Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women's Movements

by Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon, Astrid Henry

Overview

Reframing feminism for the twenty-first century, this bold and essential history stands up against "bland corporate manifestos" (Sarah Leonard).

Eschewing the conventional wisdom that places the origins of the American women’s movement in the nostalgic glow of the late 1960s, Feminism Unfinished traces the beginnings of this seminal American social movement to the 1920s, in the process creating an expanded, historical narrative that dramatically rewrites a century of American women’s history. Also challenging the contemporary “lean-in,” trickle-down feminist philosophy and asserting that women’s histories all too often depoliticize politics, labor issues, and divergent economic circumstances, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon, and Astrid Henry demonstrate that the post-Suffrage women’s movement focused on exploitation of women in the workplace as well as on inherent sexual rights. The authors carefully revise our “wave” vision of feminism, which previously suggested that there were clear breaks and sharp divisions within these media-driven “waves.” Showing how history books have obscured the notable activism by working-class and minority women in the past, Feminism Unfinished provides a much-needed corrective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631490545
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	07/27/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	313,962
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dorothy Sue Cobble lives in Princeton, New Jersey, and teaches at Rutgers University, where she is the Distinguished Professor of History and Labor Studies.

Winner of two Bancroft Prizes for best book in American history, Linda Gordon is the author of The Second Coming of the KKK and a biography of photographer Dorothea Lange. She lives in New York and Madison, Wisconsin.

Astrid Henry is the Louise R. Noun Chair of Women’s Studies at Grinnell College. She lives in Grinnell, Iowa.

Editorial Reviews

"Edgy and important, Feminism Unfinished gives us one hundred years of feminist activism across all divides of class, race, and difference. It is a powerful corrective to hearten us in these mean times: The Global Feminist Movement Is Unfinished, and Everywhere Ongoing."

Blanche Wiesen Cook

"A quick, compelling and astute history of the women's movement from the 1920s to today and the first major history of women's political, social and economic progress in the United States in a generation."

Chicago Tribune - Scott Porch

"The authors…pose a rich, radical history of women's struggles… This is a necessary book."

The Nation - Sarah Leonard

"Forcefully disrupting misguided clichés, this pointed narrative highlights the transformative ideas and innovations driven by many generations of American women struggling for equal justice and aiming to be individuals and full citizens. Here, the full and continuous range of feminist efforts springs to life, tumultuous and internally varied as it was."

Nancy F. Cott

06/16/2014
Dividing their history into three periods and covering one each, scholars Cobble, Gordon, and Henry (professors at Rutgers, NYU, and Grinnell College respectively) examine the multiple strains of American feminism. Featuring lesser-known activists, they show that the movement has always had leaders who recognized the importance of race and class in relation to women’s issues as well as the diversity of what it means to be female. Cobble takes on the post-suffrage period, Gordon tackles the “women’s liberation” of the late 1960s though the 1980s, and Henry covers the period from the 1990s through the present. The authors assert that the work of feminism is not yet finished, and that the new wave of predominantly white, Ivy League–educated, and Internet-savvy feminists must listen to the diverse voices around them. The book’s stories of the broader variety of feminist organizations offer useful perspectives for today’s feminists: you did not invent this; your mothers did not get it all wrong; you are not done; and this might still take a while. 20 illus. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2014-06-18
Three distinguished academics offer a competent, compact history of the women’s liberation movement.Hoping to “set the record straight” in challenging former perceptions of American women’s activism, Cobble (History and Labor Studies/Rutgers Univ.;Sex of Class: Women Transforming American Labor, 2007, etc.), Gordon (History and the Humanities/New York Univ.;Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, 2009, etc.) and Henry (Women’s Studies/Grinnell Coll.;Not My Mother’s Sister: Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism, 2004) condense a century’s worth of groundbreaking feminist lobbying into three densely packed sections. Cobble charts feminism’s early post-suffrage years from the 1920s to the 1960s, with a particular focus on the fiercely passionate social justice “gender pioneers” of the labor movement who fought for economic equality and civil rights. Gordon vibrantly chronicles the women’s liberation period through the “sex equality” decades of the 1960s to the 1980s, during which self-defined sexuality was championed alongside politically productive feminists’ organizations and sex-positive efforts. In the final section, Henry follows the movement’s progression through the millennial generation of women (and men) who employed the freedoms their predecessors fought so stridently for. Rebirthing the cause and continuing the good fight for gender equality, she writes, their efforts helped neutralize the stigma of LGBT visibility, “girlie feminism” and challenges to female reproductive rights in the 1990s. The authors’ comprehensive appreciation counters popular held myths by documenting the losses along with the progress, dispelling the imagery of the feminist as a “humorless, sexless reformer,” and, perhaps most profoundly, arguing against the belief that feminism is a marginal, minority-focused fight for equality when, to Cobble, Gordon, Henry and supporters nationwide, “it is a cause for everyone.” All three perspectives converge into a dramatic historical statement on the past and present condition of women’s rights and its power and omnipresence.An erudite group effort encapsulating a long, laborious struggle that continues today.

Kirkus Reviews