Breaking the Wave: Women, Their Organizations, and Feminism, 1945-1985

Breaking the Wave: Women, Their Organizations, and Feminism, 1945-1985 PDF Author: Kathleen A. Laughlin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136909222
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Breaking the Wave is the first anthology of original essays by both younger and established scholars that takes a long view of feminist activism by systematically examining the dynamics of movement persistence during moments of reaction and backlash. Ranging from the "civic feminism" of white middle-class organizers and the "womanism" of Harlem consumers in the immediate postwar period, to the utopian feminism of Massachusetts lesbian softball league founders and environmentally minded feminists in the 1970s and 1980s, Breaking the Wave documents a continuity of activism in both national and local organizing that creates a new discussion, and a new paradigm, for twentieth century women’s history. Contributors: Jacqueline L. Castledine, Susan K. Freeman, Julie A. Gallagher, Marcia Gallo, Sally J. Kenney, Rebecca M. Kluchin, Kathleen A. Laughlin, Lanethea Mathews, Catherine E. Rymph, Julia Sandy-Bailey, Jennifer A. Stevens, Janet Weaver, and Leandra Zarnow.

Breaking the Wave: Women, Their Organizations, and Feminism, 1945-1985

Breaking the Wave: Women, Their Organizations, and Feminism, 1945-1985 PDF Author: Kathleen A. Laughlin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136909222
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book

Book Description
Breaking the Wave is the first anthology of original essays by both younger and established scholars that takes a long view of feminist activism by systematically examining the dynamics of movement persistence during moments of reaction and backlash. Ranging from the "civic feminism" of white middle-class organizers and the "womanism" of Harlem consumers in the immediate postwar period, to the utopian feminism of Massachusetts lesbian softball league founders and environmentally minded feminists in the 1970s and 1980s, Breaking the Wave documents a continuity of activism in both national and local organizing that creates a new discussion, and a new paradigm, for twentieth century women’s history. Contributors: Jacqueline L. Castledine, Susan K. Freeman, Julie A. Gallagher, Marcia Gallo, Sally J. Kenney, Rebecca M. Kluchin, Kathleen A. Laughlin, Lanethea Mathews, Catherine E. Rymph, Julia Sandy-Bailey, Jennifer A. Stevens, Janet Weaver, and Leandra Zarnow.

Creating a Progressive Commonwealth

Creating a Progressive Commonwealth PDF Author: Megan Taylor Shockley
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807170313
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Building upon the work of late twentieth-century scholars in the field of feminist studies, Megan Taylor Shockley provides an in-depth look at feminism in the modern U.S. South. Shockley challenges the monolithic view of the region as a conservative bastion and argues that feminist advocates have provided crucial social progressive force, particularly in Virginia, between 1970 and 2010. An innovative study, Creating a Progressive Commonwealth illustrates how feminists in the state challenged the traditional patriarchal system and engaged directly with the legislature through grassroots educational efforts on three major initiatives: passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, protection of abortion rights, and pursuit of legal and social rights for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Shockley suggests that advocates for gender equality fundamentally changed Virginia, improving the state’s support for women both personally and professionally as well as fostering an environment more conducive to additional progressive reform. In sharing the stories of these activists, the author discusses their initial choices to participate in the movement, the challenges they faced in promoting a progressive agenda, as well as their successes and failures. Throughout, Shockley emphasizes the need for scholars to look beyond the history of state legislatures in order to fully understand the nature of southern progressivism and feminism. Using both archival sources and oral histories, Creating a Progressive Commonwealth examines the individual women and their motivations as they battled recalcitrant legislators and conservative citizens to achieve social reforms.

