I am a woman living in an egalitarian and intentional community. We call ourselves “egalitarian” primarily because we are income-sharing, but also because in theory and in practice (in work, games, decision making and child-rearing) we advocate equal rights for all human beings. There are no bosses here. We have managers who oversee budgets of labor and money, and who take responsibility for recruitment and general operations oversight in their areas, but they receive no extra privilege or wealth because of it. The communal setting is intentional because we are much more explicitly and implicitly involved with one another than people in a non-intentional community (i.e. most neighborhoods). There are hundreds of intentional communities existing in the US alone.
The particular community to which I belong is called Twin Oaks, which was established in 1967. We have about 70 adult members and 11 children here currently, a number that has been fairly stable over the past fifteen years. Twin Oaks is a member of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities (FEC), a network of closely aligned communal groups formed in 1976.
The FEC’s goal is to help people discover the advantages of a communal-living alternative through outreach, to provide services to member communities that the groups alone could not afford (by sharing skills and resources), and to promote the growth of a more sustainable and egalitarian world. We cooperate on publications, conferences, and recruitment efforts, and provide mutual support and information to one another, including labor exchange between member communities. Each of the Federation communities:
The FEC is also associated with the Fellowship of Intentional Communities (FIC), a loose network of other intentional but quite disparate communities and the FEC is a member of the National Communal Studies Association, the International Communal Studies Association, and the North American Students of Cooperative Organizations.
Twin Oaks offered me some exciting prospects: clear streams, clean air and beautiful rural woodlands; organic gardening; a place to learn and share skills; a place where gender stereotypes are challenged and experimentation with lifestyle accepted; a socially conscious group of self-motivated individuals.
In as many ways as possible, I wanted to quit using energy and materials, including my own human energy, for the purpose of profits placed before human needs. I wanted to stop relying upon and contributing to boring systems not aimed at supporting human development.
I made the decision to live outside of mainstream society so that I would not have to drive a carbon monoxide-spewing car every day down concrete and asphalt during the same hours that everyone else is also trying to get someplace to punch a clock; so that I wouldn’t have to buy $200+ outfits in order to “look presentable” to a boss, and to use chemicals on these suits to have them dry-cleaned after every third wearing. I moved to intentional community so that I could devote at least half of my work efforts to something that made the world a better place; not dirtier, or fancier for the rich who can afford to buy it, or more entertaining to distract us from the real problems in this world.
Community is one place where I could put my feminist utopian anarchist theories to the test. I do not have to appear as a doll or a shell with no brain of my own in order to be pleasing to men. I am not required to put efforts into keeping my body within a range of desirability for fucking: to have make-up on my face, to shave my legs, to wear nylons, to take much time and consider ation in choosing and matching my wardrobe, or to wear high heels or other clothes or accessories that would interfere with my ability to move freely and comfortably. I realize that women can and do realize at least some of these physical liberations in places other than intentional communities, but in addition I really appreciate being free of obnoxious billboards, and blatant sexist remarks. We still have our share of racist, sexist, and classist baggage to deal with, but the overt maliciousness is greatly reduced here. I also like not having strangers for neighbors.
Also important for the liberation and growth of women is the issue of safety. At no time of day or night do I feel physically endangered at Twin Oaks. Even when I feel that someone is very angry at me here, I trust that our commitment to refrain from physical violence would deter most members, even if only for fear of expulsion. Also, I feel that my housemates are close at hand and would provide support if necessary. I know of no physical assault against a woman to have occurred here. We have over 400 acres of land which I can roam freely and feel insulated by. I can be alone, or with others, and not fear harassment or injury. I think that this kind of freedom from threat of harm is difficult to find elsewhere, and the influence of such an omnipresent threat takes its toll on women physically, mentally, and emotionally. To say that there is no coercion, deceit or vengeance here would be untrue — there are mental and emotional kinds of violence that we must stay alert to, and people obviously experience these in varying degrees.
No one comes here practiced for Utopia. I found that we all bring our socialized selves with us, each with a different level of commitment and idea of what the ideal community is. We have plenty of disagreement and changes to make, but each new problem brings us a broader horizon and more experience to draw upon.
At Twin Oaks we support ourselves by growing a lot of our own food and having cottage industries on the farm that earn us income to buy the things we cannot provide for ourselves. We design and build our own buildings and maintain them almost entirely by ourselves. We even have our own sewage treatment plant. We live in group residences, not nuclear family homes, own all the property (land, vehicles, buildings) together, and use input from all members to make decisions affecting the community. The community provides all the basic necessities of living: food, shelter, utilities, clothes, health care, and toiletries. Members and children each receive an allowance for the extras we like to buy. Twin Oaks functions as a small cooperative society thriving in central Virginia, trading or buying goods and services from the “outside” society only when necessary.
