The Rising of the Women
reprint from Fifth Estate Women’s Issue, March 4–17, 1971

This issue of the Fifth Estate, [#126, March 4–17, 1971] appearing on the 61ist anniversary of International Women’s Day, is dedicated to all our sisters around the world. It is the product of the Fifth Estate staff, women from the Women’s Media Co-op, and women involved in other activities around the city.

In this issue of the paper, we wanted the chance to express our ideas, art, anger, and feelings about our own lives. We are also women who are beginning to love each other and to feel good about ourselves. We are finding a lot of strength in sisterhood as we try to fight the oppression and exploitation that confronts us every day of our lives.

We want the freedom to control our bodies: to decide whether we want a child or an abortion. We want the freedom to develop our creativity and to have relationships with whomever we choose--male or female.

We are beginning to feel our own strength and are joining with our [ sisters and brothers already in motion, to provide alternatives to the institutions, life-styles, and personal relationships which we find so dehumanizing. We feel that liberation for all people can only be found in a classless society where the social system is designed to meet human needs, not profit, and where people have control over all the forces that affect their lives.

We want to come together with sisters and brothers to build a revolutionary movement for a new society. And we must create a strong women’s movement to insure that. Our liberation will be a conscious part of the change that’s coming.