Social Survival Kit

Looking for a good karate school? An all-woman rock-'n'-roll band? An instructive gynecological slide show? Seek no further. Everything for the liberated woman, from stick-fighting manuals to plumbing schools, has now been inventoried in an oversize 223-page paperback titled The New Woman's Survival Catalog (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan/Berkley Publishing Co.; $5).

Patterned after the popular Whole Earth Catalog, the new survival manual tells readers where to get information about feminist credit unions, how to start feminist study groups, where to get radio air time for movement programs, and how to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission. For women moving to the country, there are the names of magazines covering animal hoof trimming and goat breeding. There is also the perfect gift for the unenlightened boss or boy friend: a male-chauvinist-pig pincushion--with initials.

As well as a rather bewildering buying guide, the catalogue is a yardstick that shows how far into America's heartland the women's liberation movement has traveled. There are listings for a feminist printing press in Iowa City, Iowa, a women's theater group in Atlanta, Ga., and 102 U.S. cities and towns that have information centers for local feminist activities. To write the book, the authors, former Columbia University Teachers Susan Rennie, 33, and Kirsten Grimstad, 29, took a 12,000-mile tour of the U.S. They then illustrated, typeset and assembled the book with the help of friends in a six-room Manhattan apartment. More than 70,000 copies have been sold since publication in November, and a second printing is planned. As for the editors, they have set up a trust fund to channel 20% of their royalties back into the women's movement.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.