Our Shared Shelf discussion

Hey guys,
I am studing American Studies in Poland at Jagiellonian University and this year I am suppose to write master's thesis in order to graduate. I chose to write about Women's rights in U.S. And here's question to you - coud you give me any suggestions about books I could use in my thesis that you think are good? There is so many titles, authors etc, but it would take ages to browse them all. I need books about history of feminism, history of feminism in U.S. etc - that would be my first chapter; later I would like to focus on law in U.S. that guarantees women certain rights and at the end I would like to write about actual situation - it is if women can actually excercise those rights and how their actual life look like - so any books about women's situation in U.S. would be perfect.
My main concept is to write generally about women in U.S., but I would like to mention sth about racial differences and how white women are treated differently than women of colour (I hope this is a proper term and I did not hurt anybody's feelings :) ). So any books about inequality among women are welcomed.
Or maybe you have any suggestions what I should focus on, what I should mention, what are the biggest problems for women in U.S. - any propositions are welcomed and helpful - I've never been to USA so everything I know comes from TV, newspapers, books, and articles - any opinions from the inside would be incredibly helpful.
Thank you guys in advance for any suggestions.
Greetings from Poland :)
Katie
(sorry for any language mistakes :) )

Hum I'm not from the US but I think these books should be of help:

Bad Feminist, Roxanne Gay. (difficult to find outside the US but if you have audible it's easier)

You can't touch my hair and other things I still have to explain, by Phoebe Robinson (again, I could only find it on Amazon)

Men explain things to me, by Rebecca Solnit

Susan Faludi's Backlash is great. Betty Freidan' s The Feminine Mystique. Andrea Dworkin' s Woman Hating.

I've never taken a women's studies course or anything, so these are just a few suggestions based on what I've encountered in my studies more generally and read in my free time.

I second The Feminine Mystique. It's old, but caused a sensation when it was published in the early 1960s and started second-wave feminism in the US. Along those lines, Gloria Steinem's works would also be helpful for exploring second wave feminism in the US--such as Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. My Life on the Road, her most recent book, also explores her experiences meeting with different groups.

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins is more contemporary and a good starting point for exploring intersectionality. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's essay We Should All Be Feminists is also thought-provoking. She originally presented it as a TED talk that you can find on YouTube.

In terms of the earlier history of feminism in the US, I unfortunately don't know of any specific books, but a few figures that you can research are Sarah and Angelina Grimké, Lucy Stone, Victoria Woodhull, Sojourner Truth, and Alice Paul.

Hope some of that was helpful! Best of luck with your thesis.

If you want to explore Native American women as well, you could have a look into Wilma Mankiller. She was chief of the Cherokee nation and from what I read in My Life on the Road, was eager to change living conditions for the Cherokee nation as well as other Peoples.

And woc (women of colour) is perfectly fine, it's intersectional indeed. No problems here:)

Katarzyna wrote: "Hey guys,
I am studing American Studies in Poland at Jagiellonian University and this year I am suppose to write master's thesis in order to graduate. I chose to write about Women's rights in U.S. ..."

Katarzyna, good luck on your thesis. Your English is excellent, BTW.

I have a suggestion that may make your life easier - you may want to narrow your topic. Unless in Poland a thesis is longer than typical in the U.S., I fear you may be overwhelmed with the amount of data. Perhaps a brief overview of the history, but focus on a specific time period (changes in the last 10 years?), or focus on a specific topic (employment, political rights ...). Regardless what form it takes, good luck!

I first thought ot Half the Sky, but it's not really about the US. It has a lot to do with inequity in Asia and Africa.

Hi Katarzyna,

I think that it's very cool that you're looking into the intersectionalities of feminism in the USA. I studied US History, Asian American Studies and Education in college, so I'm stoked that people outside the USA are looking into these topics as well. Most of my suggestions focus on minority people in the USA--Asian American students in particular. Here are some of the titles:

Asian American Studies Now: A Critical Reader: https://textbookpdf.wordpress.com/cat...

Asian American Dreams by Helen Zia

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston

The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas by Diane Taylor

Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork by Diane L. Wolf

Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America by Mary Paik Lee

Little Manila Is in the Heart: The Making of the Filipina/o American Community in Stockton, California by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon

In terms of more current news that tackle the intersectionalities of feminism, you should look into the following:

Black Girl Dangerous: http://www.bgdblog.org/about-bgd/

Hope this helps. Good luck with your thesis!

