We Wrote a Chapter and Changed the World!
Please note: This entry -- originally posted at Our Bodies, Our Blog -- has not been updated since the publication date listed above.
More than 45 years ago, we -- the founders of Our Bodies Ourselves -- first met to talk about our lives, our health, and our bodies. We had never discussed these intimate issues publicly. We came to believe then, as we do now, that there is no substitute for a small group of women, in the spirit of mutual trust and respect, listening, speaking, and honoring the truth of our own lived experiences.
Through our conversations and ensuing research, we developed a course via a newsprint book to keep our conversations going. That first book became “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” which has since been updated and reissued in nine editions over four decades and adapted into more than 30 languages, selling close to 5 million copies overall.
At present, we are a vibrant, active founders group deeply involved with the future of the Our Bodies Ourselves organization (OBOS). The work we started is far from done. We are appalled at the recent election rhetoric that advocates a serious undermining of women’s rights, revealing dangerously sexist and racist attitudes. We are bracing ourselves to fight attempts to reverse advances in basic reproductive and human rights, from birth control and abortion to sexual and gender identity.
There is a powerful need for intergenerational dialogue. Together we can build on past achievements, define current essential issues, and advocate for women’s health and rights, bringing marginalized matters into public discourse. (Keep an eye out for the first edition of our new monthly enewsletter, which will feature a dialogue between co-founder Norma Swenson and our newest (and youngest) staff member Melanie Floyd, shown at right.)
In our passionate advocacy for reproductive rights and justice, OBOS has always recognized the need for society to respect the rights of all women. As women of childbearing age navigate new and more complicated options in reproductive technologies, we are excited about the December launch of Surrogacy360, OBOS’s new website on international commercial surrogacy.
In addition, OBOS’s website has been and will continue to be a unique, trustworthy source of reliable information for women and girls worldwide. Our feminist critique and critical viewpoint counteract the internet’s excess of misinformation based on biased commercial interests. From its inception, OBOS has refused pharmaceutical corporate funding.
As co-authors of the book “Our Bodies, Ourselves” and founders of the non-profit OBOS organization, we are thrilled to have Julie Childers, our new executive director, aboard. Together, we will create OBOS’s “next "chapter" as we will build on our collective vision and values. We will continue to meet the needs of women, girls and families. And we will empower new multicultural generations to work for reproductive and sexual health within a feminist, human rights and social justice framework.
We are, marvelously and against all odds, one of the few remaining organizations from the early days of the global women’s movement. In this, our 45th anniversary year, we want to ensure a flourishing future for OBOS. Please join us in giving as generously as you can.
Donate today to help OBOS protect women’s rights, fight for reproductive justice, challenge disinformation, and empower the next generation of women and girls.
Elizabeth MacMahon-Herrera, Jane Pincus, Joan Ditzion, Judy Norsigian, Miriam Hawley, Norma Swenson, Paula Doress-Worters, Pamela Berger, Ruth Alexander, Vilunya Diskin, Wendy Sanford
84 Responses
Charlotte ellis on
Please add me to your email list
Laura Leach on
Please add me to your email list and thank you for all your wonderful work. I bought my first copy of OBO 39 years ago!
Ellen Kramer on
Please add me to your mailing list
Lisa Hartley on
OMG this is a beautiful picture. I have volunteered at a health collective based on OBOS for 5 years and while I'm in my 50's I've had a passionate resurgence of the importance "of small group of women, in the spirit of mutual trust and respect, listening, speaking, and honoring the truth of our own lived experiences."
thank you thank you thank you...
Laura Mueller on
My mother, a fairly forward thinking 40 yr old widow gave me Our Bodies Ourselves on my 18th birthday, January 6, 1972. I read the chapter, "In Amerika, They Call Us Dykes" - I had no clue what that meant. It was the first glimmer of naming for me...thank you so much.
Darcy on
Agreed! Thank you!
Ellen Grogan on
Your wonderful book was part of my radicalisation and invaluable in inspiring me to value self care.
Thank you sisters-great to be able to contact you now 30 yrs later via the wonders of the interweb.
I'm in London and fighting legalisation of prostitution via nordicmodelnow.org but I will make sure to support you.
Your battle against the odious Spunktrumpet is the battle of all women.
