MC 652

Inventory to the SIGNS: Journal of Women in Culture and Society Records

By Miriam Formanek-Brunell and Michele Mesi

March 1987

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.

Finding aid encoded in EAD, version 2002 by Tara Maharjan, December 2019

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University received an operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.

Administrative History

"Crowds roar. Ticker tape falls. [SIGNS] becomes official," wrote editor Catharine Stimpson to Jean Sacks, at the University of Chicago Press. 1 The new scholarly women's journal, founded in 1974, was the brainchild of Jean Sacks, manager of the Press's Journals Department. Just one year earlier, Sacks had suggested that the Press "pursue the idea of a journal devoted exclusively to the new scholarship on women" to be edited by Barnard College professor of literature, Catharine Stimpson. Sacks had been inspired by the unexpected demand for a single issue, "Changing Women in a Changing Society," of the American Journal of Sociology (also published by the University of Chicago Press). 2 Although they had printed an additional 3,000 copies of the 1973 issue, students and scholars, in Women's Studies programs, continued to send their requests to the Press long after its supply had been exhausted.

In July 1974, Catharine Stimpson presented the University of Chicago Press with a proposal for the new interdisciplinary quarterly, "original in research, bold in concept, and far-reaching in implication. "We believe," explained Stimpson, "that to understand women's lives, one must reconstruct totalities. To look at [women] through the lens of one discipline not only reduplicates the fragmentation of modern academic habits, but uses a warped scholarly perspective." 3 Moreover, SIGNS was intended as a forum for "new scholarship about women from both the United States and other countries ... within and beyond colleges and universities." “The interest in the new scholarship," explained Stimpson, "is international rather than parochial." 4

Throughout the late summer and early fall, the Journals Department of the Press solicited editorial evaluations of Stimpon's proposal by noted women scholars. By December a "Report on Journals" evaluating the new women's journal in terms of the Press's publishing history was presented to the Board of the University of Chicago Press. Would SIGNS "embarrass the University," the report queried? Could there be a "scandal?" Would scholars really publish in an interdisciplinary journal? 5 Ultimately persuaded by the academic legitimacy of the project's goals, and, in part, by the credentials of those involved (SIGNS board members were required to endorse the journal and submit their curriculum vitae), the University of Chicago Press promised to parent what would become the foremost scholarly journal in the field.

Shortly thereafter, a check for the first $5,000 was presented by the. University of Chicago Press. Expenses covered limited funds for translators as well as office expenses. (Barnard College donated office space free-of-charge between 1975 and 1980.) Most importantly, the budget would pay the full-time salary (albeit meager) for managing editor, Sandra Whisler, who had come from the Press's Journals Promotion department. While the editor and associate editors did not draw salaries, travel stipends were available to them. In 1975, associate editor, Domna Stanton attended the first United Nations Congress on Women in Mexico City and made contacts there with foreign scholars working on women's issues.

To supplement the journal's operating budget from the University of Chicago Press, however, the editors relied on contributions from private foundations. A grant from one foundation enabled Stanton to travel to Germany, Italy and Spain to expand the journal's influence and create a network with foreign scholars. In 1975 a Ford Foundation grant made it possible for Stimpson to reduce her teaching load in order to organize the journal. A second grant added one hundred additional pages for the Fall 1977 issue. Other foundation support included grants from the Lilly Foundation, Rockefeller. Foundation, Exxon, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

At the editorial office at Barnard College, Managing editor, Sandra Whisler, established "office procedures designed to maintain an efficient, professional operation." Manuscripts, which averaged about 700 a year by 1977, were read by Stimpson and another staff member. "In the allocation of tasks," wrote Stimpson, "the obligations of [Domna Stanton, Joan Burstyn] are clear, but not rigid." Anonymous manuscripts considered for publication were sent to two referees, an editorial board member and a recommended specialist, for review. Stimpson made final decisions except with regard to manuscripts, where the judgments of outside readers were final. "In the allocation of authority… I try for consensus wherever possible. I have deliberately eschewed being part of a collective." Instead, "we try for a collectivity of theory, fact, and opinion," explained Stimpson. "In part, this was temperamental… [but] it was also practical." 6 The journal, from its inception, relied on its three boards: (1) an Advisory Board which consisted of persons "well-known for their interest in scholarship about women and its ramifications," (2) an Editorial board which served as readers and referees, and, (3) International Correspondents who alerted the journal to developments, activity and contributors from abroad." 7 While board tenure had initially been left vague, in May 1978, a "governance plan" for Board members replaced an unstated time of service. Under the plan, Editorial Board members, who were more involved in day-today concerns of the journal, would serve a maximum of four years. Every year, one fourth of the board was removed by lottery. Advisory Board members served an eight year term, rotating one-eighth each year. The inaugural issue of SIGNS, which appeared in the fall of 1975, established the journal's format. SIGNS publishes "articles that apply vigorous academic standards," wrote Stimpson, "and that embody and discuss the most advanced research of both a disciplinary and interdisciplinary nature." 8 Each issue of the journal consisted of a brief editorial, major articles, review essays on new scholarship, Letters/Comments (which provided an arena for discussion between editors, authors and readers), an "Archives" section, News, "Reports/Revisions" (where new questions were raised), "Viewpoint" essays, and book reviews.

At least once a year, the editors publicized areas of new: scholarship by devoting whole issues or special sections to a single theme, such as, sex and sexuality, violence, science and society, Latin America and American cities. Several of these "special issues" consisted of papers presented at conferences (e.g., Wellesley College, Development and Sexual Division of Labor Conference, Communities of Women Conference). Several SIGNS special issues were also published as books (e.g. Women and the American City).

