UN-AMERICAN WOMAN: ANTI-RACISM, ANTI-FEMINISM, AND THE FIRST RED SCARE by Kim E. Nielsen


UN-AMERICAN WOMAN: ANTI-RACISM, ANTI-FEMINISM, AND THE FIRST RED SCARE
Title : UN-AMERICAN WOMAN: ANTI-RACISM, ANTI-FEMINISM, AND THE FIRST RED SCARE
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0814250807
ISBN-10 : 9780814250808
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 220
Publication : First published November 1, 2001

Un-American Womanhood studies the Red Scare of the 1920s through the lens of gender. Kim Nielsen describes the methods antifeminists used to subdue feminism and other movements they viewed as radical. By tapping into widespread anxieties about Bolshevism and the expansion of the state, antifeminist women fought against certain social welfare programs such as the Sheppard-Towner Act and the Children’s Bureau and resisted efforts to legitimize the female citizen as an autonomous political figure. The book also considers the seeming contradictions of outspoken antifeminists who broke with traditional gender norms to assume forceful and public roles in their efforts to denounce feminism.

UN-AMERICAN WOMAN: ANTI-RACISM, ANTI-FEMINISM, AND THE FIRST RED SCARE Reviews

  • Fraser Sherman

    A short but very informative book on how anti-communist propaganda in the 1920s both reinforced and was reinforced by antifeminist/suffragette propaganda. There was a widespread belief that just as the Russian Revolution wanted to abolish private property and give it to the state, they likewise took women from their husband's ownership and gave them to the state (which then pimped them out) so feminism/communism were both out to destroy the family structure and reduce women to prostitutes!

  • Melissa

    Rather academic (and somewhat dry) expxloration of feminsim and its changes after suffrage. Interesting stuff (and I love reading about people that resist social change), but definitely a dissertation turned book and definitely academic.

  • Mari

    This book draws some completely off the wall conclusions from historic events, ignores other historic events, and generally makes an ass of itself, if a book can be said to do so.