One of the big distinctions between different publications of the WLM was between journals and newsletters which were intended to be "internal" and those which were meant to be "external." Some, like off our backs in the US, were meant to be both. The difference tended to be one of money, and how much the established publishing "industry" recognized the legitimacy of the publication. Ms., for example, was launched as a mainstream, (relatively) large budget magazine. While its editorial staff considered themselves to be part of the WLM, they hired mainstream public relations firms to do their publicity and accepted advertising from mainstream companies. The difference was also one of ideology. Many women believed that the ideas and discussions of the movement should not be made accessible to those outside the movement (the publications which were not meant for external consumption tended to have a lot less money, too).
As the movement made in-roads into mainstream institutions which had traditional publishing resources, such as universities, publications legitimated (and funded) by those institutions arose. With the funding, however, came constraints on the content and/or style of publications.
With these distinctions in mind, below is a list of some of the journals which fall into these external/scholarly categories, which isn't to say that some may not be just as radical or unapologetically (and encouragingly) ideological. FINRRAGE certainly is.
Feminist Studies This is a university publication begun in 1979 in the UK. It could be considered the British equivalent of Signs: Journal of Women and Culture.
FINRRAGE Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering (FINRRAGE)is also the name of the organization's publication. This site lists contents of the recently resurrected journal and subscription information. This organization and publication is easily the most radical of radical feminist criticism of the new reproductive technologies. off our backs The off our backs site has featured articles from the newspaper as well as conference and festival information and an excellent collection of readers' favorite bumper stickers. On the Issues is a recent feminist magazine begun in the mid-nineties and sadly defunct already. The site still has an excellent search engine and links to feminist sites as well as full text articles from the magazine. (There are some links to articles from On the Issues on this site.) Sojourner: The Women's Forum Sojourner is published in Boston and began in the later 1970s. It's always been a more external, "women's culture" publication and it has lots of listings of women's groups and activities in Massachusetts. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism Includes information about the journal and links to other women and law journals and feminist resources. Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy Site is searchable and contains full text articles. Women Studies International Forum
This journal is only a few years old. It publishes many of the best women's studies professors and scholars from around the world and has a strong international focus. However, the site only lists titles of articles published in the journal. You can order a sample copy from this site. Signs This site also only provides information about the journal (first published in 1975). It has published some of the most groundbreaking scholarly work in women's studies, including Catharine MacKinnon's "two Signs articles on feminist methodology which is the foundation for her later work on women and the state.
