Joyce Antler

Last updated
Joyce Antler
Born1942
Brooklyn, New York [1]
Alma materStony Brook University, PhD
Occupation(s)Author, professor, social and cultural historian
Employer Brandeis University
Notable work Jewish Radical Feminism , The Journey Home: How Jewish Women Shaped Modern America, and You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother
Website https://www.joyceantler.com/

Joyce Antler (born 1942) is an author and Professor Emerita of American Jewish History and Culture, and of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University; she retired from her teaching roles in 2016. [2] [3]

Contents

Antler founded Brandeis University's Women's and Gender Studies program, [4] and co-founded MIT's Graduate Consortium of Women Studies. [5] She is one of the founding board members of the Jewish Women's Archive in Brookline, Massachusetts, and was the Chair of its Academic Advisory Council for several years. [3]

Academic career

Antler's book, The Journey Home: Jewish Women and the American Century (1997), was described in The New York Times as a work which elucidates the struggles of sexism and antisemitism faced by a selection of Jewish women whose activism helped to shape American society and culture. [6] Her next notable book, You Never Call! You Never Write!: A History of the Jewish Mother (2007), takes on stereotypes of Jewish mothers. [7] Her 2018 book, Jewish Radical Feminism: Voices from the Women's Liberation Movement, addresses the high rate of participation of Jewish women in the US women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s; [8] it was also a finalist for the 2019 PROSE Awards from the Association of American Publishers. [9]

Apart from her academic prose, Antler has also written plays, including "Year One of the Empire," which was originally written and performed in 1973. [10] The play, written alongside Elinor Fuchs, returned to the stage in 2008. [11]

In the Fall of 2020, Antler delivered the Steinbaum Memorial Lecture at Boston's Temple Israel (Boston). [12] In October 2023, Antler took part in a panel discussion alongside Anita Hill titled "Brandeis Women Who Changed the World"; both women have been professors in their respective fields at the institution for years. [13]

Activism

In the 1970s, Joyce Antler's activism was crucial to the eventual repeal of New York's abortion ban, [14] three years before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal on a federal level (until June 2022 when Roe v. Wade was overturned). [15] [16] The change Antler helped with made New York the first state to allow abortions on demand. [3] In the years that followed, she co-authored works on maternal health for publications including the Bulletin of the History of Medicine. [17] [18]

Notable works

Books

Articles

See also

Related Research Articles

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.

Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades, ending with the feminist sex wars in the early 1980s and being replaced by third-wave feminism in the early 1990s. It occurred throughout the Western world and aimed to increase women's equality by building on the feminist gains of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Daly</span> American feminist philosopher and theologian (1928–2010)

Mary Daly was an American radical feminist philosopher and theologian. Daly, who described herself as a "radical lesbian feminist", taught at the Jesuit-run Boston College for 33 years. Once a practicing Roman Catholic, she had disavowed Christianity by the early 1970s. Daly retired from Boston College in 1999, after violating university policy by refusing to allow male students in her advanced women's studies classes. She allowed male students in her introductory class and privately tutored those who wanted to take advanced classes.

Marxist feminism is a philosophical variant of feminism that incorporates and extends Marxist theory. Marxist feminism analyzes the ways in which women are exploited through capitalism and the individual ownership of private property. According to Marxist feminists, women's liberation can only be achieved by dismantling the capitalist systems in which they contend much of women's labor is uncompensated. Marxist feminists extend traditional Marxist analysis by applying it to unpaid domestic labor and sex relations.

The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great change throughout the world. The WLM branch of radical feminism, based in contemporary philosophy, comprised women of racially and culturally diverse backgrounds who proposed that economic, psychological, and social freedom were necessary for women to progress from being second-class citizens in their societies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shulamith Firestone</span> Jewish radical feminist activist (1945–2012)

Shulamith Bath Shmuel Ben Ari Firestone was a Canadian-American radical feminist writer and activist. Firestone was a central figure in the early development of radical feminism and second-wave feminism and a founding member of three radical-feminist groups: New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists. Within these radical movements, Firestone became known as "the firebrand" and "the fireball" for the fervor and passion she expressed towards the cause. Firestone participated in activism such as speaking out at The National Conference for New Politics in Chicago. Also while a member of various feminist groups she participated in actions including protesting a Miss America Contest, organizing a mock funeral for womanhood known as "The Burial of Traditional Womanhood", protesting sexual harassment at Madison Square Garden, organizing abortion speakouts, and disrupting abortion legislation meetings.

Grace Atkinson, better known as Ti-Grace Atkinson, is an American radical feminist activist, writer and philosopher. She was an early member of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and presided over the New York chapter in from 1967-68, though she quickly grew disillusioned with the group. She left to form The Feminists, which she left a few years later due to internal disputes. Atkinson was a member of the Daughters of Bilitis and an advocate for political lesbianism. Atkinson has been largely inactive since the 1970s, but resurfaced in 2013 to co-author an open statement expressing radical feminists' concerns about what they perceived as the silencing of discussion around "the currently fashionable concept of gender."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alix Kates Shulman</span> American novelist

Alix Kates Shulman is an American writer of fiction, memoirs, and essays, and a prominent early radical activist of second-wave feminism. She is best-known for her bestselling debut adult novel, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, hailed by the Oxford Companion to Women's Writing as "the first important novel to emerge from the Women's Liberation Movement."

