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Series IX. Feminism, Gay, Lesbian
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Scope and Content Notes: The sexual and gender politics of leaders of the Old Left generally did not stray very far from conventional bourgeois norms, but their movements nonetheless offered political space for feminists and radical critics of the gender system. The dominant position within both the SPUSA and the CPUSA viewed the “Women Question” as a special case of the Class Question. Capitalism fostered discrimination against women as a way of maintaining a subservient reserve army of labor that could be used to divide workers and lower wages. Only socialism would solve the Women Question. Both parties officially supported equal rights for women and opposed gender discrimination, but top leaders rarely gave these issues priority.
Nonetheless, both parties offered political space for female activists concerned with gender issues and for thinkers with more penetrating critiques of the gender system than the standard Party orthodoxies. Women with organizational skills, oratorical flair, or literary talents gained visibility and political capital within these Parties as well as access to wider networks of political influence. Both the SPUSA and CPUSA published writings on gender issues that anticipated arguments more generally associated with post 1960s radical feminism.
Gender issues and critiques of the gender system became much more visible in the New Left than the Old. In part, that reflected the New Left’s greater emphasis on personal liberation and quality of life issues. In part, it reflected wider social changes that had started to undermine older gender norms and empowered women (globally as well as in the US)—declining birth rates and increased access to birth control; increased female labor force participation; increased female access to education.
This greater visibility of political critiques of the gender system also facilitated the emergence of radical movements among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender sexual minorities. The Old Left rarely addressed questions of sexual identity or the oppression of sexual minorities. Neither the Socialist nor the Communist Party questioned heterosexual orthodoxy, although some anarchists did so occasionally. Some ex-Communists did play notable roles in the early stages of the Gay Rights movement such as several of the founders of the Mattachine Society. But the surge of radical feminism within the New Left encouraged far greater militancy and political visibility among LGBT activists.
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Box 5
| Folder |
88 |
National News, Birth Control Pamphlet, November, 1936
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| Folder |
89 |
The Mothers Bill of Rights Pamphlet
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| Folder |
90 |
Feminist Revolution, 1975
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| Folder |
91 |
The Rhythm Method of Natural Birth Control, By Joseph McCabe, 1934
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| Folder |
92 |
Sister, New Haven's Women's Liberation Newsletter, February 1, 1972
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| Folder |
93 |
Woman's Place-In the Fight for a Better World, By Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, March, 1947
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| Folder |
94 |
Women & The Cuban Revolution, Speeches by Fidel Castro, Articles by Linda Jenness
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Box 6
| Folder |
1 |
Sisterhood is Powerful, By Betsey Stone, December, 1970
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| Folder |
2 |
"Women of New York, WPA Cuts Threaten Your Standard of Living" Flyer
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| Folder |
3 |
Women- Vote for Life!, By Ann Rivington
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| Folder |
4 |
Women in History, A Recreation of Our Past
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| Folder |
5 |
Women and Equality, By Margaret Cowl, February, 1935
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| Folder |
6 |
Women, War and Fascism, By Dorothy McConnell, December, 1935
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| Folder |
7 |
Consider the Laundry Workers, By Jane Filley and Therese Mitchell, June, 1937
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| Folder |
8 |
Women on Guard, How the Women of the World Fight for Peace, By Betty Millard, February, 1952
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| Folder |
9 |
Women Who Work, By Grace Hutchins, 1952
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| Folder |
10 |
What Every Working Woman Wants, By Grace Hutchins, February, 1935
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| Folder |
11 |
Women in Action, By Sasha Small, February, 1935
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| Folder |
12 |
Women in the Struggle for Peace and Security, By Claudia Jones, April, 1950
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| Folder |
13 |
Win Magazine, January, 1970
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| Folder |
14 |
The Gay Question, A Marxist Appraisal, By Bob McCubbin, 1976
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| Folder |
15 |
Mattachine Review (8), November-December, 1955-December, 1956
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| Folder |
16 |
Front Line of Freedom, 1981
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| Folder |
17 |
Women and the New World
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| Folder |
18 |
Betty Millard, "Woman Against Myth", 1948
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| Folder |
19 |
Spectre 3, July-August 1971
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| Folder |
20 |
Spectre 4, September-October 1971
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| Folder |
21 |
Specter-6, January-February 1972
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| Folder |
22 |
Socialist Feminism: A Strategy for the Women's Movement, 1972
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| Folder |
23 |
Sister: New Haven Women's Liberation Newsletter V.1, N.7 1971
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Box 14
| Folder |
1 |
The Furies, Lesbian Feminist Monthly, January, 1972- May-June, 1973
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| Folder |
2 |
Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Socialism
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| Folder |
3 |
Women of Yesterday and Today
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| Folder |
4 |
Francis Willard on Socialism
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| Folder |
5 |
Work Among Women
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| Folder |
7 |
Lavender Vision Lavender Vision for the Lesbian Community
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| Folder |
9 |
"The Place of American Women" Pamphlet, 1968
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| Folder |
10 |
"The Way We See It" Pamphlet, August 26 1970
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