Feminist Foremothers in Women’s Studies, Psychology, and Mental Health is by and about the more recent wave of feminist foremothers; those who were awakened in the 1960s and ’70s to the realization that something was terribly wrong. These are the women who created the fields of feminist therapy, feminist psychology, and women’s mental health as they exist today. The 48 women share their life stories in the hope that they will inspire and encourage readers to take their own risks and their own journeys to the outer edges of human possibility. Authors write about what led up to their achievements, what their accomplishments were, and how their lives were consequently changed. They describe their personal stages of development in becoming feminists, from unawareness to activism to action. Some women focus on the painful barriers to success, fame, and social change; others focus on the surprise they experience at how well they, and the women’s movement, have done. Some well-known feminist foremothers featured include: Phyllis Chesler Gloria Steinem Kate Millett Starhawk Judy Chicago Zsuszanna Emese Budapest Andrea Dworkin Jean Baker Miller Carol Gilligan In Feminist Foremothers in Women’s Studies, Psychology, and Mental Health, many of the women see in hindsight how prior projects and ideas and even dreams were the forerunners to their most important work. They note the importance of sisterhood and the presence of other women and the loneliness and isolation experienced when they don’t exist. They note the validation they have received from grassroots feminists in contrast to disbelief from professionals. Although these women have been and continue to be looked up to as foremothers, they realize how little recognition they’ve been given from society-at-large and how much better off their male counterparts are. Some foremothers write about the feeling of being different, not meshing with the culture of the time and about challenging the system as an outsider, not an insider. These are women who had few mentors, who had to forge their own way, “hit the ground running.” Their stories will challenge readers to press on, to continue the work these foremothers so courageously started.Throughout the pages of Feminist Foremothers in Women’s Studies, Psychology, and Mental Health runs a sense of excitement and vibrancy of lives lived well, of being there during the early years of the women’s movement, of making sacrifices, of taking risks and living to see enormous changes result. Throughout these pages, too, sounds a call not to take these changes for granted but to recognize that feminists, rather than arguing over picayune issues or splitting politically correct hairs, are battling for the very soul of the world.

Borrowing from Our Foremothers offers a panorama of women’s struggles through artifacts to establish connections between the generations of women’s right activists. In a thorough historical retelling of the women’s movement from 1848 to 2017, Amy Helene Forss focuses on items borrowed from our innovative foremothers, including cartes de visite, clothing, gavels, sculptures, urns, service pins, and torches. Framing the material culture items within each era’s campaigns yields a wider understanding of the women’s metanarrative. Studded with relics and ninety-nine oral histories from such women as Rosalynn Carter to Pussyhat Project cocreator Krista Suh, this book contributes an important and illuminating analysis necessary for understanding the development of feminism as well as our current moment.

Here, archaeologically documented,is the story of the religion of the Goddess. Under her, women’s roles were far more prominent than in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures. Stone describes this ancient system and, with its disintegration, the decline in women’s status.

Collects 14 articles on women's suffrage. DuBois (history, U. of California in Los Angeles) traces the trajectory of the suffrage story against the backdrop of changing attitudes to politics, citizenship, and gender, and the resultant tensions over such issues as slavery and abolitionism, sexuality and religion, and class conflict. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"Founded in 2012, Echoing Ida is a writing collective of Black women and nonbinary writers who-like their foremother Ida B. Wells-Barnett-believe the "way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." Their community reporting spans a wide variety of topics: reproductive justice and abortion politics; new and necessary definitions of family; trans visibility; stigma against Black motherhood; Black mental health; and more. The Echoing Ida Collection gathers the best of Echoing Ida for the first time, and features a foreword by Michelle Duster, activist and great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells-Barnett"--

In 1963, Betty Friedan unleashed a storm of controversy with her bestselling book, The Feminine Mystique. Hundreds of women wrote to her to say that the book had transformed, even saved, their lives. Nearly half a century later, many women still recall where they were when they first read it. In A Strange Stirring, historian Stephanie Coontz examines the dawn of the 1960s, when the sexual revolution had barely begun, newspapers advertised for "perky, attractive gal typists," but married women were told to stay home, and husbands controlled almost every aspect of family life. Based on exhaustive research and interviews, and challenging both conservative and liberal myths about Friedan, A Strange Stirring brilliantly illuminates how a generation of women came to realize that their dissatisfaction with domestic life didn't't reflect their personal weakness but rather a social and political injustice.