In 1980, Stimpson and her editors announced that SIGNS would move to Stanford University. We "realized that the [editorship], while at once exhilarating and demanding, ought to be rotated in a way that would both preserve the identity of the journal and permit fresh energies to animate it." Volume 6 Number 2 was the last issue published under Stimpson, appropriately entitled, "Studies in Change." On July 22, 1980 the New York editorial office closed.

From 1980-1985, professor of English literature Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi edited SIGNS at the editorial office at the Center for Research on Women at Stanford University. Gel pi was assisted by new associate editors (Estelle Freedman, Carol Nagy Jacklin, Nan Keohane, Myra Strober, Shelly Rosaldo, and Margery Wolf), and managing editor, Margaret Weeks. In an editorial Gelpi explained, however, that "the vertical structure of the mast head page of SIGNS may give the false sense that its editing is strongly hierarchical. On the contrary... the staff, the editor, and the associate editors work together as an non-hierarchical community of women..." 9 While-the journal's format remained the same, the journal's unwieldy board structure was modified. In 1981, the Advisory Board was absorbed into the Editorial Board.

In 1985, SIGNS moved to Duke University.

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Notes

(1) Letter to Jean Sacks from Catharine Stimpson, November 21, 1974 in folder: "More Early SIGNS" Box 1

(2) Joan Burstyn, "Journals of One's Own: SIGNS in the. Evolution of Women's studies, 1975-1980," paper delivered for the Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, April 1981, p.4 in folder: The Transition Notes, Box 1.

(3) Catharine Stimpson, "The Making of SIGNS," Radical Teacher (December 1977): 24.

(4) Memo to University of Chicago Press from Catharine Stimpson, July 1, 1974, in file: Setting up Signs; Editorial, SIGNS v. 1, no. 1 (1975).

(5) "Report on Journals," December 9 1974, in folder: Setting up SIGNS. Box 1.

(6) Stimpson, Radical Teacher, p.24.

(7) Memo to University of Chicago Press from Catharine Stimpson, July 1, 1974 folder: Setting up Signs, Box 1.

(8) Catharine Stimpson, Journal prospectus, folder: Setting up Signs, Box 1.

(9) Vol. 10. no. 4 p. 633.

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Principal Personnel, 1974-1985

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Scope and Content Note

The documents comprising the records of SIGNS: A JOURNAL OF WOMEN IN CULTURE AND SOCIETY (1974- ), span the period 1973-2014, although the bulk of the collection dates from 1974-1983. The records reflect two distinct periods of the journal's. history. Material from 1974 to 1980 documents the journal's activities under editor Catharine Stimpson at Barnard College. Material from 1980 to 1985 documents the journal's history under editor Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi at Stanford University. Those files generated under each editor form a single record group and are arranged in their original chronological or alphabetical order. Not included in the collection are the University of Chicago Press records of SIGNS for either period.

The SIGNS collection consists of 15 series. SIGNS records include the agendas and minutes of the SIGNS Editorial Board 1974-1990; editorial correspondence, 1974-(1979) 1983; questionnaires and newsletters of SIGNS editorial and advisory boards, 1974 (1975)-(1977) 1978; logbooks and manuscripts submitted to SINGS, 1974-1990; manuscripts rejected by SIGNS 1974-2012; book reviews and review essays, 1974-1988; files of issues published, 1975-2014; special issues published and conferences held, 1976-1985; promotion and subscriptions, 1974-1990; financial documents, 1985-1990; staff employment records, 1975-1983; general file, 1980-1984; reader files, 1980-2006; revise and resubmit, 1984-1999; and international corresondents files, 1974-1980.

Those working with the collection should note that: (1) correspondence is scattered throughout the collection, see especially REJECTED MANUSCRIPTS, BOOK REVIEWS AND REVIEW ESSAYS, SPECIAL ISSUES AND- CONFERENCES and ISSUE FILES. (2) Although 13 of the 28 boxes are identified as "rejected manuscripts," there are, in fact, very few manuscripts in this entire collection for it consists primarily of correspondence pertaining to manuscripts. (3) Similarly, there are only a couple of actual book reviews within the BOOK REVIEWS AND REVIEW ESSAY files. (4) Documents generated during the first year of the journal's history are more likely to be filed by date than by subject. Researchers interested in this early period should see SIGNS history files in EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE Some agendas and minutes of SIGNS board meetings, for example, are contained in these files.

While few original manuscripts are included within this collection, it is nonetheless valuable to those researching a variety of topics and trends, including: the history of Women's Studies, the formation and administration of women's journals, changing trends in women's scholarship, the changing relationship between parent institutions (e.g., universities and university press) and the editors.

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Arrangement Note

The SIGNS collection arrived at Rutgers in 40 labeled cardboard boxes broadly categorized as Barnard and Stanford files. Within those categories, the largest and most discrete units were issue files and rejected manuscripts. A series organization for much of the rest of the collection was required, though we believe it reflects the original organization of the material. The subsequent arrangement of the records into two subgroups, the first consisting of one series of the Editorial and Advisory boards, and the second consisting of eleven series generated by the Editorial offices of SIGNS is believed to reflect the original order of the material.

Little material was removed from the collection during processing. Discarded documents included a large number of duplicate copies of unused telephone logs and a post office publication of zip codes.

Additional material has been to the collection. These materials have been kept in the original order that they were recieved.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

SIGNS: Journal of Women in Culture and Society Records. MC 652. Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.

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Detailed Description of the Collection/Container List

This section provides descriptions of the materials found within each series. Each series description is followed by a container list, which gives the titles of the "containers" (for example, folders, volumes, or cassettes) and their locations in the numbered boxes that comprise the collection. The availability of any digital items from a container is indicated with a hyperlink.