Remapping Second-Wave Feminism

Remapping Second-Wave Feminism PDF Author: Janet Allured
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820350044
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
Scholars of second-wave feminism often center their research on northern thought and political activity and usually overlook the vibrant pockets of activism that existed elsewhere. In Remapping Second-Wave Feminism, Janet Allured attempts to reshape the national narrative by focusing on the grassroots women’s movement in the South, particularly in Louisiana. This book delves into unexplored origins of the feminist movement. While acknowledging the ways that the fight for African American civil rights produced the women’s liberation movement in the South—and subsequently in the North—Allured also locates other wellsprings of the movement that were particularly important to southern change-seekers, especially preexisting women’s organizations such as the League of Women Voters and the YWCA. Also, for many southern feminists, being part of a faith tradition that emphasized social justice reform is what ultimately propelled them into working for gender equality. Allured highlights key figures in Louisiana; divisions based on regional, sexual, and ideological differences; access to abortion; lawsuits that had national implications that emanated from southern women; and the fight against sexual assault and domestic violence. Through detailed archival and oral history research, she has forged a new path, making this a foundational work for the field. Remapping Second-Wave Feminism will amend how we reflexively view feminism as a northern phenomenon, giving proper due to the southern contribution.

The Laywoman Project

The Laywoman Project PDF Author: Mary J. Henold
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469654504
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Summoning everyday Catholic laywomen to the forefront of twentieth-century Catholic history, Mary J. Henold considers how these committed parishioners experienced their religion in the wake of Vatican II (1962–1965). This era saw major changes within the heavily patriarchal religious faith—at the same time as an American feminist revolution caught fire. Who was the Catholic woman for a new era? Henold uncovers a vast archive of writing, both intimate and public facing, by hundreds of rank-and-file American laywomen active in national laywomen's groups, including the National Council of Catholic Women, the Catholic Daughters of America, and the Daughters of Isabella. These records evoke a formative period when laywomen played publicly with a surprising variety of ideas about their own position in the Catholic Church. While marginalized near the bottom of the church hierarchy, laywomen quietly but purposefully engaged both their religious and gender roles as changing circumstances called them into question. Some eventually chose feminism while others rejected it, but most, Henold says, crafted a middle position: even conservative, nonfeminist laywomen came to reject the idea that the church could adapt to the modern world while keeping women's status frozen in amber.

Organized White Women and the Challenge of Racial Integration, 1945-1965

Organized White Women and the Challenge of Racial Integration, 1945-1965 PDF Author: Helen Laville
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319496948
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This monograph asserts that the troubled history of segregation within American women’s associations created a legacy of racial exclusivity and privilege. While acknowledging the progressive potential of women’s associations and the extent to which they created a legitimate outlet for American women’s public activism, it explores how and why such organizations failed to aid in issues of integration. Rather than being a historical accident, or a pragmatic response to circumstance, this monograph demonstrates that white exclusivity and privilege was crucial to the authority and influence of these associations. Organized White Women and the Challenge of Race Relations examines the translation of what seemed on the surface to be relatively simple demands for racial integration into a far more significant and all-encompassing confrontation with the frequently hidden structures and practices of white privilege.

Women in American Politics: History and Milestones

Women in American Politics: History and Milestones PDF Author: Doris Weatherford
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1608710076
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 593

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Book Description
Women in American Politics is a new reference detailing the milestones and trends in women's political participation in the United States. This two-volume work provides much needed perspective and background on the events and situations that have surrounded women's political activities. It offers insightful analysis on women's political achievements in the United States, including such topics as the campaign to secure nation-wide suffrage; pioneer women state officeholders; women first elected to U.S. Congress, governorships, mayoralties, and other offices; and women first appointed as Cabinet officials, judges, and ambassadors. It also includes profiles of the women who have run for vice president and president. Women in American Politics is organized in a framework both logical and useful to readers and researchers. Original material offers students, scholars, teachers, and other professionals a guide to understanding the complex struggle in women's progress toward achieving political parity with men in the United States. Each chapter is structured in three parts: - part one features graphic information-tables, lists, charts, or maps-detailing the historical record with data not compiled anywhere else, on women officeholders. - part two offers insightful narrative analysis describing how women achieved what they did, examines the complex and sometimes contradictory trends behind the facts of women's political milestones, and explores how social and economic contexts affected the progress of their accomplishments. - part three presents biographical entries describing in more personal terms women's struggle for political equality. Sidebars in each chapter illuminate the drama of political life and consider the evolving female electorate, exploring how women voters have impacted particular issues, specific elections, or other key turning points, and the tradition of appointing widows to open seats. The final chapter uniquely looks at women's political history and differences in achievement from a state and regional perspective. Entries on each state (as well as on District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) highlight milestones and provide insight into the unique aspects of each state.

