Among and between women: Califia Community, grassroots feminist education, and the politics of difference, 1975-1987

Abstract

This dissertation assesses a Los Angeles-based feminist educational alternative called Califia Community in the context of a cultural war between Second Wave feminists and members of the New Right. Analysis of oral histories with thirty-two participants (narrators) is supported by archival sources and narrators' personal files to historicize U.S. divisions over cultural mores and to shed light on the diversity and tactics among Second Wave feminists. In contrast to foundational scholarship, a reevaluation of National Organization for Women sources in association with California participants' actions and writings clarifies that the lesbian-straight split continued to divide the movement well into the 1980s and that the role of eastern leadership in feminism has been overstated. Califia Community demonstrates that lesbian feminists engaged in a complex attempt to combat multiple oppressions and to address the whole person in relation to society. Califia's diversity of attendees and education on sexism, homophobia, racism, and class bias reveals that a grassroots group could sustain heterogeneity but that identity-based politics exacerbated problems.