By Cassie Sheets
Whenever I visit Andersonville, I cling to the arm of a friend (if no friend is available any stranger will do) and beg them to stop me from going into Women & Children First. Odds are I was there last week and bought six books I’ve yet to finish. By now, I should know that as soon as I see the purple awning in the distance, I will wrench myself away from the person I’m with and run toward the doors shouting, “I’m sorry! I just need five minutes. I won’t buy anything! I promise!”
This, of course, is a lie.
Women & Children First is one of the largest feminist bookstores in the country and stocks an impressive array of writing by and about women. With an expansive selection of everything from vegetarian cookbooks, to children’s picture books, to queer theory, the store is everything a feminist book lover’s dreams are made of.
When I sat down with Linda Bubon, co-owner of Women & Children First with Ann Christopherson, she discussed some of the struggles of building the selection the store has today.
“In 1979, when we created Women & Children First, we really had to dig up titles, because we wanted to sell women writers exclusively at that point. And what was available thirty, forty years ago was some romance, and some mystery, and maybe a true crime writer or two. There were some classic writers like the Brontës and Jane Austen, and a few twentieth century standouts like Joyce Carol Oates, and the early feminist writers like Marilyn French, Alice Walker, and Marge Piercy. But we really had to try to look for women writers, because they weren’t likely published. And people like Alice Walker had only just begun bringing back into print writers like Zora Neale Hurston.”
While Bubon and Christopherson dug for established writers, they remained dedicated to finding new women’s voices.
“It was important to have women writers who were writing now, who hadn’t yet been published, to have them read at the store, and to have them find the store a source of inspiration. We wanted them to think ahead to when their book might be on the shelf.”
The store has gone through some major shifts since 1979 (including three location changes) and their reputation has grown. They’ve hosted writers including Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Gloria Steinem. In the 1980’s, Rita Mae Brown appeared “in a full length mink coat, flying high on the huge success of Rubyfruit Jungle.” But Linda Bubon feels it’s important to keep a space open for new voices.
“We still really care about the first time writers. We still have our annual Pride open mic. That includes some published writers, but people are just welcome to come read their work. There’s also been a burst in small presses in the last five years, and sometimes we’ll have a small press night where two or three authors who are getting published around the same time with one small press will present their work.”
A focus on supporting one’s community came up frequently in our conversation. When I ask if this is one of the differences between independent bookstores and chain bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Bubon shakes her head. Though she did feel some sense of competition with the deceased giant Borders because of their huge buyouts of a small press’s entire print runs, she’s now focused on a bigger-picture problem.
Bubon remains unconvinced by the idea that buying books on Amazon is “cheaper” in the long run, “Barnes & Noble — and even places like Target that sell books — we really have a common enemy, and that’s Amazon.”
“If we lose all the drugstores, and everyone buys their drugs online—if we lose all the electronics shops, and everyone buys their electronics online—we lose this community. We no longer have places we can walk to, or people we can talk to. And this community, not only is it a pleasant place to shop and bring your kids and walk your dog, it also makes those houses more valuable in that community. So if everyone is living in McMansions off of highways and ordering online, what will we have saved? We will have lost so much more than we’ve saved. And at the same time, we’re losing taxes. So all those retailers who have to pay 9% to Illinois, they’re gone, that revenue is gone. So, it’s really not much of a savings when you think about it.”
As the name implies, Women & Children First provides a large selection of children’s books, and a weekly Wednesday morning Storytime where Bubon reads and performs.
“Educating children, providing a safe space for children, supporting families, helping parents in what is the hardest job on Earth—and I say that as a parent—is absolutely essential to our feminist mission. It was very frustrating for me through the eighties and early nineties when the right-wing claimed ‘family values’ as their motto. Yet, they’re so excluding of all kinds of families! So, we try to be as supportive and inclusive as possible. We really think in a democracy everyone needs to learn to read early, and often, and to be able to be informed by the written word. It’s part of what we need to do to be good citizens, and to build a better world for women and children. And men.”
The wonderful thing about Women & Children First (maybe that mysterious addictive property that keeps me running to its doors even when my account balance is teetering on the edge of dangerously low), is that it’s more than just a bookstore.
“Selling books is what we do, but our mission is bigger. And that’s why it’s still interesting after thirty-four years. Because it’s still unfulfilled. So, Women and Children First, you know, we sort of mean it. We think it’ll be a better world if women and children do come first.”
Women & Children First is located at 5233 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60640. For more information about upcoming events, staff recommendations, or to shop online, visit their website.
Cassie Sheets is a writer, zine maker, and feminist. She enjoys making 30-second crafts, can sort of sew on buttons, and is currently responsible for the fates of two succulents. You can find her other work in Broad!, Hair Trigger, and Chicago Literati.