- 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 describes the emergence of consciousness-raising, including differences among women. It then discusses collective identity, explaining the concept and describing activists’ attempts to reconstruct collective identity as women and to determine how to practice their collective identity in daily life. Next, it discusses coming out and other forms of visibility politics, which aim to display collective identity and change conceptualizations of the group and its issues. Finally, the chapter explains the controversies and debates over identity politics and describes some of its contemporary manifestations. “Identity politics” refers to organizing around the specific experience or perspective of a given group and to organizing that has identity visibility as a goal. Identity politics has, from its beginning, grappled with the question of differences within each identity group. For women’s movements, questions of the intersections between gender and race, class, sexuality, and other dimensions have been fundamental.
Keywords: consciousness-raising, women’s movements, identity, identity politics, race, class
Nancy Whittier is Sophia Smith Professor of Sociology at Smith College and the author of numerous scholarly publications, including The Politics of Child Sexual Abuse: Emotion, Social Movements, and the State. Her forthcoming book is titled Strange Bedfellows: Feminists, Conservatives, and Sexual Violence (in press, Oxford University Press).
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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
