While European immigrant women in the U.S. as a group have received more academic attention than women from other regions of the world, and more than native women of N. America, there has still been a tendency to deemphasize, and even ignore, their contributions to this country. This book provides a new look at the experience of European immigrant women in the U.S. The collection is restricted to women who made their contributions to American society since the American Revolution and who are now deceased. Many well-known women are included in this volume, as well as biographies of many lesser-known women. Annotated bibliographies included.

The immigration process changes personal narratives and professional trajectories and challenges identities and individual beliefs. Yet there is currently limited research on European women immigrants' transitions in the United States. This study examines personal and professional trajectories, in the United States, of Eastern European immigrant (EEI) women with prior educational attainment in their country of origin. This study examines the following issues: personal/social learning, developmental and professional experiences prior to and post migration, and social lives after the women's arrival in the United States. The study discusses the results of in-depth interviews with eight EEI women living in Arizona and California and recounts these women's life stories, gathered through open-ended questions that focused on areas of their personal and professional lives, such as childhood, marriage, immigration, education, family relations, socio-economic status, employment, child- rearing, and other significant life events. These areas impacted the women's creation of personal beliefs and their ability to develop new identities in the United States. The study examines EEI women's identity constructions within their life trajectory narratives.

For nearly a century, the symbol of the American melting pot enjoyed considerable popularity. Bruce M. Stave and John F. Sutherland explore this and other concepts in an oral history comprising the voices of European immigrants to Connecticut. Both practicing oral historians, their interviews join others conducted by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, providing readers with a perspective of at least three generations of immigrant experience, including the role that the family unit played, both economically and socially. Of special interest is the place held by immigrant women in the new world, as traditional relationships between men and women, and within families, began to change.

This book is the first interdisciplinary reader focusing on immigrant women in the United States. Part I includes three chapters by a historian, a sociologist, and an anthropologist summarizing the way research on immigrant women has developed in the three disciplines. Parts II and III, focusing on Immigrant Women of the Past and Immigrant Women Since 1920, provide empirical and interpretive essays on immigrant women from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The chapters explore such themes as women in the migration process, the role of gender in the creation of American ethnic identities, and the comparability of today's immigrant women with those of the past. Seeking Common Ground is the first interdisciplinary reader focusing on immigrant women in the United States. By providing a basis for comparison between both different ethnic groups and different disciplinary approaches, the volume aims to encourage interdisciplinary communication and research. After the editor's introduction, the volume begins with three chapters (Part I) by a historian, a sociologist, and an anthropologist summarizing the way research on immigrant women has developed in the three disciplines. Parts II and III, focusing on Immigrant Women of the Past and Immigrant Women Since 1920, provide empirical and interpretive essays on immigrant women from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The chapters explore such themes as women in the migration process, the role of gender in the creation of American ethnic identities, and the comparability of today's immigrant women with those of the past. The work will be of interest to individuals from all disciplines who are concerned with women's studies in general and immigrant women in particular.

Although general bibliographies on immigration may include entries on women, researchers interested in women immigrants will welcome this work. . . . Gabaccia's study includes more than 2,000 entries for books, journal articles, and PhD dissertations divided into chapters on broad genres or subjects: bibliography, general works, migration, family, work (meaning earning wages), working together (meaning collective community action), body, mind, cultural change, biography, autobiography, and fiction. Access is further enhanced by author, person, group, and subject indexes. . . . This work should be included in both public and academic libraries serving populations interested in women's lives. Choice Increasing awareness of cultural diversity, the growth of women's studies, and the arrival of this country's third wave of immigrants in the 1970s and 1980s have all contributed to strong recent interest in female immigrants. Immigrant Women in the United States is a multidisciplinary bibliography of women--including mothers and their daughters--who voluntarily crossed a national boundary to live or work in the United States. It covers scholarly secondary source materials in English--books, articles, and dissertations. Bibliographies, autobiographies, and fiction are dealt with in separate chapters. In an effort to encourage interdisciplinary research, the publications are arranged by topic, with separate chapters devoted to general works, migration, family life, work, collective action, women's bodies and minds, cultural and generational change, and biography. In addition, it is the only bibliography on the subject of immigrant women that systematically reviews literature on notable women of foreign birth and the sizable autobiographical, biographical, oral, historical, and fictional literature on immigrant women. Immigrant Women in the United States is only the second bibliography on this subject to appear within the past five years. It differs from that earlier work in the scope and depth of its coverage, including recently published works and dissertations appearing before 1989. It will be an important addition to library collections in women's studies and immigration studies and a valuable reference tool for historians and social scientists.

Sections include the immigrants' physical and spiritual well- being; moral ambivalences; changes in domestic life; contributions to their new society; and status in the family and society. Excerpts from letters and journals bring the women's stories to life. Bandw photos. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR