Women's History Month: Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was a Lithuanian-born Jewish émigré and political radical who fought for improved working conditions for low-income laborers and for decriminalization of birth control, which was illegal at the time. She and her sister fled Russian pogroms in 1885, landing in New York state.
As a result of the persecution she and her community endured in Russia, and the persecution of labor leaders during labor strikes in the United States, she became an anarchist — someone who believed that any form of government is undesirable. The Comstock Act of 1873, which had made both abortion and birth control illegal in the United States, were examples of state tyranny. She protested by committing civil disobedience (illegal acts committed to highlight the injustice of a law): she distributed a pamphlet titled Family Limitation and delivered speeches teaching people how to practice birth control. Like her contemporary Margaret Sanger, she understood the ability to limit fertility in political terms: as an act of women's liberation by reducing their economic dependence on men.
She was arrested in New York City in 1916 and briefly imprisoned. In 1919, she was deported to Russia during a purge of radical émigrés after World War I (aka the Red Scare).
Read more about Emma Goldman at the Library of Congress and ThoughtCo.
This vignette of Emma Goldman was produced by the Chancellor's Commission on Women.
Topics
Contacts
Charlie Alison, executive editor
University Relations
479-575-6731,
calison@uark.edu
Headlines
Federal Government Shutdown Avoided, 45-Day Continuing Resolution Passes
The university will continue to monitor the FY24 appropriations process and keep the campus community informed accordingly.
Kayleb Rae Candrilli, 2023-24 Walton Visiting Writer in Poetry, to Read in Fayetteville
Candrilli will read from their work at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Home Economics Auditorium, room 0102, as the 2023-24 Walton Visiting Writer in Poetry.
Gender Studies Program's Third Annual Bridge Fellows Program
The Bridge Fellows Program is designed to support graduate research on gender issues in any department or college for the spring semester.
Gavin Miller Selected as September's Student Leader of the Month
Gavin Miller, an honors junior from Bryant who is studying public health and biology, has been selected as the Student Leader of the Month for August.
U of A Health Plans Add RSV Vaccines to Medical Coverage Options
The U of A System Office has announced that eligible U of A employees will soon have access to Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection vaccines covered with no out-of-pocket expense through United Medical Resources.