Women's Radio Reflects Women's Lives

Published: June, 2007
Written by Theresa W. Bennett-Wilkes
Republished with permission
link to original article

Producers Lisa Dettmer (background), Natasha Green (left) and Zulma Oliveras discuss gender issues on "Women's Magazine," a women's talk show on KPFA, FM 94.1.

Two years ago, several women affiliated with the independent Berkeley station, KPFA, FM 94.1, proposed a women's radio program intended to present and discuss women's lives and gender issues - globally and locally - from a radical multiracial feminist perspective.

By looking at women's art, culture and communities, their desired program would bring women's struggles and achievements to the forefront using a feminist critique vital to the progressive community.

It would be committed to sharing the struggles of women while providing a structural analysis of how these situations evolve and are perpetuated. Moreover, it would prioritize the voices and perspectives of women of color. Thus, Women's Magazine was born.

"There hadn't been any women's programs for about a decade," says Lisa Dettmer, a KPFA producer and co-producer of the magazine. "So a group of us got together to discuss women's programming. We submitted a proposal to the program council for a women's magazine that was feminist, womanist [and] mujerist." ("Feminist" often refers to the movement of educated white women, "womanist" to the plight of women of color, and the "mujerist" movement combines feminism with the womanist approach to address issues specifically impacting Latina women.)

The Women's Magazine debuted June 6, 2005, to an enthusiastic welcome from listeners, according to co-producer Jovelyn Richards, who believes its appeal comes from the discussion of the "world in which we're really living."

"We try to share diverse information from a radical and authentic perspective researched by people who care enough about their lives to find a way to communicate," she says.

Women's Magazine, that airs from 1-2pm every Monday except the last Monday of the month, sometimes rely on organizations and individuals to contact them with conversation topics, while other times shows are based on an idea or current event, according to Dettmer.

"For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day last year, we covered the women of the civil rights movement who normally don't get acknowledged that day. When the Iraq war began, we did several shows on the issue of women and militarism," she says.

Preeti Mangala Shekar, a journalist from India who came to the U.S. in 2003 for a master's in women's studies, is a member of the Women's Magazine collective. "I grew up in a highly conservative city amid some conservative family where a lot of patriarchal codes are seen as unquestionable norms," she says. "As a producer for the Women's Magazine I feel extremely honored and privileged to translate a lot of my feminist aspirations to reality."