The people living in Twin Oaks have agreed to uphold the fundamental values of cooperation, non-violence and sharing. We strive to be a model of a society that is fair and equal. At Twin Oaks, we practice income-sharing. We decide together how we will spend the money that we have made each year with the community’s industries. Except for $45 a month for each member (the current personal allowance), all of our income goes into maintaining and/or expanding our community: buildings, materials, or amenities that are for members’ use.
We have a community agreement that we will keep a balanced gender ratio in the membership. With a few exceptions we routinely work, eat and recreate in mixed gender groups. We have one floor of a resident reserved for women’s rooms only, with a library that is “Women’s Space” after 6:00 in the evenings.
We are not a religious group, so we rely on our shared social and economic vision to provide some degree of cohesion. Twin Oaks embraces the idea of diversity, which can make group unity more difficult. In practice, we often are caught in a pattern of choosing uniformity. Our commitment to maintain the personal autonomy and comfort of members (often before meeting the needs of visitors) is a conflict in an all-inclusive egalitarianism.
My personal lifestyle in community is empowering and self-affirming. Particularly because I am a woman, I feel it is important to share my story and offer the resources of the Intentional Communities Movement to other women. Because I see part of my privilege as being educated in academia, I want to include those in mainstream educational systems in my outreach. I owe my first exposure to the principles and theory of anarchism to a professor I had in a private college in Minnesota (thank you Wendell Bradley)! I have found it extremely fulfilling to begin living the ideals of a non-hierarchical political and economic system now, and relieving myself of the guilt of being merely an armchair intellectual, a radical theorist with a lack of radical change being manifested in my personal life.
The structures at Twin Oaks help to sustain the egalitarian ideals we have. The most obvious is our income sharing policy and property code. The monetary benefits we reap from the community are the same, regardless of gender or what work one does or how long one has been a member. The property code says that members cannot keep private property or assets that earn them income while living at Twin Oaks. (The option remains to manage property or have a community account that earns income for the community to share, while one is a member. The principal of the account would be returned to a leaving member.) We may bring personal possessions with us if we can keep them in our bedrooms. We do not own personal vehicles, and don’t have room for lots of clothes or furniture. The community buys cars, trucks and vans that any member may use, and furnishings for all public and private spaces are provided by the community.
We value domestic labor (housekeeping, child care, cooking) at the same rate as income-producing work. This empowers members who have children to have choices about being with kids and not losing work credit, or not always doing child care, because there is cooperative care provided. We encourage skill-sharing and consciously open up non-tradition work opportunities for both men and women. Consequently, we have women who maintain our vehicles, drive tractors and do construction, and men who can competently care for children, do laundry and cook. All of these job assignments are still voluntary, of course.
Our labor system works by people claiming credit for work done. We trust that everyone records their work honestly. This and other practices such as not having locks on doors, having easy and equal access to the use of our vehicles, and the community checkbook being available to any member are policies based on trust that feel personally empowering to me.
The labor system at Twin Oaks gives me a great deal of choice and flexibility. Each week I decide how much and what kinds of work I want to do. Except for washing dishes and cleaning bathrooms (which are rotated among everyone) all jobs are filled voluntarily by those who live here. As long as I complete my share of the work, no one complains about what kind of work I do. I can also choose when and how to work. If I would like to sleep until 10:00 some days, or every day, I can decide to do that without asking anyone’s permission. I can schedule work with friends, or discuss business over a meal. Knowing when to stop working and limit myself to personal or recreational thoughts sometimes is a great challenge for me here without clear boundaries of my work spaces. It can be a great pleasure, however, to feel an affinity with my co-workers, knowing we have a greater goal in common than simply a menial and temporary task.
Work and play can be somewhat integrated here. I can choose some tasks that are solitary, and others where I can be in a social environment. We try to make all workplaces as enjoyable as possible.
A “work week” is currently 47 hours, but that number is not comparable to the standard 40-hour work week in mainstream society. At Twin Oaks, “work” includes such things as washing dishes, shopping, attending to children, doing personal laundry and maintaining one’s residence. No one in our community has to go someplace else to work. We all get a minimum of two and half weeks of vacation a year, but by working “over quota” (more than the 47 hours/week) we can save up labor credits to take more time off. An average Twin Oaker takes about six weeks of vacation a year.
