Eighteen women psychologists address issues of diversity while exploring the effects of essentialism - the presumed sameness of all women. By exposing how their own work incorporates their gender and ethnicities, the contributors embark on a journey of awareness built on communication and collaboration. Discussing dilemmas of gender and ethnicity

In this ethnographic examination of Mexican-American and white girls coming of age in California’s Central Valley, Julie Bettie turns class theory on its head, asking what cultural gestures are involved in the performance of class, and how class subjectivity is constructed in relationship to color, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. A new introduction contextualizes the book for the contemporary moment and situates it within current directions in cultural theory. Investigating the cultural politics of how inequalities are both reproduced and challenged, Bettie examines the discursive formations that provide a context for the complex identity performances of contemporary girls. The book’s title refers at once to young working-class women who have little cultural capital to enable class mobility; to the fact that analyses of class too often remain insufficiently transformed by feminist, ethnic, and queer studies; and to the failure of some feminist theory itself to theorize women as class subjects. Women without Class makes a case for analytical and political attention to class, but not at the expense of attention to other social formations.

While great strides have been made in documenting discrimination against women in America, our awareness of discrimination is due in large part to the efforts of a feminist movement dominated by middle-class white women, and is skewed to their experiences. Yet discrimination against racial ethnic women is in fact dramatically different--more complex and more widespread--and without a window into the lives of racial ethnic women our understanding of the full extent of discrimination against all women in America will be woefully inadequate. Now, in this illuminating volume, Karen Anderson offers the first book to examine the lives of women in the three main ethnic groups in the United States--Native American, Mexican American, and African American women--revealing the many ways in which these groups have suffered oppression, and the profound effects it has had on their lives. Here is a thought-provoking examination of the history of racial ethnic women, one which provides not only insight into their lives, but also a broader perception of the history, politics, and culture of the United States. For instance, Anderson examines the clash between Native American tribes and the U.S. government (particularly in the plains and in the West) and shows how the forced acculturation of Indian women caused the abandonment of traditional cultural values and roles (in many tribes, women held positions of power which they had to relinquish), subordination to and economic dependence on their husbands, and the loss of meaningful authority over their children. Ultimately, Indian women were forced into the labor market, the extended family was destroyed, and tribes were dispersed from the reservation and into the mainstream--all of which dramatically altered the woman's place in white society and within their own tribes. The book examines Mexican-American women, revealing that since U.S. job recruiters in Mexico have historically focused mostly on low-wage male workers, Mexicans have constituted a disproportionate number of the illegals entering the states, placing them in a highly vulnerable position. And even though Mexican-American women have in many instances achieved a measure of economic success, in their families they are still subject to constraints on their social and political autonomy at the hands of their husbands. And finally, Anderson cites a wealth of evidence to demonstrate that, in the years since World War II, African-American women have experienced dramatic changes in their social positions and political roles, and that the migration to large urban areas in the North simply heightened the conflict between homemaker and breadwinner already thrust upon them. Changing Woman provides the first history of women within each racial ethnic group, tracing the meager progress they have made right up to the present. Indeed, Anderson concludes that while white middle-class women have made strides toward liberation from male domination, women of color have not yet found, in feminism, any political remedy to their problems.

Beginning in the late 1960s, women's studies scholars worked to introduce courses on the history, literature, and philosophies of women. While these initial efforts were rather general, women's studies programs have started to give increasing amounts of attention to the special concerns of women of color. The topic itself is politically charged, and there is growing awareness that the issues facing women of color are diverse and complex. Expert contributors offer chapters on the major concerns facing women of color in the modern world, particularly in the United States and Latin America. Each chapter treats one or more groups of women who have been underrepresented in women's studies scholarship or have had their experiences misinterpreted, including African Americans, Latina Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. Women of Color includes chapters on theories related to race, gender, and identity. One section provides discussions of literature by women of color, including works by such authors as Toni Morrison and Maxine Hong Kingston. The book also focuses on the place of women of color in higher education, including chapters on women of color and the women's studies curriculum, and the role of librarians in shaping women's studies programs.

This book introduces the study of ethnic women and contributes to our understanding of the relationships among gender, race/ethnicity, and social class. The social scientific study of gender has grown exponentially for more than two decades. Until recently, however, little attention has been paid to the diversity among women. The social scientific literature on ethnicity has experienced a revival in the same decades, yet women have frequently been overlooked or misrepresented in that literature. When ethnic women do appear they are typically depicted as selfless wives and mothers or passive victims. Theses twenty original essays challenge myths and stereotypes. The authors--social scientists, social service professionals, and other scholars--explore a broad range of racial/ethnic and social class circumstances. Communities represented include the Hmong in Wisconsin, Cuban Jews in Florida, and Samoans in Hawaii. Patters of immigration and social mobility, communal institutions, and maintenance of ethnic traditions are among the topics which reflect the multiple status reality of ethnic women.

Eighteen women psychologists address issues of diversity while exploring the effects of essentialism - the presumed sameness of all women. By exposing how their own work incorporates their gender and ethnicities, the contributors embark on a journey of awareness built on communication and collaboration. Discussing dilemmas of gender and ethnicity