In the summer of 1972, several months after the

Women s Action Alliance, Inc. formally announced its

existence, we were faced with thousands of requests from

women across the country for assistance and information.

It was clear then, and continues to be confirmed daily, that

women are almost totally isolated from the very services,

information, and assistance they most desperately need.

Even when assistance is available, it is all too often

unresponsive to the special circumstances of women in

our society. We are convinced that women are in urgent

need of resources to help them deal more effectively with

their own daily survival needs and those of their families.

As a national clearinghouse of resources and informa-

tion, the Women s Action Alliance, Inc. found itself unable

to respond individually to those thousands of New York

women who called or wrote to us for help. It was when we

were feeling most frustrated that we received a copy of the

only Boston edition of the Women s Yellow Pages. It was

the first publication we had seen that responded sensitive-

ly and practically to what were clearly the vital needs of

women. We all wished that women in every community

(particularly ours) could have a version of this book. When

the Boston Women s Collective sought our assistance in

putting together a New York edition, we literally leaped at

the opportunity to participate in this project. Here was the

perfect chance to answer in one book many of our letters

and calls. Toward these ends, we provided our carefully

compiled resource files and our support.

Through the New York Women s Yellow Pages we

began to realize a piece of our dream--to connect women

with the services and information they need, to work

together to combat sexism and sex discrimination, and,

above all, to build a community of women helping women.