The World Split Open (90 page)

Other sources on minority women and feminism. Extensive bibliographies on minority women's history can be found in Ellen Carol DuBois and Vicki L. Ruiz, eds.,
Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History
(New York: Routledge, 2000); Gloria Anzaldua and Cherrie Moraga, eds.,
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color
(Watertown, Mass.: Persephone Press, 1981); and Alice Walker,
In Search of Our Mothers' Garden
(San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983) is the source for writings about “womanism” instead of feminism.

The heartland and local community studies. Studies of local feminist communities are increasing rapidly. See Benita Roth, “The Fourth World Is Born: The Separation of the Radical Women's Movement from the New Left, 1968–1971,” unpublished thesis, UCLA Department of Sociology, Spring 1989; Theresa Kaminski, “From Within and Without: Meanings of American Feminism in the 1960's and 1970's (Minneapolis),” paper presented at 1993 Berkshire Conference, Vassar, New York; and “Still Ain't Satisfied: Legacies of the 1970's Socialist Feminist Movement in Minneapolis, St. Paul,” n.d, unpublished dissertation, University of Minnesota, paper presented at same panel. Barbara Winslow, “The Struggle for Abortion Reform in Washington State, 1967–1970,” paper given to author in 1993; Joanna Leslie Dyl, “Burn This and Memorize Yourself: The Collectivists' Small Group as a Social Movement Organization in Women's Liberation in the Bay Area,” unpublished senior thesis, Department of History, Stanford University; Judith Sealander and Dorothy Smith, “The Rise and Fall of Feminist Organizations in the 1970's: Dayton as a Case Study,”
Feminist Studies
12:2 (Summer 1986): 221–339, APA; Anne Popkin, “Bread and Roses: An Early Moment in the Development of Socialist Feminism,” unpublished dissertation, Brandeis University, May 1978; and Michelle Moravec, “In Their Own Times: Voices from Los Angeles, 1967–1976,” master's thesis, UCLA, n.d. There are now a number of local
studies available. Barbara Winslow of Medgar Evers College is working on a study of Seattle Women's Liberation. Amy Kessleman at SUNY New Paltz is working on a study of New Haven. See Deborah Gerson, “Consciousness as Politics: Mobilization in Bay Area Women's Liberation, 1968–73,” unpublished method paper, U.C. Berkeley Sociology Department; Nancy Whittier's study,
Feminist Generations
(of Columbus, Ohio) (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995); Judith Ezekiel, “Une contribution à l'histoire du mouvement feministe Americain: l'etude du cas de Dayton, Ohio (1969–1980),” unpublished dissertation, Paris, 1987. For other scholars and students working on the women's movement, see
Women's Liberation Network Directory
, version 8/15/97, Web site:
http://www.duke.edu/~ginnyd/wlrn.html
. Also see “A Quiet Revolution: How life in one Wisconsin City has changed since the beginning of the Women's Movement,”
Newsweek
, December 28, 1997.

Houston. For those interested in media studies and feminism, the press coverage of the Houston conference offers an especially interesting case study. The press coverage became increasingly respectful as reporters realized the significance of a government-sponsored meeting with a stated feminist agenda. For a range of examples, see Connie Skipitares, “Cleaver at Women's Session,”
San Jose Mercury
, November 22, 1978, 28; Connie Skipitares, “Women Moving to Solidify their Gains,”
San Jose Mercury
, November 1977, 1; Mildred Hamilton, “Women Endorse the ERA,”
San Francisco Examiner
, November 20, 1977, 1; Merrill Shields with Lea Donosky, Lucy Howard, Elaine Sciolino, and Hall Bruno, “A Woman's Agenda,”
Newsweek
, November 28, 1977, 57; Judith Anderson, “Gay, Abortion Planks Pass,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, November 21, 1977, 1; Judith Anderson, “Women's Meeting Ends Abruptly,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, November 22, 1977, 1; “What's Next for U.S. Women,”
Time
, December 5, 1977, 18–26; Judith Anderson, “Houston Meeting: Was It Worth It,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, November 24, 1977, 73; Anne Taylor Fleming, “That Week in Houston: It was said that the women's movement was in a state of disarray. The National Women's Conference proved otherwise,”
New York Times Magazine
, December 25, 1977, 10–33; Bill Curry, “Multitude of Voices on Women's Issues,”
Washington Post
, November 29, 1977, 1, 21, 32; Anna Quindlen, “Women's Parley Brings Action Over a Rights Agenda for Nation,”
New York Times
, November 20, 1977, 1. For the official history of the Houston meetings, see National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year,
The Spirit of Houston: An Official Report to the President, the Congress and the People of the United States
(Washington, D.C., March 1978); National Commission on the Observation of International Women's Year,
Declaration of American Women
(Washington, D.C.: IWY Commission, 1977).

