Antifeminism in America: A Historical Reader


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The documents in this paperback inform the reader's understanding and appreciation of the social and political context of opposition in which the advocates of women's rights labored from 1848 to 1996. Arranged in six parts by historical periods, these original articles from mainstream magazines, specialized and academic journals, and books display the tone and substance of opposition to women's rights as it appeared in popular literature. The selections reflect the public campaign, fought in the popular press, of opponents to the fundamental goal of all aspects of movement for women's rights, to challenge the gender system by advocating equality for women.Antifeminism in America: A Historical Reader Review
As the title suggests, this is a good but not great collection of anti-feminist writings from the mid-19th century to the late 20th century. The work includes some stand out pieces from the early 20th century, including an article from Charlotte Perkin Gillman's physician S. Weir Mitchell "When the College is Hurtful to a Girl." Yet the book is uneven. It needed to offer a broader range of voices including those of African American women involved with the black power movement of the 1960s. Many of those women contested white feminist claims of solidarity and male oppression. African American women involved with Marcus Garvey's UNIA in the early 20th century promoted race pride through a manipulation of patriarchal language that sounded antifeminist. Selections from this movement would have nuanced the collection. [On this subject, ULa Taylor's work on Amy Jacques-Garvey would be excellent reading for undergrads or grad students. She offers a nuanced interpretation of Jacques-Garvey's "community feminism."}Content gaps aside, the real drawback is that the collection doesn't offer any sort of intellectual guide for the reader. It would be difficult to assign the book as a reader for a class without simultaneously offering careful assessments of time, place, and author of each piece. This might be handled in part, with a very comprehensive textbook. I chose to select a few pieces to assign in conjunction with other materials. Had the collection contained basic introductions or even better article/chapter excerpts from substantial academics to help explain the shifting currents of anti-feminism in the US, I would have gladly assigned the it.
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