Description
Revolutionary Feminists tells the story of the radical women's liberation movement in Seattle in the 1960s and 1970s from the perspective of a founding member, Barbara Winslow. Drawing on her collection of letters, pamphlets, and photographs as well as newspaper accounts, autobiographies, and interviews, Winslow emphasizes the vital role that Black women played in the women's liberation movement to create meaningful intersectional coalitions in an overwhelmingly White city. Winslow brings the voices and visions of those she calls the movement's "ecstatic utopians" to life. She charts their short-term successes and lasting achievements, from organizing women at work and campaigning for subsidized childcare to creating women-centered rape crisis centers, health clinics, and self-defense programs. The Seattle movement was essential to winning the first popular vote in the United States to liberalize abortion laws. Despite these achievements, Winslow critiques the failure of the movement's White members to listen to Black, Latina, Indigenous, and Asian American and Pacific Islander feminist activists. Reflecting on the Seattle movement's accomplishments and shortcomings, Winslow offers a model for contemporary feminist activism.
About the Author
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 *
"Winslow stresses that the women's movement in Seattle has not been given its due by historians who have typically focused more on feminist demands in East Coast cities. Winslow now seeks to set the record straight, and she succeeds in doing so. . . . Recommended. All readers." -- P. D. Travis * Choice *
Book Information
ISBN 9781478019916
Author Barbara Winslow
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 363g
About the Author
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 *
"Winslow stresses that the women's movement in Seattle has not been given its due by historians who have typically focused more on feminist demands in East Coast cities. Winslow now seeks to set the record straight, and she succeeds in doing so. . . . Recommended. All readers." -- P. D. Travis * Choice *
Book Information
ISBN 9781478019916
Author Barbara Winslow
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 363g
