Feminist Movements: Consciousness Raising, Black Lesbian Feminism, Lesbian Separatism

The challenging of traditional gender roles, advocating for reproductive rights, and the addressing of issues such as workplace discrimination catapulted the second wave feminist movement into the zeitgeist. For some groups, it also led towards a rapidly growing intersectionality, aligning many lesbian feminist organizations with other movements of the time. A deeper understanding that issues affecting women were not uniform emerged.

Channels for communicating these diverse experiences emerged through the consciousness raising (CR) movement. Beginning in the late 1960s, feminist activists recognized the need for a space where women could candidly share their perspectives, question societal norms, and collectively confront the issues inherent in patriarchal structures. Through personal revelation and communal empowerment, CR groups aimed to lay foundations for enacting cultural change. This movement was enormously popular in the 1970s; Nanette Rainone, a producer for WBAI, even hosted meetings in the WBAI headquarters.

Examples of the topics explored by CR groups can be found in the workshops and discussions contained in the Liza Cowan collection and the Feminist Radio Network collection. Digitized programs from WBAI, which are available on the Internet Archive, offer a glimpse into the popularity of such dialogues.

While the CR movement undeniably amplified women’s voices and united many feminists, it has not been immune to critique. Despite their intentions, some have argued that CR groups unintentionally perpetuated a narrow lens of women’s experiences. Critics point to the tendency of these groups to homogenize womanhood, often centering discussions around the perspectives of white, cisgender, and otherwise privileged women.

Black lesbian feminists also arose to combat major feminist issues through a more intersectional lens. To be black, and gay, and a woman would have been an isolating existence in midcentury America; however, these women were able to find strength in what activist and Black lesbian feminist theorist Audre Lorde once called “our fewness, our rarity.” They were able to utilize women’s spaces, like radio and grassroots media, toward a better understanding of each other. In our collection you can find lectures by activist, author, and educator Barbara Smith, and recordings and panel discussions hosted by Audre Lorde concerning feminist theory, creativity, and empowerment. 

Major efforts in the 1970s prompted the belief that the lives of women should be separate from those of men, in personal relationships as well as in broader social and political spheres. By rejecting heterosexual relationships and often living in women-only spaces, lesbian separatists aimed to create environments where women could explore their identities and relationships free from patriarchal influences. Even feminist outlets faced internal critique that their structures still upheld these ideals. While WBAI was a great ally to the Lesbian and Feminist movements, many programs were still being written and produced by men, prompting producer Liza Cowan - whose full collection can be found here - to write a letter to the station in 1971, demanding more respect, rights, and representation. Shortly after, she moved onto other projects.

 Much of the women-run radio programming that resulted from that letter can be found within this collection. It is also important to note that lesbian separatism was a specific aspect of the broader feminist movement. Over time, feminist movements have evolved and contemporary feminism encompasses a wide range of perspectives on issues related to gender, sexuality, and, above all, inclusivity.

Many dialogues around these facets of feminism were distributed by small presses and run by lesbian feminist collectives. These collectives often contained a rotating group of important figures to the lesbian feminist movement and who appear throughout the Lesbian Herstory Archives collection of lesbian radio as hosts, guests, and panel members. 

One formative group of lesbian feminists was the Lavender Menace. Its founding members included figures such as Rita Mae Brown, a notable lesbian writer who was involved in many of these small presses and collectives in the lesbian feminism movement, and Martha Shelley, who was very involved in the creation of the Daughters of Bilitis and Lesbian Nation. The Lavender Menace was involved in the CR movement and arose from the “threat” of lesbian feminists encroaching upon feminist spaces. The thesis of this group was that feminism was inherently tied to lesbian issues, and that, in fact, to be a lesbian was to be a feminist because it was living a life absent from male influence. 

This idea, and the backlash from mainstream feminists, is what caused offshoot groups to form from the Lavender Menace, such as the Furies collective, a commune of 12 lesbians, who published their eponymous newspaper. Much like the Lavender Menace, the Furies were extremely influential to the lesbian feminist and lesbian separatist movements. Their members branched off into other projects that continued conversations about lesbian feminism through forms of media like press, literature, radio, and music.

Former Furies member Ginny Berson along with Meg Christian, lesbian singer, founded their own record label called Olivia Records which helped begin the first women’s music festivals. Members also formed and published from other small presses such as Diana or Persephone press.