Boston Women’s Health Book Collective

Abstract

Our Bodies, Ourselves is a remarkable example of what one feminist “small group” could achieve. A consciousness-raising discussion among a few women at a 1969 conference revealed a shared frustration with the medical profession. On their own, this group, the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, developed a free workshop and a series of pamphlets about women’s health — birth control, childbirth, menstruation, the mechanics of reproductive organs, and more. Turned into a newsprint book by the radical New England Free Press, it sold 250,000 copies (ten cents each when sold in bulk) from 1970 to 1973. Simon and Schuster, a mainstream publisher, bought the rights to the book in 1973. Regularly updated, it has sold more than three million copies over the past thirty years. The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective’s share of the book’s profits is used to fund women’s health projects.