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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1970-12-11 "Ain't I a Woman" Page 9
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[3 photos] (Continued from p. 8) Any child care that women can work on now has many serious problems. Most women have been working on getting together cooperative child care centers controlled by the community (people who are involved in them). Now if these centers are really community controlled there will be very few non-sexist centers. Most of the people involved in child care coops are people who have the time and interest to devote to working in centers or at least in coming to meetings where decision-making takes place. So far, in the Iowa City centers, most of the people in that position have been students, semi-political freaks and a few feminist-oriented women. At this point I am very skeptical of cooperative child-care centers with any connection whatsoever with industry or business. I don't know that they shouldn't exist. We should only be aware that the people could probably only have token control--as in the state-funded child care programs for low income people that are now in existence. In the next few years there will probably be several other types of child care cropping up. Universities, big business, and the state are all beginning to be pushed into child care by either liberal guilt or hopefully increasing power of women. They will provide child care which will begin to free women. They will fuck up a lot of children. Women must have child care. I only hope the children can be saved...eventually. II In spite of all the hassles involved in child care, we should continue to work on it. I have come to several conclusions about where our time should be spent. We should continue working on establishing child care centers--at minimum as a survival tool for women. Women should devote some time to working in centers if possible. People with experience in setting up childcare centers or coops should make their experience available to other people who are interested in child care. (This can be done either through writing on how to set up child care or speaking with people.) We must be certain to make clear to other people and to ourselves that the limited child care controlled by the people at this time is not an end. Through the centers we work on we will be helping women and children survive in this system that destroys so much in all of us. We can be free to learn our own ways of relating to children. Child care centers have the potential of bringing people together for mutual support and in some situations become an intermediary step between the nuclear family and some as yet undetermined living situation. One thing women must do is beware of wasting time and energy on child care projects where the people involved will have little or no control. That includes most universities, big business, Kentucky Fried Childcare type things and state programs. The liberals are going to be involved in these programs, so they are inevitably going to exist. I just don't feel it is worth the frustration to put energy into this type of childcare. These institutions are not going to hand over any control to the people. It may be difficult, but we must learn to recognize when it is a frustrating waste of time. It is very difficult to come to any conclusions at this point about organizing women through child care projects. The only thing to say is that it is very difficult and energy consuming. Women who have children and who are usually married have very few alternatives. The least we can do is lend our support to the women involved in child care. We also must constantly try to raise people's consciousness about sexism and all other political issues. The ideal would be to have a radical feminist perspective at the base of the entire program, but that is not possible in most situations. It is very early in our development to make any dogmatic decisions about what is correct or incorrect concerning child care. We have barely scratched the surface in knowing how to meet the needs of women with children of every economic class. We have yet to know exactly what we are capable of doing and what is worth doing. I realize that we are still relatively untogether on the issue of child care. I have tried to bring to the surface some of the problems we have run into in our experience in setting up child care centers. There is a lot more analysis that needs to be done. A Woman? Dec. 11, 1970 9
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[3 photos] (Continued from p. 8) Any child care that women can work on now has many serious problems. Most women have been working on getting together cooperative child care centers controlled by the community (people who are involved in them). Now if these centers are really community controlled there will be very few non-sexist centers. Most of the people involved in child care coops are people who have the time and interest to devote to working in centers or at least in coming to meetings where decision-making takes place. So far, in the Iowa City centers, most of the people in that position have been students, semi-political freaks and a few feminist-oriented women. At this point I am very skeptical of cooperative child-care centers with any connection whatsoever with industry or business. I don't know that they shouldn't exist. We should only be aware that the people could probably only have token control--as in the state-funded child care programs for low income people that are now in existence. In the next few years there will probably be several other types of child care cropping up. Universities, big business, and the state are all beginning to be pushed into child care by either liberal guilt or hopefully increasing power of women. They will provide child care which will begin to free women. They will fuck up a lot of children. Women must have child care. I only hope the children can be saved...eventually. II In spite of all the hassles involved in child care, we should continue to work on it. I have come to several conclusions about where our time should be spent. We should continue working on establishing child care centers--at minimum as a survival tool for women. Women should devote some time to working in centers if possible. People with experience in setting up childcare centers or coops should make their experience available to other people who are interested in child care. (This can be done either through writing on how to set up child care or speaking with people.) We must be certain to make clear to other people and to ourselves that the limited child care controlled by the people at this time is not an end. Through the centers we work on we will be helping women and children survive in this system that destroys so much in all of us. We can be free to learn our own ways of relating to children. Child care centers have the potential of bringing people together for mutual support and in some situations become an intermediary step between the nuclear family and some as yet undetermined living situation. One thing women must do is beware of wasting time and energy on child care projects where the people involved will have little or no control. That includes most universities, big business, Kentucky Fried Childcare type things and state programs. The liberals are going to be involved in these programs, so they are inevitably going to exist. I just don't feel it is worth the frustration to put energy into this type of childcare. These institutions are not going to hand over any control to the people. It may be difficult, but we must learn to recognize when it is a frustrating waste of time. It is very difficult to come to any conclusions at this point about organizing women through child care projects. The only thing to say is that it is very difficult and energy consuming. Women who have children and who are usually married have very few alternatives. The least we can do is lend our support to the women involved in child care. We also must constantly try to raise people's consciousness about sexism and all other political issues. The ideal would be to have a radical feminist perspective at the base of the entire program, but that is not possible in most situations. It is very early in our development to make any dogmatic decisions about what is correct or incorrect concerning child care. We have barely scratched the surface in knowing how to meet the needs of women with children of every economic class. We have yet to know exactly what we are capable of doing and what is worth doing. I realize that we are still relatively untogether on the issue of child care. I have tried to bring to the surface some of the problems we have run into in our experience in setting up child care centers. There is a lot more analysis that needs to be done. A Woman? Dec. 11, 1970 9
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