The Women's Pentagon Action and Solidarity with the Women of Iran

The Women's Pentagon Action and Solidarity for the Women of Iran: inflection points of US feminist activism, 1979 and 1980.

Diana Mara Henry self-assigned to photograph two turning points of women's activism in the US, a demonstration in solidarity with the Women of Iran, December 1979 - one of the very few US feminist actions - and the Women's Pentagon Action, November 16 and 17, 1980. The WPA was sponsored by Women for Life on Earth and combined environmental concerns with anti-militarism. So many thousands of women attended that they were able to completely encircle the Pentagon as they tried to prevent military personnel while engaging them about their roles; weaving across the entranceways, planting symbolic graves for women oppressed by the system; and street theater with giant puppets created by Amy Trompetter. Diana Mara Henry had been photographing women in politics since the early 1970s, including as official photographer for the First National Women's Conference, Houston, 1977, the only federally-funded national conference preceded by women's meetings in all 50 states and all US territories. See: www.spiritofhouston.net. The two events depicted here moved activism into new realms of feminism, one with an international direction and the other more uncompromising, radical, and theatrical than had been seen in the US previously. They can be seen with their documentation at her website pages https://www.dianamarahenry.com/FeministsinsolidaritywiththewomenofIran1979.htm and at https://www.dianamarahenry.com/GracePaleybyDianaMaraHenry.htm