Jo Freeman

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Jo Freeman
JoFreeman-09-26-06 crop.JPG
Jo Freeman at September 2006 peace protest at U.S. Congress
Born (1945-08-26) August 26, 1945 (age 77)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Other namesJoreen
Academic background
Alma mater University of Chicago
Thesis The politics of women's liberation: a case study of an emerging social movement and its relation to the policy process  (1973)

In June 1967, Freeman attended a "free school" course on women at the University of Chicago led by Heather Booth [15] and Naomi Weisstein. She invited them to organize a woman's workshop at the then-forthcoming National Conference of New Politics (NCNP), to be held over Labor Day weekend 1967 in Chicago. A woman's caucus led by Freeman and Shulamith Firestone was formed at that conference and tried to present its own demands to the plenary session. [16] The women were told their resolution was not important enough for a floor discussion and when through threatening to tie up the convention with procedural motions they succeeded in having their statement tacked to the end of the agenda, it was never discussed. [17]

When the National Conference for New Politics Director William F. Pepper refused to recognize any of the women waiting to speak and instead called on someone to speak about the American Indian, five women, including Firestone, rushed the podium to demand to know why. [17] Pepper patted Firestone on the head and said, "Move on little girl; we have more important issues to talk about here than women's liberation," [16] [lower-alpha 1] or possibly, "Cool down, little girl. We have more important things to talk about than women's problems." [16] [17]

Freeman and Firestone called a meeting of the women who had been at the "free school" course and the women's workshop at the conference — this became the first Chicago women's liberation group, known as the Westside group because it met weekly in Freeman's apartment on Chicago's west side. After a few months Freeman started the newsletter Voice of the women's liberation movement. It circulated all over the country (and in a few foreign countries), and gave the new movement its name. Many of the women in the Westside group went on to start other feminist organizations including the Chicago Women's Liberation Union.

In the fall of 1968, Freeman enrolled in graduate school in political science at the University of Chicago. However, she took courses outside the discipline which would give her an opportunity to explore the research on women, sex roles and related topics. Most of the term papers she wrote were later published in various magazines and in college textbooks. When consciousness about women at the University was raised by a sit-in prompted by the firing of a popular female professor, Freeman led efforts to examine women's experiences at the University and in academia. These included teaching a "free course" on the legal and economic position of women early in 1969, chairing the student subcommittee of the new Committee on University Women, and organizing a major campus conference on women the following fall.

At the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in 1969, she helped to found the Women's Caucus for Political Science, eventually serving as its treasurer for one year. She also served on APSA's Committee on the Status of Women.

As a result of her publications, Freeman was invited to speak at many other colleges and universities, mostly in the Midwest. She spent the summers of 1970 and 1971 hitchhiking through Europe distributing feminist literature. Her lecture at the University of Oslo in 1970 is credited for sparking its first new feminist group. [18] The literature she distributed was also a boon to feminists in the Netherlands.

Although Freeman had not been active in Democratic Party politics since leaving California in 1965 (except for a brief stint on Eugene McCarthy's 1968 Presidential campaign), she ran for delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention in order to put Shirley Chisholm's name on the ballot. She came in ninth out of 24 candidates in Chicago's first district and attended the convention as an alternate with the Chicago Challenge Delegation that unseated Mayor Daley's hand-picked slate. She later worked on California Senator Alan Cranston's 1984 Presidential campaign and became active in Democratic Party politics in Brooklyn, New York. [14]

Freeman wrote four classic feminist papers under her movement name "Joreen", which analyzed her experiences in the women's liberation movement. The most widely known is The Tyranny of Structurelessness, [19] which argued there is no such thing as a structureless group; power is simply disguised and hidden when structure is unacknowledged and that all groups and organizations need clear lines of responsibility for democratic accountability, a notion that underlies the theory of democratic structuring. The 1969 BITCH Manifesto is considered an early example of language reclamation by a social movement, as well as a celebration of non-traditional gender roles. [20] A third article, Trashing: The Dark Side of Sisterhood, [21] illuminated an aspect of the women's movement that many participants experienced but few wanted to discuss openly. The 51 Percent Minority Group: A Statistical Essay appeared in the 1970 anthology Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From The Women's Liberation Movement , edited by Robin Morgan. [22]

Freeman's 1973 dissertation analyzed the two branches of the women's movement, arguing that they were separated more by generation and experience than by ideology. What she called the "younger branch" was started by women with experience in civil rights, anti-war, and New Left student activism. The "older branch" was founded by women who had been members of or worked with the President's Commission on the Status of Women and related state Commissions. The latter branch gave rise to such organizations as the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL). [23] The resulting book, The Politics of Women's Liberation, was published in 1975 and won the APSA's prize for the best scholarly work on women in politics. [14] Freeman wrote The Bitch Manfesto in fall of 1968. [24] In this work, Freeman notes that women are labeled as a bitch in society based on three principles, their personality, orientation, and physicality. Freeman argues that women that are labeled "a bitch" are often seen as aggressive or as a man hater. Freeman asked women to embrace their inner bitch, noting that it is difficult to make societal change without angering people (and therefore receiving the bitch label).

