Feminism Lives: Building a Multicultural Women's Movement in the United States

Abstract

This chapter explains the feeling of movement and change and to capture some of the drama of the US women's movement since the 1960s. It shows how feminism is embedded in the political, social, and economic trends of its times and how the various branches of the women's movement grew out of women's participation in other progressive and radical movements. The chapter focuses on a few explosive moments that changed the national debate on women's issues, largely by changing federal policy through legislation or judicial decisions and creating new feminist structures. It suggests that individual women in the women's movement have experienced their own explosive moments. Feminists of color, often teaching in ethnic studies programs, led the way in building new courses and research on women of color. Some are enthusiastically multicultural, and some are learning how to value and incorporate difference.