For studies of media representations of the movement see Susan Douglas,
Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media
(Random House: New York, 1994); Gaye Tuchman,
Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality
(New York: Free Press, 1978); Ella Taylor,
Prime Time Families: Television Culture in Postwar America
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989); Todd Gitlin,
Inside Prime Time
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983); Mary Anne Doane, et al.,
Re-Vision: Essays in Feminist Film Criticism
(Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1984).

Consumer feminism. See Elisabeth Cagan, “The Selling of the Women's Movement,”
Social Policy
(May/June 1978); Scot Winoker, “Freud and Fashion; Tobacco Firms' Seduction of Women,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, August 21, 1983, 6; “Brooke Shields Takes a Stand Against Smoking But the Government Didn't Want Her Message,”
American Lung Association Bulletin
(June/July, 1981); Lawrence Wallack, “Mass Media Campaigns in a Hostile Environment: Advertising as Anti-Health Education,” paper for Health Education and Media International Conference, March 24, 1981, Edinburgh, Scotland. David Reuben,
Any Woman Can! Love and Sexual Fulfillment for the Single, Widowed, Divorced, and Married
(New York: D. McKay, 1971).

Therapeutic feminism. The self-help books that best demonstrate the intersection between the women's movement and the human potential movement are: Dorothy Tennov,
Super Self: A Woman's Guide to Self-Management
(New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1977); Dorothy Jongeward and Dru Scott,
Women As Winners: Transactional Analysis for Personal Growth
(Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1976); Stanlee Phelps and Nancy Austin,
The Assertive Woman
(San Luis Obispo: Impact, 1975). Helen Gurley Brown,
Having It All
(New York: Pocket Books, 1982), is the best single description of the superwoman.

Film. Some films that addressed ideas of the women's movement were
A Woman under the Influence
, 1972;
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
, 1977;
Norma Rae
, 1979;
Nine to Five
, 1980;
Diary of a Mad Housewife
, 1970;
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
, 1974;
Tootsie
, 1980;
Private Benjamin
, 1980;
Mr. Mom
, 1983;
Yentl
, 1983;
Silkwood
, 1983. Also see Janice Mendehall,
Films on the Women's Movement;
an annotated list of 90 films, mostly shorts, in Federal Women's Program Coordinator, General Service Administration, Washington, D.C.,
Women and Film
, no. 2 (1972): 16; Lee Israel, “Women in Film: Saving an Endangered Species,”
Ms.
, February 8, 1975, 51; Andrew Kopkind, “Hollywood—Under the Influence of Women,”
Ramparts
(May 13, 1975): 56–60; R. McCormuck, “Women's Liberation Cinema,”
Cineaste
(Spring 1972): 1–7; Linda Greene, “Politics of a Feminist Fantasy,”
Jump Cut
6 (March/April 1983): 14; Bosley Crowther, “Where Are the Women?”
New York Times
, January 23, 1966.

Feminist concerns with the new superwoman. See Arlie Hochschild,
The Second Shift
(Berkeley: University of California, 1989), and
The Time Bind
(New York: Viking, 1997), for how a stalled revolution affected women's lives. See also Joan Peters,
When Mothers Work: Loving Our Children Without Sacrificing Ourselves
(New York: Perseus, 1998) and Peggy Orenstein,
Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love and Life in a Half-Changed World
(New York: Doubleday, 2000). A view that is harshly critical of the women's movement is Sylvia Hewlett,
A Lesser Life.

Beyond backlash. Two important books are Susan Faludi,
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
(New York: Crown, 1991), and Juliet Mitchell and Ann Oakley,
Who's Afraid of Feminism? Seeing Through the Backlash
(New York: New Press, 1997).

