Women only spaces are essential to women’s liberation. As Gerda Lerner explained based in her historical research into the factors that allow women to develop feminist consciousness:

“Sex-segregated social space became the terrain in which women could confirm their own ideas and test them against the knowledge and experience of other women. Here, they could also, for the first time in history, test their theories in social practice….[T]hese all-female spaces could help women to advance from a simple analysis of their condition to the level of theory formation. Or, in other words, to the level of providing not only their own autonomous definitions of their goals but an alternate vision of societal organization – a feminist world-view.”
From The Creation of Feminist Consciousness by Gerda Lerner

XX Amazons is collecting women’s stories about their own experiences with women only spaces. If you would like to share your own experiences and thoughts about women only space, please email your writing to us for consideration. Please keep your stories reasonably short. We are publishing your stories on our web site and may also be creating a booklet.

Women’s Stories and Thoughts About Women Only Space

Women Only, Lesbian Only Space: Path to Lesbian Feminist Revolution by Jeanne F. Neath

Crocuses & Women Only Space by Copia Webster