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Feminism and the women's movement: Dynamics of change in social movement ideology and activism
Book Reviews
taries by Margaret Whitford, Rosi Braidotti, and Morag Shiach. This lack of any fuller discussion of postmodern diversities, psychoanalysis, or poststructuralist strategies is, I think, the main lacuna of the book, and it becomes problematic in the conclusion, where Valerie cannot ignore the difficulties which they have thrown up for the integrity of feminism itself. Here she is eager that women should continue to pursue unity in theory and practice; she is keen on terms like ‘collective understanding,’ ‘unite,“comprehensive,’ and ‘complementary.’ But she is also aware of the diversity and differences which must now be negotiated, and she ends with the hope that a plural and flexible yet unified movement might be (re)construtted. Some synthesis between radical, socialist, and perhaps reconstructed liberal feminisms, appears to be her goal. It is at precisely this point that the dilemma of feminism and postmodernism becomes a crucial theoretical and political one, however, and it is a pity that Valerie did not take us a little further in this direction. As it stands, her book makes an extremely valuable and wellwritten contribution to the history of feminist ideas, but I think it is unlikely to advance debate about those ideas or to become a source for those whose concern lies with contemporary debates. DIANA COOLE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS QUEEN MARY AND WESTFIELD COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, UK
REFERENCES Barrett,Michelle,&Phillips, Anne. (Eds.). (1992). Destabilizing Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.
FEMINISM AND THE WOMEN~ MOVEMENT: DYNAMICS OF CHANGE IN SOCIAL MOVEMENT IDEOLOGY AND AcTIVISM, by Barbara Ryan, 203 pages. Routledge, Lon-
don,
1992. Cloth,
US$49.95;
paper,
US$16.95.
WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS IN AMERICA: THEIR SUCCESSES, DISAPPOINTMENTS, AND ASPIRATIONS, by Rita J. Si-
mon and Gloria Danziger, 171 pages. Praeger, York, 1991. Cloth, US$39.95; paper, US$13.95.
New
With the contemporary women’s movement now in its third decade, having weathered a powerful backlash but still struggling in an inhospitable climate, it is a good time to assess where we have been and whether the past can enlighten our future endeavors. Both of these books contribute to that enterprise. The title notwithstanding, Women’s Movements in America is more about the changing status of women in politics, education, the work place, and private relationships than it is about feminism. Because the book is organized by kinds of issues, the scattered information about various feminist groups does not lead to a sustained analysis of feminism as a social movement. Yet, their abundant information and useful tables documenting changes in law, policy, and practice in women’s political participation, employment, and family status and in public opinion form an appreciated corrective to the tendency of scholars to focus on feminist activism itself rather than outcomes.
299
Use of the term “women’s movements” in the title is a welcome recognition of the diversity in feminist activism, one that unfortunately is not sustained throughout the book. There is some discussion of class differences, but African American and other minority women remain in the shadows, and the single reference to lesbian rights defines it as a “hot topic.” (p. 139) The book’s organizational scheme results in repetition and sometimes in contradiction. For example, the origins of NOW are discussed in the chapter on women’s employment, but the introductory chapter suggests that the resurgence of feminism grew exclusively from (white?) women’s participation in civil rights struggles and mistakenly attributes their motives to a belief that victories for blacks “would also result in an enhancement of their own status as women.” (p. 4) Even more problematic are numerous incorrect or misleading statements about historical developments, including assertions that women’s rights began in the 1830s and then was diverted into abolitionism; that the Seneca Falls convention “failed to pass a resolution in favor of suffrage” (p. 10); that the women’s movement remained dormant between 1920 and the 1960s; that the achievements of the civil rights movement would go “mostly to black men” (p. 4); and that “not until the 1970s did women’s groups even begin to look at ways [to] promote women as politicians.” (p. 8). Feminism and the Women's Movementis more accurate and inclusive. By examining feminism over time, analyzing changes in goals, strategies, and inter-group relations within feminism, and emphasizing the role of ideology and ideological conflict, Barbara Ryan fills a large gap in feminist scholarship. Reflecting her position as both participant and scholar is the implicit hope for a movement