About us
Herland is a nonprofit organization operated entirely by volunteers. We provide resources for the women’s community to strengthen, enrich, and support women, and to promote a world free of prejudice, oppression and exploitation.
We publish a monthly newsletter, operate a bookstore and lending library, and host a wide array of social and educational activities and services. Herland has been serving the women’s community since 1982.
We are a womanist organization with a strong lesbian focus. However, Herland is not restricted to just lesbians. All women are welcome.
In November 2003, we celebrated 20 years of Herland. Herland Sister Resources was born from an idea and an ideal. The womyn of Herland dreamed of a world where womyn’s values, ethics and perspectives would lead to more justice and less suffering. A world that was safe for all. A world that recognized and valued difference.
In the early 1980s, Oklahoma was full of womyn alive with a new energy and enthusiasm, deeply committeed to the struggle for human rights. Coming out of the turbulent social era of the 1960s and 70s, activism was a natural part of these womyn’s vocabulary for change. They rallied to stop rape and pass the Equal Rights Amendment, and they stood up defiantly agains oppression in any form — sexism, racism, heterosexism, misogyny, or homophobia. The protested domestic violence and challenged traditional definitions of womyn’s mental and physical health and beauty. They felt empowered to change the system.
It was from this that Herland was born. The womyn of Herland were ready to redefine and create their own world. Womyn’s books and music were giving a voice to the new and sometimes radical ideas coming out of that world. Herland was, and is, a place that embodied all of these ideals and nurtured the womyn who held them, so they based the name of their new organization on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1915 feminist utopian novel, Herland.
Herland has and continues to foster countless friendships. Herland has been and is a diverse collection of womyn from many different backgrounds joining together for a higher purpose. For over 20 years now, those coming to Herland find themselves being connected with a community, a family as it were, of growing, evolving womyn.
For more personal stories about Herland’s creation and growth over the years, read the following stories from past issues of the Herland Voice:
Getting involved with Herland provides you with opportunities to meet people, serve others in our community, and educate the public on our issues.
Whether you attend one of our social functions, volunteer on a project, or make a donation that allows us to continue our work, your participation is welcomed and appreciated.
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