Remembering Mother Kali's Bookstore

Grassroots feminist newspapers such as Women's Press/Womyn's Press were part of a vigorous women-in-print movement that included periodicals, book publishers, distributors, and feminist bookstores. Eugene's feminist bookstore, Mother Kali's, carried on for 33 years, finally closing in 2008. In this public radio interview from a few months ago, longtime bookstore activist Lorraine Ironplow and her partner, Kylene Folsom, remember Mother Kali's.

Volume One, Number Seven -- August 1971

In August 1971, Women's Press Page One news was a recently concluded strike by the Communications Workers of America against Pacific Northwest Bell. National union officials gave speeches saying that the strike was about insuring that women and men received equal wages. But as the strike concluded, a contract was going up for a vote that would make wage discrimination worse than ever.

In other local news, Oregon Governor Bill McCall vetoed a bill that would have made it illegal for farm workers to organize unions. McCall's veto followed a week-long vigil by the farm workers and their supporters. The Council for Women's Equality reported on the 1971 session of the Oregon Legislature. Eugene activists started a local chapter of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Several women collaborated on a photo essay about the ways that little girls are molded into willing housewives. The original photo essay took up the center two pages of the newspaper. I had no way to scan the entire layout, so I had to do it in chunks. I did the best that I could, but what you see here can't match the power of the original.

You can find these and other articles below.

Table of Contents (With Links to Articles)

• Cover 
• "Phone Strike" -- Page 1
• Letters -- Page 2
• Local News -- Pages 2-3
• "Songs of Struggle" (Reprinted from Sing Out!) -- Pages 4-5
• "Oppression: Societal not Personal Roots" -- Page 6
• "Footnotes of a Maturing Woman" -- Page 6
• Book Reviews (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Them by Joyce Carol Oates) -- Page 7
• Photo Essay -- "Her Prison Needs No Walls" -- Pages 8-9
• "Swinging in the Marketplace" -- Page 10
• "Sexist Hits from the Ballpark" -- Page 10
• Gay People's Alliance Letter to the Register-Guard -- Page 10
• "Moon Slide" -- Page 11
• August Calendar -- Page 11
• "Growing Out of It" (Reprinted from the Portland Bridge) -- Pages 12-13
•  Information and Classified Ads (Includes brief articles about the formation of the National Women's Political Caucus and the Eugene chapter of the National Organization for Women) -- Page 14
• Poetry -- Page 15

Volume One, Number Six -- July 1971

In July, 1971, the women of Women's Press dealt with the topics of aging, rape, Chicana identity and a national YWCA Chicana conference. There was also debate about the merits of articles in the May/June issue that discussed sexism in the "alternative" culture, and a report of the discriminatory working environment experienced by waitresses at a local restaurant. Poetry, instructions for fixing a flat tire, herstory, and a review of Germaine Greer's Female Eunuch rounded out this issue of the paper. As was typical for Women's Press in this era, reprints from other feminist publications were mixed with the original articles and artwork produced by local women.

Table of Contents (With Links to Articles)

•  Cover
• "It Hurts to be Obsolete: The Aging Woman" -- Page 1
• Letters -- Page 2
• "The Solution is the Problem" -- Page 2
• Eugene: Local News: "Sexual Politics at the Brass Rail," "Women's Equality Council," and more -- Page 3
• Editorial Page -- Page 4
• "Broken Thoughts for Together Living" -- Page 5
• "Feeling Flat?" (Instructions for Changing a Flat Tire) -- Page 5
• Book Review: Female Eunuch -- Page 6
• Poetry Page -- Page 7
• "The Weaker Sex?" (Women's Work During World War II) -- Page 8
• "Rape: An Analysis" -- Page 10
• "Alternate Culture Mirrors America's" -- Page 11
• "Thinking Back" -- Page 11
• "Chicana Identify" -- Page 12
• Classified/Information -- Page 14
• Herstory: Abigail Scott Duniway, "Eggs in Jacksonville" -- Page 15

Volume One, Number Five -- May/June 1971

In May/June of 1971, Eugene's Women's Press published stories that seem strangely current to a contemporary reader. Feminists were engaged in anti-war activism, pondering the question of "Are Our Sons Dying for Off Shore Oil?" (In this case, the oil was off the shores of Cambodia.) Some feminists were questioning whether "alternatives" to capitalist culture are just as patriarchal as the mainstream they supposedly challenge. Women from privileged backgrounds struggle to confront both their privilege and their oppression. I don't know whether to be depressed or inspired by all of this. After all, as one second-wave writer put it, feminism is "the longest revolution."

Table of Contents (With Links to Articles)

•  Cover
• "From An American White White Middle Class Woman" (Poem) -- Page 1
• First Oregon NOW Chapter in Portland -- Page 1
• Editorial Page -- Page 2
• "May Day" (Coverage of Demonstrations) -- Page 3
• "Are Our Sons Dying for Off Shore Oil?" -- Page 3
• "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About VWs" -- Page 4
• Women's Labor News -- Page 5
• More News -- Page 6
• "Alternative Life Styles: The Monster in Disguise" -- Pages 7-10
• "How to be a Good Secretary" -- Page 10
• "Commune Life" and "Radicalibs" -- Page 11
• "Herstory: First Woman to Practice Law in Oregon" -- Page 12
• Poetry -- Page 13
• Information and Reviews -- Page 14

My interest in these matters

My interest in preserving and making Women's Press/Womyn's Press available is rooted in my own membership in the WP collective between June of 1983 and July of 1991. It is one of the hundreds of small, grassroots feminist newspapers that sprouted in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. I have a complete set, and while these newspapers are still in remarkably good shape, newsprint does deteriorate over time. Thus, this project.

I am also interested in preserving WP as part of my graduate school work in library studies and women's studies. This coming semester, I'm going to take a class called Contemporary Feminist Thought. Going through the textbooks, it seems that we will be studying primarily the work of academics. I think that it's also important to attend to the contributions to feminist theory made by ordinary women without academic credentials. For me, feminism is a profoundly egalitarian set of movements. WP contains artwork, stories, personal experiences, and yes, theory and analysis. It's worth preserving, and I hope you enjoy reading it.