characterized by inclusiveness, tolerance, and the search for unifying goals. Thus, Ryan provides a critical analysis of how identity politics and the insistence on ideological purity created bitter splits among radical feminists and between radicals and “bourgeois” feminists. Based in part on her interviews with activists, she also argues that there has always been a strong radical presence in “mainstream” ‘organizations like NOW and suggests that in some sense all feminists are radical. Yet, the emphasis on how identity politics weakened feminism obscures the enormous contributions of small-group radicals in defining new issues and strategies in such areas as violence against women and health issues. While it is easy to find omissions in a study of such broad scope, the focus on NOW and self-identified radical groups undercuts the diversity of feminism, as does the term “the women’s movement” in the title. Readers will find little about reorientation to feminism in traditional women’s organizations, the profusion of more sharply focused groups like the National Black Women’s Health Project and the Coalition of Labor Union Women, or the rape crisis centers, battered women’s shelters, bookstores, presses, and other counter-institutions created by feminists. That Ryan is most interested in activism and conflict among white, middle-class women is evident in the relegation of issues concerning race and class to a portion of a chapter on divisions in the movement. For example, class and race are barely mentioned in the discussion of the suffrage movement, nor does Ryan credit the activism of labor union women and African-
300
Book Reviews
American women for laying part of the foundation for the resurgence of feminism in the 1960s. She neglects to note that feminists mobilized en masse not when the Hyde amendment undercut access of poor women to abortion but when JVe&er threatened more privileged women. Moreover, the argument that the loss of the ERA as a unifying issue led to the re-emergence of divisiveness over race and class ignores a different possibility-that the ERA failed because it was seen as a white, middle-class issue, a point underscored by black feminists who protested that NOW was attempting to recruit minority women to a cause in which they found little meaning. On the other hand, while Ryan deals with lesbian feminism as a critical component of the movement, she is more sensitive to black women’s need to prioritize racial issues than she is to lesbians’ investment in AIDS services and activism. Despite shortcomings, these books will be useful to scholars and feminists. Simon and Danziger provide information about the changes women have experienced over the past few decades, while Ryan analyzes a substantial part of the activism that contributed those changes as well as the transformations that feminist activism has undergone over time. SUSAN M. HARTMANN CENTER FOR WOMEN’S STUDIES OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY COLUMBUS, OH, USA
GATHERING RAGE: THE FAILURE OF 20~~ CENTURY REVOLUTIONS TO DEVELOP A FEMINIST AGENDA, by Margaret Randall, Monthly Review Press, 1992. Paperback, US$12.00, hard cover, US$28.00. The electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua’s 1990 elections immediately sent party members into a state of reflection. Party leaders, election analysts, and international supporters struggled to make sense of a disgruntled electorate that defied popular solidarity to vote for the opposition-an opposition financially and morally supported by the United States, the apparatus behind more than 10 years of contra warfare. Many suggest that the Sandinista defeat was directly related to its inability to adequately address women’s issues. Women’s issues were relegated to the back burners of the revolutionary agenda by the Sandinista directorate while the government dealt with the “more important” issues of the day. Even the Sandinista women’s organization, AMNLAE, was increasingly seen as a tool of the Sandinista directorate not really voicing the concerns of Nicaraguan women. The failure of the Sandinistas to address women’s issues is a major concern of Margaret Randall’s Gathering Rage. Using Nicaragua and Cuba as case studies, Randall makes the argument that a feminist agenda is essential if the goal is a revolutionary transformation of society as we know it. Drawing both from personal experience (Randall has lived in both Nicaragua and Cuba) and from the writings of prominent socialist women throughout history (including Alexandra Kollontai, Rosa Luxemburg, and Raya Dunayevskaya), Randall makes the case that the point of weakness leading to the failures of these socialist “experiments” has been their inability to develop an autonomous feminist
