عنوان

The Power of Place:

TL8794361r

انگلیسی

The Power of Place:

[Thesis]

Nelson, Laura K.

Structure, Culture, and Continuities in U.S. Women's Movements

Voss, Kim

UC Berkeley

2014

UC Berkeley

2014

This dissertation challenges the widely accepted historical accounts of women's movements in the United States. Second-wave feminism, claim historians, was unique because of its development of radical feminism, defined by its insistence on changing consciousness, its focus on women being oppressed as a sex-class, and its efforts to emphasize the political nature of personal problems. I show that these features of second-wave radical feminism were not in fact unique but existed in almost identical forms during the first wave. Moreover, within each wave of feminism there were debates about the best way to fight women's oppression. As radical feminists were arguing that men as a sex-class oppress women as a sex-class, other feminists were claiming that the social system, not men, is to blame. This debate existed in both the first and second waves. Importantly, in both the first and the second wave there was a geographical dimension to these debates: women and organizations in Chicago argued that the social system was to blame while women and organizations in New York City argued that men were to blame. My dissertation documents, clarifies, and explains the geographical divide in these positions. Rather than seeking differences between the first and second wave as most historians have done, I claim we should investigate regional differences within waves and continuities between waves. We cannot understand the second wave without understanding its connections to the first wave.

Nelson, Laura K.

Voss, Kim

UC Berkeley

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y