Linked with Women’s World, and with Women’s Voices.
Meredith Tax was born in Wisconsin and educated in the Milwaukee public school system. She attended Brandeis University, where she majored in English and graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson fellowships, both of which she took at the University of London. In London, she became involved in the antiwar movement and decided she wanted to become an activist rather than an academic. Returning to the US in 1968, she continued her antiwar work and was one of the initiators of Bread and Roses, an early socialist-feminist organization in Boston. Her first important piece of writing, “Women and Her Mind: the Story of Everyday Life,” (1970) is considered a founding document of the women’s movement. She has described her early women’s movement experiences in an essay in The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women’s Liberation (Crown, 1998) … (full biography).
She is also Board member of Women’s World.
She reads in her book: Jewish womens and the feminist revolution, an audio.
download her books: Rivington Street, 2001, 432 pages; and Union Square, 2001, 437 pages.
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Meredith Tax – USA
Familias, Families in the feminist press.
She says on Stereotypes about Women: « We have to imagine what we could have been if we had not been taught from birth that we are stupid, unable to analyze anything, intuitive, passive, physically weak, hysterical, overemotional, dependent by nature, incapable of defending against any attack, fit only to be the housekeeper, sex object, and emotional service center for some man or men and children. And then only if we’re lucky – otherwise we must act out a commerical mockery of those roles as someone else’s secretary ». (colorado.edu).
In the Year of Harry Potter, Enter the Dragon, by Meredith Tax, January 10, 2002.
Because most children’s books are written by women, a large majority of the authors they have targeted are female, among them Meredith Tax, President of Women’s WORLD. Archive/Library of Women’s World.
… Although Christian fundamentalists in the United States usually attack feminists through legal means rather than death threats (except in the case of anti-abortionists, who are responsible for a number of murders), they are no less virulent than fundamentalists of other faiths. Many of their campaigns are coordinated through the Christian Coalition, which has been particularly active in trying to censor children’s literature in schools and public libraries, concentrating on books with gay or anti-authoritarian characters, or magical themes. Christian fundamentalists have led campaigns against sex education in the schools; persecuted women’s studies and gay studies programs at the university level; and institutionalized the « gag rule, » which prevents abortion counseling in connection with any US-funded health programs. Because most children’s books are written by women, a large majority of the authors they have targeted are female, among them Meredith Tax, President of Women’s WORLD … (full text).
And she says: « Grace Paley, 1922-2007, was one of my closest friends. There are probably hundreds of people who could say this because Grace had the gift of intimacy. She not only made everyone she met feel she valued them; she really did value them » … (full text).
Taslima’s Pilgrimage, by Meredith Tax, October 31, 2002.
She writes: I represent Women’s WORLD, a global free speech network of feminist writers. Together with PEN American Center, we nominated Lydia Cacho for the Ginetta Sagan prize because she exemplifies the writer’s obligation to seek out the truth and tell it, even when it is dangerous to do so. In any country where the government, mainstream media, and big business are in bed together, democracy itself depends on what Doris Lessing has called “the small personal voice,” the courage of individual writers and journalists and activists who are clear-sighted enough to identify social problems and courageous enough to name them, sometimes against great odds … Meredith Tax on Lydia: the world is one place.
Not in Our Name, by Meredith Tax, May 17, 2001.
About 65 representatives from U.S. advocacy groups, including at least six women’s rights activists, have traveled to Geneva to discuss their concerns with the Human Rights Committee members, who are expected to issue observations and recommendations on July 28, 2006 … (full text).
Find her and her publications on Women’s World; on authors guide.net; on TESCO; on Google inauthor book-search; on Google (general) book-search; … sorry, due to her family name TAX, the other general Google searches are ending in tax-payer problems.
… on pw.org.
links:
the book Conflicts in Feminism;
The CWLU Herstory Website marketplace;
Documents from the Women’s Liberation Movement, An On-Line Archival Collection,
Created and maintained by Duke University, Reviewed March 2005.