Barbara Smith

Marysa Navarro

Wilma Mankiller

Gloria Steinem

Gwendolyn Mink

Covers issues and events in women's history that were previously unpublished, misplaced, or forgotten, and provides new perspectives on each event

The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu

"The book explores the life and politics of Patsy Takemoto Mink (1927-2002), a third generation Japanese American from Hawai'i, the first woman of color in Congress and the legislative champion of Title IX. Co-authored by her daughter, political scientist Gwendolyn Mink, and historian Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, this work discusses Mink's decades-long work for women's equality, civil rights, environmental humanism, and peace. The book considers Mink's policy and political commitments and contributions and explores how Mink's Pacific World view shaped her politics as a feminist, a civil rights advocate, an environmentalist, and a critic of U.S. militarism. From the late 19th century immigration story of Mink's forbears through Mink's early 21st century advocacy for social justice, this book offers new insights regarding intersectional legislative feminism and Pacific feminism, makes visible one woman's policy activism in the mainstream of U.S. politics, and brings much needed attention to a woman of color who profoundly shaped the politics of race, class, and gender in the second half of the 20th century"--

Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress

Fierce and Fearless

Over the past few decades, the goal of welfare reform has been to move poor families off of welfare, not necessarily out of poverty. By that criterion, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 has been successful indeed: throughout the nation, millions have vanished from the welfare rolls. But what has been the cost of this "success" to the women and children who were the overwhelming majority of recipients? Here a group of distinguished feminist scholars examines the causes and the impact of recent changes in welfare policy. Some of the authors trace the politics of welfare from the 1960s, emphasizing how attitudes toward "motherwork" and "working mothers" have evolved in the backlash against poor women's motherhood. Several other authors consider the effects of the new welfare policy on employment and wages, on the lives of noncitizen immigrants, on poor women's ability to escape domestic violence, and on their reproductive and parental rights. A third set of authors explores dependency and caregiving, along with the role of feminist thinking on these issues in the politics of welfare. Whose Welfare? concludes with a historical analysis of activism among poor women. By illuminating that legacy, the volume challenges readers to build progressive agendas from the demands and actions of poor and working-class women.

Gwendolyn Mink

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