Abstract
Around 6:00 P.M. on Friday, February 4, 1972, about twenty women and four children entered and took control of the East Asian studies building on the campus of the University of Kansas. “This action has been taken because the needs of women in this community have long been neglected,” read the manifesto of the February Sisters, as the group called itself. They made six demands of the university: create an affirmative action program; establish a daycare center; provide comprehensive women’s health care at Watkins Hospital, the student health center; create an autonomous women’s studies department; end wage inequities and unfair employment practices; and hire more women in faculty and administration positions. Negotiations between the Sisters and members of the Senate Executive Committee (SenEx) took place twice during the night, and early the next day an agreement was reached. A SenEx resolution supported a student senate-funded daycare center and a commitment to establish a women’s health care clinic, an offer that the Sisters accepted. Cheered by about sixty other women gathered around the building, they relinquished control of the building before 9:00 A.M. and proclaimed victory.1
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Notes
This account is drawn from the following: “‘Sisters’ End Sit-in after KU Talks,” Lawrence Daily Journal-World (hereafter, LDJW), 5 February 1972; Judith Galas, “Nighttime Takeover Births Women’s Programs: Looking Back with a February Sister,” News & Notes (autumn 1991): 1, 3, in scrapbook, Women’s Students Program, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas (hereafter, WSP); “A History of the Seizure and Occupation of the East Asian Studies Building by the February Sisters, or What It Takes to Make Men Move,” ephemeral material, 7 February 1972, WSP; Beth Bailey, Sex in the Heartland (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 127–130.
The Lawrence Journal-World ran a front-page story on the February Sisters on 6 February 1972, and a page-three article on 7 February 1972, but I could find no editorials or letters to the editors for the months of February and March.
W. H. Trippensee to Robert F. Ellsworth, 6 March 1961, Robert F Ellsworth Papers (hereafter, RFE) 75.1; Mr. and Mrs. Bert Day to Robert F. Ellsworth, 30 April 1964, RFE, 87.1.
Quoted in “‘More Truly Women,” (editorial) LDJW, 13 August 1960, 4.
U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Population: 1960. Volume I, Characteristics of the Population. Part 18, Kansas (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960), 208, table 73; 222, table 78.
Ibid., and U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Population: 1970. Volume I, Characteristics of the Population. Part 18, Kansas (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970), 323, table 105.
“KU Coeds Dominate Swimsuit Competition,” LDJW, 11 July 1970; Edds quoted in “No Diets for Miss Kansas,” LDJW, 13 July 1970.
The polling information is taken from William H. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II, 4th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 434.
See Bailey, Sex in the Heartland, 127, and Bailey, “Prescribing the Pill: Politics, Culture, and the Sexual Revolution in America’s Heartland,” Journal of Social History, 30:4 (summer 1997): 827–856.
Judy Browder, “Women’s Decade of History,” WSP; Vortex (Lawrence, Kansas) 2:2, 1970.
Loose clipping, Peggy C. Scott, “Participants Trace Women’s Groups’ Past,” University Daily Kansan (hereafter, UDK), 19 October 1973, in Dean of Women, Records, Subject: Female Studies-Kansas Union (hereafter, DOW), box 7, “Feminism 1972–1974” folder, University of Kansas Archives, Lawrence, Kansas (hereafter, UA); loose clipping, “Coeds Attack Stereotyped Status of Women,” Wichita Eagle and Beacon, 31 January 1971, 1E, in Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Chronological Records, 1969/70—, box 1, “1970/71” folder, UA.
Hird’s comments found in “Participants Trace Women’s Groups’ Past”; “handful of women” and “emphasize the sof ter traits” found in “Coeds Attack Stereotyped Status of Women”; University Commission on the Status of Women, “Reports of the Associated Women Students Commission on the Status of Women, 1969–1970,” in CSW, box 1, “1969/70” folder.
Spencer quoted in “Participants Trace Women’s Groups’ Past”; on response to the Women’s Center, see letters to the editor, LDJW, 28 and 29 July 1970.
“Participants Trace Women’s Groups’ Past.”
Taylor quoted in “Coeds Attack Stereotyped Status of Women”; the final quote is taken from Emily Taylor, “Choice and Change,” Kansas University Commission on the Status of Women, 1970–71 Handbook, in CSW, box 1, “1970/71” folder.
Katzman and Krasne in “Participants Trace Women’s Groups’ Past”; Bocell quoted in “Coeds Attack Stereotyped Status of Women.”
Loose clipping, “Emily Taylor: Committed to Equal Rights for Women,” UDK 19 October 1973, in DOW box 7, “Feminism 1972–1974” folder.
Suanne Bocell and Suzanne Kelly to the University of Kansas Regents, 27 August 1970; Susie Bocell, “K.U. Commission 1970,” Comment 1:1 (October 1970); and Karen Hink, “Comment,” Comment 1:1 (October 1970), all in CSW, box 1, “1970/71” folder.
Boydston quoted in “Coeds Attack Stereotyped Status of Women”; Eike quoted in “Participants Trace Women’s Groups’ Past.”
Zodiac Club [Lawrence, Kansas], “Program, 1967–1968,” and “Program, 1972–1973,” in Zodiac Club Records, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas (hereafter, KC).
Zodiac Club, minutes of meeting, 26 September 1972, Zodiac Club Record Book, 206.
Radical feminism in Lawrence taken from Bailey, Sex in the Heartland, 127; “provocative” quote and “consciousness raising” taken from Alice Echols, Daring to be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967–1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), 3–4.
