Where is the "common ground of womanhood"? In a unique and highly nuanced study of previously unexplored cross-class alliances, Priscilla Murolo charts the shifting points of consensus and conflict between working women and their genteel club sponsors, working women and their male counterparts, and among working women of differing ethnic backgrounds. The working girls' club movement lasted from the 1880s, when women poured into the industrial labor force, into the 1920s. Clubs initially were governed by upper-class women, and activities converged around standards of "respectability" and the defense and uplift of the character of women who worked for wages. Later, the workers themselves presided over the clubs, at which point the focus shifted to issues of labor reform, women's rights, and sisterhood across class lines. This valuable and lucid study of the club movement's trajectory throws new light on broader trends in the history of women's alliances, social reform, gender conventions, and worker organizing. A volume in the series Women in American History, edited by Anne Firor Scott, Nancy A. Hewitt, and Stephanie Shaw, and in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilentz

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.

The first anthology in English on modern Spanish women's history and identity formation.

Prologue: The diary of Mary Forbes -- Church ladies -- Sisters of the club -- Board ladies -- Currents of reform -- "A robust, gritty crew"--"Sin City" and its reformers -- "Forces to be reckoned with"--Epilogue: The diary of Doris Zook

Civil society is often seen as male, structured in a way that excludes women from public and political life. Much feminist scholarship sees civil society and feminism as incompatible a result. But scholars and activists are currently trying to update this view by looking at women's positions in civil society and women's activism. This book contributes to this new research, arguing that civil society is a contested terrain where women can negotiate and successfully challenge dominant discourses in society. The book is based on interviews with women activists from ten women's organizations in Turkey. Foregrounding the voices of women, the book answers the question "How do women's NGOs contribute to civil society in the Middle East?”. At a time when civil society is being promoted and institutionalised in Turkey, particularly by the EU, this book demonstrates that women's organisations can help achieve women's emancipation, even if there are significant differences in their approaches and ideas.

Newly updated: “An enjoyable introduction to American working-class history.” —The American Prospect Praised for its “impressive even-handedness”, From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend has set the standard for viewing American history through the prism of working people (Publishers Weekly, starred review). From indentured servants and slaves in seventeenth-century Chesapeake to high-tech workers in contemporary Silicon Valley, the book “[puts] a human face on the people, places, events, and social conditions that have shaped the evolution of organized labor”, enlivened by illustrations from the celebrated comics journalist Joe Sacco (Library Journal). Now, the authors have added a wealth of fresh analysis of labor’s role in American life, with new material on sex workers, disability issues, labor’s relation to the global justice movement and the immigrants’ rights movement, the 2005 split in the AFL-CIO and the movement civil wars that followed, and the crucial emergence of worker centers and their relationships to unions. With two entirely new chapters—one on global developments such as offshoring and a second on the 2016 election and unions’ relationships to Trump—this is an “extraordinarily fine addition to U.S. history [that] could become an evergreen . . . comparable to Howard Zinn’s award-winning A People’s History of the United States” (Publishers Weekly). “A marvelously informed, carefully crafted, far-ranging history of working people.” —Noam Chomsky