During the 1970s, thousands of American women met regularly in small groups to talk about the injustices they experienced in their private lives and how those personal injustices related to the broad-based political oppression of women. They called this cultural work "consciousness raising." Women's and feminist fiction of the 1970s was dominated by a new kind of novel whose content and form were shaped by the practice of consciousness-raising. Lisa Maria Hogeland contends that consciousness-raising novels both reflected and furthered the Women's Liberation Movement's analyses of sexuality, gender, race, and political responsibility and that through their narrative structure the novels actually engaged in consciousness-raising with their readers. Using a broad range of fiction—including works by Erica Jong, Marilyn French, Marge Piercy, Alix Kates Shulman, Alison Lurie, Joanna Russ, and Joan Didion—Hogeland explores the ways in which consciousness-raising novels addressed some of the most important questions raised by second-wave feminism.

Examples of fiction, poetry and drama dealing with the feminine experience and historical, psychological and sociological statements about women.

Richard Stites views the struggle for liberation of Russian women in the context of both nineteenth-century European feminism and twentieth-century communism. The central personalities, their vigorous exchange of ideas, the social and political events that marked the emerging ideal of emancipation--all come to life in this absorbing and dramatic account. The author's history begins with the feminist, nihilist, and populist impulses of the 1860s and 1870s, and leads to the social mobilization campaigns of the early Soviet period.

Chronology of events--The women's liberation movement explained--The view from the past--Equal rights, NOW!--:The women's liberation movement,1967-1977--The feminist agenda,1970-1980--Biographies: the women who shaped the women's liberation movement--Primary documents of the women's liberation movement.

This collection represents cumulative impacts and achievements of women's liberation movements within the West. This book investigates outcomes in different countries in the light of a reflective social movement theory, comparing them to developments in other parts of the world. Chapter 1. Women's Liberation Movement and Professional Equality: The Swiss Case Sarah Kiani Chapter 2. How The Women's Movement Changed Academia: A Comparison of Germany and the United States Stefanie Ehmsen Chapter 3. Female Bodies - Fetal Subjects? New Reproductive Technologies, Feminist Claims and Political Change in Switzerland in the 1970/80s Leena Schmitter Chapter 4. Momone and the Bonnes Femmes; or Beauvoir and the MLF Sylvie Chaperon Chapter 5. Women and Words: Literary Practices as Collective Self-Discovery Kristina Schulz Chapter 6. Lesbian Vertigo: Living the Women's Liberation Movement on the Edge of Europe Ana Martins Chapter 7. Sexy Stories and Postfeminist Empowerment: From 'Häutungen' to 'Wetlands' Christa Binswanger and Kathy Davis Chapter 8. Lesbianism as Political Construction, in the French Feminist context Christine Bard Chapter 9. Gender and Class in the Italian Women's Movement Marica Tolomelli and Anna Frisone Chapter 10. "Sisterhood is Plain Sailing?" Multi-Racial Feminist Collectives in 1980s Britain Natalie Thomlinson Chapter 11. Uneasy Solidarity: The British Men's Movement and Feminism Lucy Delap Chapter 12. Echoes of Ourselves? - Feminisms between East and West in the Leningrad Almanac Woman and Russia Kirsten Harting Chapter 13. Cyberfeminism on the German-Speaking Net: Contestation beyond Binary Code Johanna Niesyto Chapter 14. The Myth and the Archives: Some Reflections on Swedish Feminism in the 1970s Elisabeth Elgan Chapter 15. After the Protest: Biographical Consequences of Movement Activism in an Oral History of Women's Liberation in Britain Margaretta Jolly Chapter 16. Writing the History of Feminism (Old and New). Impacts and Impatience Karen Offen.

A noted economist and mother of four combines experience and scholarship in this unprecedented and enlightening work that shows how American women have been stripped of their traditional social supports of the past and thrust into the harsh economic realities of the present.