Much love,
Ellen Grogan
Ann Thomson on
I was very active in the Canadian pro-choice movement for more than 20 years, until the
Canadian Supreme Court removed all restrictions on clinics in this country. A subsequent effort by Parliament to make abortion illegal again failed, and since 1991,
Canada has had NO law on abortion. The sky has not fallen. Women make their own appointments at clinics and those hospitals that perform abortions. Access is, however, limited - there are few abortion facilities.
I was thrilled to be part of that struggle and
to help open Everywoman's Health Centre in Vancouver, B.C. in 1988. Later, I wrote
a book about it called WINNING CHOICE ON ABORTION, which may be ordered from me via email. Cost: $35 (incl s/h)
Leslie Linkkila on
OBOS was my owners manual as a young woman. At this time in history in particular, it's important to keep educating young women. Please add me to your list.
Christine Chevalier on
I still have my first edition copy! Thank you so much for all your hard work over the years. Hoping and praying that the upcoming four years are not going to be as devastating as predicted for my US sisters...Love and Light from Canada...
Jalal Quinn on
I took a copy of the book to Liberia (west coast of Africa) and with the aid of the wonderful illustrations and diagrams was able to teach some of the Liberian young women about how their bodies worked. They had no idea. One friend took the book and went into a room alone and closed the door and read for over an hour.
Darcy on
I am glad you're still around.
But couldn't you wait with the hit up for money till I had at least read the article? I got a popup.
Sorry...just been unrelentingly hit up for money by every last website I go to and am utterly sick of it all.
I have contributed and contributed and it feels like that's what it's all about. I am as overwhelmed by that as I am about the disgusting election outcome.
Jill Stanley on
48 years ago all of you began to teach me how to navigate as a complicated, young woman. I have shared your collective wisdom many times.
Thank you all.
Sara Joy David on
Proud to have promoted this book for 45 years! Delighted to see so many aging with flair. We are "seasoned" citizens as deceased journalist and Canadian treasure June Callwood described many feminists of the 60's and 70's
Sara Joy David on
Proud to have promoted this book for 45 years! Delighted to see so many aging with flair. We are "seasoned" citizens as deceased journalist and Canadian treasure June Callwood described many feminists of the 60's and 70's
Carmen Figarola Plaja on
I did no knew this book, thank you-
I starde workin for the women´s rights at the 69 as well. The most imoportant thinks at that time in Spain was to change the laws.
The police was dreadtfull with us, we could go to jail for ouer manifestation.
Davida Foy Crabtree on
I am deeply grateful for your work way back when. I was a student at Andover Newton Theological School when the newsprint edition first came out. I've kept it all these years. Used it and subsequent editions to teach sexuality in parishes around New England and national settings. Thank you!
Ingrid Hilario on
The best thing to come out of Trump's election: The revitalization of every progressive force to fight everything he stands for. Cheering you on!
Claire on
My sentiment as well, now is a powerful time for action and this is what feminism is all about. Thank you for this "resurgence" of your/ourselves!
Sue schmelzer on
I bought this book over 40 years ago and still have it in my library. Many thanks and much continued success with your future endeavors. Please add my name to your mailing list.
Amy Angel on
Thank you for your groundbreaking work. Then and now.
Beth McClain on
So happy to see this please add me to your email.
Sally Fleischmann Ember, Ed.D. on
I was trained as a Lay Women's Health Educator by the Cambridge Feminist Women's Health Center in 1978, joined the Rising Sun Feminist Health Alliance in 1979 and continued to teach/lead sexuality and women's/girls' health classes throughout the 1980s and 1990s. I met and spoke with many of the original members of the Feminist Health Book Collective, including the OBOS' authors. Such inspirations!
Thank you all for informing, enriching, and empowering me and so many others for over 40 years! Keep going!
Jane Corley on
Wow! That book was a must
read back in the day-MAHALO
for all your hard work!
Happy to see you are still going strong.
Natalie Woodroofe on
I was part of a women's group that ordered speculums after reading newsprint copies of OBOS. So thrilling and empowering. We went on to launch a women's center at Franconia College in NH in 1971, along with one of the first women's studies programs in the country.
Mona Fafarman on
OBOS changed my life over 40 years ago. Thank you all.
Phillida Bunkle on
wonderful to see this picture of you all looing so vibrant and still offering us leadership in a world that seems grime in which our values feel like they have been deleted. You remind us that we are not powerless.
John on
Congratulations on all you have done
CC Minton on
As a former member of BACE and their Nursing Mother's Council CONGRATS and hello old colleagues.