discourse, “a discourse based on an ideology embracing democratic relations of power, a redefinition of history and of memory, and a world view that favors life over the signs of imminent death.” Gathering Rage stands not only as a feminist critique of the socialist revolutions of the 20th century; it is also a vital contribution to the ongoing socialist/feminist debate. PAM KEESEY MINNEAPOLIS, MN, USA
NICE GIRLS DONT DRINK: STORIES OF RECOVERY, by Sarah Hafner, 239 pages. Bergin and Garvey, New York, 1992. US$12.95 Many feminists are having an argument with the recovery movement. They criticize 12-Step models and the groups that use them for being masculinist in assumptions and practices, and for neglecting the role that social and political conditions play in shaping people’s experiences. Feminists often characterize the dedication to recovering as a distraction from the agenda of seeking societal and cultural transformations. Women who are using recovery programs to heal addictive patterns in their lives are often troubled by these criticisms. For some, these concerns have led them to develop alternative recovery strategies designed specifically for women or to join women-only groups using the conventional programs. Other recovering women have had difficulty recognizing the feminist critique as applicable to their situation. Sarah Hafner’s anthology of 18 stories of women recovering from alcoholism relates to these disputes in three ways. First, in her introduction she states her belief that “alcoholism flares up in men and women differently.” She also acknowledges that women are disadvantaged in society and that this breeds difficulties in finding self-respect, even apart from a struggle with addiction to alcohol. So, her book’s first premise is that it is important to let alcoholic women tell their own stories because these will be different from the masculine versions of the experience of alcoholism. Second, Hafner has divided her collection into sections that relate directly to women’s issues: troubled relationships with parents, lovers and children; victimization, including emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; the problem of finding an identity and voice; the lack of self-esteem; and guilt over being angry and “not-nice.“Third, she has included stories of women who specifically address gender’s effects on their disease and recovery. Although Hafner reveals that she is aware of the conflicts many women experience concerning recovery, she does not take sides. She does not say that alcoholic women should do this or that. She simply allows women recovering from alcoholism to share with the reader what that has been like for them. So, her book should not be regarded as rooted in the controversy over the meanings of recovery for women. It is better described as the result of an effort to answer very basic questions about what it is like for an American woman to be an alcoholic. Hafner describes herself as “frustrated by the lack of alcoholic histories told by women.” She believes in the Alcoholics Anonymous principle of identification: Alcoholics need to recognize themselves in the struggles
taries by Margaret Whitford, Rosi Braidotti, and Morag Shiach. This lack of any fuller discussion of postmodern diversities, psychoanalysis, or poststructuralist strategies is, I think, the main lacuna of the book, and it becomes problematic in the conclusion, where Valerie cannot ignore the difficulties which they have thrown up for the integrity of feminism itself. Here she is eager that women should continue to pursue unity in theory and practice; she is keen on terms like ‘collective understanding,’ ‘unite,“comprehensive,’ and ‘complementary.’ But she is also aware of the diversity and differences which must now be negotiated, and she ends with the hope that a plural and flexible yet unified movement might be (re)construtted. Some synthesis between radical, socialist, and perhaps reconstructed liberal feminisms, appears to be her goal. It is at precisely this point that the dilemma of feminism and postmodernism becomes a crucial theoretical and political one, however, and it is a pity that Valerie did not take us a little further in this direction. As it stands, her book makes an extremely valuable and wellwritten contribution to the history of feminist ideas, but I think it is unlikely to advance debate about those ideas or to become a source for those whose concern lies with contemporary debates. DIANA COOLE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS QUEEN MARY AND WESTFIELD COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, UK
REFERENCES Barrett,Michelle,&Phillips, Anne. (Eds.). (1992). Destabilizing Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.
FEMINISM AND THE WOMEN~ MOVEMENT: DYNAMICS OF CHANGE IN SOCIAL MOVEMENT IDEOLOGY AND AcTIVISM, by Barbara Ryan, 203 pages. Routledge, Lon-
don,
1992. Cloth,
US$49.95;
paper,
US$16.95.
WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS IN AMERICA: THEIR SUCCESSES, DISAPPOINTMENTS, AND ASPIRATIONS, by Rita J. Si-
mon and Gloria Danziger, 171 pages. Praeger, York, 1991. Cloth, US$39.95; paper, US$13.95.