Women, Race, and Class by Angela Y. Davis is a good one about the history of feminism in America, with a specific focus on race and class!

The Body Project is a great book that gives some history of women in America and how their bodies, fashion, and morals were regulated.

"Enlightened Sexism" - Susan J Douglas

There were several texts from my Women's Studies courses that were excellent. I have one listed on my shelves here, so I can provide that. I'll try and hunt up some others that are academically sound.

The Women's Movement, Political, Socioeconomic, And Psychological Issues by Barbara Sinclair aka Barbara Sinclair Deckard
This is essentially an overview of the Women's Movement in the US from its' origins to the time of the author's writing. It has a section on laws and etc by state as well. It is quite comprehensive and a good primer. It also addresses some of the inequalities you are looking for (but not as comprehensively or skillfully as later works focusing on that topic). Not just African-Americans, but Native Americans, and other women of color.

A really great general book that treats feminism globally is Shelia Rowbotham, Women in Movement. Rowbotham deals with intersectionalities broadly, as well as covering a wide historical period. It's relatively recent (1990s) and although Rowbotham is generally known as a socialist feminist, it covers all the major branches of feminist theory. Rowbotham is well received generally as an academic.

A bit out of date now is Toril Moi's Sexual/Textual Politics (1985). However, it gives a fantastic grounding in the differences between radical and liberal feminism up to that date. The book also compares American and French feminism in a way that cuts through a lot of the difficulties of psychoanalytic and post-structuralist influenced feminism.

Very out of date but Gilbert and Gubar's Madwoman in the Attic (late seventies I think) was ground breaking. Like Betty Friedan, it's been surpassed but also like Friedan, it's very readable American feminism. It also deals specifically with the way patriarchal ideology represents women as a figure.

There's also some really sophisticated stuff that recognises intersectionalities from American feminists in Life-Writing. Sidonie Smith and Leigh Gilmore (1990s) are fantastic, both post-structuralist influenced and very aware of subjectivity, subject positions and how class/race/sexuality construct subjectivity.

I am just finishing a PhD that has a significant feminist element, and I agree with the comments made, it's a massive topic, it might be wise to consider limiting it in some way, whether by restricting the time period or reading around the subject and then picking a particular field within feminism, and consider intersectionalities from that feminist perspective. Post-structuralist feminism is particularly good for that.

Good luck and enjoy, it'll be a great topic to study!

I agree with some of the other comments that your proposed topic is very broad and can take you in so many different directions. This website offers a great overview of the history of the US women's rights movement as a whole body. [http://www.nwhp.org/resources/womens-...]

I have been most fascinated by the trough period between the first wave of feminism ending around 1920 and start of the second wave around 1963. During the trough period, women in the US dealt with the effects of the Great Depression, then stepped up to aid the US World War II war effort as Rosie-the-Riveters only to be told to return to their happy little kitchens when the war ended. Some of the best resources related to this period are: Creating Rosie the Riveter and Rosie the Riveter Revisited: Women, the War, and Social Change...which explores the often overlooked impact of race as women sought societal change for expanded opportunities along with improved images of themselves.
The thoughts and ideas that became The Feminist Mystique grew out of this trough period.

Good luck. There is so very much to explore and you are only limited by your interests.

Hi Katarzyna,

In addition to some of the books already suggested, I can suggest these:

The Boundaries of Her Body: A Shocking History of Women's Rights in America by Debran Rowland. Through extensive research, Rowland chronicles the legal and social issues surrounding women’s rights.

Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks for a focus on class.

Killing Rage: Ending Racism by bell hooks for a focus on race.

Paula Rothenberg has compiled some excellent anthologies. The essays are written by different authors and deal with varying aspects of the intersectionality of race, class, and gender. Two that I can recommend are

Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study

White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism

The two anthologies contain some excellent essays, including Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack."

I hope this helps. Good luck with your studies.

Hi there,

I'm doing some clean up of the Book Suggestions folder. The purpose of the folder is to help many readers find books they're interested in reading based on genre and subject. It is not a folder for finding books specifically for your own projects. For now, I'm going to lock and archive this thread. However, if you'd like to keep it open, please send me a private message and we can rename the thread to be more specific to what kinds of books are in the list. As of now, the title does not help other members find books that they are looking for. I hope this makes sense!

Locked and Archived