In 1977, Freeman became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). [25]

Freeman is featured in the feminist history film, She's Beautiful When She's Angry . [26] [27]

Career in law and political science

Before receiving her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1973, Freeman taught for four years at the State University of New York. She then spent two years in Washington, D.C., as a fellow at the Brookings Institution and then as an APSA Congressional Fellow. [28] With an increasing interest in public policy, and unable to find a full-time appointment in academia, Freeman decided to study law after she was offered a Root-Tilden Scholarship [29] at New York University School of Law. She received a J.D. degree in 1982 and was admitted to the New York State Bar the next year. [2] She maintained a private practice in Brooklyn, New York for many years, serving as counsel to women running for political offices and to pro-choice demonstrators.

Freeman has published 11 books and hundreds of articles. Most are on some aspect of women or feminism, but she also writes about social movements and political parties. Two of these are considered classics: "On the Origins of Social Movements" and "The Political Culture of the Democratic and Republican Parties." Women: A Feminist Perspective went into five editions and for many years was the leading introductory women's studies textbook. A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics (2000) also won a prize for scholarship given at the APSA.

She has continued to attend the major party political conventions, but as a journalist. Many of her articles are posted to her webpage, as are some of her photographs of political events and a small selection from her button collection.

Books

Notes

  1. ↑ Women's liberation movement, a type of feminism

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References

  1. ↑ Freeman, At Berkeley in the Sixties, pp. 1–5.
  2. 1 2 Jennifer Scanlon, "Jo Freeman," Significant Contemporary American Feminists, pp. 104–110.
  3. ↑ Geberer, Raanan. "Former volunteers, now in Brooklyn, recall Summer Voting-Rights Project of 1965", Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 23, 2015. Accessed February 19, 2019. "Jo Freeman, a lawyer, professor and writer, moved to lower Park Slope in 1979 after she was admitted to NYU Law School and has lived in Kensington since 1985."
  4. ↑ Freeman, At Berkeley in the Sixties, pp. 14–22, 29–33, 53.
  5. ↑ "SLATE Supplement to the General Catalogue, Volume II, Number I". Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved August 11, 2008.
  6. ↑ Freeman, At Berkeley in the Sixties, pp. 53–67.
  7. ↑ Freeman, At Berkeley in the Sixties, pp. 171, 193–198.
  8. ↑ Heirich, The Beginning: Berkeley, 1964.
  9. ↑ History, sfpalace.com. Accessed October 9, 2022.
  10. ↑ The Civil Rights Vigil at the 1964 Democratic Convention. Jofreeman.com (1964-04-26). Retrieved on 2015-04-18.
  11. ↑ Freeman, At Berkeley in the Sixties, pp. 84–126.
  12. ↑ "Professional Agitator Hits All Major Trouble Spots," Jackson Daily News, August 18, 1966, pg. 12.
  13. ↑ Jackson Daily News : Jo Freeman Story-1966. Jofreeman.com (1966-08-16). Retrieved on 2015-04-18.
  14. 1 2 3 Scanlon, "Jo Freeman," Significant Contemporary American Feminists, pp. 104–110.
  15. ↑ Heather Booth profile, Jwa.org. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  16. 1 2 3 Simon Hall (June 6, 2011). American Patriotism, American Protest: Social Movements Since the Sixties. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 61–. ISBN   978-0-8122-0365-3.
  17. 1 2 3 On the Origins of Social Movements. Jofreeman.com. Retrieved on 2015-04-18.
  18. ↑ Elisabeth Lønnå, "Møtet med Jo Freeman," Stolthet og Kvinnekamp: Norsk Kinnesakforenings Historie Fra 1913, pp. 230–232.
  19. ↑ The Second Wave, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1972); published under Jo Freeman's name in the Berkeley Journal of Sociology, Vol. 17 (1972–73), pp. 151–165.
  20. ↑ Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt, Notes from the Second Year.
  21. ↑ Ms., April 1976.
  22. ↑ Morgan, Robin, ed., Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From the Women's Liberation Movement (N.Y.: Random House, 1st ed. 1970), p. 37 ff. (crediting, in id., p. [v], the essay's first appearance to The Voice of The Women's Liberation Movement).
  23. ↑ Women's Equity Action League: Information from. Answers.com. Retrieved on 2015-04-18.
  24. ↑ "The BITCH Manfesto".
  25. ↑ "Associates | The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press". wifp.org. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  26. ↑ "The Women".
  27. ↑ "The Film — She's Beautiful When She's Angry". Shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  28. ↑ "Congressional Fellowship Program". Archived from the original on October 1, 2005.
  29. ↑ "Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program". Archived from the original on December 28, 2007. Retrieved August 3, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

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