My Seven Mothers
Making a Family in the Danish Women's Movement Seven women raise a child together while redefining their place in society at the beginning of the Womenâs Movement in Denmark in the 1970s  Recounting her mothersâ history-from the passions and beliefs they shared to the political divisions over sexual identity that ultimately split them apart-Ipsen captures the individuality of each of her mothers as well as the common experiences that drew them together. As she deftly reflects the practical and emotional realities of her mothersâ women-centered life, Ipsen presents an engrossing picture of intersecting lives that, half a century ago, raised questions we still grapple with today: What is a family? Who is a woman? And who gets to decide?  A chronicle of gender, sexuality, and feminism as it was constructed, contested, and lived, My Seven Mothers is an eye-opening account of the challenges and possibilities connected with liberation and radical social change during the 1970s. In this time of fierce struggles over family, sexuality, and child-rearing, it reminds us that new worlds are always possible.
On New Yearâs Eve in Copenhagen in 1972, seven women had a child together: one gave birth and six others attended. They had met a year earlier at a feminist womenâs camp on a small island and now, with about twenty other womenâs liberationists, they occupied three dilapidated apartment buildings in the center of Copenhagen. One became the countryâs first Womenâs House, the nerve center of the Womenâs Movement in Denmark, and the other two were women-only communal living spaces that were Pernille Ipsenâs first home. In this intimate portrait of life during the exhilarating early days of womenâs liberation in Scandinavia and dramatic social change around the globe, she tells the stories of these seven women, her seven mothers.
Description
Making a Family in the Danish Women's Movement Seven women raise a child together while redefining their place in society at the beginning of the Womenâs Movement in Denmark in the 1970s  Recounting her mothersâ history-from the passions and beliefs they shared to the political divisions over sexual identity that ultimately split them apart-Ipsen captures the individuality of each of her mothers as well as the common experiences that drew them together. As she deftly reflects the practical and emotional realities of her mothersâ women-centered life, Ipsen presents an engrossing picture of intersecting lives that, half a century ago, raised questions we still grapple with today: What is a family? Who is a woman? And who gets to decide?  A chronicle of gender, sexuality, and feminism as it was constructed, contested, and lived, My Seven Mothers is an eye-opening account of the challenges and possibilities connected with liberation and radical social change during the 1970s. In this time of fierce struggles over family, sexuality, and child-rearing, it reminds us that new worlds are always possible.
On New Yearâs Eve in Copenhagen in 1972, seven women had a child together: one gave birth and six others attended. They had met a year earlier at a feminist womenâs camp on a small island and now, with about twenty other womenâs liberationists, they occupied three dilapidated apartment buildings in the center of Copenhagen. One became the countryâs first Womenâs House, the nerve center of the Womenâs Movement in Denmark, and the other two were women-only communal living spaces that were Pernille Ipsenâs first home. In this intimate portrait of life during the exhilarating early days of womenâs liberation in Scandinavia and dramatic social change around the globe, she tells the stories of these seven women, her seven mothers.