Gender and Jewish Studies is an emerging subfield at the intersection of gender studies, queer studies, and Jewish studies. Gender studies centers on interdisciplinary research on the phenomenon of gender. It focuses on cultural representations of gender and people's lived experience. Similarly, queer studies focuses on the cultural representations and lived experiences of queer identities to critique hetero-normative values of sex and sexuality. Jewish studies is a field that looks at Jews and Judaism, through such disciplines as history, anthropology, literary studies, linguistics, and sociology. As such, scholars of gender and Jewish studies are considering gender as the basis for understanding historical and contemporary Jewish societies. This field recognizes that much of recorded Jewish history and academic writing is told from the perspective of “the male Jew” and fails to accurately represent the diverse experiences of Jews with non-dominant gender identities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The personal is political</span> Political slogan and argument of second-wave feminism

The personal is political, also termed The private is political, is a political argument used as a rallying slogan by student activist movements and second-wave feminism from the late 1960s. In the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, it was seen as a challenge to the nuclear family and family values. The phrase was popularized by the publication of feminist activist Carol Hanisch's 1969 essay, "The Personal Is Political." The phrase and idea have been repeatedly described as a defining characterization of second-wave feminism, radical feminism, women's studies, or feminism in general. It has also been used by some female artists as the underlying philosophy for their art practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminist movement</span> Series of political campaigns for reforms on feminist issues

The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and women. Such issues are women's liberation, reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. The movement's priorities have expanded since its beginning in the 1800s, and vary among nations and communities. Priorities range from opposition to female genital mutilation in one country, to opposition to the glass ceiling in another.

The following is a timeline of the history of feminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Barr Snitow</span> American feminist activist, writer, and teacher (1943–2019)

Ann Barr Snitow was an American feminist activist, writer and teacher. She was a co-founder of the New York Radical Feminists, and the author and co-editor of several books.

Marilyn Salzman Webb, also known as Marilyn Webb, is an American author, activist, professor, feminist and journalist. She has been involved in the civil rights, feminist, anti-Vietnam war and end-of-life care movements, and is considered one of the founders of the Second-wave women's liberation movement.

Bread and Roses was a socialist women's liberation collective active in Boston in the 1960s and 1970s. The group is named after the slogan of the 1912 Lawrence textile strike, with Bread signifying decent wages and Roses meaning shorter hours and more leisure time. The overarching theme of the original Bread and Roses movement pertained to gaining economic stability and dignity for women across the workforce.

Di Vilde Chayes was a New York-based secular Jewish lesbian feminist collective that examined and responded to antisemitism and Middle Eastern politics. The collective spoke out against antisemitism in the lesbian and feminist movements and critiqued anti-Zionist activists.

<i>Jewish Radical Feminism</i> Academic book

Jewish Radical Feminism is a 2018 book by Joyce Antler. Antler is a Professor Emerita of American Jewish History and Culture, and of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University.

References

  1. https://www.haaretz.com/life/2018-12-08/ty-article/the-radical-jewish-feminists-and-why-they-never-spoke-of-their-jewish-identities/0000017f-f5a0-d318-afff-f7e3ef7d0000
  2. "Research Portal". scholarworks.brandeis.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  3. 1 2 3 "Joyce Antler". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  4. "VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT: JOYCE ANTLER". Veteran Feminists of America. 2022. Retrieved 2024-06-18.
  5. Perry, Ruth; Antler, Joyce; Fall, Renee; Frader, Laura Levine; Green, Carol Hurd; Haber, Barbara; Jardine, Alice; Romero, Christiane Zehl (1996). "Inventing a Feminist Institution in Boston: An Informal History of the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies at Radcliffe College". NWSA Journal. 8 (2): 60–83. ISSN   1040-0656.
  6. Shapiro, Susan (March 23, 1997). "Books in Brief: Nonfiction". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2018-04-08. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  7. Martin, Michel (2007). "You Never Call, You Never Write!". NPR. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  8. Schwartz, Penny (2018-12-07). "A history of the radical Jewish feminists and the one subject they never talked about". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  9. "Association of American Publishers Announces Finalists for 2019 PROSE Awards - AAP". 2019-01-16. Retrieved 2024-06-18.
  10. "Year One of The Empire; The Other Bostonians The Sovereign States, 1775-1783 America the not always beautiful The Decline Of American Gentility America". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  11. Hampton, Wilborn (2008-03-07). "History Lessons, With Song and Dance". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  12. Naomi_Ribner (2020-11-14). "Fall 2020 Steinbaum Lecture with Joyce Antler". Temple Israel of Boston. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  13. "Anita Hill, Joyce Antler '63 discuss Brandeis women who changed the world – The Brandeis Hoot". brandeishoot.com. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  14. Malnik, Amanda Xinhui (January 19, 2022). "Looking to Joyce Antler's Writing on Reproductive Rights". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  15. Raucher, Michal (2023-01-06). "Jews Who Have Had Abortions". Journal of Jewish Ethics. 9 (1): 141–147. doi:10.5325/jjewiethi.9.1.0141. ISSN   2334-1777.
  16. Antler, Joyce (2021-04-05). "A "Bad Girl" on the Campaign for a Safe Abortion". Lilith Magazine. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  17. Antler, Joyce; Fox, Daniel M. (1976). "The Movement Toward a Safe Maternity: Physician Accountability in New York City, 1915-1940". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 50 (4): 569–595. ISSN   0007-5140.
  18. "When Abortion Was a Crime". publishing.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2024-06-16.