Feminism unfinished: a short, surprising history of American women's movements

Abstract

Eschewing the conventional wisdom that places the origins of the American women's movement in the 1960s, Feminism Unfinished traces the beginnings of this social movement to the 1920s and rewrites a century of American women's history. Challenging the contemporary lean-in, trickle-down feminist philosophy, the authors demonstrate that the post-Suffrage women's movement focused on the exploitation of women in the workplace as well as on sexual rights. The authors revise the wave vision of feminism, which suggests breaks and divisions within media-driven waves. Showing how history has obscured activism by working-class and minority women, Feminism Unfinished provides a much-needed corrective.