New York Radical Women
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New York Radical Women was an early radical feminist group that existed from 1967–1969.
NYRW was founded in New York City in the fall of 1967, by Shulamith Firestone and Pam Allen. Early members included: Ros Baxandall, Carol Hanisch, Patricia Mainardi, Robin Morgan, Irene Peslikis, Kathie Sarachild, and Ellen Willis.
The first major protest NYRW attended was the Jeannette Rankin Brigade Protest in Washington, D.C., on January 15, 1968. Members of NYRW led an alternative protest event - a burial of traditional womanhood, held in Arlington National Cemetery. NYRW also participated in the first major Women's Liberation Movement (WLM) demonstration, the Miss America "bra burning" protest in Atlantic City, NJ, on September 7, 1968. The final national WLM event to occur with the NYRW group still intact was the Counter-Inauguration in Washington D.C., in January 1969.
By 1969, the various ideological tendencies within the group had coalesced into a radical feminist faction and a socialist feminist (or "politico") faction. Tension between the two factions ended up splitting the group in January 1969; the socialist feminists, such as Robin Morgan, left to form Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (W.I.T.C.H.), while the radical feminists around Shulamith Firestone started Redstockings.
New York Radical Women should not be confused with New York Radical Feminists, another group started by Firestone in 1969 after she split with Redstockings. It was also unrelated to Radical Women, a socialist feminist organization founded in 1967 that is still active.
Notes from the First Year
In June 1968, New York Radical Women publishes Notes from the First Year. It includes "classics" such as an early version of Anne Koedt's "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm," Kathy Amatniek's speech, "Funeral Oration for the Burial of Traditional Womanhood," and two texts by Shulamith Firestone.
