Chronicles the efforts of white and Black women to advance sometimes competing causes. Black women wanted the rights enjoyed by whites. White women wanted to be equal to white men. Dr. Elisabeth Griffith integrates the fight by white and Black women to achieve equality.
... engaging, relevant and sweeping ... Books of true feminist history are rare. Rarer still are these histories intersectional; feminist history tends to be synonymous with white women’s history. Not this book. Griffith delivers a multiracial, inclusive timeline of the struggles and triumphs of both Black and white women in America ... A profoundly illuminating tour de force ... In this immense survey, Griffith is inclined to examine every motivation of her subjects as she unearths long-buried intersectional archives. Most notable is her articulation of the malignant dysfunction as women struggle to find a unified, inclusive path to equality. She is not content to leave out the many moments of white women falling back to self-interested silos ... Griffith excels in examining each feminist cause and its accompanying downsides ... Griffith does not skim over the spots when the suffrage movement splintered. Rather, she understands the assignment: All are invited but no one is off the hook ... There is power in Griffith’s writing — not the style, which is factual and straightforward, but in the cumulative efforts of the hundreds, if not thousands, of characters that she acknowledges. At times, the book’s sheer scope is overwhelming, like listening to Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire — a fire hose of information, names and actions, protests and pantsuits ... The result is a memorial of female freedom fighters, long overdue, and the emergence of a set of instructions for the next generation ... the reader is carried not by the storyteller but by the tale and takeaway: Success comes not from short manic bursts of effort, but from a constant carrying of the torch. As America descends deeper into paralysis and polarization, Griffith’s subtle and accessible examination shows that victories arise through the miracle of cooperation. Not by factional division but through unity and perseverance. Feminist history is written every day, and Griffith leaves us with the reminder that there is much work to do, as always ... a shock and a lesson, a reminder that if we want to persevere we must be ready to begin again and again, again and again.
The book focuses most on white and Black women, with nods to Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, and queer women, too. It spotlights a long list of prominent, groundbreaking, and morally complex women ... The women’s movement is a flawed, complex entity that will continue to boost American women far into the future, argues Formidable, an overview of the diversity of American women and their role in political history.
... dives into the tangle of personalities, politics, and passions and surfaces with a great narrative. The author presents both the inspiring and ugly sides of the struggle for equality, including suffragettes who used racism to promote their cause, some in-fighting, and many disagreements on strategies ... This is a fantastic and enjoyable book tracing 100 years of work and struggle for women’s equality. A great book for general readers and a must read for anyone interested in women’s and American political history.
