White Women's Rights

The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States

Author: Louise Michele Newman
ISBN: 9780195124668

This study reinterprets a crucial period (1870s-1920s) in the history of women's rights, focusing attention on a core contradiction at the heart of early feminist theory. At a time when white elites were concerned with imperialist projects and civilizing missions, progressive white women developed an explicit racial ideology to promote their cause, defending patriarchy for "primitives" while calling for its elimination among the "civilized." By exploring how progressive white women at the turn of the century laid the intellectual groundwork for the feminist social movements that followed, Louise Michele Newman speaks directly to contemporary debates about the effect of race on current feminist scholarship. "White Women's Rights is an important book. It is a fascinating and informative account of the numerous and complex ties which bound feminist thought to the practices and ideas which shaped and gave meaning to America as a racialized society. A compelling read, it moves very gracefu

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publish Date: 1999

Subjects: History / United States / General, Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: History)