Abstract
Our Bodies Ourselves has been at the forefront of the women’s health movement for half a century, both reflecting and shaping that movement. This chapter summarizes that history, including how its mission and distribution have evolved over time. Co-authored by a founder of Our Bodies Ourselves, and the current director of Our Bodies Ourselves Today, this chapter includes both first person narrative and critical analysis. It explores the impact of the book and the organization that wrote and updated it, in the USA and globally. Selling millions of copies, and translated and adapted into 33 languages, Our Bodies Ourselves is one of the most influential books of the New Left social revolutions that begin in the 1960s. It has always combined three critical strands of a new and empowering approach to women’s health: (1) clear information, as scientifically accurate as possible, accessibly presented, (2) women’s personal stories, and (3) political analysis of the medical care system and of sexual relationships.
(*Our Bodies Ourselves Founders: Ruth Davidson Bell Alexander, Pamela Berger, Ayesha Chatterjee, Vilunya Diskin, Joan Ditzion, Paula Doress-Worters, Nancy Miriam Hawley, Elizabeth MacMahon-Herrera, Pamela Morgan (1949–2008), Judy Norsigian, Jamie Penney, Jane Kates Pincus, Esther Rome (1945–1995), Wendy Sanford, Norma Swenson, Sally Whelan, Kiki Zeldes)
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Agigian, A., Sanford, W. (2021). Our Bodies, Ourselves: 50 Years of Education and Activism. In: McCallum, D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4106-3_28-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4106-3_28-1
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