Radical Women (RW) is an American

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

grassroots activist organization affiliated with the

Freedom Socialist Party The Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) is a Trotskyist and socialist feminist political party in the United States. FSP formed in 1966, when its members split from the Socialist Workers Party. FSP views the struggles of women, people of color and ...

. It has branches in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

, and

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung/ or ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most-populous city in Australia, after Sydney. The city's name generally refers to a metropolitan area also known ...

History

Radical Women emerged in Seattle from a "Free University" class on Women and Society conducted by Gloria Martin, a lifelong

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

champion. As a result of the class, Martin teamed up with Clara Fraser and Melba Windoffer (initiators of the

) and Susan Stern (a prominent figure in the local

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...

) to launch Radical Women in 1967. In ''Socialist Feminism: The First Decade, 1966-76'' Martin writes that the new group was formed to "demonstrate that women could act politically, learn and teach theory, administer an organization, develop indigenous leadership, and focus movement and community attention on the sorely neglected matter of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

—and that women could do this on their own." Radical Women participated heavily in the anti-Vietnam War mobilization, and has opposed subsequent military interventions initiated by Western countries. Members worked with African-American women from

anti-poverty program Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty. Measures, like those promoted by Henry George in his economics classic ...

s to initiate the abortion rights movement in Washington State with a historic march on the capitol in 1969. In the early 1970s, RW helped organize a strike and a union of low-paid employees (mostly female) at the University of Washington. After working closely with the

(FSP), Radical Women and the party formally affiliated in 1973 on the basis of a shared socialist feminist program. Some of its early members, such as Lynda Schraufnagel, were employed by the FSP's newspaper, ''The Freedom Socialist'', and also wrote for it. Many Radical Women members worked and organized in the nontraditional trades. At Seattle's public power company, Seattle City Light, Clara Fraser was recruited to craft and implement the country's first plan to train women as utility electricians. Three other members of Radical Women, Megan Cornish, Heidi Durham, and Teri Bach, participated in the program and went on to become some of the first women electricians in the country. Just weeks before the program began, however, Fraser participated in a walkout against new rules issued by City Light superintendent Gordon Vickery, which soured her relations with management. After their training, Cornish, Durham, and Bach were laid off in 1975 in an act seen largely as retaliatory against themselves and Fraser. The three women filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination on the basis of sex, and after a year a court ruled in their favor and ordered their reinstatement. Fraser was also laid off in 1975, and she filed her own separate lawsuit alleging discrimination on the basis of sex and

political ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

. After a seven-year legal battle and a massive public relations campaign, Fraser won her reinstatement at City Light. In 1991, two members of Radical Women, Heidi Durham and Yolanda Alaniz, ran for

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-larg ...

as members of the FSP. The two campaigned together on demands for guaranteed income for families living in

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

domestic partnership A domestic partnership is an intimate relationship between people, usually couples, who live together and share a common domestic life but who are not married (to each other or to anyone else). People in domestic partnerships receive legal be ...

rights for

same-sex couples A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries ...

, and community control of the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

. Alaniz advanced to the general election and finished with 21% of the vote.

Purpose and ideology

''The Radical Women Manifesto: Socialist Feminist Theory, Program and Organizational Structure''Radical Women (2001),
Preamble
, in defines Radical Women's purpose and ideology as follows:

Radical Women is dedicated to exposing, resisting, and eliminating the inequities of women's existence. To accomplish this task of insuring survival for an entire sex, we must simultaneously address ourselves to the social and material source of sexism: the capitalist form of production and distribution of products, characterized by intrinsic class, race, sex, and caste oppression. When we work for the revolutionary transformation of capitalism into a socialist society, we work for a world in which all people may enjoy the right of full humanity and freedom from poverty, war, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and repression.

Radical Women takes a multi-racial, multi-issue, working class and

anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...

approach to

women's liberation The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminism, feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued till the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which resu ...

. It advocates for free

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

on demand, an end to forced sterilization of women of color, and for affordable, quality, 24-hour childcare. Early efforts include the Action Childcare Coalition, the Feminist Coordinating Council (an umbrella organization made up of the whole spectrum of women's groups in Seattle), and the Coalition for Protective Legislation (a labor and feminist effort to extend female-designated workplace safeguards to men after passage of the Washington State

Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution that would explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. It is not currently a part of the Constitution, though its Ratifi ...

). Radical Women has played a leading role in lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender liberation struggles. Members have helped build militant lesbian/gay rights organizations and have been involved in many coalitions devoted to preventing forced AIDS testing, opposing ballot-box attacks on gay rights, lobbying for state gay rights bills, and more. In the 1980s Radical Women leader Merle Woo, a college lecturer, writer and

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...

lesbian spokesperson, won a case against the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

, which had fired her, charging discrimination on race, sex, sexuality, and political ideology.

Notes

{{Authority control Feminism in Victoria (state) Feminism in Washington (state) Feminist organisations in Australia Feminist organizations in the United States Trotskyist organisations in Australia Trotskyist organizations in the United States Far-left politics in Australia Far-left politics in the United States Socialist feminist organizations Women's wings of political parties Women's political advocacy groups in the United States Organizations established in 1967 Freedom Socialist Party 1967 establishments in Washington (state)

History

Purpose and ideology

Further reading

Archives

Articles and interviews

Books

Additional material

See also

Notes