Abstract
Women's Activist Organizing in US History, compiled by Dawn Durante, presents a noteworthy compendium of chapters all focused on the important work of women creating change over the past 200-plus years. Serving as a special volume in the series, Women, Gender, and Sexuality in American History, this focus on the roles, contributions, tribulations, accomplishments, and frustrations of women activists in the US for centuries provides a thoughtful work upon which to focus in social work classrooms. Winnowed from the previous editions of the same series over 30 years of publications, the text is a valuable contribution in a space that few have occupied and certainly not with such variety. The chapters carefully curated by Durante cover such historical topics as the development of benevolent societies, suffrage, labor organizing across many domains, civil rights organizing for Black women and the LGBTQ community, healthcare and reproductive rights, and more. Each of the chapters, written by historians or other faculty in women and gender studies, centers on women and their activist work and presents an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which they were undermined, propelled, supported, subverted, and ultimately impacted by social, cultural, and political forces of their time.
Social work educators will find ample coverage of topics that not only naturally align with the justice orientation of the profession, but are likely too an opportunity to expose students to nuances of the historical realities of social change that were not covered in traditional public education history courses. While the focus of the book is on history and understanding the context and work done by women activists, the presence of charitable societies, conceptions of family, labor movements, social workers, settlement houses, policy change, public assistance, and more across the chapters will feel familiar to social work students and aid to ensure students see the relevance, connection, and meaning of the readings in their own disciplinary focus. The opportunity to utilize a text that presents a feminist interpretation of a select number of movements for change throughout US history will aid in the honing of the skills of perspective-taking as students develop a deeper understanding of the role and work of women in critical movements over time.
While the text could be a supplement to many courses, it would be most beneficial at the graduate or undergraduate level in an advanced seminar, a course focused on understanding macro practice, or even a policy and/or advocacy course. Deborah Gray White emphasizes in her introduction the importance of the presence of difference as a concept presented both directly in each chapter in the ways women differentiate themselves from men in their efforts, but also implicitly across the entire collection of chapters in the ways activist approaches and actions varied based upon their “race, class, sexuality, and ethnicity” (p. 1). The difference presented in both identity and experience contrasted with the unity manifest through gender becomes an opportunity for exploration in the classroom. Social work faculty will want, and likely need, to punctuate the interrogations of the text with critical thinking questions that aid in students’ consideration of the content. Dissecting each chapter with an analysis of the concepts and constructs at play in the movement being highlighted will allow students to draw parallels and contradictions not only across the chapters but also to more modern-day movements and activist approaches. Facilitating an intersectional analysis, even when not presented by the chapter authors, will help ensure that students are bringing the most relevant and contemporary understanding to the historical undertakings highlighted in the selected chapters. Explorations of who is left out, who is privileged, alliances made for the sake of power and momentum, and more will all facilitate students’ skills of assessment, critical thinking, and feminist inquiry.
Readers have an opportunity to explore the notions of “worthy and unworthy poor,” which permeate discussions of early social policy as they were present in the development of benevolent societies. The consideration of labor and working conditions in multiple chapters (The Daily Labor of our Own Hands; Latin Women from Exiles to Immigrants; and It was the Women who Made the Union) presents an opportunity to draw parallels and contrasts to present-day union organizing and efforts to advance worker protections and wage equity. The analysis of the presence and influence of racial, ethnic, and immigrant identities, across several chapters and movements (Latin Women from Exiles to Immigrants; Performing and Politicizing ‘Ladyhood’: Black Washington Women and New Negro Suffrage Activism; It was the Women who Made the Union; and ‘Black Beauticians Were Very Important’: Southern Poverty Activists and the Modern Black Freedom Struggle), invites an assessment of corresponding current-day community discussions as well as their influence on social structures, opportunities, and rights. Chapters present an occasion to contemplate the way body image, social norms, and their manifestations in dress, hair, and presentation link to credibility and respect while working for change (Performing and Politicizing ‘Ladyhood’: Black Washington Women and New Negro Suffrage Activism; ‘Black Beauticians Were Very Important’: Southern Poverty Activists and the Modern Black Freedom Struggle; and Things Fall Apart; the LGBT Center Holds). With intentionality and preparation, the richness of discussions that are seeded in this intentionally assembled book is limitless.
Social workers will likely find the anthology personally interesting, if not also perhaps infuriating, given the recurrence of many of the same thematic issues in pursuit of justice despite the passage of time and advancement of societal understandings. The benefit of studying history is also the opportunity to analyze the strengths and successes as well as the missteps and distractions with a goal of understanding their implications and perhaps avoiding them in the future. Durante and all authors from the text provide us with an intriguing starting point for deep discussions with our students, colleagues, mentees/mentors, and ourselves as we look to the future of the work of women activists.