Morgan quotes taken from “Writer Critiques Feminism,” LDJW, 3 February 1972. According to Linkeugel, in his presentation to the Zodiac Club, Morgan said women in Lawrence must “persuade him to stop, or bribe him, or threaten him, or if necessary, kill him.” See Zodiac Club, minutes of meeting, 26 September 1972.
“Morgan didn’t organize” taken from Galas, “Nighttime Takeover”; additional information about the Sisters’s founding is found in Debra Graber, “Beyond Closed Doors: A Sit-in That Stands Out,” Report From the University of Kansas (spring 1987), 2–3; and “February Sisters Panel Discussion,” 1987, transcribed by Gina Witt and Sherry Fugitt, “February Sisters Information” (notebook), both in WSP.
Graber, “Beyond Closed Doors” and “February Sisters Panel Discussion.”
There is a growing literature on the civil rights movement that examines the different leadership roles and styles of men and women and expands our understanding of leadership away from the “charismatic male” model, embodied in Martin Luther King, Jr., that has dominated earlier histories of civil rights. See, for example, Charles M. Payne, “Men Led, But Women Organized: Movement Participation of Women in the Mississippi Delta,” and other essays in Vicki L. Crawford, Jacqueline Rouse, and Barbara woods, eds., Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1993), and Charles M. Payne, “Ella Baker and Models of Social Change,” Signs 14 (1989): 885–899; consult also Payne’s I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995). For more recent assessments, see the sociologist Belinda Robnett’s How Long? How Long? African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), and Belinda Robnett, “African-American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1965: Gender, Leadership, and Micromobilization,” The American Journal of Sociology 101:6 (May 1996): 1661–94.
For example, a Washington, D.C. feminist, Marilyn Webb, was removed from the coordinating committee of the D.C. Women’s Liberation because the media was able to identify her as a leader of the organization. See Echols, Daring to be Bad 205.
“February Sisters,” LDJW 1 February 1987, loose clipping in WSP; “‘Sisters’ End Sit-in after KU Talks,” LDJW, 5 February 1972.
Conrad quoted in “‘Sisters’ End Sit-in after KU Talks”; Chalmers quoted in “Chancellor Lists ‘Action’ Plans,” LDJW, 4 February 1972; “Senate Tells ‘Sisters’ No,” LDJW, 17 February 1972.
John Overbrook to the editor, UDK, 8 February 1972.
Darras L. Delamaide to the editor, UDK, 8 February 1972.
Loose clipping, “KU Student to Drop Action Against Sisters,” LDJW, 6 March 1972, in “February Sisters Information” (notebook), WSP.
Chip Crews, “A Few Sour Notes” (editorial), UDK8 February 1972.
Graber, “Beyond Closed Doors” and “February Sisters Panel Discussion.”
Joan Handley to the editor, UDK 12 February 1972.
Bailey, Sex in the Heartland.
Schwegler quoted in Clifford S. Griffin, The University of Kansas: A History (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1975), 634; “Sisters Stress ‘Necessity’ of Women’s Health Services,” UDK, 15 February 1972.
Bailey, “Prescribing the Pill,” 833–842; Schwegler quoted in “Six Demands That Never Left Campus,” UDK, 2 March 1990.
Loose clipping, “February Sisters Mark Anniversary with Satisfaction,” LDJW, January 1973, in “February Sisters Information” (notebook), WSP.
Linda Gordon, Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976), 410.
Emily Taylor to James B. Pearson, 25 September 1970, James B. Pearson Papers (hereafter, JBP), 84.15.
(Mrs.) Elaine Eklund to James B. Pearson, 25 September 1970, JBP, 84.15.
Vivian Rogers McCoy to James B. Pearson, 25 September 1970; Mrs. Evelyn M. Kipp to James B. Pearson, n.d. [September 1970]; Ruth Mitchell, telegram to James B. Pearson, 2 September 1970; Virginia E. Detter to James B. Pearson, 2 September 1970; Erma L. Morgan to James B. Pearson, 2 September 1970; Iris W. Aller to James B. Pearson, 2 September 1970; all in JBP, 84.15.
The Kansas House of Representatives ratified the ERA by a comfortable margin of eighty-six for to thirty-seven against. The Kansas Senate approved the bill by an even larger margin, thirty-four for and five against.
Mr. and Mrs. Robert R. Burk to James B. Pearson, 19 March 1975, JBP, 163.15; Larry E. and Mary E. Shambaugh to Pearson, 17 February 1975, JBP, 163.16; Mrs. Elmer Rollins to Pearson, 27 January 1975, JBP, 163.17; Mrs. A.W. Luallin to Pearson, 21 January 1975, JBP, 163.17; Mrs. Alice M. Smith to Pearson, 16 January 1975, JBP, 163.17.
Mildred Catlett to Pearson, 16 July 1975, JBP, 163.15; Nanette Alexander to Pearson, 12 February 1975, JBP, 163.16; Mrs. E. A. (Nantette) Alexander to Pearson, 18 March 1975, JBP, 163.16.
The first quote is taken from “Groups Tries to Undo ‘Hasty’ ERA Action,” LDJW, 6 February 1975; Barnes quoted in “Varied Opinions Emerge At Anti-ERA Gathering,” LDJW, 5 March 1975, both cited in Sonja L. Erickson, “In Defense of the Family: The Fight to Rescind the ERA in Kansas, 1974–1979” (master’s thesis, University of Kansas, 1995), 44, 49.
Alice LaFrenz to the editor, LDJW, 7 March 1975; Connie Kamp to the editor, LDJW, 18 March 1975, both cited in Erickson, “Defense of the Family,” 57.
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© 2002 Rusty L. Monhollon
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Monhollon, R.L. (2002). “Finally we were Doing Something”. In: “This is America?”. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982407_10
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