See early attacks by Marabel Morgan,
The Total Woman
(New York: Pocket Books, 1973), and Midge Decter,
The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women's Liberation
(New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1972). The term New Right was first used by Lee Edward in 1962 in proposing a conservative platform for Young Americans for Freedom. It became popular in 1975 when conservative Kevin Phillips began to associate the New Right with the efforts of Paul Weyrich, Howard Phillips, Richard Viguerie, and Terry Dolan, which is described in Rebecca Klatch,
Women of the New Right
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987). For a range of studies on the New Right and its relationship to feminism, see Allen Hunter, “In the Wings: New Right Ideology and Organization,”
Radical America
15 (Spring 1981): 112–28; Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, “Antiabortion, Antifeminism and the Rise of the New Right,”
Feminist Studies
7 (Summer 1981): 206–46; Barbara Ehrenreich, “The Social Issue Game: Family Feud on the Left,”
Nation
234 (March 13, 1982): 289, and Linda Gordon and Allen Hunter, “Sex, Family and the New Right: Anti-Feminism As a Political Force,”
Radical America
11–12 (November 1977–February 1978): 9–25, and David Frum,
How We Got Here: The Seventies
(New York: Basic, 2000). For women's opposition to feminism, see Andrea Dworkin,
Right Wing Women
(New York, 1983); Phyllis Schlafly,
The Power of the Positive Woman
(New York: Jove/HBJ, 1977); Lisa Cronin Wohl, “Phyllis Schlafly: The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority,” Ms., March 1974, 63, and the longer biography by Carol Festenthal,
The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority
(New York: Doubleday, 1981); Pamela Johnston Conover and Virginia Gray,
Feminism and the New Right: Conflict over the American Family
(New York: Praeger, 1983); Zillah Eisenstein,
Feminism and Sexual Equality: Crisis in Liberal America
(New York:
Monthly Review Press, 1984). Some of the best archival material on antifeminist sentiment can be found in a new collection called
Antifeminism in America: A Collection of Readings from the Literature of the Opponents to U.S. Feminism, 1948 to the Present
, edited with introductions by Angela Howard and Sasha Ranae Adams Tarrant (New York: Garland Press, 1997).

The ERA. The failure of the ERA to be ratified produced many different explanations. Some of the most important are Jane De Hart Mathew and Donald Mathew, “The Cultural Politics of ERA's Defeat,”
Organization of American Historians Newsletter
10:4 (November 1982): 13–15; Jane J. Mansbridge,
Why We Lost the ERA
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), which emphasizes the lack of cohesive feminist organization around the ERA, and Mary Frances Berry,
Why the ERA Failed: Women's Rights and the Amending Process of the Constitution
(Bloomington: Indiana University, 1986), who suggests what preconditions were necessary to get an amendment ratified, such as consensus-building in all the states; Joan Hoff Wilson, ed.,
The ERA and Right of Passage: The Past and Future of the ERA
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), offers a collection of essays that examine everything from labor's objection to the ERA in the 1920s to the language used in the 1980s by opponents and proponents of the ERA. Also see “National Rallies Give Enthusiastic Sendoff to ERA Countdown Campaign,” in
National Now Times
, July/August, 1981, 1, for a bittersweet reminder of the optimism that still could be mobilized just one year before the defeat. Possibly one of the most important and least remembered stories from the ERA battle involved a Mormon woman who refused to give up her struggle for passage of the amendment. For a popular review of her past and conversion to feminism, see Lisa Cronin Wohl, “A Feminist Latter-Day Saint: Why Sonia Johnson Won't Give Up on the ERA or the Mormons,”
Ms
., March 1980, 40.

Cultural wars. The literature on the cultural wars is vast. However, the majority of commentators have not recognized how deeply gendered—and racialized—are these cultural battles. For a sampling of some of the works that have responded to the Right's criticism of education, family, and religion, see Gerald Graff,
Beyond the Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize American Education
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1992), and
Curricular Reform and the Culture Wars
(New York: Garland, 1994); Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,
Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Todd Gitlin,
The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America Is Wracked by Culture Wars
(New York: Metropolitan Books, 1995); James L. Nolan, ed.,
The American Culture Wars: Current Contests and Future Prospects
(Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996); Lawrence Levine,
The Opening of the American Mind
(Boston: Beacon, 1997); Elayne Rapping,
Media-tions: Foray into the
Culture and Gender Wars
(Boston: South End Press, 1994); and Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds.,
The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact
(New York: Harry Abrams, 1996); and Robin Kelley,
Yo' Mama's Disfunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America
(Boston: Beacon, 1998), which is one of the most insightful works on race and the culture wars.