Our Bodies, Our Selves

Our Bodies Ourselves (also called the Boston Women's Health Book Collective) is known throughout the world for creating a ground-breaking book that brings women’s knowledge to other women in a straightforward and supportive way and advances a feminist analysis of women’s health issues. Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS) began in 1970 as a small newsprint pamphlet which was so popular it was expanded into a full-fledged book in 1973. This became a best-seller; 35 years later, the book is known world-wide, has been translated or adapted into 18 languages, and was recently published in its 8th edition. OBOS is seen by many as an icon – women who have copies of the earliest pamphlet version of the material still treasure them. And OBOS is more than a book. It was written by a group of 15 women functioning as a collective; the organization they founded has continued its work for 35 years. During that time, over 100 women have been part of the process as staff and board members and hundreds of others have contributed to the book and other programs. Many individual collective members were nominated so, to all of the women involved with OBOS over the last 35 years, thank you for making the world a different, and better, place. See: www.ourbodiesourselves.org.