Clip Off and Slap On

If you’ve been to the Rauner mezzanine this summer, you may have noticed that we’re offering swag: free stickers from the 1971 Liberated Woman’s Appointment Calendar and Survival Handbook, currently on display in our Rauner Staff Picks exhibit. The appointment calendar portion is something like a feminist version of a book of saints, featuring, instead of feast days, dates from women’s history that run the gamut from well-known (e.g., July 19, the first day of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention) to downright obscure (e.g., February 25, the day in 1959 when someone named Josephine Bay became the first woman to head a major steamship company). Paging through the calendar, it’s notable how many of the feminist anniversaries it memorializes are from the previous year. As the editors explain in the introduction, 1970 was the year that women’s liberation “burst into the headlines,” marking “a new chapter in female history — so many womanly accomplishments, you’d need a calendar to keep track.”

All of this is interesting, but what makes this book special are the “survival forms” at the back, including a “Charge of Discrimination Form” that can easily be filled out and sent to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a “Barefoot Pregnant Award of the Week for Advertising Degrading to Women” which can be clipped out and mailed to the offending company. And, of course, there are the stickers that can be slapped on things that insult women: ads, construction workers, enzyme detergents, midi-skirts, etc. We couldn’t let something this cool and funny stay locked up under glass, so we turned them into real stickers. Swing by our exhibit and grab some while supplies last.

To grab a feminist sticker, come to the mezzanine until next Friday, September 4th.

Print your own stickers with this PDF (Avery template 5163, easily found in any office supply store).

To view the Liberated Woman’s Appointment Calendar, request Rare HQ1105 .W639 online and then come to Rauner.