Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America's Second Wave

by Benita Roth

This book is about the development of white women's liberation, black feminism and Chicana feminism in the 1960s and 1970s, the era known as the "second wave" of U.S. feminist protest. Benita Roth explores the ways that feminist movements emerged from the Civil Rights/Black Liberation movement, the Chicano movement, and the white left, and the processes that supported political organizing decisions made by feminists. She traces the effects that inequality had on the possibilities for feminist unity and explores how ideas common to the left influenced feminist organizing.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, History, Politics, Sociology, Gender, Read For School

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 24, 2003

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important sociological study of the feminist movement and how it manifested among white, black, and Chicana women. While a little hard to read in places, this book fills a significant gap in our knowledge of how the various feminisms originated.

[Dealulcudor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very useful piece of writing on the topic of the emergence of feminisms.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was assigned this book for class, and I definitely would not have picked it up otherwise because it is such an academic book. However, I thought it was really informative and really opened up my eyes to everything that was happening with feminism during the 1960s and 70s. It also made me think a lot about the forming of social movements in our current time period.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Those are the roots, then, of the questions that lie at the center of this study: Why were there organizationally distinct feminisms in the late 1970s and early 1980s, largely organized along racial/ethnic lines? What led to the development of feminisms, when there was at least some agreement about feminist issues? divisions of the late 1970s were somehow 'natural,' in this work I argue for understanding the historical development of second-wave feminisms as shaped at its core by the dynamics of race/ethnicity and class among feminists." (xi-xii)

"In this book, I argue that the second wave has to be understood as a group of feminisms, movements made by activist women that were largely organizationally distinct from one another, and from the beginning, largely organized along racial/ethnic lines. In other words, there were more than two twinned social bases of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s; feminisms were articulated in diverse political communities. Feminists of color argued that their activism was written out of the histories of second-wave feminist protest; they argued that racial/ethnic and class biases that were part of white feminist ideology and practice have shown up in subsequent scholarship about that ideology and practice." (3)

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Really opened my eyes to how separatism on lines of gender along with an inability to consider the differences between women's social positions in the 60s & 70s led to the unaligning of women of colour to white Second Wave Feminists.

Dense read, that often repeated itself but hammered home points.

Made me realise how feminist action itself is more important than labeling it so.

[Olivia Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

informative!

[SG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, but an informative and hard read.

[eliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

super informative, super dense

[Jackie Ruhnke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obsessed with this book. Obsessed with Benita Roth. Such an insightful and helpful book for my research.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A myth about the Second Wave of feminism is that it was started by white women only, that women of color were slow to catch up because they were more interested in dealing with racism than sexism. This myth is yet another example of how the work of women of color is ignored or buried. Roth's book examines the various strains of feminism occurring in the Black, Chicana and White communities virtually simultaneously, including some coalitions that were created. I would recommend this book to any feminist or historian who is interested in myth-busting.

[Aerion · Rating 4 out of 5]

amazing to see so many parallels in the African American and Chicana women movements. I hate that American society has so divided people of color that we internalize and project harmful stereotypes of one another as opposed to continuing to band together and see the similarities in our ongoing struggle.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting analysis of second-wave feminism. Roth looks at the most influential New Left, Chicana, and Black feminist organizations during this era and discusses their creation, peak, and dissolution. This book gives a more in-depth analysis of movements which normally get whitewashed.

[Madeleine · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this a while ago and remember it was really helpful!