In 1997, 175 feminist bookstores dotted the country, but today only about 35 are still in business. Among these a few stalwarts have emerged. There is Amazon Bookstore in Minneapolis, which has been going at it for 35 years, began by selling lots of lesbian-centered works and anything by Gloria Steinem, said store employee Kathy Sharp.

A Room of One's Own, a 30-year-old store in Madison, Wis., is the second oldest and was one of the pioneers in popularizing titles such as Rita Mae Brown's "Rubyfruit Jungle," now a feminist classic.

Most of the remaining women's bookstores can be found in small cities of the Midwest, South or coastal states. "There are virtually none left in big cities," says Linda Bubon, owner of Women and Children First, whose store, in a progressive part of Northside Chicago, is one of the big-city exceptions. Another is Bluestockings in New York City, which opened in 1999 and re-opened under new ownership, as a radical activist center, 2 years ago.
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As bookstores disappear, so do the intellectual community centers they once provided for browsing and attending talks and readings.

"There is a struggle for public space, period," says Bubon. "It is desperately needed in a democracy."

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