Constructive Feminism

Constructive Feminism PDF Author: Daphne Spain
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501704125
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
In Constructive Feminism, Daphne Spain examines the deliberate and unintended spatial consequences of feminism's second wave, a social movement dedicated to reconfiguring power relations between women and men. Placing the women's movement of the 1970s in the context of other social movements that have changed the use of urban space, Spain argues that reform feminists used the legal system to end the mandatory segregation of women and men in public institutions, while radical activists created small-scale places that gave women the confidence to claim their rights to the public sphere.Women’s centers, bookstores, health clinics, and domestic violence shelters established feminist places for women’s liberation in Boston, Los Angeles, and many other cities. Unable to afford their own buildings, radicals adapted existing structures to serve as women’s centers that fostered autonomy, health clinics that promoted reproductive rights, bookstores that connected women to feminist thought, and domestic violence shelters that protected their bodily integrity. Legal equal opportunity reforms and daily practices of liberation enhanced women’s choices in education and occupations. Once the majority of wives and mothers had joined the labor force, by the mid-1980s, new buildings began to emerge that substituted for the unpaid domestic tasks once performed in the home. Fast food franchises, childcare facilities, adult day centers, and hospices were among the inadvertent spatial consequences of the second wave.

Citizens of the World

Citizens of the World PDF Author: Megan Threlkeld
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812298578
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Between 1900 and 1950, many internationalist U.S. women referred to themselves as "citizens of the world." This book argues that the phrase was not simply a rhetorical flourish; it represented a demand to participate in shaping the global polity and an expression of women's obligation to work for peace and equality. The nine women profiled here invoked world citizenship as they promoted world government—a permanent machinery to end war, whether in the form of the League of Nations, the United Nations, or a full-fledged world federation. These women agreed neither on the best form for such a government nor on the best means to achieve it, and they had different definitions of peace and different levels of commitment to genuine equality. But they all saw themselves as part of a global effort to end war that required their participation in the international body politic. Excluded from full national citizenship, they saw in the world polity opportunities for engagement and equality as well as for peace. Claiming world citizenship empowered them on the world stage. It gave them a language with which to advocate for international cooperation. Citizens of the World not only provides a more complete understanding of the kind of world these women envisioned and the ways in which they claimed membership in the global community. It also draws attention to the ways in which they were excluded from international institution-building and to the critiques many of them leveled at those institutions. Women's arguments for world government and their practices of world citizenship represented an alternative reaction to the crises of the first half of the twentieth century, one predicated on cooperation and equality rather than competition and force.

Entering the Picture

Entering the Picture PDF Author: Jill Fields
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136638911
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
In 1970, Judy Chicago and fifteen students founded the groundbreaking Feminist Art Program (FAP) at Fresno State. Drawing upon the consciousness-raising techniques of the women's liberation movement, they created shocking new art forms depicting female experiences. Collaborative work and performance art – including the famous "Cunt Cheerleaders" – were program hallmarks. Moving to Los Angeles, the FAP produced the first major feminist art installation, Womanhouse (1972). Augmented by thirty-seven illustrations and color plates, this interdisciplinary collection of essays by artists and scholars, many of whom were eye witnesses to landmark events, relates how feminists produced vibrant bodies of art in Fresno and other locales where similar collaborations flourished. Articles on topics such as African American artists in New York and Los Angeles, San Francisco’s Las Mujeres Muralistas and Asian American Women Artists Association, and exhibitions in Taiwan and Italy showcase the artistic trajectories that destabilized traditional theories and practices and reshaped the art world. An engaging editor’s introduction explains how feminist art emerged within the powerful women’s movement that transformed America. Entering the Picture is an exciting collection about the provocative contributions of feminists to American art.

Feminism’s Forgotten Fight

Feminism’s Forgotten Fight PDF Author: Kirsten Swinth
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674988906
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
Kirsten Swinth reconstructs the comprehensive vision of feminism’s second wave at a time when its principles are under renewed attack. In the struggle for equality at home and at work, it was not feminism that failed to deliver on the promise that women can have it all, but a society that balked at making the changes for which activists fought.