- The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Women’s Social Movement Activism
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: The Long History of Women’s Social Movement Activism in the United States
- Layers of Activism: Women’s Movements and Women in Movements Approaching the Twentieth Century
- The Swells between the “Waves”: American Women’s Activism, 1920–1965
- The Equal Rights Amendment Campaign and Its Opponents
- The Turn toward Socialist, Radical, and Lesbian Feminisms
- Contemporary Feminism and Beyond
- Intersectionality: Origins, Travels, Questions, and Contributions
- Mobilizing the Faithful: Conservative and Right-Wing Women’s Movements in America
- The Historical Roots of a Global Feminist Perspective and the Growing Global Focus among U.S. Feminists
- Workplace Discrimination, Equal Pay, and Sexual Harassment: An Intersectional Approach
- Battles over Abortion and Reproductive Rights: Movement Mobilization and Strategy
- Maternalist and Community Politics
- Women’s Health Social Movements
- U.S. Women’s Movements to End Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse, and Rape
- Welfare, Poverty, and Low-Wage Employment
- Anti-Feminist, Pro-Life, and Anti-ERA Women
- The Dynamics and Causes of Gender and Feminist Consciousness and Feminist Identities
- Movement Emergence and Resource Mobilization: Organizations, Leaders, and Coalition Work
- Identity Politics, Consciousness-Raising, and Visibility Politics
- Protest Events and Direct Action
- Language and Its Everyday Revolutionary Potential: Feminist Linguistic Activism in the United States
- Sexuality, Gender Identity, Fluidity, and Embodiment
- From Ink to Web and Beyond: U.S. Women’s Activism Using Traditional and New Social Media
- Inside the State: Activism within Legislative and Governmental Agency Forums
- Women as a Force in Electoral Politics
- U.S. Women’s Legal Activism in the Judicial Arena
- Female Empowerment and the Chain of Command: Women in the U.S. Military
- Push, Pull, and Fusion: Women’s Activism and Religious Institutions
- Women’s Activism and Educational Institutions
- Women, Sports, and Activism
- Women’s Activism in the Modern Movement for Black Liberation
- Latinas in U.S. Social Movements
- Women in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Movement
- American Women’s Environmental Activism: Motivations, Experiences, and Transformations
- Gendered Activism and Outcomes: Women in the Peace Movement
- Women’s Activism in U.S. Labor Unions
- Women in the White Supremacist Movement
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter traces the changing status of women in the workplace by focusing on the individual and collective battles of the 1960s and 1970s that resulted in legal protections for working women. It considers new names for old problems—like sexual harassment—as well as new remedies for workplace discrimination that drew on equal employment law, unionization, and other organizational forms. Race, motherhood, age, and citizenship status distinguished women’s experiences in paid work, and thus this chapter takes an intersectional approach to understanding workplace developments based on women’s diverse identities. Anti-discrimination law has generated single-axis frameworks, which fail to address harms experienced by women of color that stem from their racialized gender and their holding low-paying, sex segregated jobs excluded from many labor standards. After providing an overview of these developments, the chapter ends with some directions for future research.
Keywords: workplace discrimination, women, unionization, sexual harassment, intersectionality
Eileen Boris is the Hull Professor and Distinguished Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of the prize-winning books Home to Work: Motherhood and the Politics of Industrial Homework in the United States and, with Jennifer Klein, Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State.
Allison Louise Elias is a visiting professor at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations, where she is researching gender, work, and feminism for a forthcoming book on women’s upward mobility in corporate America.
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- The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Women’s Social Movement Activism
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: The Long History of Women’s Social Movement Activism in the United States
- Layers of Activism: Women’s Movements and Women in Movements Approaching the Twentieth Century
- The Swells between the “Waves”: American Women’s Activism, 1920–1965
- The Equal Rights Amendment Campaign and Its Opponents
- The Turn toward Socialist, Radical, and Lesbian Feminisms
- Contemporary Feminism and Beyond
- Intersectionality: Origins, Travels, Questions, and Contributions
- Mobilizing the Faithful: Conservative and Right-Wing Women’s Movements in America
- The Historical Roots of a Global Feminist Perspective and the Growing Global Focus among U.S. Feminists
- Workplace Discrimination, Equal Pay, and Sexual Harassment: An Intersectional Approach
- Battles over Abortion and Reproductive Rights: Movement Mobilization and Strategy
- Maternalist and Community Politics
- Women’s Health Social Movements
- U.S. Women’s Movements to End Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse, and Rape
- Welfare, Poverty, and Low-Wage Employment
- Anti-Feminist, Pro-Life, and Anti-ERA Women
- The Dynamics and Causes of Gender and Feminist Consciousness and Feminist Identities
- Movement Emergence and Resource Mobilization: Organizations, Leaders, and Coalition Work
- Identity Politics, Consciousness-Raising, and Visibility Politics
- Protest Events and Direct Action
- Language and Its Everyday Revolutionary Potential: Feminist Linguistic Activism in the United States
- Sexuality, Gender Identity, Fluidity, and Embodiment
- From Ink to Web and Beyond: U.S. Women’s Activism Using Traditional and New Social Media
- Inside the State: Activism within Legislative and Governmental Agency Forums
- Women as a Force in Electoral Politics
- U.S. Women’s Legal Activism in the Judicial Arena
- Female Empowerment and the Chain of Command: Women in the U.S. Military
- Push, Pull, and Fusion: Women’s Activism and Religious Institutions
- Women’s Activism and Educational Institutions
- Women, Sports, and Activism
- Women’s Activism in the Modern Movement for Black Liberation
- Latinas in U.S. Social Movements
- Women in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Movement
- American Women’s Environmental Activism: Motivations, Experiences, and Transformations
- Gendered Activism and Outcomes: Women in the Peace Movement
- Women’s Activism in U.S. Labor Unions
- Women in the White Supremacist Movement
- Index
