Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


osu1116520137.pdf (956.91 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Rethinking the liberal/radical divide: the National Organization for Women in Memphis, Columbus, and San Francisco, 1966-1982

Gilmore, Stephanie
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1116520137

Abstract Details

2005, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
This project uses the history of the National Organization for Women (NOW) to explore the relationship of liberal and radical elements in the second wave of the U.S. women’s movement. Combining oral histories with archival documents, this project offers a new perspective on second-wave feminism as a part of the long decade of the 1960s. It also makes location a salient factor in understanding post–World War II struggles for social justice. Unlike other scholarship on second-wave feminism, this study explores NOW in three diverse locations—Memphis, Columbus, and San Francisco—to see what feminists were doing in different kinds of communities: a Southern city, a non-coastal Northern community, and a West Coast progressive location. In Memphis—a city with a strong history of civil rights activism—black-white racial dynamics, a lack of toleration for same-sex sexuality, and political conservatism shaped feminist activism. Columbus, like Memphis, had a dominant white population and relatively conservative political climate (although less so than in Memphis), but it also boasted an open lesbian community, strong university presence, and a history of radical feminism and labor activism. San Francisco offered feminists racial and ethnic diversity, a progressive political climate, and a history of varied social movement activism. Most scholarship on the women’s movement focuses on the East Coast, with scattered attention to larger cities across the nation, yet it purports to offer a national picture of feminist social movements. As my work suggests, such an analysis can emerge only when we attend to regional variance. Memphis, Columbus, and San Francisco constitute a range of political, economic, and social contexts in which to explore feminist activism. Second-wave feminists in these locations were rarely “liberal” or “radical” exclusively but rather embraced dynamic and multiple ideologies along with accompanying strategies, tactics, and goals to create meaningful feminist change. By attending to the dynamics of feminist activism in different locations, this project reconceptualizes the postwar women’s movement in its heyday during the 1960s and 1970s.
Leila Rupp (Advisor)
330 p.
Feminism; National Organization for Women; Post-WWII activism; Memphis; Columbus; San Francisco

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gilmore, S. (2005). Rethinking the liberal/radical divide: the National Organization for Women in Memphis, Columbus, and San Francisco, 1966-1982 [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1116520137

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gilmore, Stephanie. Rethinking the liberal/radical divide: the National Organization for Women in Memphis, Columbus, and San Francisco, 1966-1982. 2005. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1116520137.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gilmore, Stephanie. "Rethinking the liberal/radical divide: the National Organization for Women in Memphis, Columbus, and San Francisco, 1966-1982." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1116520137

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1116520137
6,133
© 2005, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.