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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF CWLU HERSTORY PROJECT I t's hard to believe, but as late as the 1960s women were unable to apply for a credit card or a mortgage and were only rarely elected to public office. In 1969, more than 50 Chicago women banded together to change all that, joining forces in Palatine to establish the Chicago Women's Liberation Union and demand that their voices be heard. Then a community organizer in Uptown, CWLU founding member Vivian Rothstein was inspired by her experience as part of a peace delegation to North Vietnam ("They would run literacy programs and daycare cen- ters in villages and promote women's leadership," she recalls) and wanted to equip women with the skills needed to thrive on their own and create a new social order back in the States. "We never thought all you need to do is raise consciousness, or all you have to do is get women into top positions," says Rothstein about the CWLU. "We felt like you had to do it all at once." Initially staffed by volunteers, the radical feminist organization offered classes and services to more than 500 women through initiatives such as the Rape Project, a crisis hotline for victims ("We were very pluralistic and supported the phrase 'Let a thousand f lowers bloom,'" she says); the Liberation School for Women; abortion counseling; and the Women's Graphics Collective, which promoted women's liberation. "We really wanted an organization where women could be leaders," says Rothstein, an active participant in the CWLU until 1974, three years before it disbanded. She attests to the group's lasting impact on the women's movement, adding with pride, "[Women] could change their lives, change their city, and change life for [other] women." MA Leading Ladies FORTYFIVE YEARS AGO, A GROUP OF PASSIONATE WINDY CITY RESIDENTS ESTABLISHED THE CHICAGO WOMEN'S LIBERATION UNION TO CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO. BY SOFIA CARLSON CWLU members like Della Leavitt (LEFT, circa 1975) helped turn Chicago into a hub of the women's movement. 16 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM F ront Runners 016_MA_FOB_FR_May/June_14.indd 16 4/14/14 5:37 PM