Revolutionary Feminists: The Women's Liberation Movement in Seattle

Barbara Winslow

Published by Duke University Press 2023

Revolutionary Feminists

The Women's Liberation Movement in Seattle

Barbara Winslow

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478024491

Overview
Contents

About this book

Barbara Winslow tells the critical history of the Seattle women’s liberation movement during the 1960s and 1970s, outlining its successes and failures, emphasizing the foundational role that Black women played in the movement, and showing how it provides a model for contemporary feminist activism.

Author / Editor information

Barbara Winslow is Professor Emerita of Women’s and Gender Studies at Brooklyn College and author of Sylvia Pankhurst: Sexual Politics and Political Activism and Shirley Chisholm: Catalyst for Change, 1926–2005.

Reviews

“Barbara Winslow brings her historian’s sensibilities, political perspicacity, personal knowledge, and perfect comedic timing to tell a story of women’s liberation in Seattle that effectively overturns the conventional wisdom about the roots and branches of radical feminism. Winslow and her awesome comrades built a movement that, from its inception, was class conscious, Marxist-oriented, antiracist, anti-imperialist, nonsectarian, cross-generational, and ahead of the nation in its fight for reproductive justice, free childcare, and sexual freedom. They made mistakes and wrestled with internal contradictions but never lost sight of their objective: world revolution. Seattle, it turns out, was not only the greenest place in the country; it may well have been the reddest.”

-- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

“In this comprehensive study of women’s liberation in Seattle, Barbara Winslow carefully excavates a history that is quite different from the ones that have been told about less radical movements on the East Coast. With deep archival and personal knowledge, she illuminates the role of socialist feminists within women’s liberation, complicating the movement’s history in ways that intervene in today’s debates about feminism’s relationship to race, reproductive politics, capitalism, and US imperialism. An impressive and distinctive work.”

-- Felicia Kornbluh, coauthor of Ensuring Poverty: Welfare Reform in Feminist Perspective

"Forcefully pushing back against criticism that the organizations behind the movement, including her own Radical Women, advanced a white, middle-class agenda and ignored the needs of women of color, Winslow highlights their anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist perspectives and focus on issues of childcare, and notes the involvement of Black feminist luminaries including Nina Harding. . . . Worthwhile. . . ."

-- Publishers Weekly

"The writing’s strength lies in its thoroughness of detail and commitment to giving voice to small, grassroots organizations that might otherwise be overlooked. . . . Recommended for readers with an interest in political science, U.S. history, and feminist or diversity studies."

-- Monique Martinez Library Journal

"Winslow has produced a valiant testament to radical women, left-wing feminism and the city of Seattle. It is a history that both needed to be told. . . . [A] crucial addition to the already expansive library focused on that period we still call the Sixties."

-- Ron Jacobs Counterpunch

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Acronyms Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. It’s Reigning Men Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. From the Woman Question to Women’s Liberation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
3. Let Him Her Live Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
4. Freed Up and Fired Up Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
5. The Rising of the Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
6. Antiwar, Antidraft, and Anti-imperialist Feminist Activism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
7. The Multiplicity of Us Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
8. Flow and Ebb Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Appendix Seattle Activists: Where Are They Now? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 248

eBook

Published: July 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781478024491