How did Our Bodies Ourselves begin?

In May of 1969, as the U.S. women’s movement was gaining momentum, a group of young white women met at a “female liberation conference.” As they talked, they realized how little they knew about their own bodies. They shared that their doctors (usually male, patronizing, and condescending) rarely educated them or provided the kind of health care they wanted. They decided to take action and formed the Doctor’s Group, the forerunner to the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective.

Within a year, they put together the first edition of “Our Bodies, Ourselves.” For more than forty years, versions of this group updated and revised the groundbreaking book approximately every five to seven years. The most recent print edition was published in 2011. A number of the founders remain actively involved in women’s health, education, and advocacy.