Sisterhood Is Powerful

Sisterhood Is Powerful is a 1970 anthology of feminist writings edited by Robin Morgan that helped define second-wave feminism in the United States and internationally. The collection gathered essays, manifestos, speeches, and analyses by activists and intellectuals from diverse organizations and movements including the National Organization for Women, Redstockings, The Feminists, and New York Radical Women. It mobilized debates among figures associated with Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shulamith Firestone, and others, influencing activists linked to events like the Miss America protest (1968) and publications such as Ms. (magazine).

Background and Publication

The anthology emerged amid the social upheavals of the late 1960s and early 1970s involving networks around Civil Rights Movement, Anti-Vietnam War movement, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Black Panther Party. Edited by Robin Morgan and published by Random House in 1970, the book compiled work from contributors active in groups such as National Organization for Women, Redstockings, New York Radical Women, Women’s Liberation Front, and campus collectives at institutions like Barnard College, Radcliffe College, University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. The anthology’s production intersected with cultural venues like the Guggenheim Fellowship community, presses influenced by Beacon Press, and the network of small feminist bookstores modeled on A Woman's Place.

Contents and Contributors

The volume organized essays, manifestos, and speeches by writers and activists including Shulamith Firestone, Andrea Dworkin, Kate Millett, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Evelyn Reed, Hilda L. Smith, Susan Brownmiller, Jo Freeman, Anne Koedt, Kathleen Cleaver, Patricia Soltysik, and others. Contributions drew on theoretical traditions connected to Marxism, writings that engaged with figures like Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and critics of patriarchy conversant with analyses from Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, and Alexandra Kollontai. The anthology incorporated speeches excerpted from actions at events such as the Miss America protest (1968), meetings of National Organization for Women, and demonstrations by groups inspired by May 1968 events in France. It included pieces published earlier in outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian, Village Voice, and alternative presses influenced by Ramparts (magazine), while also featuring grassroots writing from collectives linked to Sisterhood-adjacent networks in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and New York City.

Reception and Impact

Upon release, the anthology received attention from mainstream media such as The New York Times, Time, and Newsweek, as well as responses in cultural publications like The Nation, Commonweal, and The Village Voice. Academics associated with institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Chicago debated its theoretical claims alongside critics from journals like American Political Science Review and Signs. Activists credited the book with energizing chapters of National Organization for Women, influencing actions connected to the Roe v. Wade discourse, and shaping consciousness-raising sessions in collectives modeled after groups at Barnard College and Radcliffe College. Internationally, the anthology circulated among movements in United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and Japan, informing debates at conferences like meetings of the Women's International Democratic Federation and university seminars at London School of Economics.

Controversies and Criticism

The collection provoked disputes over representation, intersectionality, and strategy: critics from Black feminist circles including members associated with Combahee River Collective and activists like Audre Lorde and Angela Davis argued that the anthology insufficiently addressed race and class. Scholars from Harvard University and commentators in The New Republic debated charges raised by critics such as Betty Friedan and Evelyn Reed about essentialism and separatism. The book stimulated polemics with lesbian-feminist activists influenced by Radicalesbians and with socialist feminists drawing on Rosa Luxemburg and Clara Zetkin traditions. Legal and political commentators referenced court decisions like Roe v. Wade and policy debates in the United States Congress while critics invoked comparative perspectives from authors such as Simone de Beauvoir and Germaine Greer.

Legacy and Influence on Feminism

Over subsequent decades the anthology has been cited in scholarship by historians at Smith College, Barnard College, University of Michigan, and Rutgers University and in monographs published by presses like Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. It influenced later anthologies and periodicals including Ms. (magazine), Off Our Backs, and academic journals such as Feminist Studies and Signs. Activist practices like consciousness-raising, collective organizing, and feminist cultural production at institutions such as Women's Studies programs at San Diego State University and Syracuse University trace lineage to debates popularized by the book. Debates about intersectionality later articulated by scholars at Columbia University and activists linked to the Combahee River Collective reframed the anthology’s premises, while remembrances and retrospectives in venues like Harvard Kennedy School forums and museum exhibitions at institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution reflect its continuing role in histories of second-wave feminism.

Category:Feminist books