Boston Womens Health Book Collective

The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective was a women’s health organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, that published the informational book Our Bodies Ourselves, which sold over 4.5 million copies. Initially called the Doctor’s Group, the Collective was formed in response to the insufficiency of women-specific health information during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Members of the organization participated in the women’s liberation movement in Boston, Massachusetts, and conducted research on women’s health using resources such as medical textbooks. 

They collectively created an original publication surrounding women’s health concerns and offered educational courses for women to learn more about their bodies and share their experiences. The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, later called Our Bodies Ourselves, expanded access to women’s health information throughout the world with its publications, courses, and outreach. During the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s, women campaigned across the US for solutions to gender inequalities. 

The women in the movement focused on issues such as employment inequality and the lack of reproductive health options and education. In the mid-twentieth century, abortion was illegal and punishable by law in the US. Contraception was legalized in the US in 1965. Few women had access to reproductive health specialists, and those who did most likely saw a male physician. Women reported not receiving adequate reproductive health information from their primary care doctors. 

According to some women, they were embarrassed and unable to communicate their reproductive health issues to their doctors. In May of 1969, twelve women met at a women’s liberation conference held at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, to discuss women’s health issues. Specifically, the women met at a conference workshop titled “Women and Their Bodies.” There, attendees shared stories about their experiences with medical doctors. 

After the conference, women who had attended the conference claimed to have realized how little they knew about their own bodies. According to the attendees, the conversations at the conference provoked the women to form a discussion group that they called the Doctor’s Group. The members met in the basement of an Armenian church for group meetings and discussed their bodies and health.