Women's Liberation class offered this summer

Women's Liberation class offered this summer
May/June 2001

This class is for women who want to understand basic truths about how we are held back on the job, in the classroom, and in the home; how a feminist movement was organized to change this; and how we can learn from it now to build the kind of movement that can put the male chauvinist establishment on the run again, and how each woman can contribute to that effort. The class will teach the radical ideas and methods that sparked the rebirth of the feminist movement in the 1960s.

You will learn about the heroic struggle women have waged, individually and collectively, for our survival and our freedom; the political causes of the unhappiness in our daily lives; women's progress owing to the feminist movement; and how to use this information to change conditions for women.

The class is a combination of study and hands on activity: lecture, class discussion of readings, film, consciousness-raising, and organization and participation in a feminist action.

This class is not about personal liberation through improved self-esteem or an alternative women's culture. It is not about how feminism can save the planet, nor is it about acheiving status in the present corrupt system through individual self-improvement or lifestyle changes.

The following will be covered:

The origins of women's liberation and the burial of the truths of those origins
The fight for abortion rights as an example of how feminist gains have been won and lost
Consciousness-raising towards a class action
Radical feminist theory--what does radical mean? What is a radical feminist analysis? What is male supremacy?
Relation of feminism to other movements for social justice
Planning and doing an action based on what has been learned in the class
Evaluation of the action and class and where class participants can go from here

The class will meet Sundays, 2:00-5:00 p.m. June through August at the Institute of Black Culture, 1510 W University Ave. The first class meets June 3.

The class is presented by Gainesville Women's Liberation, the first women's liberation group in the south, founded in 1968. The instructor will be Candi Churchill of Gainesville Women's Liberation assisted by Stephanie Seguin and Rhiannon Theurer, University of Florida / Santa Fe Community College Campus NOW.

The fee is $55-75 (includes childcare, readings, cost of action). Free childcare is provided. Scholarships available. This is a community education course open to women of all backgrounds and ages; however, UF course credit through Women's Studies may be available. For more info, contact: 377-9935,
candichurchill@juno.com