🚀 go-pugleaf

I thought the info on women's online activist network (Women's Leadership
Network) would be of interest to this list.  I apologize for including the
entire digest -- I didn't know how to edit the first part out.  Just space
down to the part about the women's online activist network.

N.J. Brown


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 22:47:12 -0500
From: BITNET list server at UMDD <LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU>
To: Multiple AFD recipients served by <LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Automatic distribution (AFD) of file "WMST-L DIGEST4"

WMST-L DIGEST4:  Friday, March 17, 1995   (2 items)

        Though I originally intended to send just the three digests, two
more lengthy messages came in.  Actually, a third also came in, also
containing the info about the women's online activist network.  Before
more duplication occurs, I think I'll send out this digest and let everyone
know that the message has already appeared on WMST-L.

From:     Judy Evans <jae2@UNIX.YORK.AC.UK>
Subject:  "us versus them" mentality

From:     Joan Korenman <KORENMAN@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU>
Subject:  women's online activist network

===========================================================================
Date:     Sat, 18 Mar 1995 01:34:49 +0000
From:     Judy Evans <jae2@UNIX.YORK.AC.UK>
Subject:  "us versus them" mentality

On Fri, 17 Mar 1995, DAPHNE PATAI wrote:

> (with N. Koertge) Professing Feminism--a book that was rather dismissed by
> the few folks on this list who commented on it some time back. It was
> quite instructive to see the absence of any serious discussion of the
> book on this list. Of course it's easier to dismiss than to analyze

I have now got the book and have begun reading it - between doing
various other things, like everyone else - and mean to post when
I have read it properly.

I do - I am not reading it in sequence yet - have one point to
raise right now.  It concerns feminist beliefs on sameness and
difference.  (I know that is not how you put it, and I use the
terms as shorthand here.)

You discuss in close proximity what you term a feminist refusal
to accept that there might be any differences at all between
men and women, and, what you seem to imply is a tendency for
all feminists to believe in "Gilligan" (shorthand too).  These
are sections that are not helpful to an academic, and could
mislead people outside.  They do not provide a nuanced
critique.
(I speak as a feminist who rejects the Gilligan etc. line
though she sometimes thinks, ?.  And as someone who thinks
that the data strongly suggest a lack of sex differences
relevant to full participation in politics and society now.)

There was a point at the end of the book I thought really
worthwhile making.  But I could not quite see why it applied
to Women's Studies rather than to various groves of academe -
to steal a good phrase.  That was the one about protecting
students against the shock of the 'real world'.

Quite a lot of what is now seen as 'good teaching' does that.
I shudder.
But I am in two minds on your 'Teach them to take the heat' line.
If you want to change the world, you may want to smash up the
kitchen... .

I hope to get back better instructed soon, but one last thought.
I have been pretty confessional on various lists.  No first
Am. protects me.  I know you didn't name the people whose
posts you cited and I can see why you slid over the issue
of the mailings - that is I can see an honourable reason for
that - but still quoting without permission seems to me to be
wrong.  That people might well have said no is not an excuse... .

Do you have any views, now, on the ethics of that?  And,
have you a preliminary reply on whether you are mistakenly
polarizing and overhomogenizing feminist beliefs?

Yours,

Judy
---------------------------------------------------------------
Judy Evans       +       Politics       +       jae2@york.ac.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------
===========================================================================
Date:     Fri, 17 Mar 1995 17:36:41 -0500
From:     Joan Korenman <KORENMAN@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU>
Subject:  women's online activist network

        In light of the recent discussions on WMST-L about activist-oriented
email lists and resources, I thought the following message, which appeared
on INTERNET-WOMEN-INFO, might be of interest.  I have no additional
information.  Please DO NOT WRITE TO ME OR TO WMST-L about this.  I would
imagine that the address to write to is PolWoman@aol.com, the original
sender.  [Info about INTERNET-WOMEN-INFO is contained in the OTHER LISTS
file.  Send message GET OTHER LISTS to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU]

        Joan Korenman        Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu
                             Bitnet:   korenman@umbc

        *****************************************************

From: PolWoman@aol.com
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 17:36:41 -0500
Subject: Women's Leadership Network

Announcement
Please Post Widely
March 16, 1995
-------------------------------------------------------
Women's Leadership Network in formation -- HELP NEEDED!
-------------------------------------------------------
Background: After Newt Gingrich and the "Radical Republican Right" gained
control of Congress last November, a group of politically active women began
meeting in New York City to discuss the need to use "Third Wave" technology
to fight back.

After a few meetings, it was agreed that we needed to use the Internet to:
1. educate women about the dreadful agenda of the Republican Right, and
2. mobilize women to oppose that agenda and defeat the Republican Right in
the 1996 elections.

To accomplish these goals, we agreed to start an organization called the
"Women's Leadership Network."

The Women's Leadership Network has two immediate projects:
1. the creation of a Web page dedicated to the issues before Congress and the
nation from a women's point of view, and
2. the publication of a Daily Hotline to women activists who can receive
e-mail over the Internet.

We are currently assembling the information we will need for these projects
-- and WE NEED YOUR HELP!

If you are:
1. a politically-aware woman (or sympathetic man),
2. appalled at the agenda of the far-right Republicans who control Congress,
3. terrified at the thought of these same Republicans gaining control of the
White House, all of the federal agencies, and the Supreme Court, and
4. willing to do something to fight back

Send us an e-mail with the message "Interested." Tell us something about
yourself, including your name, the issues you care about, and any issue or
political groups you're active in. If you track any particular issues in the
newspapers and on-line and are willing to help us educate women on those
issues by posting relevant (and concise!) information, please tell us that,
too.

We are tentatively planning to go public on April 11 with a press conference
in New York City. If you send us an e-mail, we'll put you on our distribution
list and send you a membership form. If you return that form to us before
April 8, we will list you as a "Charter Member" in our press materials.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Deborah Sale, Vice Chair, NYS Council on the Humanities (Chair)
Polly Rothstein, President, Westchester (NY) Coalition for Legal Abortion
(Vice Chair)
Antonia Stolper, Co-Publisher, Political Woman Daily Hotline (President)
Bob Fertik, Co-Publisher, Political Woman Daily Hotline (Treasurer)
Christina Mason (Secretary)
Founding members: Lori Antonacci, Gene Boyer (National Women's Conference
Center), Gale Brewer (National Women's Political Caucus), Debra Cooper,
Barbara Hohlt, Carolyn Kamlet, Shelley Mayer, Jane Moore, Frances Fox Piven (C
ampaign for Media Fairness on Welfare), Elisa Riordan (CWA District 1),
Bobbie Sackman, Elsie Shapiro, Dion Thompson (Students Organizing Students)

p.s. If you participate in any discussion groups, or have any friends on the
net, please pass this message along. All comments and suggestions welcome!

[I assume that interested people should write to the address from which
this message was sent: PolWoman@aol.com  .  DO NOT REPLY TO WMST-L!  JK]
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