No Permanent Waves: Recasting Histories of U.S. Feminism

Published by Rutgers University Press 2010

No Permanent Waves

Recasting Histories of U.S. Feminism

Edited by: Nancy A. Hewitt
With contributions by: Nancy A. Hewitt , Marisela Châvez , Dorothy Cobble , Leela Fernandes , Ednie Garrison , Stephanie Gilmore , Roberta Gold , Martha Jones , Nancy MacLean , Premilla Nadasen , Whitney Peoples , Ula Taylor , Becky Thompson , Anne Valk , Lara Vapnek , Judy Wu and Leandra Zarnow

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813549170

Overview
Contents

About this book

No Permanent Waves boldly enters the ongoing debates over the utility of the "wave" metaphor for capturing the complex history of women's rights by offering fresh perspectives on the diverse movements that comprise U.S. feminism, past and present. Seventeen essays--both original and reprinted--address continuities, conflicts, and transformations among women's movements in the United States from the early nineteenth century through today.

A respected group of contributors from diverse generations and backgrounds argue for new chronologies, more inclusive conceptualizations of feminist agendas and participants, and fuller engagements with contestations around particular issues and practices. Race, class, and sexuality are explored within histories of women's rights and feminism as well as the cultural and intellectual currents and social and political priorities that marked movements for women's advancement and liberation. These essays question whether the concept of waves surging and receding can fully capture the complexities of U.S. feminisms and suggest models for reimagining these histories from radio waves to hip-hop.

Author / Editor information

NANCY A. HEWITT is a professor of history and women's and gender studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. Her books include Women's Activism and Social Change: Rochester, New York, 1822–1872; Southern Discomfort: Women's Activism in Tampa, Florida, 1880–1920s; and A Companion to American Women's History.

Reviews

"As an intellectual enterprise the book successfully established the overlapping and intertwined configurations of feminist movements from the 1840s to the present. Hewitt's book is a compelling guide to contemporary interpretations of American feminisms. Its thought-provoking essays will be especially useful in classroom distussions about historical practice."

— Journal of American History

"No Permanent Waves offers not only crucial information on the histories of feminism but also evidence for new historiographical claims about how feminism relates to itself across time, positionality, race, region, class, sexuality, occupation, and especially generation. Featuring a range of essays on manifestations of feminism and their relationships to time and generation, No Permanent Waves demonstrated the strength of attending to difference."

— Signs

"From Seneca Falls to hip-hop, this striking collection pushes us to rethink the who, what, when, where, and why of U.S. feminist history. The wide-ranging essays toss out the overly tidy generational model and replace it with complex, rich, and inclusive accounts of our feminist past. Highly recommended."

— Joanne Meyerowitz, author of How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States

"An important contribution to the ongoing dialogue on the meaning of feminism and its application not just within the academy, but also to a larger and more general political, social, and intellectual forum. Recommended."

— Choice

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Nancy A. Hewitt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE. Reframing Narratives/Reclaiming Histories
1. From Seneca Falls to Suffrage? Reimagining a “Master” Narrative in U.S. Women’s History Nancy A. Hewitt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism Becky Thompson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
3. Black Feminisms and Human Agency Ula Y. Taylor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
4. “We Have a Long, Beautiful History”: Chicana Feminist Trajectories and Legacies Marisela R. Chávez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
5. Unsettling “Third Wave Feminism”: Feminist Waves, Intersectionality, and Identity Politics in Retrospect Leela Fernandes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
PART TWO. Coming Together/ Pulling Apart
6. Overthrowing the “Monopoly of the Pulpit”: Race and the Rights of Church Women in the Nineteenth-Century United States Martha S. Jones Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
7. Labor Feminists and President Kennedy’s Commission on Women Dorothy Sue Cobble Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
8. Expanding the Boundaries of the Women’s Movement: Black Feminism and the Struggle for Welfare Rights Premilla Nadasen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
9. Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Peace Activism and Women’s Orientalism Judy Tzu-Chun Wu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
10. Living a Feminist Lifestyle: The Intersection of Theory and Action in a Lesbian Feminist Collective Anne M. Valk Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
11. Strange Bedfellows: Building Feminist Coalitions around Sex Work in the 1970s Stephanie Gilmore Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
12. From Sisterhood to Girlie Culture: Closing the Great Divide between Second and Third Wave Cultural Agendas Leandra Zarnow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
PART THREE. Rethinking Agendas/ Relocating Activism
13. Staking Claims to Independence: Jennie Collins, Aurora Phelps, and the Boston Working Women’s League, 1865–1877 Lara Vapnek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
14. “I Had Not Seen Women Like That Before”: Intergenerational Feminism in New York City’s Tenant Movement Roberta S. Gold Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
15. The Hidden History of Affirmative Action: Working Women’s Struggles in the 1970s and the Gender of Class Nancy MacLean Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	356
16. U.S. Feminism—Grrrl Style! Youth (Sub)Cultures and the Technologics of the Third Wave Ednie Kaeh Garrison Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	379
17. “Under Construction”: Identifying Foundations of Hip-Hop Feminism and Exploring Bridges between Black Second Wave and Hip-Hop Feminisms Whitney A. Peoples Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	403
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	431
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	435