If you search for images from the 1970’s Women’s Movement, you’ll see what the large demonstrations looked like and who the national leaders were. But you won’t find photographs of the small protests and private gatherings that were at the heart of the movement. That history is missing.
In 1969, I was a Fine Arts photography major at San Francisco State University and a young feminist working with other women to end sexism. I knew that this was a pivotal time, and I wanted to create a visual record of who we were and what we did, a record merging fine arts photography and photojournalism. Over the next three years, I shot hundreds of images of the Women's Movement up close. I also saved every feminist newsletter, flier and journal that I could find.
It is rare to witness and capture the first reactions to any new movement. Later, people’s responses become fixed and predictable. But in these early images of the Second Wave, the protestors’ delight and determination, as well as the spectators’ curiosity, approval and animosity are right on the surface.
These photographs and ephemera are survivors. I lugged them with me in carefully packed cartons through many moves and several decades. They were in the last boxes waiting to be unloaded from my car when I moved into a new house. They were still in the backseat two nights later when the house burned down.
I've preserved the photographs and feminist ephemera for over half a century, waiting for a good time to share them. I never imagined that more than 50 years later, women's rights would again be under siege. Suddenly this project is infused with urgency.
My goal is to have this work seen and preserved, not only to reveal what women's collective action looked like in the 1970's, but to help inspire the women who shape our future.