Still remember the time that Norma did a tour jete In our living room in Belmont.
Cynthia (formerly Stark) Minton
Pam Bells Sandborn on
Please put me on your mailing list.
I also have an original edition.
Keep up the great work!
Karen LeMonnier on
Thank goodness for this book. I learned everything about my body. Couldn't count on school or parents to inform us. I am forever grateful to these empowering women.
Kathleen on
Still have my original copy from way back then... along with the newest! A friend shared hers with me at the time, and I shared it with other women over and over again through the years. Thank you.
Judy Eiss on
Thank you for an unsurpassed, first of its kind manual for our bodies. Please add me to your email list
Kathy Catino on
Happy holidays women! Please add me to your list!
Janey Kelf on
Part Raised me ha ha add me please and many thanx for your world changing writings
Evelyn Burke on
Please add me to your mailing list
Claire Watts on
Please add me to your email list, very important issues.
Cynthia Shaw on
Thanks is all I can say'
.
Michele Torchia on
This book influenced me so in college, I became an OB-GYN. My practice integrated as much self-actualization as my patients could bear. Life changing book.
Joan on
This was so important for the women I knew and for me. Thank you for continuing the work.
Evie Gerontis on
Hello, what you are doing is fantastic! One question though, intergeneratiinal is great...what about intersectional as well? Where are the women of color as partners?
Bonnie Shepard on
Thank you for this comment, Evie. Intersectional work and women of color as partners is top on our list of priorities! We are reaching out to understand how best we can support their organizations, and starting a Board recruitment effort in the New Year, with a commitment to adding a critical mass of women of color leaders to the Board to help guide OBOS to write our next chapter.
nancy on
please add me to your email list! I am looking to begin a women's group with my friends and this book could be our starting point!
penny corbett on
Judy Norsigian, You may or may not remember, but I was part of the very first women's group meetings but then left the Boston area before you all started writing the book. I've always been very grateful for both those early meetings but most especially for what you accomplished with the book(s). Yours is the only name I do remember from that time since we went to school together, before you entered Med School.
All my best and my gratutude to all of you. Penny
Kathleen Holt on
Our coffee group, men and women concerned about how things are developing in what will be the next administration, want to study the issues and act on them in a way that will let our voices be hear. So new that we do not have a name. I am gathering information to report back to the group on women's issues. I very much would like to be kept up to date on all these issues.
Barbara Orcutt on
This 71yo lesbian retired Certified Nurse-Midwife held you in her heart with every class & mom she taught and with every baby she caught. I still have my newsprint copy - a treasure! Especially back then! Thank you, thank you, thank you!????
Dana Ann Wallingford on
I did not find OBOS until 1974, a mere 42 years ago. Really? That long already? I 'm glad your organization is still around. Please add my name to your email list.
Riva Blechman on
So glad to hear you are all still doing your good work. Your book was invaluable to me and later to my daughter and niw to my granddaughter!
Riva Blechman on
Please add me to your mailing list.
Gail Smith on
Yes please put me on the email list.
Rae on
Please add me to your email list.
Sarah on
Still have. My first copy and was happy to share it with my daughters.
Deborah McKay on
Bravo and bountiful blessings and gratitude to you all! Please add me to your email list! Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Felicity Ann Khan on
Where can I buy this book I am in Cape Town South Africa
Elizabeth Parusha-Parlor on
Could writing the next chapter on women's health also include the health and sexuality of aging women-aging as in 70s and 80s, plus. No one told me that due to a tendency toward auto-immune illness (Hashimoto's thyroiditis), I would develop others such as lichen sclerosis. And it doesn't seem troubling to anyone, but me. My doctor just nods, as she does about arthritis. I need OBOS. Still. I raised my daughter with it. Made me feel secure and I need it as I age and discover that it's just like our mothers said, we are forgotten, overlooked, diminished.
Please add me to your email list.
Anne Tinker on
Thank you for your continuing efforts on behalf of women, girls and humanity. They are needed now more than ever.
Sandra Babcock on
Please add me to your email.
Chris Blackburn on
Grateful for more women doctors and surgeons and women resesrchers! We're having an intergenerational class on Feminism and Science next Semester held at Pomona College, Claremont, Ca. Looking forward to being part of it.
If any collective members live on SoCal, love to know. Add me to mailing list.
Gratefully, Chris