Use Restrictions

Oral histories and transcripts are protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use them in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses, obtain permission from the interviewees.

Access Restriction

Collection is open to research.

Alternative Form Available

Another version of this finding aid is available via the VCU Libraries Special Collections and Archives Finding Aids site.

Preferred Citation

The Virginia Feminist Oral History Project, 2013-2014, Collection # M 541, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Acquisition Information

The materials in this collection were donated by the creators and Megan Taylor Shockley in 2016.

Historical Information

The Virginia Feminist Oral History Project was created and conducted by Dr. Megan Taylor Shockley, a professor of history at Clemson University. Shockley collected the stories of second-wave feminists throughout the state with the intention of using them in written works on Virginia women's activism and feminism during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

The stories included in this collection serve to correct the historiographical record which tends to locate feminist activism only in Midwestern, Northeastern, and Western regions of the country by capturing the voices of a diverse array of women involved in different organizations and various aspects of the movement from a number of geographical regions across the state of Virginia. These oral histories also fill a gap in the written historical record by documenting the women's personal reflections and perspectives on how they became feminists, their relationships with other activists, and the relationships between women and various organizations that fought for women's rights.

Scope and Contents

The Virginia Feminist Oral History Project consists of oral history interviews that Dr. Megan Taylor Shockley conducted with women involved in second-wave feminism and related activism in Virginia during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Topics discussed in the oral histories include the interviewees' early lives and education; their experiences as feminists and activists; their work with various local, state, and national organizations; and their perspectives on feminism and the future of the movement. These oral histories document how the women interviewed understood their own progressive actions, how they formed their individual feminist perspectives on the world, how they related to other feminist women, and how they assess their work in light of the contemporary political landscape.

The collection materials include audio recordings and transcripts of the interviews. The interviewees include women active in a number of organizations, including the Virginia Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Richmond Lesbian Feminists, Lesbian Women of Color, League of Women Voters, National Organization for Women, Virginia Women's Political Caucus, and similar organizations, as well as professionals who work or have worked in anti-violence and pro-choice movements. The geographic span of the collection ranges from far western Iron Gate in Alleghany county to Virginia Beach, and from Northern Virginia to Draper in the Southwestern part of the state.

Arrangement

Collection materials are arranged alphabetically by last name of interviewee.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• League of Women Voters of Virginia
• National Organization for Women
• Shockley, Megan Taylor
• Virginia Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Council

Disclaimer

The content of oral history interviews is personal as it relies on the recollections and opinions of individuals as reported to the interviewer. The audio recording should be considered the primary source for each interview. Transcripts serve as a guide to the interview. As transcription is an interpretive process, transcripts may include errors and omissions.