Originally published in 1973, The New Woman’s Survival Catalog is a seminal survey of Second Wave feminist efforts, which represented an “active attempt to reshape culture through changing values and consciousness.”
Assembled by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie, the New Woman’s Survival Catalog nods to Stewart Brand’s influential Whole Earth Catalog, mapping a vast network of feminist alternative cultural activity in the 1970s. Grimstad and Rennie set out on a two month road trip across America in the summer of 1973, meeting and interviewing all the featured organizations and individuals, gathering information and further references along the way.
From arts organizations to bookstores and independent presses, health, parenting, and rape crisis centers, and educational, legal and financial resources, this book provides crucial insight into feminist initiatives and activism nationwide during the Women’s Movement, and was published in a time when social media was not around for access to crowdsourced recommendations. Being a woman and finding a supportive network was more difficult decades ago. Styled as a sales catalogue, The New Woman’s Survival Catalog comprises listings and organizational descriptions, articles, and extensive illustrations, as well as a “Making the Book” section, detailing the production.
Grimstad and Rennie went on to co-found Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women’s Culture, published out of downtown Los Angeles from 1977-1981.
The New Woman’s Survival Catalog has been rereleased, and while it may be considered a relic of earlier feminist movements toward equality, it still may serve as a guide and resource in taking care of ones self and each other.
Images courtesy of Primary Information Publishing
