Women’s Groups

Scholarship on women-focused and -led groups and their impact on social outcomes emphasizes their unique and long-lasting contributions to society. The impact of women’s groups has been influential in the formation of states, the collapse of oppressive governments, the creation of new democratic institutions, changes in women’s health care, and challenges to gendered forms of oppression. Marija Gimbutas, the renowned archeologist, showed that considerable archeological evidence exists to demonstrate that in pre-Western societies prior to the arrival of the Bronze Age, which heralded the rise of patriarchy, women assembled in strength and numbers as an established cultural practice. Her archeological discoveries showed that thousands of years of pre–Bronze Age artifacts were marked by significant gatherings of women, showing women in goddess worship, civic care, and ...