially #18.20). These battles, in turn, generated further publicity. The Collective used their royalties to support other women's health projects, to eventually rent office space and open the Women's Health Information Center, and to do advocacy work. Included in the supported projects were Health Right, a women's health quarterly published between 1976 and 1981; "Taking Our Bodies Back," a film about the women's health movement; Porcupine Women's Health Collective in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, for women's health workshops and community education; Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas, the U.S. Spanish language edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves ; Women's Community Health Center, the only women-controlled health center in the Boston area (1974-1981), for operating support; the 1975 Conference on Women and Health, the first such national meeting; and the National Women's Health Network, towards printing expenses of a newsletter and production costs of nine Health Resource Guides published in 1979.

Members of the Collective have served on numerous boards, and cooperated with other organizations in a variety of outreach and advocacy efforts.

The following brief chronology for 1969-2001 is taken from several Boston Women's Health Book Collective timelines, and highlights some of their major events and accomplishments.