Working class feminism: Creating a politics of community, connection, and concern.
Item
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Title
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Working class feminism: Creating a politics of community, connection, and concern.
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Identifier
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AAI9207080
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identifier
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9207080
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Creator
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Haywoode, Terry L.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Roslyn Wallach Bologh
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, General | Women's Studies | Urban and Regional Planning
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Abstract
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This work develops a theory of working class feminism that draws on literature of working class women and informal community organizations. Working class feminism takes as its starting point working class women's sense of community, affiliation and group membership. Rather than starting from individual identity, working class women view themselves as members of a network of loosely connected groups and affiliations that includes family, kinship and friendship circles, groups of neighbors and local organizations.;This dissertation locates the origin of working class feminism in the 1970s, at the intersection of several historical forces. In the period following World War II, white ethnic working class women were confronted by threats to the economic survival, social integrity and political viability of their neighborhoods. Using their own pre-existing social relationships, combined with approaches to political organizing learned from the social movements of the 1960s, they created a new approach to neighborhood politics. This approach centered on the importance of community, both as an organizing tactic and as a goal. Through this approach they asserted the importance of community life and neighborhood culture in opposition to the growing emphasis on administrative rationality in government and corporate life.;Working class feminism differs from middle class feminism in its commitment to community as an extension of family and as the public arena that working class women claim. This theory disputes the division that locates traditional women's lives solely in the private sphere of the household. Instead, the theory argues that the sphere of community that working class women create bridges the public and private spheres and becomes a locus for political and social activism.;Drawing on their experience as community activists, members of the National Congress of Neighborhood Women, a working class feminist organization, created a college program that placed community at the center of its curriculum and administrative structure. This college program provides a working class feminist model for the transformation of other social institutions as well.;By developing the concept of working class feminism, this dissertation adds a new perspective to feminist thought and specifies a basis for a more inclusive women's movement.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
