Full Description
Revolutionary Feminists tells the story of the radical women's liberation movement in Seattle in the 1960s and 1970s from the perspective of a founding member, Barbara Winslow. Drawing on her collection of letters, pamphlets, and photographs as well as newspaper accounts, autobiographies, and interviews, Winslow emphasizes the vital role that Black women played in the women's liberation movement to create meaningful intersectional coalitions in an overwhelmingly White city. Winslow brings the voices and visions of those she calls the movement's "ecstatic utopians" to life. She charts their short-term successes and lasting achievements, from organizing women at work and campaigning for subsidized childcare to creating women-centered rape crisis centers, health clinics, and self-defense programs. The Seattle movement was essential to winning the first popular vote in the United States to liberalize abortion laws. Despite these achievements, Winslow critiques the failure of the movement's White members to listen to Black, Latina, Indigenous, and Asian American and Pacific Islander feminist activists. Reflecting on the Seattle movement's accomplishments and shortcomings, Winslow offers a model for contemporary feminist activism.
Contents
Acronyms ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. It's Reigning Men 13
2. From the Woman Question to Women's Liberation 27
3. Let Him Her Live 48
4. Freed Up and Fired Up 72
5. The Rising of the Women 92
6. Antiwar, Antidraft, and Anti-imperialist Feminist Activism 110
7. The Multiplicity of Us 124
8. Flow and Ebb 144
Epilogue 157
Appendix. Seattle Activists: Where Are They Now? 175
Notes 183
Glossary 207
Bibliography 213
Index 223
