The Scholar and the Feminist VIII:
The Dynamics of Control – April 11, 1981

Conference Program (PDF, 344 KB)

Morning Session

Welcoming Remarks
Ellen V. Futter, Acting President, Barnard College
Anti-Feminism, the “New Right”, and Reagan
Zillah Eisenstein, Ithaca College
From Slavery to Welfare: The Control of Black Women
Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Boston University
Repression and Resistance: A Historical Perspective
Blanche Wiesen Cook, CUNY-John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Moderator: Hanna Lessinger, Barnard College

Afternoon Workshops

1. Laid Bare by the System: Work and Survival for Black and Hispanic Women
   Elizabeth Higginbotham, Columbia University
2. Defending and Combating Sexual Harassment: Problems in Regaining Control
   Nadine Taub, Women’s Rights Litigation Clinic, Rutgers Law School-Newark
3. Women, Media, and the Dialectics of Resistance
   Lillian Robinson, Center for Research on Women, Stanford University
4. The Social Enforcement of Heterosexuality and Lesbian Resistance in the 1920’s
   Lisa Duggan, Lesbian and Gay History Project of New York; University of Pennsylvania
5. Women Health Care Workers: Organizing and Resisting
   Karen Sacks, Business and Professional Women’s Foundation; Duke University
6. The Controversy Over Sterilization Among Puerto Rican Women in New York City
   Iris Lopez, Columbia University
7. Crisis, Reaction, and Resistance: Women in Germany in the 1920’s and 1930’s
   Renate Bridenthal, CUNY-Brooklyn College
   Atina Grossmann, Rutgers University
   Marion Kaplan, Institute for Research in History, Deusche Forschungsgemeinschaft
8. Same-Sex Networks, Compulsory Heterosexuality, and the Family
   Rayna Rapp, The New School for Social Research
   Ellen Ross, Ramapo College
9. To Tell Us Who We Are: Storytelling as Perpetuation and Creation
   Jeannine Laverty, storyteller
10. Lesbian Rights and the Struggle for Reproductive Freedom
    Sara Bennett, activist and writer
    Joan Gibbs, Black activist and writer
11. Textbooks, Socialization, and Control
    Beryle Banfield, Jamila Gaston, Ruth S. Meyers-Council on Interracial Books for Children
12. Images of Women in Latin America’s Literature of Protest
    Lourdes Rojas-Paiewonsky, Hamilton College
13. “Mean Mothers”: Independent Women’s Blues
    Rosetta Reitz, writer and music producer
14. Myths of the “Model Minority”: The Rebellion of Asian-American Women, 1965- 1980
    Ginger Chih, photographer and picture researcher, Asian Women United
    Diane Mei Lin Mark, writer
15. Pro-Family Politics, Sexism, and Sexual Repression
    Ellen Willis, The Village Voice
16. Women on Welfare: Public Policy and Institutional Racism
    Bettylou Valentine, anthropologist and writer
17. Religion as an Instrument of Social Control
    Judith Plaskow, Francine Quaglio-Manhattan College
18. Who Controls Women’s Health?
    Diana Scully, Virginia Commonwealth University

Closing Session

Excerpts of And I Ain’t Finished Yet by Eve Merriam
Preview of new theatre piece about the lives of seven Black women in American history
Introduced by Eve Merriam Anna Deavere Smith, actress

[On Exhibit]

Generations of Women: Private Lives
An exhibit of photographs from family albums of women’s studies students and staff at Jersey City State College
Doris Friedensohn and Barbara Rubin, coordinators
Harold Lemmerman, artistic director, Jersey City State College

Academic Coordinator

Hanna Lessinger

Planning Committee

Bettina Berch, Janet Corpus, Julie Doron, Joan Dulchin, Wendy Fairey, Atina Grossman, Diane Harriford, Elizabeth Higginbotham, Jacqueline Leavitt, Sherry Manasse, Cynthia Novack, Susan R. Sacks, Mary Sheerin, Barbara Sicherman, Maxine Silverman, Quandra Stadler, Laura Whitman

Conference Coordinators, Women’s Center

Jane S. Gould, Christina Greene, Janie Kritzman