Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book By and For Women

This 1971 book provided access to women-centered knowledge of reproductive health. In lay terms, it featured a blend of scientific evidence and feminist interpretation about issues like masturbation, sexuality, and birth control. Women passed it from hand to hand, students read it aloud in dorm rooms, and it was occasionally banned from high schools and public libraries. This early newsprint copy, from the files of the University of Michigan Women’s Advocate Office, was used to inform and counsel women students. Today more than 4 million copies of the book, printed in 25 languages, have been sold.

Women And Their Bodies: a Course (1970). Boston Women's Health Collective. Boston: The Collective. From the Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan.