WomanSpirit was founded by Ruth and Jean Mountaingrove in 1974, who had a vision for a magazine that was "international and radical feminist. We wanted a cultural revolution—a total reordering of institutions and values. It was to be a modest magazine with grand goals."[5] In 1978, they bought and moved to Rootworks, their lesbian land. From 1979 to 1984, they produced Womanspirit in the barn they built ("Natalie Barney"). Women who came to work on the different issues could stay on the land for however long they needed to or could.[6]
Impact
At the height of WomanSpirit's circulation, it was distributed to 91 women's bookstores, 10 countries, and had over 3,000 subscribers.[3][5] The existence of Rootworks and WomanSpirit has been credited by many women for bringing them into rural Oregon to participate in the women's land movement.[7]
After it folded, Jean Mountaingrove suggested that an index be made and Christine Menefee offered to make one.[8] It was published in 1989[9] and is out of print, but has been useful for researching feminist and women's history.[8]
^Christ, Carol (2000). "Womanspirit". In Kramarae, Cheris; Spender, Dale (eds.). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues. Routledge. pp. 2050–2051. ISBN9780415920889.
^"WomanSpirit". WomanSpirit. 2008. Archived from the original on 18 September 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
^ abSummerhawk, Barbara; Gagehabib, La Verne (2000). "3 Political Circles: Shaping a Community's Response". Circles of Power: Shifting Dynamics in a Lesbian-centered Community. Norwich, VT: New Victoria. p. 68. ISBN9781892281135.
^Mountaingrove, Ruth; Mountaingrove, Jean (1985). "Rootworks". In Cheney, Joyce (ed.). Lesbian Land. Minneapolis, Minn: Word Weavers. pp. 125–128. LCCN85016866.