New
With the contemporary women’s movement now in its third decade, having weathered a powerful backlash but still struggling in an inhospitable climate, it is a good time to assess where we have been and whether the past can enlighten our future endeavors. Both of these books contribute to that enterprise. The title notwithstanding, Women’s Movements in America is more about the changing status of women in politics, education, the work place, and private relationships than it is about feminism. Because the book is organized by kinds of issues, the scattered information about various feminist groups does not lead to a sustained analysis of feminism as a social movement. Yet, their abundant information and useful tables documenting changes in law, policy, and practice in women’s political participation, employment, and family status and in public opinion form an appreciated corrective to the tendency of scholars to focus on feminist activism itself rather than outcomes.
299
Use of the term “women’s movements” in the title is a welcome recognition of the diversity in feminist activism, one that unfortunately is not sustained throughout the book. There is some discussion of class differences, but African American and other minority women remain in the shadows, and the single reference to lesbian rights defines it as a “hot topic.” (p. 139) The book’s organizational scheme results in repetition and sometimes in contradiction. For example, the origins of NOW are discussed in the chapter on women’s employment, but the introductory chapter suggests that the resurgence of feminism grew exclusively from (white?) women’s participation in civil rights struggles and mistakenly attributes their motives to a belief that victories for blacks “would also result in an enhancement of their own status as women.” (p. 4) Even more problematic are numerous incorrect or misleading statements about historical developments, including assertions that women’s rights began in the 1830s and then was diverted into abolitionism; that the Seneca Falls convention “failed to pass a resolution in favor of suffrage” (p. 10); that the women’s movement remained dormant between 1920 and the 1960s; that the achievements of the civil rights movement would go “mostly to black men” (p. 4); and that “not until the 1970s did women’s groups even begin to look at ways [to] promote women as politicians.” (p. 8). Feminism and the Women's Movementis more accurate and inclusive. By examining feminism over time, analyzing changes in goals, strategies, and inter-group relations within feminism, and emphasizing the role of ideology and ideological conflict, Barbara Ryan fills a large gap in feminist scholarship. Reflecting her position as both participant and scholar is the implicit hope for a movement characterized by inclusiveness, tolerance, and the search for unifying goals. Thus, Ryan provides a critical analysis of how identity politics and the insistence on ideological purity created bitter splits among radical feminists and between radicals and “bourgeois” feminists. Based in part on her interviews with activists, she also argues that there has always been a strong radical presence in “mainstream” ‘organizations like NOW and suggests that in some sense all feminists are radical. Yet, the emphasis on how identity politics weakened feminism obscures the enormous contributions of small-group radicals in defining new issues and strategies in such areas as violence against women and health issues. While it is easy to find omissions in a study of such broad scope, the focus on NOW and self-identified radical groups undercuts the diversity of feminism, as does the term “the women’s movement” in the title. Readers will find little about reorientation to feminism in traditional women’s organizations, the profusion of more sharply focused groups like the National Black Women’s Health Project and the Coalition of Labor Union Women, or the rape crisis centers, battered women’s shelters, bookstores, presses, and other counter-institutions created by feminists. That Ryan is most interested in activism and conflict among white, middle-class women is evident in the relegation of issues concerning race and class to a portion of a chapter on divisions in the movement. For example, class and race are barely mentioned in the discussion of the suffrage movement, nor does Ryan credit the activism of labor union women and African-
300
Book Reviews
American women for laying part of the foundation for the resurgence of feminism in the 1960s. She neglects to note that feminists mobilized en masse not when the Hyde amendment undercut access of poor women to abortion but when JVe&er threatened more privileged women. Moreover, the argument that the loss of the ERA as a unifying issue led to the re-emergence of divisiveness over race and class ignores a different possibility-that the ERA failed because it was seen as a white, middle-class issue, a point underscored by black feminists who protested that NOW was attempting to recruit minority women to a cause in which they found little meaning. On the other hand, while Ryan deals with lesbian feminism as a critical component of the movement, she is more sensitive to black women’s need to prioritize racial issues than she is to lesbians’ investment in AIDS services and activism. Despite shortcomings, these books will be useful to scholars and feminists. Simon and Danziger provide information about the changes women have experienced over the past few decades, while Ryan analyzes a substantial part of the activism that contributed those changes as well as the transformations that feminist activism has undergone over time. SUSAN M. HARTMANN CENTER FOR WOMEN’S STUDIES OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY COLUMBUS, OH, USA
