Keeping TABS: Feminist Publishing and Pedagogy in the Wake of Title IX

ABSTRACT

TABS: Aids for Ending Sexism in School was a journal founded by Lucy Picco Simpson and the Organization for Equal Education of the Sexes. Attention to this publication sheds light on feminist activism as it transformed in the wake of Title IX legislation in the late 1970s and 1980s. In examining the journal’s ability to facilitate networking, production, and accountability, we gain greater insight into how teachers and students were able to question normative messages about race, gender, class, and ability in educational materials and diversify the range of historical figures discussed in schools.

Notes

1. The author gratefully acknowledges editor Elise Hurley, assistant editor Courtney Cox, RR reviewers Lisa Mastrangelo and Jessica Enoch, and Damien Smith Pfister for their helpful feedback on this manuscript. She would like to thank Barry Simpson for being willing to talk about Lucy Picco Simpson’s work, and Chuck Howell (University of Maryland Libraries) as well as the interlibrary loan librarians who helped to track down issues of TABS. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 2018 National Communication Association convention, and the author would like to thank respondent Roseann Mandziuk, fellow panelists Alyson Farzad-Phillips and Sara VanderHaagen, and audience members for their feedback.

2. My use of the term “women” throughout this manuscript refers to women-identified people and is meant to be trans-inclusive.

3. See TABS 5.3.

4. While there is no central repository for TABS posters, readers can see some examples at https://www.carlyswoods.com/tabs.html.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carly S. Woods

Carly S. Woods is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and affiliate faculty in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland.