CCCC Feminist Caucus

The Feminist Caucus is a standing group of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, a conference of the national organization NCTE: the National Council of Teachers of English.

History: For 30 years, we were the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession but decided it was time to evolve to a member-driven group form. The committee was informally established in 1978. Evidence suggests that the group continued to work informally and openly until records indicate in 1989 that it was officially listed as a special committee reconstituted every 3 years under its current name.

By this time the Committee’s work included offering a half-day Women’s Open House for the purpose of informal networking and “R and R” for CCCC women; submitting a proposal for a half-day preconvention workshop, “Demarginalizing Women’s Ways of Writing”; and sponsoring a SIG session to elicit proposals for Committee work from CCCC women and to form CCCC panels; have a women’s table in the exhibitor’s hall; send a copy of the “Guidelines for Nonsexist Use of Language in NCTE Publications” along with a cover letter to members of the Association of Departments of English. Minutes indicate that the Committee, even then, was seeking ways to determine the need for daycare at CCCC conventions.

In 2016, we applied for and received designation as a Standing Group of CCCC. We voted to rename the Standing Group on the Status of Women in the Profession the Feminist Caucus to better represent our activist, labor, and inclusive values.

As the Feminist Caucus, we are eager to continue the following activities that we have historically sponsored or led:

• • • • the annual Feminist Workshop at the CCCC Convention (CCCC Feminist Workshop Archive)

      • The Women's Lives in the Profession Digital Literacy Narrative Project

      • Service Mapping and Visibility Project (see article in Peitho, 2015)

      • The Women's Network SIG

      • Annual Business Meeting

      • Co-Sponsorship with the CCCC EC of the CCCC Childcare Grant program

      • CCCC Convention Commemorative Quilt Project

      • Invitation to Contribute Your Reflections to the Feminist Workshop Archive

Join the conversation on social media and our distribution list:

• • • • Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/4cfeministcaucus/

      • Google Group Email Listserv: feminist-caucus@googlegroups.com