Guidelines and suggested for feminist consciousness-raising small group conversations. Includes handwritten additional steps and notes in margins. NOW Major local projects: Consciousness raising groups

Sappho Collective

English

UNF Digital Commons

University of North Florida UNF Digital Commons National Organization for Women, Jacksonville, Florida, and Jacksonville Women's Movement Collection Special Collections April 2021 Consciousness-Raising Sappho Collective Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/nowjaxmaterials  Part of the Social History Commons, and the Women's History Commons Recommended Citation Consciousness-Raising. No date. National Organization For Women, Jacksonville, Florida, and Jacksonville Women's Movement Collection. University of North Florida, Thomas G. Carpenter Library Special Collections and Archives. UNF Digital Commons, https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/nowjaxmaterials/44/ This Archival Material is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections at UNF Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in National Organization for Women, Jacksonville, Florida, and Jacksonville Women's Movement Collection by an authorized administrator of UNF Digital Commons. For more information, please contact Digital Projects. © April 2021 All Rights Reserved CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING Consciousness-raising is conducted in small groups of women numbering from ab out six to ten members. A topic is chosen and each woman in the group give s te stimony from her ex perience on this topic. Each woman speaks without a t i m e limit u nless one is d e cid ed on by the group. No woman may be criticized . or challenged about her testimony by members of t h e group. The group may, h owever, ask questions of clarification after a woman has finished her testimony, r e garding portions of that testimony. The order in w h ich women speak can be determir,ed by lot or by any m eans the group.agrees to. Under the circum-stances n o information shared with the group during t e stimony is ever to go outside t he group. P e rsonal testimony is confidential. Not only should testimony not be spoke n a bout out s ide the group; it also should no't be written down either for group records or in individual notes, diaries, and so on. Each woman in the group must be as sured that her testimony can be trusted to remain within the g roup and never jeopardize her in any way.Suppose the topic agreed upon by the group is "What keeps women separate from each other? " Each woman in the group gives testimony from her personal experience. For instance, a woman may expl ain how her parents encouraged her to comp ete with other young girls for male attention. Another may testify • to her anger at being derid ed and gos sipped about by her supposed girlfriends. After each woman gives testimony, the group draws generalizations. An example of the generalizations which would eme r ge from this testimony is that from a v ery early age the women were taught to distrust and to compete with other women. Generalizations about topics will vary according to the testim ony of each particular group; however, r e gardless of the topic, certain themes will be s e e n to run through each testimony. It is the group's job to recognize these them es and to state them as generalizations. While each of our experi-e n c e s has been individual, our oppression has taken similar forms. Generali-z!ng helps uncover these consistencies in the expe rience s of women. In a short time, the women in a con sciousness-raising group begin to have a very cle ar idea of the mechanics of oppression, and of women-hatred. Some groups find it of value to write down the generalizations, (not the testimony) that em erge from each meetin g, so that they might refer to them in the event they w ant to write group papers, do actions, and so on in the relation to their consciousne ss raising. The process of consciousness-raising is very simple. Basically, women speak to each other out of their own direct expe r ience. However, the carrying out of t h e process is not so simple. The reason for this lies in our oppression. It is harder for women to talk to each other and to trust one another. It takes a consciousness-raising group at l east four to six weeks to mesh, because of t h is initial reserve. Qn ce women begin to open up to eac h other. a nother problem arises--womJn deveio different ideas about solut ions for the same problem. Some take reformist views, and others take revolutionary views. These political differences usually become crucial when the group has been together for about four months. At that time, it is advisable for the group to make a decision either to split alon g political lines, or to stay together. After weathering these storms, t h e group can be considered solid. It usually takes about eight months to a year for members in the group to build real trust, r espect, and love for one another. At first glance, this process may seem lon g, but w h en we consider how many years each woman has been taught to d e s pise othe r women, eight months to one year i s a remarkably short time in w h ich to trust, respect, and love other women . T he process of consciou sness-raising is the only process the Women's L ibe ration Movement has yet developed which enables women to develop apolitical awareness of their oppression, which breaks down carefully imposed c ultural barriers to building understanding andlove of each other and of oneself,a n d which offers collective experience--communal development of trust, growth, polit ical analysis and .. action. Women rapping in two s and threes is an isolated a nd less effe c tiv e exp e rienc e in com parison. T h ought -out actions build coopera-tion a nd bring women closer together, but consciousness raising is still es s e ntia l t o build ing trust . The corner-stone of t h e Movement is consciousness :raising . Suggested Topics for Cons ciousness Raising 1. How was womanhood presentedt o you as a child? What expectations were you supposed to fulfill? What do you think of wom anhood now? 2 . What were your early ch ildhood experiences with sex? With relatives, child ren your age, older people? What did they do to your view of sex and to your view of yourself as a woman? How did they affect your attitudes later in life? 3. W hat have your adult sexual experiences been like? How do you relate to c ontraception and abortion? What have your experiences with these been? What about seduction? Street hassling? Sexual affairs of varying duration? 4. H ow w a s your education affected by your sex? 5. W hat kind of work do you do to make a living? How do you feel about it? 2 How does sexism operate on the job? Would you get fired if you refused to play out your role as a male-identified woman? 6. A re you or were you married to a man, or in a marriage-type relationship ith another woman? Did it fulfill your expectations of what marri&.ge was s upposed to be? Did or do you find yourself ope r ating within the traditional male-female roles in this relationship? If the relationship is with another w oman, which roles do you play (male, female)? 7 . Have you ever been pregnant or borne children? What was your self-image during pregnancy? The attitude of those around you (including the father of the child, your parents, your employer, other women)? If you have not bee pregnant, do you want to bear children? Under what circumstances? How do you feel about raising children? If you are a mother, has this used you to feel that you are living for others, to lose your sense of self? you are not a mother, do you feel that you would lose your sense of self or be forced to give up other goals if you became a mother? Can you see any way for women to have children without such consequences?9. How do you feel about aging? About menopause? Using make-up and hair-coloring to disguise aging? How do you think of your mother in relation to this topic? How do you think it will affect the attention you receive from men or 10. Howhas violence intruded into your life? How do you feel about violence? This can be broken down into a range of topics: A. Violence and heterosexual s ex. B. Violence as self-expression and purgation of expression. C. Violence as a political reality. T his could also include such topics as self-defense, defense of a group under attack by men or police, terrorism, v i olenc e as a way of keeping women in their place (or any despised group). 11. Can you conceive of your own death? What have been your past experience s with death? Why does m ale politics rest so heavily o death? (i.e. war, th e extermination of the Jews, the Indians, the Blacks.) Men kill women; women r arely kill other women. Why do you think this happens? How do you feel about love? What have been your past experiences with love? Do you feel as though you can love other women? Can you love yourself? How m uch of our life is organized around love? 13. W hat was your early family background? Did you develop a concept of class th rough your life experiences? How are class differences affecting you t oday? Consider how class affects women. 14 . Do you have a concept of race ? If so, how did you acquire i t ? How is r acism affecting you today? Consider how racism affects women. 15. What were and are your relations with your m other and father? How did your parents get along with one another; with you ? C&.n you trace your sense of self to your parents? 

Consciousness-Raising

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Consciousness-Raising

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