Each year we host a women’s gathering with the theme of “Celebrating Our Diversity” which I have had the opportunity to help organize. This is an exciting way to meet and connect with women who live outside Twin Oaks and to build solidarity among the Twin Oaks sisters. This is a prime example of integrating work and fun!
I choose to participate in several of our work areas. I can also change my schedule from week to week. Part of my work is with the Federation. I’ve also helped to manage the visitor program. One day of the week I am a driver and errand person. I have done gardening, child care, construction, and vehicle servicing. I have become comfortable working with big machines and power tools, and have learned how to drive standard transmission vehicles since I moved here.
I also make hammocks, which are our main source of income. Almost everyone at Twin Oaks makes hammocks some of the time, so the work is very spread out and flexible. We can weave any time of the day or night, indoors or out in the sun, alone or with a friend, or even at meetings. We also have an indexing business and a chair industry. We hope to begin a soyworks operation this year to produce tofu and other food products.
Twin Oaks tries to make use of the many resources we have available on our land. We have a large library, a river to swim in, community-selected videos (art, popular, and documentaries), yoga, co-counseling classes, a large music collection, dances and parties, high quality amateur dramatic productions and talent shows, canoeing, woodland walks and stunning sunsets, but no network television. This allows and encourages us to create more of our own culture; to be active, creative participants in our environment rather than passively accepting what the media wants to feed us. I enter into artistic projects with people occasionally and constantly observe the skills and talents around me. My life feels like a thorough, well thought out, unfolding, developing, exciting, important political act. I get to feel, viscerally, how the personal is the political and vice versa. The two are intertwined. I am living, improving, developing a life based on sharing, cooperativeness and nonviolence.
I have access to current political information here that the community purchases, as well as petitions, newsletters, and chances to participate directly in movements, because I am surrounded by others here who also want to make a difference in the world. We have a community fund where I can get monetary support and/or labor credit for doing “outside” political work. We also donate thousands of dollars each year to organizations whose causes we support. Many people here participate in electoral or grassroots politics on some level.
Just by living here, I reduce my reliance on the capitalist market/distribution system and the Almighty Dollar. I actually extract dollars from the profit-seekers, because we all buy fewer non-essential items here, and there are economies of scale that allow fewer trips to the store, fewer appliances, and therefore lower capital investment and energy use per capita. By not seeing mainstream magazines, billboards, or network television, we are not as prey to manufactured “needs.” The food we do buy is in bulk (less packaging), and the entertainment I get is mostly shared (books, music, conversation, talent shows) and not purchased. We generate far less waste per person than in the average North American household. About half of our food comes from our organic gardens. Our excess food is composted, turned back into the earth to give the soil nutrients. I can relate more in harmony with plants, animals and people here than elsewhere. I get to pet a calf, say hello to a cat, and spend time with a young child, in the amounts I want to. I do not have to own them or be responsible for them all the time, which happens to suit me well.
We practice direct democracy here, with no political or spiritual leader. Since we are a secular community, the cohesion we have is based on the fundamental values we share and the friendship and respect we have for one another.
I work on the quality of my communication here and get support for that. I find more people at Twin Oaks than in most settings I’d lived in before who care about the way we talk, and devote time to getting clear understandings, being precise.
Without paying someone to listen to me, or to make a syllabus for me, I can engage others in a discussion on a topic of interest or a particular book. Beyond the material infrastructure we have build, we have a self-determined environment for learning: to think, to ponder, to read, to communicate, to give feedback and share with one another what’s good, what could be better. We compare outlooks together on what’s really going on in the world, share predictions for the future, ideas that we can work on together. Because of our intentioned connection which goes beyond any classroom or office, we seek to know how we might encourage each other more by support and affirmation than by competition.
I don’t know if I’ll be here for the rest of my life, but intentional community of some kind seems a spiritual and political challenge that I’m sure will play a part in my life for a long time to come.
If you would like to order the Directory of Intentional Communities, a 310 pp. Reference about existing communal groups and cooperative resources, or books specifically on Wimmen’s Land, write to: Community Bookshelf, Rt. 1. Box 155, Rutledge, MO 63563.
In another account of communal living, William Walker describes a scenario called the roundhouse co-op, in which small groups of people share space, property, child-rearing and even sexual partners on a rotating basis. As with many other valid organizational structures for a commune, the roundhouse format comes with its own issues and constraints, and maintaining an optimal size group can be a delicate task.
Originally published in issue 13.