Sisterly conduct: Do feminists need guidelines for ethical behavior with one another?

Feminists who actively participate in the contemporary women's movement find a plethora of dilemmas that cause great pain and conflict. One of these involves the negative ways in which we reportedly interact and behave with one another.Accounts of unsisterly conduct are recounted by feminists who themselves have felt under attack by other feminists, by feminists who have observed seemingly brutal interaction, or by feminists who have defended themselves after a perceived hostile confrontation by other feminists.Both written and oral reports of unsisterly conduct led me to ask questions about the need for ethics in the women's movement. This paper reports on how the idea evolved and on responses by participants at two feminist conferences held in California in 1982.