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| Lorraine Rothman | |||
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Lorraine Rothman was a founding member of the feminist Self-Help Clinic movement and a major mover of many successful behind-the-scenes projects. With Carol Downer, she worked on the concept of menstrual extraction as a viable women's home health care technique; and, in 1971, she invented the Del-Em menstrual extraction kit, which was patented n 1974. Born in San Francisco, Lorraine Fleishman was the middle child in a large extended Russian-Ukrainian Jewish family. She frequently helped her father and mother in their furniture store, where she learned how to rebuild distressed furniture. In 1944, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Rothman attended junior and senior high schools and then college. While working full time, she attended Los Angeles City College (LACC) and California State University in Los Angeles (CSULA), where she received a BA and teaching credential in 1954. Many years later, she earned an MA in organizational development and training. After marrying in 1954, she moved to Baltimore with her husband, Al Rothman, who was beginning on his doctorate degree and she began teaching in the Baltimore Public School System. After several moves, Rothman returned to California with her husband and three children in 1964 and resumed public school teaching. Her fourth child was born three years later. In 1968, Rothman first joined a local women's liberation group that met at CSU Fullerton, and then became a founding member of the Orange County chapter of NOW. She became involved in women's reproductive rights activities and actions from the inception of the chapter. Rothman's collaborative relationship with Carol Downer and the Self-Help Clinic movement began when she attended an April 7, 1971 meeting organized by Downer to discuss women's reproductive rights and abortion. At the second meeting, one week later, Rothman shared her idea of a safe home health care tool, demonstrating the prototype of the Del-Em menstrual extraction kit. Shortly afterwards, Downer and Rothman founded the Feminist Women's Health Center (FWHC) in Los Angeles; Rothman went on to open a second FWHC in Orange County, closer to her home and family. Over the next two decades, Rothman traveled widely, taking the Self-Help Clinic concept to women's groups both in and outside the US, including New Zealand (1974). In 1989, she was invited to speak in Seville, Spain at a government-sponsored conference on reproductive health. During these years, even as she took on more policy and administrative work, Rothman wrote health education and political tracts for the FWHCs and was an active member of the Centers' writing team that produced health education books for the general public. In 1999, Rothman produced her own publications that questioned the safety of hormone drugs for menopausal women. She continues to research health and medical literature that pertain to women's health, and today is specifically interested in older women's health concerns. |
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| Interview 1a | |||
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| Topics on this side of the tape include: family background; life in San Francisco; home life in Jewish community; Jewish traditional home; early education; social activities; and sexual maturity. | |||
| Lorraine Rothman was interviewed on 3/24/1990 by Carol Dyer: This is the first of two recorded interviews with Lorraine Rothman conducted in conjunction with a women's oral history course at CSULB. |
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| Interview 1b | |||
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| Topics on this side of the tape include: sexual maturity; junior and senior high school; social activities; college; attitude of father toward college; dating in college. | |||
| Lorraine Rothman was interviewed on 3/24/1990 by Carol Dyer: This is the first of two recorded interviews with Lorraine Rothman conducted in conjunction with a women's oral history course at CSULB. |
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| Interview 2a | |||
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| Topics on this side of the tape include: meeting husband; courtship; wedding day; parent's attitudes toward husband and wedding. | |||
| Lorraine Rothman was interviewed on 3/31/1990 by Carol Dyer: This second, long interview recorded with Lorraine Rothman was conducted for a women's oral history course at CSULB. NOTE: In a paper written for a history class by the interviewer, "Taking Back Women's Medicine: The Feminist Health Movement in Los Angeles," she cites an interview of 13 April 1990. It is not clear if this is yet another interview session she conducted with Rothman that was not deposited, or if this second interview is mistakenly dated 31st of March. |
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| Interview 2b | |||
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| Topics on this side of the tape include: wedding ceremony; pregnancy; move to Baltimore; teaching during pregnancy; second pregnancy; move to California; deterioration of marriage; life crisis. | |||
| Lorraine Rothman was interviewed on 3/31/1990 by Carol Dyer: This second, long interview recorded with Lorraine Rothman was conducted for a women's oral history course at CSULB. NOTE: In a paper written for a history class by the interviewer, "Taking Back Women's Medicine: The Feminist Health Movement in Los Angeles," she cites an interview of 13 April 1990. It is not clear if this is yet another interview session she conducted with Rothman that was not deposited, or if this second interview is mistakenly dated 31st of March. |
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| Interview 2c | |||
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| Topics on this side of the tape include: birth control; first involvement with women's movement; NOW meeting; beginning of self-help movement; menstrual extractor; learning D and C abortion. | |||
| Lorraine Rothman was interviewed on 3/31/1990 by Carol Dyer: This second, long interview recorded with Lorraine Rothman was conducted for a women's oral history course at CSULB. NOTE: In a paper written for a history class by the interviewer, "Taking Back Women's Medicine: The Feminist Health Movement in Los Angeles," she cites an interview of 13 April 1990. It is not clear if this is yet another interview session she conducted with Rothman that was not deposited, or if this second interview is mistakenly dated 31st of March. |
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| Interview 2d | |||
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| Topics on this side of the tape include: self-help movement; family life; relationships with children and husband. | |||
| Lorraine Rothman was interviewed on 3/31/1990 by Carol Dyer: This second, long interview recorded with Lorraine Rothman was conducted for a women's oral history course at CSULB. NOTE: In a paper written for a history class by the interviewer, "Taking Back Women's Medicine: The Feminist Health Movement in Los Angeles," she cites an interview of 13 April 1990. It is not clear if this is yet another interview session she conducted with Rothman that was not deposited, or if this second interview is mistakenly dated 31st of March. |
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| Interview 2e | |||
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| Topics on this side of the tape include: relationship with daughters; life's work in the movement; role in the "sandwich" generation; work today; defining herself in the 1950's versus 1990's. | |||
| Lorraine Rothman was interviewed on 3/31/1990 by Carol Dyer: This second, long interview recorded with Lorraine Rothman was conducted for a women's oral history course at CSULB. NOTE: In a paper written for a history class by the interviewer, "Taking Back Women's Medicine: The Feminist Health Movement in Los Angeles," she cites an interview of 13 April 1990. It is not clear if this is yet another interview session she conducted with Rothman that was not deposited, or if this second interview is mistakenly dated 31st of March. |
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| Interview 2f | |||
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| Topics on this side of the tape include: conclusion; life in the fifties vs. now; advise to young women; role of pop culture in her life growing up. | |||
| Lorraine Rothman was interviewed on 3/31/1990 by Carol Dyer: This second, long interview recorded with Lorraine Rothman was conducted for a women's oral history course at CSULB. NOTE: In a paper written for a history class by the interviewer, "Taking Back Women's Medicine: The Feminist Health Movement in Los Angeles," she cites an interview of 13 April 1990. It is not clear if this is yet another interview session she conducted with Rothman that was not deposited, or if this second interview is mistakenly dated 31st of March. |
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