GATHERING RAGE: THE FAILURE OF 20~~ CENTURY REVOLUTIONS TO DEVELOP A FEMINIST AGENDA, by Margaret Randall, Monthly Review Press, 1992. Paperback, US$12.00, hard cover, US$28.00. The electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua’s 1990 elections immediately sent party members into a state of reflection. Party leaders, election analysts, and international supporters struggled to make sense of a disgruntled electorate that defied popular solidarity to vote for the opposition-an opposition financially and morally supported by the United States, the apparatus behind more than 10 years of contra warfare. Many suggest that the Sandinista defeat was directly related to its inability to adequately address women’s issues. Women’s issues were relegated to the back burners of the revolutionary agenda by the Sandinista directorate while the government dealt with the “more important” issues of the day. Even the Sandinista women’s organization, AMNLAE, was increasingly seen as a tool of the Sandinista directorate not really voicing the concerns of Nicaraguan women. The failure of the Sandinistas to address women’s issues is a major concern of Margaret Randall’s Gathering Rage. Using Nicaragua and Cuba as case studies, Randall makes the argument that a feminist agenda is essential if the goal is a revolutionary transformation of society as we know it. Drawing both from personal experience (Randall has lived in both Nicaragua and Cuba) and from the writings of prominent socialist women throughout history (including Alexandra Kollontai, Rosa Luxemburg, and Raya Dunayevskaya), Randall makes the case that the point of weakness leading to the failures of these socialist “experiments” has been their inability to develop an autonomous feminist
discourse, “a discourse based on an ideology embracing democratic relations of power, a redefinition of history and of memory, and a world view that favors life over the signs of imminent death.” Gathering Rage stands not only as a feminist critique of the socialist revolutions of the 20th century; it is also a vital contribution to the ongoing socialist/feminist debate. PAM KEESEY MINNEAPOLIS, MN, USA
NICE GIRLS DONT DRINK: STORIES OF RECOVERY, by Sarah Hafner, 239 pages. Bergin and Garvey, New York, 1992. US$12.95 Many feminists are having an argument with the recovery movement. They criticize 12-Step models and the groups that use them for being masculinist in assumptions and practices, and for neglecting the role that social and political conditions play in shaping people’s experiences. Feminists often characterize the dedication to recovering as a distraction from the agenda of seeking societal and cultural transformations. Women who are using recovery programs to heal addictive patterns in their lives are often troubled by these criticisms. For some, these concerns have led them to develop alternative recovery strategies designed specifically for women or to join women-only groups using the conventional programs. Other recovering women have had difficulty recognizing the feminist critique as applicable to their situation. Sarah Hafner’s anthology of 18 stories of women recovering from alcoholism relates to these disputes in three ways. First, in her introduction she states her belief that “alcoholism flares up in men and women differently.” She also acknowledges that women are disadvantaged in society and that this breeds difficulties in finding self-respect, even apart from a struggle with addiction to alcohol. So, her book’s first premise is that it is important to let alcoholic women tell their own stories because these will be different from the masculine versions of the experience of alcoholism. Second, Hafner has divided her collection into sections that relate directly to women’s issues: troubled relationships with parents, lovers and children; victimization, including emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; the problem of finding an identity and voice; the lack of self-esteem; and guilt over being angry and “not-nice.“Third, she has included stories of women who specifically address gender’s effects on their disease and recovery. Although Hafner reveals that she is aware of the conflicts many women experience concerning recovery, she does not take sides. She does not say that alcoholic women should do this or that. She simply allows women recovering from alcoholism to share with the reader what that has been like for them. So, her book should not be regarded as rooted in the controversy over the meanings of recovery for women. It is better described as the result of an effort to answer very basic questions about what it is like for an American woman to be an alcoholic. Hafner describes herself as “frustrated by the lack of alcoholic histories told by women.” She believes in the Alcoholics Anonymous principle of identification: Alcoholics need to recognize themselves in the struggles